HI / AU / NZ / IL / NY / UK

I flew a few hundred miles shy of 40,000 in the month of April. That's equivalent to circling the earth at the equator over one and a half times. I am happy to report that I have arrived to my final destination of England. The reason for all of the flying is that besides moving overseas, I took about three weeks in Australia and New Zealand on the way. It was a great trip. At a glance: I read some books (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Of Mice and Men, The Maltese Falcon, Slapstick), I went to some museums in Auckland and Wellington (partly because the weather on the North Island didn’t allow me to do my planned mountain biking trip), and I met up with old friends and made some new ones.

One of the highlights was definitely renting a car and buzzing around New Zealand’s South Island for 5 days with a British guy, Lewis, that I met the night before the trip started. We slept in the car and ate sandwiches of olives and sardines and "tasty" (i.e. sharp) cheese. Travel was a bit problematic due to the Easter holiday, when the whole country gets two weeks off. Once we figured out that sleeping in the car was a good bet, we didn’t worry too much about lodging. On our trip we saw a lot of the Lord of the Rings scenery, quoted a lot of the Flight of the Concords, and traded the names of good movies and bands. We also spent some time on the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, hiked around Mt. Cook, and participated in some "extreme" sports. I went skydiving and he went bungey jumping in Queenstown.

In Australia, I was able to get together with an old friend from work, Patrick. He is working down there and it worked out that we spent one weekend around Sydney and another around Canberra. We were able to catch an Australian rules football match, spend some (read: a lot) time in the pubs, and talk about the past/present/future.

After that it was a couple of days in Hawaii to finish up the moving business. That ended last week. Leaving was inevitable and I had time to prepare for it, so I was ready to move on. It’s really only when things are shocking that we are deeply affected, I suppose. I did everything I wanted to do and said my good-byes. I can’t imagine a better place to have been for the last three and a half years. I will always have happy memories of Hawaii, but I am really happy to be in England, as well.

The moves from Hawaii went well. Even when you have professional movers, moving is a time consuming process. I pulled more all-nighters in March than in the rest of my time in Hawaii combined. Say what you will about procrastination, but I somehow manage to get everything done just in time. When I was shipping my stuff, I was given an estimated time of arrival by the moving company of 9:00am. I finished what I needed to do about 12 seconds after that. There is no minute as productive as the last one.

I am very excited to be overseas (in the foreign sense, not the island sense of the word) again. I will be living and working in Yorkshire. I will be working in Harrogate, but I think that I am going to live in Leeds. All of the Brits I met over the past few weeks were well fond of Leeds. Plus, the cost of living is much much lower. In fact, it looks like I will be able to buy a place. The only question is if I get a newer, bigger place just outside the city or if I get an older, smaller place in the city itself. Both have benefits and drawbacks. While I would like to be in the downtown area, the flat I get would have more maintenance and heating/cooling costs associated. Outside of the city I might feel like I’m living in the suburbs, which I don’t find particularly appealing. I think I will try to get a place just north of the city on the metro line. A fair compromise. Whatever happens, I think that I will be living alone for the first time in my life. I have always had roommates. I love having roommates. The thought of coming home to an empty house is a bit disheartening. Especially in the dark, cold, wet England winters; however, I’m sure I will get used to the idea. I have been out of college for almost 5 years now, so maybe it’s time to take the next step in being an adult. If I get lonely I can always buy a robotic dog. Now there’s a genuinely depressing idea.

Unfortunately, my grandmother died this past Sunday, but I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the funeral. She was a great little old lady. She could remember dates and names like no one I’ve ever met. I used to love listening to her stories about the 1930’s and 1940’s. She could tell you who she was with, what they ate for lunch, and how much it cost (and how much she saved because she used a coupon). I will miss her, but I think it was just her time. Right up to the end she lived at home and continued going on her casino trips and bingo nights. She avoided the nursing home, even at 90 years old, so that’s something to be thankful for.

After the funeral, I spent about 5 days in New York. I stayed with Kate in the city and then we went Upstate to plant some trees on my land. Unfortunately, the 24 trees I bought from the online nursery were shipped two days after they were promised to arrive. Despite my multiple emails and phone calls telling them that I couldn't use the trees unless I had them by Saturday, they had them arrive the following Tuesday. Nice work. From the sounds of it, they aren't going to refund my money, either.

Despite the problems from the nursery, Kate and I were able to get up to the land for a day. I bought two trees from Walmart and planted those, along with a bunch of other plants in a little garden. Hopefully they take. A word to the wise about digging a hole: use a shovel. I learned the hard way that sticks and rocks are not as affective. Due to multiple factors (lack of shovel, heavy rain, flies, and a need to cook our food), we took an extra trip to Walmart to get some needed supplies. In the end, it was a good trip, albeit a short one and missing the apple, cherry, pear, almond, and walnut trees I ordered over a week prior. But I'm not bitter or anything.

That brings me to England. I had a lot of connecting flights on the way and my luggage was "held up" by the airline (it just arrived a few minutes ago; 24 hours late), but I arrived well rested and hit the ground running. I have appointments tomorrow to get bank accounts established, apply for a mortgage pre-approval, and test drive a couple of cars. I am also trying to view a couple of flats and get a cell phone (I think I'm caving and going with the iPhone...), but I haven't had as much luck organizing those.

So far everything over here is very nice. The city of Harrogate is exactly what I thought England would look like. Lots of big stone houses, beautiful gardens, and old people queuing for buses.