Sorry Mom

Well, my week of misery has passed and I'm done with my paper and presentation. As a new resolution, I decided I'm going to be more diligent in my posting. However, with little over a month left here in New Zealand, my funds for big trips to write about are beginning to run dry.

So what I think I'll try to do is post my day's events. This might include interesting articles I've read or other strange occurrences. It most also might be a post on how nothing very exciting happened at all. Believe it or not, those do days do occasionally occur in New Zealand. I've got a few ideas on my mind. So if There and Back Again starts become more of a personal journal, don't freak out.

Continuing on, you may be wondering why I'm apologizing to my mom. Well if you look at the photo below, I think you'll figure it out.What led to this was an interesting psychological debate I had with myself over whether I should go through with it or not. I had toyed with the idea of getting an earring for a long time. And if I remember it had more to do with boredom than anything, as if one day I looked in the mirror and said "that might be fun." Well at one point I think it was brought up somehow over dinner that I was going to get an earring in NZ. I got a nice gasp from my Mom and an estranged look from my Dad. After explaining my thought process, I got a laugh from both. I don't know if this was because they thought I was being absurd or they didn't think I was going to go through with it. Probably both.

Admittedly, as I've been here my desire to get an earring kind of fell off, although I kept in on my list of things to do. What I think what really made me do it was this: my brothers more or less said they would make fun of me if I got one. They also said they'd make fun of me if I said I'd get one, then didn't. I figured it be best I get one and not go back on my word, rather than the other. And in the 12 hours I've had it I've received both flak and compliments on it, so I think I can handle anything my family throws at me. I mean, deep down they love me anyway, right?

It'll be interesting to see what they think about the tattoo I got.

JUST KIDDING!!!!!!