and Back Again

Admittedly, I think I've left a few of you hanging. And while reading about me selling my guitar for the past two weeks might be just exciting as it was the first time, I suspect its probably time to write something.

So if you hadn't figured it out yet, I am back home in Corning, New York. And the weather has been so nice its been hard to sit down and really write something. But alas, it is raining. So here's a quick recap of my final days...

The last few days mostly consisted of studying for my last few exams, er....pretending to study. I know when we tell people why we were in NZ it was "For School." Yeah right. More like hang on the beach, go hiking, have lots of parties, relax, "accidently miss class", etc. My parents are still convinced I never attended class, well thats only partially correct. I did sometimes.

The night before we left about 15 of us went out to dinner in the pouring rain for one last huzzah. As I looked around the table of smiling and laughing faces, I think it finally set in how much I'm going to miss being around these people every single day. And I don't like to get sappy, but these friends are for Keeps.

The last day, before the heading to the Airport in the evening, a few of us headed downtown for one last look. And as a final farewell we made sure to pay one last tribute to NZ, we ate Lamb kebabs. And it had never tasted so good.

We jumped on the 12 hour flight to San Fransisco, and it turned out to be pretty painless. This might be attributed to the Ambien I stole from a friend. After arriving in San Fran we headed toward town to help kill our 7 hour layover. We went to the infamous In and Out Burger, whom Ed (or resident burger enthusiast) assured us was the best fast food burger ever according the burger enthusiasts world wide. They were indeed delicious, dripping with grease, onions, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and their "special sauce". I was convinced, they were the best. Unfortunatly, they're only to be found on the west coast.

We walked around a little more than jumped a streetcar to head back to the airport. We had another red eye to JFK departing around 9:45pm and arriving at 6:00am. The flight was much more painful as I could not get myself to fall asleep, as there were no pillows or shoulders to fall asleep on as I did the previous flight.

After standing through the awkwardness in JFK of everyone being re-united with their parents except myself and a few others, I made my way to the JetBlue terminal with my two carry-ons and two 50lb. bags, for my final flight. I think its fair to say that standing in the security line for 40 minutes was less than fun, and then having the plane wait in line for another 45 to take off was less than exciting. But with 30-some odd hours of traveling, what was a another 4 anyway?

So after being home for almost two-weeks, there are noticeable difference between here and There. The food for one is on a much higher level here, since its prepared by my mother. It is also much quiter here. Where before I was in a city and hanging out with some of my closest friends day in and day out. So its relaxing, but a bit lonesome sometimes.

The last thing that I noticed is that I often find myself starting a sentence like this, "Well in New Zealand they...." or "When I was in New Zealand, I...." Maybe that'll wear off, but I'm thinking for awhile it won't, and I don't mind. I'm already trying hard not to lose a lot of the memories from that beautiful place.

Everywhere I went when I was in New Zealand I tried not to take for granted. I tried so hard to soak it all in, because I knew eventually I'd have to leave. I'd peer out into the distance. I'd close my eyes and breath in the landscape. I'd listen to the ocean and mountains. Even now I try so hard to remember the memories of friends and places I tried so hard to ingrain in my mind; but sometimes there are places and times where the mind just can't hold it all in no matter how hard you try. New Zealand is one of those places.

Yet this isn't meant to sound sad in any way, but in fact, the opposite. I'm glad to have been fortunate enough to experience such a place. Somewhere that made me really appreciate the beauty of the earth and people. But I also realized you don't have to go all the way to New Zealand for that. Its as easy as staring up at the night sky or laughing with your friends.

Thanks for everyone who read this blog and all my shinanigans. I hope to start a new blog on who knows what, but I'll post it here, once I get an idea, for anyone who might be interested.

I'll leave you with a song wrote in toward the end when I was in New Zealand. Only a small group of people have heard it. I also put a little slide show along with it. The song can be downloaded via the player on the right or facebook or my music link.

I hope to make it back someday. And I hope you'll make it there too.

Peace & Love
-Nick

Sit Tight

There's one final post coming, I swear. In just one or two days, its special so its taking a bit longer than I thought.

So don't go away, I'll back after a short messages from our sponsors.