Departing Thoughts

Leaving New Zealand is sad and exciting at the same time. We have a really great group of friends, an amzing house, work is going very well for both of us, and the summer weather has been spectacular. As they say, "you can't beat Wellington on a great day."

As hard as it is to leave, our upcoming adventure will be spectacular. Our first port of call is Tokyo, Japan - The first of 15 countries and numerous cities, meeting friends and family along the say, before landing in NYC in June. We'll be based in New Jersey with Perin's mom (and her swim pool) for about a month, going to Perin's sister's wedding in Boston, touring a bit of the northeast, seeing the City, and hanging out down the shore (I'm hoping the opportunity to punch Snooki in the face present itself.)

From there, we'll go to my cousin's wedding in Washington (state) before heading back to NJ to begin a several-weeks-long road trip down the east coast, across the south, and back to Colorado onto my parents' couch sometime in September. I have a lot of factory tours and BBQ sampling penciled in.

Let me tell you how this works people: no organization interviews people 7 months before they're going to be making a decision about whether or not to take a role. Plus, who'd want to work for the kind of company that did? Much planning has gone into the trip, but it's pretty nebulous after we hit that couch... We'll eventually get jobs I'm sure.

I think I'll miss the pople the most. Our friends welcomed us into their homes and lives and so many of them really embraced us, that it will be incredibly difficult to say goodbye. I think between the two of us, Perin and I had four or five leaving parties and still didn't get to see veryone we would have liked to.

My departing thoughts must include body builders here in NZ. Only recently have I started noticing "American" body builders around town, although I suppose some/all of them could be tourists. I define these as guys with huge developed upper bodies and skinny little legs. As rugby is the sport of choice here, you need huge thigh muscles. Nobody here would spend hours at the gym to look like they couldn't play rugby. A fit man looks like a fit rugby player here. And having become so used to that, huge dudes with toothpick legs look even more ridiculous.

Thanks for everything New Zealand! We'll miss you incredibly and promise to come back!