After the dramatic start to the morning, I eventually made it to Rotorua by 5, just as it was getting dark. Alone. New city. Compounded with the terrible news of the shootings in the States, I was also homesick and devastated for everyone back home, and I definitely was in need of some sort of hug or comfort. Logically, I should have been able to step back and say, "Hey now, didn't you just go through these fears and icky feelings and homesickness less than two months ago? And didn't you get through that just fine?" Unfortunately, however, mental illnesses don't exactly bend to logic, and I subsequently found myself fighting tears and overwhelming despair and loneliness and heart-gripping illogical fear on my bunk at the YHA. Mid-deep breathing, one of my roommates walked in the room with little braided pigtails and a friendly smile. We started chatting, and when she realized I was alone, she invited me down to the kitchen where she was finishing up a meal with her travel companion, Lydia. They shared their food with me and we had a few good laughs. They're both English and on an extended bus tour around New Zealand; they can hop off at whatever location they like for as long as they like, and they just hop back on the bus when it comes back to their area. I regaled them with stories from small-town America. They were a good audience. I have a much lighter heart now after some food and talk with my newfound and completely transient, temporary friends. All it took was a little friendliness to help me get over the first hump of the paralyzingly anxiety and now I'm back on a good track. Tomorrow, I'm taking advantage of Rotorua's natural hot springs by visiting a spa in the morning, then I start my Hobbiton tour (!!!!!!!) at 1pm. Sunday, I'm going to visit a museum and check out the park and sulfurous bits and baubles around town before heading to Wellington at 1; I'll be back in town before 9pm. I'm spending my Monday off work finishing and submitting my midterm essay (which I have almost completed already, of course, because it's me), doing a spot of laundry, maybe picking up some fruit to round out my last week of groceries, and... That's about it. Back to work Tuesday for my final four days at SGCNZ. That sounds so crazy; out of 40 working days, I worked 36 already. Um, what? It hasn't been an easy two months, but in the grand scheme of things, it really did go by so quickly. Two weeks from now, I'll be asleep in a bed in Pittsburgh. Gotta make the next two weeks count -- anxiety be damned.
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