I don't even know where to start. This has truly been one of the most amazing days of my life.
But I guess I should start before today, with yesterday, which will be part 1. (Read that last sentence in a Winnie the Pooh voice). I had smooth bus ride to the Auckland airport to take a a flight to Wellington and browsed a book store. Most airport bookstores either suck or are mildly pleasant but forgettable, in my experience. Not in the Auckland domestic terminal. Suddenly I was feverishly typing book titles into my phone to remember them for later because so many things looked good. I'd spent my whole trip not tempted to buy anything, and was suddenly surrounded by a small library of books I was drooling over. I caved and purchased, "In Order to Live," by Yeonmi Park, about a girl who escaped North Korea with her family less than a decade ago. I've already been moved to tears and I'm not yet to page 50.
Got a hot chocolate because I'm a grown up like that and had a smooth, short flight. Bus was easy to find, took a short time, no motion sickness. I was starting to feel inspired and alive in a way I haven't in a bit. I took my first look at Wellington and said, yep. I'm going to like this place. I don't know why, but I've always had an intuitive sense almost immediately of which places I belong and which I don't. I can't put words to it... There is something in the core of my being that says "good to visit," "good to live," "um... This place is not my thing but that's ok" or "lets never come back here again," which is mostly only reserved so far for Houston, Texas and perhaps Bakersfield, California. :)
I checked into the hostel, YHA, supposedly the best in Wellington, and went downstairs to try to catch a wifi signal. I had a catch up phone call with John that I'd been looking forward to for days. But no signal. Oh well, right? I'll just ask the front desk about it. There was no line or other people waiting to be helped.
That interaction went something like:
Me: hey, I'm just trying to figure out if something's wrong with my phone or if the wifi is out. I have an important phone call in an hour so I'm just trying to figure it out.
Man behind desk: ::clicks on his computer:: oh. Hmm. yeah it's not working. Nothing I can do about that.
Me: ok.. (Thinking maybe this has happened before, and trying to stay polite/ not to sound whiny even though he was kind of rude) is there an amount of time it's usually off for when it's down?
Him: (shrugging his shoulders and seeming nonplussed, disinterested, avoiding eye contact) I have no idea. It's totally beyond my control.
Me: ok, I just need-
Him: (interuppting) like I said there is nothing I can do-
Me: (returning the favor and interuppting back) which I completely understand, so I was going to ask if there is somewhere else I can go around nearby and access wifi.
Him: well you can access it out on the street. The city offers free wifi in the city center.
Me: with all due respect, I'm not really wanting to sit outside on the phone in this ::gestures to the wind gusts outside that Wellington is famous for, rain clouds and the 50 degree weather::... Perhaps a cafe?
Him: I guess there's the library..
Me: brilliant. Please show me on this map. Thanks. Goodbye.
What.. The fuck? A library, where people go to read and be quiet and shit? Lol it was better than nothing but I was reeling a little bit after that interaction. I realize sometimes people are going to be rude but the other staff who checked me in were so nice and the place has such a good rep that I was caught totally off guard. Perhaps it was my karma for all the times I copped an attitude with ultra entitled rich folks when I was a hostess at the roaring fork ::giggles:: though I quickly learned that the faster I helped them solve a problem the faster I could end the interaction. Also, I was 23 then, and this guy looked about 35. :P
So I trudged irritably in the very strong wind to the library. Though I wish he would not have been a condescending a-hole, I ended up being grateful that I had to go to the library because it was really cool. Just .. Good vibes. Books save the day... Twice! And I got to talk to john at a children's coloring table, sitting on an orange pillow on the floor, coloring myself a picture of an elephant (shown above) while we talked. People looked at me funny as they walked by but hey, it was fun and it was away from everyone who was reading and in meetings. THe picture had already been scribbled on, so I think of it as "a collaboration of people who will probably never meet." ;)
I started looking for food and found... An Asian food court/ eating hall thing! Like nothing I've ever seen in the USA. Not connected to a mall. Completely authentic real deal Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, Malaysian food... Along with random others like Armenian and Italian. I chose to get a banh mi sandwich from a Vietnamese place called.. No joke.. "Where's Charlie?" It turned out that the woman who was ringing me up and making the sandwich was born and raised in Hanoi, where I began my trip. She asked about the food I ate there and I tried to convey the warmth I felt toward her home. The sandwich was unsurprisingly delicious.
Went back to the ladies only dorm hostel room and chatted with a couple of the roomies, friendly French women. I like the women only dorms so much more ( are you really that surprised?:) they are not always but often more peaceful, cleaner, and less creepy. Though up to this point I am lucky and have only had annoying rather than creepy things happen in a co ed dorm... Like smelly disgusting dirty boy laundry strewn about... But I digress.
I curled up with my fabulous new book, surfed the web and finally went to sleep, happy that I had found my favorite place of the trip.
