Saturday, February 28, 2009

Repatriate: I'm still an American

Now we have been in Christchurch for 5 days. The first two nights were spent at the beach in a quiet old neighborhood with a nice modern library that had free wifi. Feeling time crunch to sell my van with enough time to get a ticket to Auckland and get home, I started putting up "for sale" signs around town.I found a hostel that traded camper vans for backpackers. They told me it was selling season. All the backpackers are going home in feb-mar. Basically its a buyers market. But such is the nature impromptu traveling. I sold the van for less than wanted to and we moved close to downtown, staying at a hostel. We rented bike and road around town for a couple of days. We found out its a pretty cool town.We ate at really good cafe that made us a delicious burger with egg and cream cheese on a bagel. We climbed some trees, and did some tumbling. But we have just been watching movies on the laptop at night to save money. Josh is going to sleep at the airport tonight, he has an early flight tomorrow.
So I will be on my own for the next three days. This trip has given me plenty of time to think about things like life in other parts of the world. I noticed how culture separates people into groups, creating boundaries and taking the the individuality from the people in them. National pride and ethnocentrism are keepping people locked in their little lives in what I've found to be a very big world. New Zealand is probably the closest to America in culture and even architecture. They were founded around the same time. But it seems NZ has adopted some of the worst parts of American culture through the media or other profit driven information exchanges. The youth cling on to the gangster rap from MTV, and the conspicuous consumption of flashy magazines, and the stereotypical greed, arrogance, laziness and of the American public. Why? IDK. But it makes one wonder about what it is to be human. Do people just always want the easy way out. I don't. Well not any more. I like this simple way of living. Less stuff, less money, less problems.

I am however really looking forward to starting over my life in the states. I feel I have done a lot of growing up while I've been away. Learned much about my own country by seeing it through foreign eyes. Its very humbling, but eye opening as well. I love San Diego, my family and friends and will be back in it on Monday March 2, 2009.

Monday will last 44 hours for me. I may be a bit tired but it will be nice to back in So Cal. I am stoked that Sam is picking me up from LAX. We are going straight to a Mexi shop for burritos. Then ... IDK. Start rebuilding.