One the most stressful days of my life. Didn’t sleep at all last night – I was too busy getting up to be sick all night. This episode was a lot worse than the one I had 2 weeks ago when I was in New Zealand, although I’m sure it helped having my own bed in a nice hotel and a nice bathroom only 10 feet away. My Mom was actually willing to put me up in a hotel in New Zealand, mostly for the notion if I was still sick, but I know she was also put off by my hostel-horror-stories…
::coughcough: HerveyBaybedbugsandrottingtamponsonthebathroomfloor: coughcough::
I was up at 6 and packing my bags as best I could between throwing up, and the family drove out to the Melbourne airport. Grant videotaped my “goodbye to Australia” and our parting of ways, and my parents gave me some leftover New Zealand dollars and some US cash to get me a train ticket to Little Silver from Newark, as well as some food. I ended having to repack all my bags in front of the entire check in line at the international terminal because my carry-on’s exceeded the weight limit and the check-in woman didn’t advise putting my laptop in my checked luggage. The flight went relatively smoothly, except I couldn’t eat the “lunch” they served at 10AM Sydney time (12PM Auckland time), and one of the more pampering things about Qantas is being able to have all that really good food and a open bar! I watched “A Love Song for Bobby Long”, which only made me fall even more in love with Scarlett Johannson. When the pilot said “New Zealand customs are one of the toughest in the world”, I really should have taken heed. I’ve also learned that if I’m not positive what’s in my bags, always go through them BEFORE you get to customs and toss ANYTHING that might get you in trouble. After getting questioned to death at Immigration about why I couldn’t just get a ticket home out of Sydney, I headed to Customs. I had checked off that I was declaring the Rimu wood Tiki head I bought the last time I was in New Zealand, because I honestly didn’t think I had anything else biological on me. They put my bags through the X-ray, and they decide to give me Reebok bag some deep cavity search, and they pull out a tree nut I had chucked in my bad 3 months ago after hiking Mount Sorrow in the Daintree Rainforest on my mid-semester break. Now, I was already extremely dehydrated from being so sick, and I started getting very lightheaded and having to squat and sit and try to explain what it was while I could hear my hearing fading away. I got THISCLOSE to fainting at Customs. They had me drag my luggage to an “Infringement” guy, which terrified me even more because I wasn’t sure if I still had the bag of sand from Cape Tribulation in my bags… if they checked they rest of my bags, with my luck in New Zealand, they’d probably find it or something else to get me in trouble. This old “Infringement” guy keeps telling me not to upset myself while I’m just trying to prevent myself from crying AND fainting. He asks me what I’m studying, and when I say Psychology, he has the balls to say to me “Psychology? Well then this is your own little Psychology test right now from the body language you’re giving me.” He tells me I won’t have a criminal record, but I have to pay a $200 fine for “forgetfulness and carelessness”. Then as I chose to pay it within 14 days (because I had my Mom’s credit card on me, and I didn’t want to get anymore shit for not having something in my own name), he keeps giving me the speech about being an idiot to do this, and as I say “I’m just disappointed in myself”, he has the audacity to say “Yeah, I can imagine how embarrassed you must be.” I’m not embarrassed – if you know me well, you know that VERY few things actually embarrass me. So now when I pick up my family at Newark Airport, I have to tell them I have to borrow MORE money from them so I’m not one of the world’s most wanted, and I know that’s going to be a chunk of my first paycheck (which I won’t get until August). I know I have to get 2 jobs again this summer (I think I’ll find somewhere to waitress on the weekends and ask to do the overnight camping trips for my county job, of which I hit the ground running smack in the heart of jetlag on Monday). This year I plan on working as a temp. for the 2 days a week I don’t have class, and doing online tutoring, and I know if I don’t ever want to feel the angst of being poor again, I have to take my Dad’s advice: become rich and a smart. The middle class is disappearing, so I need to throw myself into my education and work, and I’m going to start putting away 10% of everyone one of my paychecks into savings, and get a credit card. In my own name. And fix my bloody passport. Definitely not going to the Bay of Islands NOW.
My shuttle driver Shah noted I didn’t look well, and he told me to go to sleep and he’d wake me up when we got to my hostel. He was the first nice guy I met today. Then I met a nice German girl in this hostel, and they have a very affectionate tabby cat. Speaking of tabbies, I had the most vivid dream a few weeks ago that I was in my living room playing with cats, but there was a tabby in the room as well. Maybe this is the cat! My dreams always somehow have this way of coming to fruition. TV also had an episode of Scrubs AND the Lost finale, so I guess the day ended on a decent note. I’ve calmed down about the NZ$200, because I know the exchange will bring it to about US$150, and I can pay my parents back in one paycheck.
I still have to cancel the phonebill in my Australia apartment and find out how to pay that online or something, and tell my flatmates what they owe me (more like my parents) because they didn’t leave me any cash when they moved out. I also had to give my books to Kim to return to the library, and figure out how to pay any late fees because of course for a $3.00 library fee, they withhold your bloody transcript.
I have to dig through my bags and repack over the next 2 days here in Auckland and make sure I don’t have anything illegal in there… over the past few days Australia has become so much dearer to me because I’ve gotten to share it with my family, this thing that’s been such a part of my life for 5 months. Dad says it’s good I have another country now to call home if need be. And I certainly need to watch the fireworks on New Years Eve in Sydney from now on. I want to know what happened to my cat. If he’s alive. BUT I CAN’T F***G WAIT TO GET OUT OF NEW ZEALAND AND BE HOME NOW. COUNTDOWN: 48 HOURS.
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