End of Lasts, Beginning of Firsts

I'm in Auckland! And have been for almost 3 days now. The flight over was luckily uneventful, and I even slept for 2/3 of it. The last few days have consisted of email and in-person conversations with locals to get to know the city, meet potential flatmates, and figure out work stuff. A lot of walking around too; this city is very hilly (gonna build some big thighs, but not that big). Anyway to the point of this post.

Something interesting happens when you leave a place you've called home for somewhere distant (and it's not just a vacation, but a place you will stay for awhile):  everything you do becomes a myriad of goodbyes (as I detailed in my last post) and 'this is the last time I'll do X' moments. In Madison, Michigan, and Portland, this became a running joke that each of my friends/family groups picked up on independently and ran with. Part of me loved the attention, part of me wondered if my friends thought I was going overseas to die of an unknown terminal illness or (more likely) from falling spectacularly from a South Island fjord into my icy and watery early grave.

Some paraphrased highlights from my last few weeks in the USA:
"But we have to have that extra beer, this is Eric's second-to-last Tuesday night in Madison."
"Guys, this is Eric's last time at the Town Bar, we have to get a round of picklebacks."
"I'm going to make (over-the-top) butterscotch pudding, it's Eric's last Friday afternoon in the USA."
And so on.

On the contrary other hand of the flip side of the same token, when you get to a new place, everything is new and exciting and anxiety-inducing. Even the most mundane everyday activities take on a new flavor.

Obviously there are the first impressions of Auckland, which I'll go into detail about some other time:

Toronto or Auckland? In the day.

Obligatory 'Stoic flying water rat at the ferry terminal looking out to the North Shore' shot.

The first sunset. I get the impression that there are a lot of good ones here, what with the unpredictable weather. 

Auckland or Toronto? At night.

And then there's the 'firsts' in food:

Late night kebab, ahhhhhhh!!!!

Meat pie, contents (somewhat) unknown.

Huh? This is actually a chain restaurant here.

And some just really WTF moments, which my friend Dr. Michael 'Dirty' Spoelstra has done a great job chronicling in his first few weeks in Okinawa. Here's one at a busy square I encountered in downtown Auckland:

I overheard this woman saying she was Ukrainian, which is a fact that at first seems only incidental. But the more you think about it, the more it makes sense. She's either going to be from 'Mary Poppins,' 'Home Alone 2:  Lost in New York,' or Eastern European. I don't know why, it just fits together in my brain.

I don't intend to have a conclusion, wrap-up paragraph that ticks off some emotional boxes each time I write a post. But here I feel compelled to mention that moments are easiest to remember when they're shared experiences. Sure I have photo-documentation of things I've encountered the first few days in Auckland, but in 5 years I won't remember if I enjoyed that food, savored those sights, and especially what I was feeling in those moments. I will, however, remember the goodbye toasts from those 'last' drinks and the smiles and laughter that joking about them with people I care about created.

Cheers!