Full steam ahead

One of the things long-term travellers warned me about upon coming home is the infamous "black hole", a psychological state in which you struggle to re-adjust to your normal life and can only think of hitting the road again. I'm imagining it's a bit like a post-summer camp feeling as a kid when you desperately want to cling on to the memories & experiences you've just had. But luckily I've managed to avoid being swallowed up by this "hole", partly because I was aware of it beforehand and partly because of my genuine excitement at seeing all our friends and family members in NZ again. To my surprise I've also really enjoyed the nesting part of returning home - unpacking boxes, redecorating our house and finding a newfound appreciation for our strong-pressure shower and other domestic luxuries :-). Don't get me wrong, I'll probably never turn into the homebody type but it is wonderful to have a place to call our own after all this wandering. By a lucky twist of faith our social calendar is already back in full swing as well, with December full of summer barbecues, sleepovers, trips to the market, lunch and coffee dates, new babies, an NZAID event (see photo) and a wedding to go to. Not much different from before we left Wellington, so this quote from John Burroughs is still very relevant for me:

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.

I've also been officially accepted into my postgraduate course at Victoria University for 2011 and am planning to do more volunteer work next year. The only aspect of my resettlement that's not going according to plan is finding a job, but I'm reminding myself that we've only been back for three weeks and that patience is a good virtue...