Hum...

I wish I could tell you how exciting I'm being, how I'm kicking ass and taking names, and yet it seems my epic Kiwi romp has stalled out before I even got out of the driveway.

Yup, as I sat with my butt bound to a chair editing video for the 4th straight 10 hour work day, I realized that the cool job that I was all excited about in the last post is actually the very desk job that I was running from back at home...not only that, I'm volunteering to do it. Certainly it's ideal as far as desk jobs go; I have great coworkers, I get to work with documentary films all day, I'm in a cool part of the city. In all practical terms, I should contentedly be plugging away and thanking my lucky stars at the opportunity I have to establish contacts and have a routine...but a comfortable, urbane lifestyle is not why I came here.

I came to breathe fresh air, to run around in rugged, exotic wilderness, to get grimy and dirty and exhaust myself in the effort. Hell, if I'm going to be working for free I may as well do it in a place with a view.

So here's what I'm thinking--I'm going to finish out this documentary film festival because 1) I said I would and 2) it'll be cool to see the films and meet the filmmakers--but then I'm cutting lose and wandering free.

So what's the escape plan? Well I've spent the morning applying to various short term jobs that include cool people and beautiful places and less than 1.5 million neighbors. Even if I don't get those jobs, my plan b is to just throw on my backpack and bike about north island until I get somewhere cool and stay for a bit. No matter what, I'm saying no thank you to 10 hours a day at a computer and hello to doing what I want with my life.

I've just gotta wait a month to do it. humph.