Counting Days

I’ve been counting the days since I got here and I thought I’d keep a record in my blog, too. There are a couple of reasons behind this.

It’s kind of a coping mechanism for me – a little game. I am a homebody. I am not a traveller. I get grumpy when I am hungry and can’t find something I want (e.g. batteries) in the shops. Counting the days, I thought, could be a kind of marker of something I’ve achieved. One day without insisting that I want to go home. Two days without insisting that I want to go home.

However, one reason I decided to undertake this particular adventure was that it would be quite different to backpacking, or hopping from one country to another, which a lot of people would prefer. I was (still am) much happier about the prospect of establishing a little base and actually living in a different country.

I might come back throughout the year, but at this stage it’s extremely expensive and I think it will probably unsettle me when I’ve enjoyed so much of this so far.
Also – on a happy note – so far it has been more – wow, 5 days and I have done so much. 11 days and there is so much to do. I feel a bit like when my friend Doug and I moved into 203/16 Moore Street, and three weeks after we moved in, we were like ‘Oh man! I can’t believe we ONLY have another 11 months here! This place is awesome!’. I am glad that I have another 11 months here, because it means I’ll actually get a chance to fit in so many cool things – without feeling panicky that I won’t get to do much and then run myself into the ground trying to do everything.

Of course, the fact that I don’t *have* a home in Canberra at the moment is also a good incentive to stay here I also had my ‘argh I miss my flat, my bed, my friends, my stuff, I could go home right now’ moment while I was still in Queensland. Except, of course, I’d packed up my stuff and given up my home. Ah well! I had a good day today, I’m happy, and so far even when I’ve been cranky I’ve been sure I want to hang around and see how things turn out here.