Looking Back a bit

I spent most of my sick day yesterday resting in bed, going through old pictures on the computer to clear out some hard drive space. I only got up to Jan 2007 but managed to clear out about 400 pictures. It was fun to see pictures from when hubs and I started dating.

I took a peek at some of our first pictures from Wellington; almost a whole year ago now.

B checking out our wintertime view of the harbour from the mailbox:

Mamaku fern trees in the ravine near our house:


Ryan visiting and learning with us a week after we arrived:

It's overwhelming to think of all the experiences we've had; the year has gone by so fast. We've made wonderful friends and have learned so much. I learned to have the confidence to be more friendly, an easy thing here when almost everyone is friendly and reciprocating. Bryce and I are much more relaxed about things; we never honk our horns any more, we generally try and go with the flow, we'll give a minute here and there to talk with a chatty stranger. In some ways though, I've surprised myself at how stubborn I've been at assimilating to a new culture.

Overall, I'm pretty grateful for the chance to live here and share this with Bryce. There's a lot of little things that the other person misses that we discuss with each other. I'll come home from work with recommendations, new words, and no-no's that I hear from colleagues and parents. And last night, Bryce had to have a little sit-down with me to teach me what this whole "World Cup" business was all about.