Friday 2 May 2008

Migration

Yesterday I took the theory test and got my NZ driver's licence. Two days previous was our one-year anniversary of arriving in this country. So. A couple of things I remember about moving here..

April 27th. The day we left. We loaded up the rental car, left our house keys on the counter. By previous arrangement, some young lady with dreads came by to pick up the futon we had slept on our last night in the apartment. We drove downtown and for some reason decided to grab a coffee at Royal Grounds on our way out. It was there, sitting in the coffee shop, looking across the table at Loren, that it really hit me what we were doing. I had been so busy packing, and selling our stuff on Craigslist, and making arrangements for our trip, that it all seemed like an intellectual exercise until that moment, when there was nothing left to do but get to the airport and step onto a plane.

April 29th. The day we arrived. The taxi dropped us and all six of our bags off in an empty parking lot, down an alley, allegedly near the address we'd given him for the apartment we would be staying in. Loren went off to find the place, and the lock box containing our keys, while I watched over the luggage. There I was, down an unfamiliar alley, in an empty parking lot, with not a single key in my possession, not knowing the location of the bed I would sleep in that night, and sitting watch over what were our only possessions for the next six weeks. Now, I have known in-between places, standing between what's to come and what's come before, with nothing to do with the present but wait it out. You get that any time you travel on an aeroplane, for instance. But this was the ultimate in-between place in my life, the moment of complete disorientation before this new chapter of my life could begin.

1 comment:

Caffeinated Weka said...

Congratulations on passing your driver's license! I hope your first year in New Zealand has been all that you'd hoped for and that the next years treat you well. :-)