New Zealand and Anxiety

Finally, I made it off the ice. We showed up in Christchurch right in the middle of dusk. It was amazing to experience twilight, humidity, color, and smells for the first time in over 5 months. After a couple of hours in customs and the Clothing Distribution Center, we went into the city to our respective places of lodging. I'm staying at a place called Base Backpackers which is sorta like a hostel geared toward backpackers. A lot of transients in and out from all over the world. I spent the night at a few bars with a bunch of other people from Antarctica and by time it was all said and done, it was 4 AM, I was drunk, and I was still out.

I spent the following day taking it easy. The depression of knowing a good friend died really set it then. I love working in Antarctica but dealing with being away from home at times like these really sucks. I've spent a lot of my time trying to find things to keep my mind off of Ricky's death but it pops its head up every once in a while. One of the things that sorta works is just spending time with other people. I'm glad that, for once, I'm not travelling a lone. Between Ricky's death which has made me think about my uncle dying while I wasn't here, flight delays and plans getting screwed up, and losing my wallet, I've really stressed the fuck out. Thank God for my friends though, they've kept me from going crazy. I've calmed down a lot since yesterday and this morning. Tomorrow, I may go to the beach for the first time in years and after that who know's what. I was hoping to have been back in the states by now but I couldn't find a flight that would get back in time for Ricky's funeral. Oh well. I'll see you all next week.