Hi everyone,

Lovely to write to all of you. Wowie, it’s been a while! I’m currently sitting in the public library in Wanaka (classic) after toodling around town all morning (also classic). Although it’s truly only my parents and other direct family members who asked for an update via my blog, I decided to gift you all one anyway. Consider it a post-St. Patrick’s day surprise.

The months since I last wrote have been both eventful and quite boring. Unfortunately, in mid-February, I suffered what is probably a stress fracture in my foot, so I haven’t done much besides walk or swim since then. I was actually off the walking game and on the crutching game for a bit–thank goodness, my arms were really getting weak–so I’m thankful to be back on my own two feet again! As some of you might know, I have a history of stress fractures like this. Although it is a bit of a bummer to suffer another one exactly one year after I crutched around for many weeks, I actually think it makes me a bit more relaxed about the whole thing. If this is the price I pay for all of the awesome adventures in between, then I consider it worth it.

Anyways, since I haven’t been able to walk around, I also haven’t worked for the past month or so. Luckily, New Zealand doesn’t share the same fear of a functioning health care system as the United States, so I’m fortunate enough to have (relatively affordable) doctors’ appointments and receive injury compensation from the government while I can’t work. I was hesitant to organize all of that initially and instead hobbled/limped my way around work until I finally gave in and realized I was actually just being silly–classic.

Of course, when one door closes, a window opens and brings in a refreshing breeze, as they say. In other words, I’m now a swimmer! Better than just that, I’m now a lake swimmer! Although I ramble along in the water at a truly unbelievably slow speed (surely I should just sink), it genuinely feels powerful to improve so much since my swimming journey began. In the past times I had stress fractures, I struggled to work up the courage and/or stamina to swim across the pool (literally). Now, I can swim in the lake for around an hour! That genuinely feels awesome. Of course, it’s me, so I spend that entire hour analyzing every stroke and thinking about how I could improve, but that’s all part of the game. Anyway, my swimming career is a sweet development.

Other than that, I’ve spent a lot of time crocheting, reading, coding (always a good time for girls in STEM), baking, and coming up with random tasks to do. I feel a bit like a domestic housewife since I clean the kitchen and cook dinner before my working friends come home, which I’m sure you all correctly guess that I love.

Despite my jesting, it has been an interesting time to think about having purpose (or a lack thereof) in my days, and where in the spectrum of nonstop-driven to absolute laze I would prefer to be. I can confidently say that I desire more purpose than my days currently have, but I’m not quite sure I want to feel the weight of the world when waking up every morning, either. Without sharing too much, I’m also thinking plenty about my relationship with the US during and after my stint here. This simultaneously pushes me to look forward to purposefully connecting with US issues while also recognizing that detachment/perspective is very much possible, in both good and bad ways. Also, is there a difference between where I truly lie in the purpose spectrum and where I wish to? Some food for thought.

While that’s all in the back of my mind, I return to my regularly scheduled programming of some computer work, treating a local coffeeshop like my living room, then going swimming. The big excitement is that I will travel to Indonesia on a month-long bike trip with four friends from here in May. I’m SO excited to live on the bike, have no idea what to expect, and hope that my foot behaves by then. Fingers crossed!!

As always, best wishes to all of you! Sending thoughts of warm spring days to the Northern Hemisphere and the amount of joy I get when eating a red kiwi (a lot). Have a great week!

Cheers,

Jaquelin

Oh and my sisters came to visit! That was awesome. And I’ve started to buy farm-fresh milk. That rocks too. Pictures of both featured below.