ElizabethTown

Well I have just finished taking 30 odd girls to the movies. Very random movie. But the last bit of the movie has made me write this blog. I have spent the whole way home thinking I have to say this...and this...and this.....
And some of it I'm sure I will say other bits will get washed away in the river of random thoughts, but the point will get across I'm sure. And that's mainly that I love you guys and really miss you all!!!
But what started it all.....a road trip across the states...through some of the same places that I went with lian iwakura. It reminded me of having to sit next to a fat lady on the bus at about 12-4am. Not only did she take up 3/4 of my part of the sit but she wouldn't move her bags (even one would have done) so I didn't have enough leg room. I remember whacking sticks for the rent-a-cops, particularly the ones at Chicago bus station. I remember getting the best Christmas present I have ever got in my life. And from people who barely knew me but put heaps of effort into making me a book and ferret to go with it all, both of which I still have (even though I still think ferrets smell). You can never know the huge blessing you were to someone who just needed somewhere to put my head at Christmas time. I think of you all often and wonder how you are doing and image being able to come visit you one day.
I remember art classes - the first time in my life I had really been taught how to draw. I remember the wonderful girl with the most amazing view of life, who I always will remember, who I did believe when she said she had voices in her head, and never thought she was crazy. I loved her reality check. And her lurking fish name badge at work. Talking about the amusing things about her customers. And I loved hanging out in that same mall with K and heater. I think the best time was when we missed the bus and had to walk home at 11:30/midnight in the snow. How I thought it was fun and your guys just thought I was crazy. I remember those beautiful caramel cinnabuns (is that what they were called) I have not come across anything else quite as deliciously bad for you. It wasn't till I met you guys (lian too) that I really understood the concept of mall rats. And how people could actually enjoy it (or enjoy watching them).
Thanks for taking me to Jack Asters (or once again however it is spelt). I whole concept of having a restaurant like that aimed at adults as much as kids is so absolutely fabulous (and for all you kiwis I have that show). For all the times we went out for dinner in town or run up the road to uni so I could have a teriaki fix. (eg food I recognised). Thank you for making me back down on never having a fish....one day I might even buy some more... but I would have to actually plan on living there for a while...and well realistically I haven't found that place yet.
Thanks for liking my drawings. For watching sci-fi with me while not really getting much study done - of alternatively just turning around when you heard sci-fi music and not hassling us about it....much. For letting me cry on your shoulder when things weren't going me way, when I had no money, was missing NZ, or just down. For giving me the same privilege.
Thanks for the 21st pressies. I am using the text from one of the stories for my book. Thanks L and Em for letting me stay and showing me around, for walking cause I didn't like the tube. For driving me around all the old houses and taking me to stonehedge, for getting me in so I never had to pay. For helping me work out how to go to bath and Lewis and Brighton, and to the shop keeper who told me he had been to Brighton NZ..and place lived really close to and never knew existed (have been there now)..Thanks for taking me out to dinner on my birthday. Thank you for letting me have a second home again - even if it was only for a few weeks. Thank you to all the people who took me to the airport/train/bus stations.
Thank you for a family Christmas, for building gingerbread castles, and pavlova that didn't work but still tasted yummy, for letting me be me, for taking me to church and just being yourselves in a normal Christmas, for making new traditions, and dressing up for dinner (costumes not formal).
Thanks for Tuesdays at Courageous, for never letting me pay for the crown royal and coke ... you may be pleased to know I have seen the light and now have it with ginger ale. Thanks to the random waiter who made my try crown royal in the first place, not so much thanks to the import people who don't let it get sold in NZ. Thanks for the evening out to 'splice the main brace' the best formal dinner I have ever had...without the meal. LOL.
Thanks for rides in the bright yellow sports car, stopping for McDs on the way to cadets. For giving me people other than students to talk to and get to know. And therefore different topics of conversation from students.
For the people at church who took me out to dinner, who were there when I needed someone to listen. To the counselor who listened when things started to really hit the fan. For all of you who made it worth while staying even when everything said I should just give up and go home with my tail between my legs. For giving me the love I needed so that when I finally got home it only took me a few months to start again rather than the so much longer it would have taken.
Thanks to all the people in Chile (and those who came with me) who help start the real healing. Thank you for helping me to learn to laugh, to have fun, real deep down fun, to not care if I look stupid when I try and at first don't succeed.

So I think I will stop there although I could go on. And I could definitely say as much if not more about all those people who live in NZ, all those people who have stayed when I have left, as I usually do. Maybe one day I will learn how to stay. Dunedin almost has the record with longest time at one educational institute and 3rd longest continuous time in one place (only short by one year).

But I want to say thank you to everyone. You have helped me become the person I am. You have given me the courage to take what life throws at me (even when I have given it the ammunition). You guys have been the brothers and sisters that I needed. You have loved me and let me love you.
Muchas gracias
I miss you all and so wish that we didn't live in so many places. But hay If I didn't keep moving around I may have never met you and then where would we be.
love ya