Mar 17, 2024
I’m at the library next to the cathedral. It’s a very nice library.
This last week was pretty interesting. I kind of made my mind up about my next steps after New Zealand.
I’m planning on leaving at the same time mom leaves. She’s coming in July for about a month. She leaves at the beginning of August. I’m still not sure if I’m going to Australia with her. I would like to. So I’m not certain where I’ll fly out of. But I’ll leave when she leaves.
From there I’d like to stay with dad in Argentina. I think 2 weeks would be my maximum. From there I’ll fly to Canada. The room at El Pueblo won’t be available until early October. Will leaves at the beginning of September and then Dad plans on staying there for about a month.
So I called Mami to ask if I could stay with her for a little while. She was very happy about that idea. So I’m thinking that I might stay with her until Dad leaves El Pueblo. At that point I’ll go into my room.
I don’t know if I’ll stay in Toronto. I think I would like to be either there or in Montreal for Christmas. I think I want to go back to school. I don’t know where, and I don’t know what I’d take. I guess it wouldn’t be until November 2025. That might be a good thing, because I could potentially save as much money as possible. Being in school and working at the same time could be difficult.
So I’ve got roughly 5 months left in New Zealand based on this plan. It sounds like a long time but I’m sure it’ll pass quickly, especially considering I’ve already been here for four months.
I also think the rest of my time in Christchurch will be more interesting based on the second job I’ve started.
I signed up for the support-worker job a few weeks ago. It’s called MyCare. It’s the kind of work that Yoga and Pablo are doing.
Last Wednesday was really interesting. In the morning I had an interview with a 20 year guy with Williamson Syndrome. I talked to him and his mom on Zoom. They both seemed really nice.
The only problem is that the mom was hoping I could drive him around town to cool places and activities. She said that I could perhaps take their car.
I have my licence but I don’t have any experience driving in New Zealand. I don’t think I’d feel comfortable driving a disabled person in someone else’s car in a country where I don’t really know the rules. I have no experience driving on the left side of the road and with using roundabouts.
We’ll see if anything comes from that. I’m meant to meet up with them this coming week.
That same day was the first day of the volunteer guitar playing. I went to the care centre with my guitar, not really knowing what to expect.
There were four people hanging out with me. It was a pretty fun time. I played some covers and some of my own songs.
One of the guys was also playing songs he liked from his phone while I played along on guitar. It was all very informal and laid back. It felt like hanging out with Cary, so it was nice.
The same afternoon I applied to work with another family from MyCare. The job was to go out on Saturdays with a blind couple. They needed someone to accompany them and to explain what I was seeing.
They got back to me right away and we talked on the phone. We arranged to meet up the next day after work.
So all three of those were on the same day! It was so strange.
So I went to their place and chatted for a while. They were both very friendly. It was such a new experience for me. I wasn’t used to seeing two blind people feeling their way around a room with their hands.
The job sounded perfect. They were also new to Christchurch. They were hoping to do all the touristy things and they needed someone to join them. I figured that it was perfect. We had a really nice chat and decided to meet up again on Saturday.
So yesterday was our first outing. It went really well. I met up with them after work. We talked for a long time in their living room. It turns out they’re also into ancient structures and UFO’s, especially the guy.
I was with them for four hours in total, and they pay $30 an hour! So I made $120. They said that normally the days will be 6 hours long. I need to book that day off work so that I can meet up with them in the morning.
It’s cool that my first time doing this kind of work was on March 16. That’s the four year anniversary of when I went on a date with Miranda and when the lockdowns really began in Toronto. It was probably one of the most pivotal days of my life.
I’ve started noticing that interesting things often happen on the 16th of every month. I left Melbourne on the 16th. I also moved into my current place on the 16th.