It's Tuesday morning in Hawkes Bay, and I'm still getting used to having lost a day. By crossing the Pacific Ocean, I've ended up in the time zone that's ahead of the rest of the world. I woke up around 7:30am, so looks like I'm already adjusting to the time difference.
These last few weeks leading up to my journey have been pretty insane. I'll try to catch up on everything, but there's a lot to cover.
So march 29th was my last day of work at the Dallas office of Perkins+Will. I was pretty annoyed that the people in my department who had never spoken to me during my 8 months there tried to make a big deal about my last day. Saying goodbye to people who barely even told me hello was pretty irritating. I had wanted to make my last day as unnoticeable as possible, but the two women that worked in HR (who also clearly don't understand what their job entails) had been blabbing about my business to the entire office. Despite their childish gossiping, I still managed to duck out at the end of the day without the second wave of goodbyes that was probably waiting for me. Well anyway, the important part is that this unpleasant chapter was finally closed and I was ready for the next.
That Friday, my boyfriend and his mom flew in to Dallas from Spain and England to spend the week with me and my family...
I guess the biggest news is that...I'm kinda married now. Josh and I performed an Islamic marriage ceremony in my hometown in Oklahoma.
The whole thing is a long story, but the summary is that we don't really consider ourselves married or even engaged at this point. We exchanged promise rings as a gesture that we are now bound by faith and are committed to marrying each other in the near (but not too soon) future. The Islamic marriage also allows us to travel and live together within the guidelines of Islam.
It's definitely caused a lot of confusion amongst family and friends continually asking us "so are you guys like married or engaged now?" and our response being "neither"... But we've embraced the weirdness of it, because it fits with the fact that our relationship has always been unique and the furthest thing from traditional.
And then a week later, I made my trip here to New Zealand! Meeting and spending time with my host family has been wonderful so far. The kids are sooooooo cute. The youngest is two year old Breanna; she's a freaking angel who only misbehaves when she's mimicking her older brother Aiden. He's a funny little dude who's dull of energy and definitely too smart to be a six year old.
It was definitely a smart decision living with a family that has two doctors as parents because holy crow...their house has an amazing view! Maybe that's how most of New Zealand is though...
