The Beggining of Something Different

Hello Reader!

Let me start out by saying welcome and thank you for stopping by to read this.

Although chances are I probably forced most of you to come here, for those who have stumbled on this because of following either my facebook or twitter, and those who are here by complete accident, let me tell you a bit about myself and what I plan to write about on this blog (just so you know what you’ll get if you click on subscribe).

So first off, the general stuff; My name as you probably figured out by now is Humphrey, I’m 26 years old and a born and bred Untypical New Zealander. I’m in a long term relationship with an amazing girl named Naoko, who despite being wonderful in many ways (after staying with me for this long some would say she deserves a royal medal) she unfortunately lives thousands of miles away at the moment.

Currently I study a BA at Victoria University of Wellington,  New Zealand, majoring in International Relations / Political Science, Asian Studies, and Japanese language. At the moment it’s a full time course but after this trimester it will only be part time and hopefully I’ll be more free to get part time work in a job that somehow relates to one (or more!) of my chosen subjects while finishing off the language side of my credits.

Although I am a student I’m not really very good at taking it seriously too often. I try hard to do well and make the most of my time when I am there but I am all too easily distracted into not being there. To me it is more important to get a personal education from the world by going out and seeing it. This leads on to what I would class as my third most time consuming activity (behind ‘being generaly lazy’ and ‘studying/going to lectures’) – Traveling!

Luckily for me for virtually all of last year I was able to go on a University exchange to Japan, which was a convenient way of combining what I needed to do (study), with what I love to do (travel). I spent a year living in Shounandai (湘南台), a nice little suburban area just an hour and a half outside of Tokyo. For those who know their Japanese geography a little better, it’s about 30 minutes west of Yokohama (横浜）and 30 minutes north of Kamakura (鎌倉)/ Fujisawashi (藤沢市). Naoko and I shared an apartment with my cousin Lily andwe all shared it with the others who came through to take advantage of our sofa bed (mostly my parents! for that I blame AirNZ and their fabulous discounts!) It was a great time, studying all of my usual subjects but in a completely, life alteringly different, environment. I went to Meiji Gakuin Daigaku (明治学院大学) which is a university that is predominantly taught entirely in Japanese, but that has a 1 year english programme for us foreign exchange students (most of the rest of whom were American). I’m sure I’ll write something more about this experience in detail in the future, so for now if you want to see more just come find me on facebook and check out all my uploaded photos.

In testament to the fact I am easily distracted from University stuff, I am going back to Japan for 5 days at the beggining of May because a) I am that desperate to get back to Japan and stuff myself silly on delicious food. b) In need of new clothes. and c) with those AirNZ deals who can say no? (I wonder if I make mention of this airline over a long enough period of time, wether or not they will give me discounts, or a job).

So what else do I do with my time? I like keeping myself informed about what’s going on in the world, or in NZ, I don’t think I’ve read a real newspaper much lately, but I spend probably at least an hour a day or more reading online newspapers from all over the place. I’ve very recently got interested in this new Twitter thing, which has led me to creating this blog in a round about way. I spend a lot of time just hanging out with friends, either at home, in town over Starbucks beverages, or going out either to watch a movie, or go to a bar. My other ‘hobbies’ include driving,  watching Japanese dramas/movies (日本のドラマと映画を見るが大好き), this blog, cooking, watching TV (Heroes, NCIS, 24, House, Boston Legal, etc etc), practicing my Japanese language… god, when I write it down as a list it all doesn’t seem that entertaining but I’m sure in future posts I’ll show those who keep reading that it IS an interesting life!

What else can I tell you about me…  I currently live at home with my parents, 2 cats, and for now but maybe not much longer, one very old dog. My parents are both working as Architects and work from an office in the basement, which makes for a very busy household, especially when I add in all my friends who come and go from my house like it’s their own. Come Dec/New Year of this year, Naoko (my girlfriend) will move here from Japan, so currently I am spending most of the rest of my free time on organising things in preperation for her arrival (such as having a job, getting her a visa, and all the usual stuff that comes with uprooting ones life to another country completely).

So now that you have made it to the end of this massive first article, do you dare to subscribe and keep reading my ramblings? I can promise they won’t ALL be only about me.

Thanks for reading!

Regards,

Humphrey