Alright so it's been a month. Time to get summarizing!
By now I feel I've gotten a pretty good understanding of Auckland. The city is small, somewhat lively and the people are extremely friendly. Regretfully I haven't had the time to explore the city as much as I'd like to. I can only do long activities during the weekends, and I use them to try and travel to the outskirts of Auckland to go hiking! In all honesty, I'm actually a little scared at how little time it took me to develop a routine which stops me from experiencing as much out of the city as I can. I go to bed at the same time, I walk to the same places most of the time and I even drink the same Milo & milk snack drink for lunch every day. It's not all routine though. I've started using my lunch breaks to walk around and I've scouted out a few awesome pubs, coffee shops and Auckland University - I'll have to check them out in more detail later! I've also started developing a pretty good relationship with my fellow graduates which is really great. I join them for lunch occasionally and for after work drinks on Friday. Once again, I'm still blown away at how friendly New Zealanders are.
Oh yeah, I went to Sydney for a few days too. It was a bit awkward to see my Aussie friends again so recently after having a farewell party, but it was still fun. The induction, for the most part, didn't teach anybody much, but at the very least it was a great chance to network and catch up with my brother before I headed back to NZ again.
Ok, what about work? I'm proud to say I'm getting better at it. The projects aren't an intimidating swirl of complicated PDF's and CAD drawings anymore and I'm almost good enough to use some of the computer programs completely by myself. I think my work colleague, Nick (the other acoustics Engineer who is half machine, half machine), is to thank for thet though. He is very patient with me and explains concepts to me very well. I've also recently tried to take some initiative by trying to use Google Docs and Sheets in my everyday work to make collaboration on projects easier. It's helped, but it's not a silver bullet solution; there's still no way to get around the inefficiency of printing off a document, signing it, scanning it, then throwing the document away. On the downside my physical health is taking a slight downfall. My fat ass now deflates on my office chair in an attempt to adapt to an 8+ hour sitting day, my foot is still sore/stiff all the time and my back is starting to creak like an old door. I'm getting old! Ahhh!
Strangely I've been fantasizing about becoming a full time entrepreneur and focusing full time on two projects; Virtually Passed and a new company which opens up small flexible work offices around the city. I can't help it, I think about it all the time. I really want to pursue Virtually Passed on my weekends. Aunt Christine and Uncle Ron would make good mentors!
