The settling in process

So, I've done this a few times before. Arrived in a new place, rushed around to get myself organised, put the pressure on in order to sort my life out as soon as possible, which will then allow me to relax.

I bought a house on the first day of work once.

Don't worry, I haven't done that.

All this is my way of preparing myself to settle a bit... but it requires a fair amount of energy in the meantime. Combined with the mandatory new-country-new-workplace-culture-shock First Thursday Meltdown, it's often not pretty.

So far, it's been smooth. My victories thus far are:
1. Getting on the plane at all. Some of you know why.
2. Knitting a fish.
3. Obtaining a phone number.
4. Realising the day before work that my normally fairly accurate sense of direction was flipped, and therefore I what I thought was North (the way to the office) was in fact South.
5. Finding an ATM that will recognise my card. See this for why this is an issue.
6. Obtaining an apartment. On a three week lease.
7. Realising before muesli-planning purchase that those are not shreds of coconut. They are squid flakes.
8. Toasting rolled oats in a wok.
9. Eating both lunch and dinner with different new people two days running.
10. Obtaining an ID badge with purty blue official logo button. Not needing it because the security guard already recognises me. 
10. Swimming 20 laps. OK, so it's the "condo" pool and it's only about 15m long. But I still swam.
11. Getting internet. I can now talk to you all.

So for now, this is home sweet home. 

And tomorrow is Thursday.