It’s game time!

As I start to write this I am currently on the plane overlooking the green surrounds of Paraguay’s capital city Asuncion, my home for the last 3 months. I’m bound for Buenos Aires where I have an overnight 14 hour stopover before embarking on my Ushuaia flight. (The photo below is of my accommodation in Buenos Aries airport – pretty luxurious with my mattress and blue sleeping bag and power outlet for my laptop).

My thoughts, the reason I wanted to write this post is because my blog also acts as a journal for me, a place I document my feelings and thoughts for future reference. This is one of those times that I will look back on. I have just said good bye to Mandy (twice actually as I said good bye, then when I was at immigration having passport troubles – I was hoping the Paraguayans would overlook the fact I had overstayed a couple of days- I realised Mandy’s wallet was in my pocket, so I had to call her to come back and get it)

It’s never easy saying good bye to a loved one, but in saying that it’s seems easier than last time when we were in Vancouver, Canada where we ended up being a part for 10 months! Certain visa problems and myself falling out of a tree and being bed ridden didn’t help that situation. We were also lucky enough that before I left we had one last weekend together in San Bernadino, a weekend spot for Asuncionites one hour out of the city (thanks to everyone that made it possible).

At least this time round, I’m on my mission to try and get to Antarctica, and Mandy is on her mission to learn Portuguese, go to Brazil with her friends and then she is taking exchange students to Colorado which just happens to be where her family is. Then we meet back up in Asuncion when she gets back from Colorado in nearly 4 months.

My feelings at present, I’m actually feeling pretty good. I left my goodbye sadness in the airport, at the departure door. The feelings of loneliness are not there, that space is filled with excitement, well not really excitement, it’s a different feeling, it’s more like the unknown, no I think it’s the feeling of doing something that I have always wanted to do, or doing something that I know I have to do or I will regret it for the rest of my life. Or just that feeling that comes from being on a plane heading to a new place. From my working the world experience I know that the hardest time always comes 1-2 weeks into a chapter when the excitement of a new adventure and new place has worn off and you realise you’re by yourself in a town for the next 3-4 months, or however long I plan to be here, who knows it may not be worth my while. Or maybe you’re on a boat headed for Antarctica, living the dream! They are the odds you play with.

As stupid as it sounds, the words “it’s game time” keep coming into my head, yeah don’t worry I also think it’s cheesy too, but that’s what keeps popping up in the space between my ears (yes “game time” is written in big bold block letters as there is a lot of space to fill!).

But it is game time, as I write this I’m sitting in my airplane seat with my t-shirt I got printed which says “I will do ANYTHING to work in Antarctica” (pictured above), I have my freshly printed hapworkingtheworld business cards (wow, I’m a professional now! or just a dreadlocked vagabond with a business card!) and I have my jacket in my overhead cabin locker that I got printed in Spanish also saying I will do anything to get work in Antarctica.

So yeah, its game time, this is my one shot. Still I am under no illusions, if I’m lucky I have a 5% chance of getting work, that’s probably being optimistic. All week I have been contacting people in Ushuaia about the likely hood of finding Antarctic work or a passage to Antarctica, and all respond the familiar tunes “it will be very very hard”, “there’s not much chance”, “there’s very little possibilities”. I know all this, but all I can do is do everything in my power, so I’m going to hit the ground running, get it sorted quick, get all my feelers out there, keep sending emails and keep waiting for swine flu to come back with vengeance and hit the Antarctic cruise ship industry (I don’t want it to kill anyone, just to make them sick so they get paid sick leave and enough time for to make at least one journey to that illusive continent)! Then I will be in a position as to what I will do.

That’s where my thoughts are at present, I am glad I’m not sad, I’m glad I’m excited, as if I was sad I would be feeling rather lonely right about now and the unknown unfamiliar road is not a friendly road for a sad man .

What lays ahead in the coming chapter, is it Antarctica? Is it working in Ushuaia? Is it an unknown mission? Is it meeting up with Mandy and friends in Brazil for Christmas and New Year? Is it living in a tent freezing my butt off? Is it being adopted by a Penguin family and living the rest of my life thinking I’m a penguin? Who knows, not me, all I know is that I’m going to give it my best shot! Thanks to everybody for the kind words.

Nuthin but love Hap

PS, I have to start making these posts a bit shorter.