Friday, February 15, 2008
I'm living in the 60's
A few things about life here are a bit dated, I could say convience is not their middle name. We line dry our clothes, hand wash all the dishes, bake our own bread (but that's just for fun), we don't have cable television (4 clear channels) and when we bought wood at the hardware store, a guy hand sawed our measurements for us. What year am I living in? But life is slower here, so I don't mind the extra effort. I don't have class assignments or tests to be concerned with in the evenings, I haven't worked more than 24 hours in one week, I know less than a dozen people, and only three people know my phone number. All I can say is I'm adjusting. I miss having things to do, and people to see. We have had a bunch of people over for tea (dinner) in the last few weeks, but they're all couples (consequence of living with newly weds, they rarely know single people.) I joined a bible study and they got started this week, I'm looking forward to it. Let's see, a few people wanted to know what I did for the holidays and what my immediate future plans are. My birthday is on a national holiday here, Waitangi Day, so most of the city had the day off, aka the city closed down. I baked my favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (LNK's mom's recipe) in the kitchen of the hostel Laura George works in. I went to an office picnic celebration with Tim and Christine for the George, and then Laura treated me to dessert that evening (Ultimate Chocolate). Very casual birthday. For Valentine's Day, not a national holiday, I should have worked to keep my mind off Singles Awareness Day, but I wasn't assigned anything, so I watched Christine embark on a very thoughtful and romantic day for Tim. (Hand painted notes to be opened ever half hour while he was working, and a packed picnic in a wicker box for when he got off of work.) I baked heart shaped sugar cookies. When loneliness began to creep up on me, I just went to Laura's hostel to watch television with stangers. Laura and I went out for dinner and found Mexican food and margaritas, what a glorious night. Just being in that second floor restaurant loaded with mexican paraphernalia and photos on the walls, tequila bottles behind the bar, and boxes of mexican beer everywhere made it feel like home. Loneliness subsided. For the next two weeks I will continue working for Select Education, a relief agency for preschools. And in March I'm off to Wellington. Christine's parents are coming from Colorado, so my bedroom is going to be occupied, giving me the opportunity to see the southern tip of the north island. I'm visiting with John Sackett's friend, John Parker for a few days, and then I found an orchard in the same small town as the Parkers and I'm trying to get job their for a couple weeks. I haven't given you my thoughts about working with four year olds, that will be next time. I've also been thinking about other social observations I can give you from New Zealand. All of this next time. Thanks for reading. I love and miss you.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
The Day Breaks Here First
As I write this entry my 22nd birthday will ensue, go ahead, wish me Happy Birthday! 
As I said before I want to tell you what there is to do around here and how I've been keeping myself busy. My first afternoon Christine and I went to Taylor's Mistake, a very small beach, and walked up the hill and to the cliffs turned around, sat on the beach for a bit and watched the waves roll in. That evening I had the apt to myself because Tim and Christine were spending a night at the George, where Tim works. Its the best hotel in Christchurch, with the only five star restaurant in the city. As an employee, the hotel wanted him to experience the service first hand. So I had to find something to do. Of course I walked to the Art Centre, spotted posters for all the movies showing and picked one by the
name of "Priceless." Its a French film starring the actress Audrey Tautou, one of my favorite actresses. It was in a small art theater with about 35-40 seats. Very nice. Outside this theater was the beginning of the Buskers Festival, a one week event of entertainment. Busker is a British English term for street performer. The following week I went to afternoon shows in Victoria Square and Cathedral Square, and two nights I went to evening performances at the Art Centre. Once with Laura George and the other with Christine, Tim and Tim's friend, George. The Buskers include jugglers, contortionists, comedians, musicians, acrobats, plate spinners, etc. All in all they were very fun. I saw fire, laughed hard, got a terrible tan line, marveled 
at the strength of the human body. Christine and I caught a kite festival randomly when we went to New Brighton, a large beach on the other side of town. There were small kites flying by children, massive kites being held 4x4 trucks, and kite flyers. It was so random and so cool. The next weekend we went to Hamner Springs, natural hot springs. We were in a natural hot tub, and they had varying degrees to them, so we just walked about and popped in a new temperature every half hour. I people watched europeans on holiday, I noticed the Italians and the Polish. And there were so many old people, men in speedos, and the women were just big. Hilarious though. This past weekend we went to Dunedin to visit Tim friends, Andrew and Alice. 
We took an afternoon hike and the scenery was beautiful. Later that night we toured the Speight's Brewery. I tried 4 of their blends. The Harvest was delicious, apricot flavor; the Gold Label is the most popular; the Pale Ale was good, I think it was suppose to remind me of Corona; and the the Porter, which was supposed to be a dark dark beer, like Guinuess, was disgusting, 
it tasted burnt, blaaauck. I enjoyed the experience with friends. Dunedin is a really fun college town so the shops in town are for young people, a little better than Christchurch. 
On Sunday we took a walk through town, ate ice cream, and looked around in the shops. A note about ice cream, the Kiwis have a flavor
called Hokey Pokey, its vanilla with butterscotch bits in it, its the most popular flavor here. And that brings me back to the present, I going to bake on my Birthday, go to the beach, have dinner with Tim and Christine and have dessert with Laura George. Next post I'll tell you what I'm doing for work, and what I'm learning. Thanks for reading. Love and miss you.
As I said before I want to tell you what there is to do around here and how I've been keeping myself busy. My first afternoon Christine and I went to Taylor's Mistake, a very small beach, and walked up the hill and to the cliffs turned around, sat on the beach for a bit and watched the waves roll in. That evening I had the apt to myself because Tim and Christine were spending a night at the George, where Tim works. Its the best hotel in Christchurch, with the only five star restaurant in the city. As an employee, the hotel wanted him to experience the service first hand. So I had to find something to do. Of course I walked to the Art Centre, spotted posters for all the movies showing and picked one by the
name of "Priceless." Its a French film starring the actress Audrey Tautou, one of my favorite actresses. It was in a small art theater with about 35-40 seats. Very nice. Outside this theater was the beginning of the Buskers Festival, a one week event of entertainment. Busker is a British English term for street performer. The following week I went to afternoon shows in Victoria Square and Cathedral Square, and two nights I went to evening performances at the Art Centre. Once with Laura George and the other with Christine, Tim and Tim's friend, George. The Buskers include jugglers, contortionists, comedians, musicians, acrobats, plate spinners, etc. All in all they were very fun. I saw fire, laughed hard, got a terrible tan line, marveled 
at the strength of the human body. Christine and I caught a kite festival randomly when we went to New Brighton, a large beach on the other side of town. There were small kites flying by children, massive kites being held 4x4 trucks, and kite flyers. It was so random and so cool. The next weekend we went to Hamner Springs, natural hot springs. We were in a natural hot tub, and they had varying degrees to them, so we just walked about and popped in a new temperature every half hour. I people watched europeans on holiday, I noticed the Italians and the Polish. And there were so many old people, men in speedos, and the women were just big. Hilarious though. This past weekend we went to Dunedin to visit Tim friends, Andrew and Alice. 
We took an afternoon hike and the scenery was beautiful. Later that night we toured the Speight's Brewery. I tried 4 of their blends. The Harvest was delicious, apricot flavor; the Gold Label is the most popular; the Pale Ale was good, I think it was suppose to remind me of Corona; and the the Porter, which was supposed to be a dark dark beer, like Guinuess, was disgusting, 
it tasted burnt, blaaauck. I enjoyed the experience with friends. Dunedin is a really fun college town so the shops in town are for young people, a little better than Christchurch. 
On Sunday we took a walk through town, ate ice cream, and looked around in the shops. A note about ice cream, the Kiwis have a flavor
called Hokey Pokey, its vanilla with butterscotch bits in it, its the most popular flavor here. And that brings me back to the present, I going to bake on my Birthday, go to the beach, have dinner with Tim and Christine and have dessert with Laura George. Next post I'll tell you what I'm doing for work, and what I'm learning. Thanks for reading. Love and miss you.
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