Monday, March 26
Monday's are pretty slow around these parts. We just do the work/research thing and at night nothing is on tele. I've been spending time at night planning the South Island trip.
Tuesday, March 27
Josh went to the Takaro Readers this morning then we met up for some lunch at home. After work, the landlord came over to see if we'd been signing for courier packages because he was waiting on a modem for his computer to be delivered. The courier agency said that they'd delivered two packages and that both were signed for. Wasn't us.
But, since we had the landlord captive...we let him know that the other night (wee hours of Monday morning ) the shower caddy that was stuck with sticky paper to the shower wall had fallen with a crash and broke. No worries...he's going to get us another one. And by the way, the toilet drip, drip, drips too...so he's going to fix that.
Josh and I went for a walk after that (2 laps around Savage Crescent). Daylight Savings Time has definately made it get dark early here....like 7 pm early. I worked more on the SI trip, finding some AWESOME holiday homes to rent.
Wednesday, March 28
Do you ever have one of those days that when you wake up and get going in the morning, you just KNOW stuff is going to go wrong. Well, that was today. Driving into the parking garage this morning, some lady leaving the garage yelled at me about "watching the yellow line."
Then, workwassobusy (words strung together for emphasis on the busy-ness of it all). Tomorrow looks like the same deal. I hate not getting things marked off my TO DO list. It's mental but it bothers me. I've received a lot of compliments on my friendliness and helpfulness...Josh says that's cause they're getting such a highly qualified person for the role. I'm glad to hear that the office is starting the search process for the permanent receptionist though. 18 days for me.
After dinner tonight, Josh and I went to "Yoga on the Square." It's a yoga class that was suppossed to be for beginners but seemed a bit advanced to me. The instructor said I was "soft" not "stiff" so I think that was an insult...and I can't for the life of me get my tailbone and hips in the right alignment. She also told me to keep my eyes open while I was doing stuff because it would help me learn the moves but I think it's more relaxing with your eyes closed. All in all, it was fun though and we have 3 more sessions on the card we purchased. Josh did a good job - the instructor said so.
It was so funny though, as the class was ending, we did some meditating while laying on our backs. It was relaxing until I heard one of the guys in class start to snore!!! Oh my gosh, I was literally biting my tongue so I wouldn't laugh! LOL! It still cracks me up!
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
March 19-25
Monday, March 19
Back to work. Nothing exciting except at home I've been in touch with Jessica, the other Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar from Missouri, regarding the upcoming District Conference in Upper Hutt on March 31. Apparently, there's a Broadway theme so I wanted to check what her plans were.
The four of us: Josh, me, Jessica and her husband Ike decided to go as couples from the Broadway show Chicago. Dressing up for Chicago would be easier and more affordable than other shows.
Tuesday, March 20
More work. This morning I said I wish I could help Josh go make chili with the Takaro kids. Really, I know I could though. I am choosing to work here and honor the commitments I made as far as working goes. I'll have to help out with other things when I'm done with work.
Josh said the chili making went well and that the kids ate the chili. Josh also said he had so many students volunteer to help make the chili. They even volunteered to cut the onions! Josh must have done a good job because the teacher invited him back so that the kids could make him a traditional New Zealand lunch. Then, Josh is going to go back again to make Italian food with the kids (manacotti).
Since Josh was making lunch with the Takaro kids today, I had lunch on my own and did a lot of walking around the downtown shops near my office. There are a couple of thrift stores down here. I found a shop with toy machine guns for $2.99-thought those would be great for the Chicago costumes. I went into the department store named "Farmers" and saw that el cheapo mascara I buy in the United States cost $18 here!!!
As it turned out, we did make it with about 10 minutes to spare before the tour started. We talked to the GSE team members who were taking the tour and Kim and Fleetwood. Kim and Fleetwood's host Rotary club of Pahiatua had arranged this segment of the GSE teams experience in New Zealand.
The brewery tour was pretty standard...Josh and I have now been on several. The machine's weren't in operation, however, the tour guide said to stop by on Fridays if we wanted to see packaging take place. The tour cost $12.50 and included the tour, 3 samples of beer at the end of the tour and a beer glass.
The drive home was so nice with the sunny skies and the sky roof open...we'd never intentionally buy a car with a sunroof, however, I'm starting to be converted to the idea. We're going to have to buy a car when we get back to the states....
Back to work. Nothing exciting except at home I've been in touch with Jessica, the other Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar from Missouri, regarding the upcoming District Conference in Upper Hutt on March 31. Apparently, there's a Broadway theme so I wanted to check what her plans were.
The four of us: Josh, me, Jessica and her husband Ike decided to go as couples from the Broadway show Chicago. Dressing up for Chicago would be easier and more affordable than other shows.
Tuesday, March 20
More work. This morning I said I wish I could help Josh go make chili with the Takaro kids. Really, I know I could though. I am choosing to work here and honor the commitments I made as far as working goes. I'll have to help out with other things when I'm done with work.
Josh said the chili making went well and that the kids ate the chili. Josh also said he had so many students volunteer to help make the chili. They even volunteered to cut the onions! Josh must have done a good job because the teacher invited him back so that the kids could make him a traditional New Zealand lunch. Then, Josh is going to go back again to make Italian food with the kids (manacotti).
Since Josh was making lunch with the Takaro kids today, I had lunch on my own and did a lot of walking around the downtown shops near my office. There are a couple of thrift stores down here. I found a shop with toy machine guns for $2.99-thought those would be great for the Chicago costumes. I went into the department store named "Farmers" and saw that el cheapo mascara I buy in the United States cost $18 here!!!A guy at work, Kevin, said that a play called "The Tutor" was showing for donations tonight. Josh and I decided to check it out. Tickets are normally $35 but we paid $10 total. It was such a great show! There were only 3 actors who did a fantastic job. The show was really a social commentary on the educational system of New Zealand...it was a really neat insight into things although we didn't get all the jokes. Josh and I agreed it was just nice to get out and take advantage of things going on in the community too.
Later that night, Josh sent an email request to David, Bernice, Lindsay and Jill about things we'd like to borrow for the year: vacuum, tent, bikes, sleeping bags, electric blanket, air mattress, "chillie bin" which is a cooler, electric jug. We figured we should ask the Takaro Rotary club if they have any of these items before buying them.
Wednesday, March 21
This was my first morning to have to park in the parking deck downtown as the other two days this week Josh drove me to work in the morning. The system worked easy enough: swipe the parking card, gate goes up, find a place to park. Do that in reverse when you want to leave.
Only thing is, it's about 3 blocks or a 7 minute walk. Not too bad, I just need to budget time in the morning when I have to drive myself.
Working. I spent my lunch break going to the thrift shop to try on the white dress with fringe that I thought looked like what Roxy and Velma wore at the end of the Chicago movie. That dress wasn't very flattering so I tried on a short babydoll style black dress that has sequins on the bust and straps...it was perfectly Chicago.
I bought the dress and hurried home for a 10 minute lunch with Josh. Josh was super nice and drove me back to work so I didn't have to walk from the parking deck to the office.
Later that night, Josh sent an email request to David, Bernice, Lindsay and Jill about things we'd like to borrow for the year: vacuum, tent, bikes, sleeping bags, electric blanket, air mattress, "chillie bin" which is a cooler, electric jug. We figured we should ask the Takaro Rotary club if they have any of these items before buying them.
Wednesday, March 21
This was my first morning to have to park in the parking deck downtown as the other two days this week Josh drove me to work in the morning. The system worked easy enough: swipe the parking card, gate goes up, find a place to park. Do that in reverse when you want to leave.
Only thing is, it's about 3 blocks or a 7 minute walk. Not too bad, I just need to budget time in the morning when I have to drive myself.
Working. I spent my lunch break going to the thrift shop to try on the white dress with fringe that I thought looked like what Roxy and Velma wore at the end of the Chicago movie. That dress wasn't very flattering so I tried on a short babydoll style black dress that has sequins on the bust and straps...it was perfectly Chicago.
I bought the dress and hurried home for a 10 minute lunch with Josh. Josh was super nice and drove me back to work so I didn't have to walk from the parking deck to the office.
After work (Wednesday's are my late nights ending at 5:30) Josh and I went to the Warehouse to see if they had black thigh high stockings for my Chicago outfit. They didn't. They didn't have a Chicago style hat for Josh either. We went to the Plaza but should have realized that they closed at 6:00. It is ridiculous to me that the "mall" closes at 5:30-6:00 on a weekday!
Well, Josh and I went to get some KFC take away after the shopping let down. This time when I was eating the mash potatoes, they didn't taste so different...I must be getting used to the New Zealand taste of things!
Thursday, March 22
Working. After work, Josh and I were getting picked up by David and Bernice to go to the Rotary dinner tonight at the RSA (Returning Servicemen's Association). The Group Study Exchange (GSE) team from New York state spoke about the Hudson River Valley where they're from. The team was led by a retired guy named George and the rest of the group consisted of 4 women.
The presentation was ok, however, it lacked energy. This is understandable though because when you go on a GSE tour with Rotary your days are very full and then you have to give presentations. It's not like being an Ambassadorial Scholar where you're in one place for a year and you arrange speaking engagements as it is convenient for you. So, we tried to be understanding.
On a high note, we met some visiting Rotarians who live in Ashburton (south of Christchurch on the South Island). We are going to try to present to their club during our South Island trip and they invited us to stay at their house while we're in town. AWESOME!
Around 10:00 that night, I checked the voice messages on the cell phone to hear that one of the people from UCOL had called around 8 that night. She said she had left me a message last week and to give her a call back in the morning. I thought this was interesting because I literally received 3 emails about how I had been rejected for the International Student Co-ordinator position at UCOL.
Friday, March 23
This morning, I called the lady at UCOL before going into work. I left her a message. Then, she left me a message saying she would be out of the office from 11-2 (so I could not call her over lunch). She said I could call her at home over the weekend though (which I wouldn't really want to do).
More work. I got to take the long tea break after the morning meeting today since the other secretary who doesn't take tea was in the office. It was such a nice sunny day. Most of the staff went to have a tea, coffee and muffin. We sat outside under an umbrella at a cafe across the street from one of UCOL's main buildings. Since UCOL is an urban campus, their buildings are scattered all around this part of downtown.
On my way to the parking deck at lunch, I stopped in to buy the machine guns I'd seen earlier in the week. I also bought a long black wig that I thought I could cut to look like Velma Kelly's hair in Chicago. After I bought the stuff and was walking to the parking deck, I ran into Angela from Palmerston North Personnel. I told her everything was going well with the job.
On my afternoon tea break, I called the UCOL lady back and she offered me some part time work helping college students with their assignments (probably with the English aspect of it?) it wasn't really clear...but at $21/hour and setting my own part time hours I told her to go ahead and send the contract. I won't have to start until we return from the South Island at the beginning of June. And she said if I found something else or wasn't interested when I got back, no big deal. AWESOME!
Thursday, March 22
Working. After work, Josh and I were getting picked up by David and Bernice to go to the Rotary dinner tonight at the RSA (Returning Servicemen's Association). The Group Study Exchange (GSE) team from New York state spoke about the Hudson River Valley where they're from. The team was led by a retired guy named George and the rest of the group consisted of 4 women.
The presentation was ok, however, it lacked energy. This is understandable though because when you go on a GSE tour with Rotary your days are very full and then you have to give presentations. It's not like being an Ambassadorial Scholar where you're in one place for a year and you arrange speaking engagements as it is convenient for you. So, we tried to be understanding.
On a high note, we met some visiting Rotarians who live in Ashburton (south of Christchurch on the South Island). We are going to try to present to their club during our South Island trip and they invited us to stay at their house while we're in town. AWESOME!
Around 10:00 that night, I checked the voice messages on the cell phone to hear that one of the people from UCOL had called around 8 that night. She said she had left me a message last week and to give her a call back in the morning. I thought this was interesting because I literally received 3 emails about how I had been rejected for the International Student Co-ordinator position at UCOL.
Friday, March 23
This morning, I called the lady at UCOL before going into work. I left her a message. Then, she left me a message saying she would be out of the office from 11-2 (so I could not call her over lunch). She said I could call her at home over the weekend though (which I wouldn't really want to do).
More work. I got to take the long tea break after the morning meeting today since the other secretary who doesn't take tea was in the office. It was such a nice sunny day. Most of the staff went to have a tea, coffee and muffin. We sat outside under an umbrella at a cafe across the street from one of UCOL's main buildings. Since UCOL is an urban campus, their buildings are scattered all around this part of downtown.
On my way to the parking deck at lunch, I stopped in to buy the machine guns I'd seen earlier in the week. I also bought a long black wig that I thought I could cut to look like Velma Kelly's hair in Chicago. After I bought the stuff and was walking to the parking deck, I ran into Angela from Palmerston North Personnel. I told her everything was going well with the job.
On my afternoon tea break, I called the UCOL lady back and she offered me some part time work helping college students with their assignments (probably with the English aspect of it?) it wasn't really clear...but at $21/hour and setting my own part time hours I told her to go ahead and send the contract. I won't have to start until we return from the South Island at the beginning of June. And she said if I found something else or wasn't interested when I got back, no big deal. AWESOME!
This afternoon at work, Christine (one of my co-workers) told me that I've received a lot of compliments on being friendly. Even Andrew, the CEO, had commented on how I seemed happy and that it was no problem to get him and his visitors water the other day (when doing so made me feel ill). I thought that was so funny because it just goes to show that you never can tell what someone's true perception of an event is.
After work, Josh and I went to Kmart for black thigh highs for my Chicago outfit and the Countdown grocery store. Amazingly, Diet Coke was on sale again for $1.69 NZD rather than the usual $2. We bought 8 bottles of the 2.25 litre drinks. We hung out and watched American Idol.
Saturday, March 24
I spent this morning on the hunt for Josh's Chicago style hat and a briefcase. I parked the car at the Plaza parking lot and first went to Toy World to see if they had any costume-y hats. Well, they did (one even said Al Capon on a ribbon around the hat) but the cost was too high at $19.00.
Next, I walked several blocks over to the thrift shops on King Street (the one's right near to where I work). Along the way, I saw a banner hanging across Broadway Street that there was a vintage sale going on at one of the Methodist churches down the road. I made a mental note then kept going to the thrift stores.
They didn't have any suitable hats or briefcases though. I walked past a bridal/tux shop and asked how much it would cost to rent (they say "hire") a hat. It cost $30!!! No way. I started making my way towards the Methodist church. I figured I could walk there just as fast as having to go back to the Plaza to get the car and drive back.
Well, it was a long walk but I made it. Oh my gosh, the whole of Palmerston North had to be in that church though shopping around. The first two rooms were old linens and things, then I hit the jackpot. I could see in the distance a mannequin decked out in the ultimate flapper wear. She even had a feather headband thing on. I asked if any of the clothes on the mannequin were for sale but they weren't.
I could have bought some gloves, a hat, a purse as something extra to go along with my costume but I think I'm pretty set. A couple of times, I headed to the door to leave the church because there were so many people inside but I just couldn't leave for some reason.
Good thing too. Because I found Josh's hat sitting in a trunk full of other hats that hadn't been there earlier and also I found him a briefcase stashed underneath one of the tables. The hat was $8 and the briefcase was $3. Even better, the hat and briefcase matched each other.
Onto standing in line where they had an odd system of adding up your items and then placing them in a bag before you went to another table to pay. Well, I didn't need someone to add up my two items and I didn't need a bag, so I went straight to the EFTPOS table to pay (EFTPOS is the debit card system here). It was so good that they had EFTPOS because I'd left my cash in the car.
Well, my taking a risk of not following the rules of getting my items added up and bagged worked out so I managed to save some time in that regard. I walked back into town stopping along the way at some $2 stores to see how much eye make up cost (uh it was $2).
I stopped into the Pak N Save for a few groceries including 8 more bottles of Diet Coke on sale. No joke: in New Zealand you've got to stock up on an item if it goes on sale because the prices here fluctuate so much!
After work, Josh and I went to Kmart for black thigh highs for my Chicago outfit and the Countdown grocery store. Amazingly, Diet Coke was on sale again for $1.69 NZD rather than the usual $2. We bought 8 bottles of the 2.25 litre drinks. We hung out and watched American Idol.
Saturday, March 24
I spent this morning on the hunt for Josh's Chicago style hat and a briefcase. I parked the car at the Plaza parking lot and first went to Toy World to see if they had any costume-y hats. Well, they did (one even said Al Capon on a ribbon around the hat) but the cost was too high at $19.00.
Next, I walked several blocks over to the thrift shops on King Street (the one's right near to where I work). Along the way, I saw a banner hanging across Broadway Street that there was a vintage sale going on at one of the Methodist churches down the road. I made a mental note then kept going to the thrift stores.
They didn't have any suitable hats or briefcases though. I walked past a bridal/tux shop and asked how much it would cost to rent (they say "hire") a hat. It cost $30!!! No way. I started making my way towards the Methodist church. I figured I could walk there just as fast as having to go back to the Plaza to get the car and drive back.
Well, it was a long walk but I made it. Oh my gosh, the whole of Palmerston North had to be in that church though shopping around. The first two rooms were old linens and things, then I hit the jackpot. I could see in the distance a mannequin decked out in the ultimate flapper wear. She even had a feather headband thing on. I asked if any of the clothes on the mannequin were for sale but they weren't.
I could have bought some gloves, a hat, a purse as something extra to go along with my costume but I think I'm pretty set. A couple of times, I headed to the door to leave the church because there were so many people inside but I just couldn't leave for some reason.
Good thing too. Because I found Josh's hat sitting in a trunk full of other hats that hadn't been there earlier and also I found him a briefcase stashed underneath one of the tables. The hat was $8 and the briefcase was $3. Even better, the hat and briefcase matched each other.
Onto standing in line where they had an odd system of adding up your items and then placing them in a bag before you went to another table to pay. Well, I didn't need someone to add up my two items and I didn't need a bag, so I went straight to the EFTPOS table to pay (EFTPOS is the debit card system here). It was so good that they had EFTPOS because I'd left my cash in the car.
Well, my taking a risk of not following the rules of getting my items added up and bagged worked out so I managed to save some time in that regard. I walked back into town stopping along the way at some $2 stores to see how much eye make up cost (uh it was $2).
I stopped into the Pak N Save for a few groceries including 8 more bottles of Diet Coke on sale. No joke: in New Zealand you've got to stock up on an item if it goes on sale because the prices here fluctuate so much!
Next, I went home to have a quick lunch with Josh before we left home a little after 1 pm to make the 2 pm Tui Brewery tour. Josh was afraid we weren't going to make it in time and I had to remind him it was no big deal if we didn't make it.
As it turned out, we did make it with about 10 minutes to spare before the tour started. We talked to the GSE team members who were taking the tour and Kim and Fleetwood. Kim and Fleetwood's host Rotary club of Pahiatua had arranged this segment of the GSE teams experience in New Zealand.
The brewery tour was pretty standard...Josh and I have now been on several. The machine's weren't in operation, however, the tour guide said to stop by on Fridays if we wanted to see packaging take place. The tour cost $12.50 and included the tour, 3 samples of beer at the end of the tour and a beer glass.They didn't skimp on the beer here! Sample sized in the US means just that. These were New Zealand size "samples"...full on pints! So, Josh and I had 3 of those...but we also had a voucher for 3 additional free samples. The GSE team and Kim and Fleetwood were scheduled to take a walking tour of the Manawatu Gorge so they left and Josh and I stayed to hang out in the "beer garden" which was really just a small grassy area with a few picnic tables...still, it was really nice and peaceful and the weather was so great and sunny. We took our shoes off and hung out.
Well, Josh and I shut down the Tui Brewery...but in fairness it did close at 5:00 pm! (See, everything closes early in New Zealand)! Josh used his other voucher for 10% of merchandise to buy a Tui Brewery t-shirt as we left.
We headed home after sitting outside the brewery for awhile. Sitting out there kind of reminded me of the time we lived in Arkadelphia and we got pizza to go and ate it sitting on the hood of the car at a dead end road in the middle of nowhere. 
The drive home was so nice with the sunny skies and the sky roof open...we'd never intentionally buy a car with a sunroof, however, I'm starting to be converted to the idea. We're going to have to buy a car when we get back to the states....Sunday, March 25
Himitangi today. After Josh and I woke up around 11, we went to Himatangi Beach from 12:30-2:45. We're taking advantage of the good weather before it's gone for good. We're supposed to have sunny weather all this week so that's good.
Himitangi today. After Josh and I woke up around 11, we went to Himatangi Beach from 12:30-2:45. We're taking advantage of the good weather before it's gone for good. We're supposed to have sunny weather all this week so that's good.
Otherwise, we spent today going back to the Pak N Save for more groceries (I didn't buy a lot yesterday) and catching up on the blog. More work tomorrow...but I'm down to 21 days! I totally need to get the South Island trip planned too!
Oh yeah, we got an email tonight saying that a Rotarian is going to let us borrow their daughter's vacuum cleaner while she's away in England.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
March 13-18
Tuesday, March 13
My first real day on the job as a receptionist at Vision Manawatu started at 8:30. It's an economic development agency for the Manawatu (not a tourism agency as it was billed to me). They provide free services like business training courses to improve and increase business in the Manawatu region. Here's what I do: answer phones, make some photocopies, create some informational folders. Easy enough.
I was able to park at the rear of the building which is awesome since it's so close to the office. Originally thought I might have to pay for meter parking on the street which would have added up quickly.
The girl whose place I'm taking, Kate, showed me how to do a few things but primarily focused on training one of the secretaries who already works there. Kate wears sneakers, black pants, and a fleece jacket everyday....apparently, I'm overdressed as the receptionist but it's what I like to wear. A group went out for tea/coffee at a cafe down the road at 10:00.
Not much to say about the position. It's a job for which I'm "over qualified" (which is how Janine, the lady who hired me, introduced me around the office...asking if people had read my CV). Being "over qualified" doesn't prevent you from making mistakes, however, as I arranged an appointment for a walk-in visitor with one of the staff for a time the staff member was unavailable. Oh well, it got worked out.
Angela with Palmerston North Personnel called at the end of the day to see how I was getting on in the job. I told her I liked it. Josh has asked me if the job is fun and if I like it and I say, no, not really. But, I don't like being at home with nothing to do either. And at least the people are nice and I'm making some travel money.
Wednesday, March 14
Today, I learned how to sort the mail....a new task! I spent part of the day filing which was also a new task. A younger group of us went out for morning tea today. Somehow, it turned to talk about America (nothing heated) but one of the girls, Hannah, said, "Oh, let's talk about something else like...religion and Christianity." Funny...but I didn't think we were going down any controversial paths by talking about America.
Later in the afternoon, Kate showed me how to set up the meeting rooms for training sessions that are held there. I didn't realize I'd be doing some catering type duties like making coffee (never done that before), setting out "biscuits," organizing different glasses (juice, water, coffee/tea, wine) on a table, getting alcohol set up.
When Kate looked in the mini fridge and there were at least 6 bottles of wine and some beers she said, "That's not enough alcohol." I found that humorous. We got some more drinks to chill (glad I'm not anti-drinking of I wouldn't be able to perform my job duties). I was scheduled to stay until 5:30 that night to meet with the real catering company who would be bringing the dinner to the company. Remember, everything is free to people who take these training courses...the class, the dinner, and the drinks.
Thursday, March 15
I came in at 9 this morning after having stayed "late" the night before. Found it funny that I has this flexibility in this job whereas in other positions where you're salaried, like Admissions, you're lucky if you only worked 30 minutes late and still came in at the usual time in the morning.
At lunch, Josh called the Tui brewery to schedule a tour for this Saturday.
Didn't go out for coffee this morning. Same thing with work: phones, copies, etc. I told Angela at Palmerston North Personnel that I was taking off from April 27-May 27. That means six more weeks of working unless they cut me loose first. Then, big South Island trip.
Josh and I attended the Rotary club meeting tonight. The meeting was on Deaf Communication~last year was the first year that NZ sign languge was recognized as an official language in New Zealand. It was interesting and dinner was really good! It was rice with a beef stew sauce. The Verdict cafe has done really well with catering.
Friday, March 16
Cara, the other secretary, is gone for the day. Hope I can manage.
Staff meeting. I'm supposed to take minutes but I can't understand these people's accents (a problem I have on the phone sometimes too). Fortunately, I was bailed out of the minute taking this week, however, next Friday I'm sure it will be inevitable (wish me luck).
Everyone went out for coffee after the meeting, however, as the receptionist with Cara gone, I had to stay behind and man the phones/watch the empty office. The shoe is definitely on the other foot here folks as in the past I've been the one who gets to go out for coffee/lunches. A humbling experience perhaps, but no one likes to feel this way.
Low point of the day for me: the CEO had an appointment with someone in the office and he asked for me to bring the two of them a glass of water in his office. I've never been a waitress in my life...I know this is what receptionists do sometimes, however, I literally felt sick to my stomach for 30 minutes after getting these guys water. Is that weird? I just didn't like the feeling of doing that.
I will no longer have my primo parking space at the back of the building now that Kate is leaving. She has a spot in the parking garage about 5 minutes walk away. Great to still have free parking but apparently I've been spoiled with the good parking this first week.
It turned out to be a quiet afternoon in the office and I figured out what all that crazy stage stuff set up in the Rose Gardens was all about. Hannah, the data entry gal, is also a student/actress. She is performing in a modern interpretation of Hamlet that occurs in the Rose Garden during good weather and the Hokowhitu Auditorium. The show is running this weekend so Josh and I may go since it only costs about $1 each to attend.
At home on Friday night we watched American Idol and I looked at flights to Nelson on the South Island. Josh's parents called to say they will be visiting Australia for a week and then coming to New Zealand for a week in August. Awesome!
Saturday, March 17
St. Patrick's Day. When I woke up this morning, I checked the Air New Zealand website to see if there were any deals I'd be interested in. Imagine my surprise when I saw the exact tickets I was looking at the night before (Palmerston North to Nelson on April 29) had dropped from $89 NZD/person to $49 NZD/person.
Josh was still in bed but I ran in the other room to tell him I was going to book those tickets because it was such a good deal. I ran and got my wallet...you have to be quick with these fares because they go fast. Example: there were only 7 PN - Nelson flights left at $49. Quickly, I booked the tickets so Josh and I are set to go to Nelson on the upper South Island at the end of April...AWESOME.
Josh and I had planned to visit the Tui brewery today, however, after clarifying things with Fleetwood (RAS Mississippi) his club is going with the visiting Group Study Exchange (GSE) from New York State next weekend. We changed our reservation to coincide with that tour.
Later in the day, Josh and I took a walk to feed the ducks at the duck pond in the Esplanade. When we came home, we picked a restaurant out of the phonebook and ordered "take away." We picked Bangkok Thai not knowing what to expect. We went and picked up the food from the restaurant which is directly across the street from Rosie O'Grady's Irish Pub, which, as you can imagine, was swelling with people.
We had heaps of food and made it back to the house right at 7:00 to watch the girls perform on American Idol. They are so much better than the boys! The Thai food was soooo good. I had a sweet and sour chicken (which was more like BBQ) and Josh had a curry beef thing. Add on some rice, spring rolls, and "curry puffs" and we were set. It was $29.50 NZD for all that food so not a bad deal.
We realized after dinner we didn't have any dessert in the house, however, we didn't want to drive back to town with all the St. Patrick's drinkers out....Rosie O'Grady's is also right next to the Pak N Save. So, we just watched a couple of Angel's before going to bed.
Sunday, March 18
Rainy, rainy day (again). Josh and I may watch Hannah's performance in the "Ode to Hamlet" show tonight. No other plans except for trying to plan out the South Island itinerary.
My first real day on the job as a receptionist at Vision Manawatu started at 8:30. It's an economic development agency for the Manawatu (not a tourism agency as it was billed to me). They provide free services like business training courses to improve and increase business in the Manawatu region. Here's what I do: answer phones, make some photocopies, create some informational folders. Easy enough.
I was able to park at the rear of the building which is awesome since it's so close to the office. Originally thought I might have to pay for meter parking on the street which would have added up quickly.
The girl whose place I'm taking, Kate, showed me how to do a few things but primarily focused on training one of the secretaries who already works there. Kate wears sneakers, black pants, and a fleece jacket everyday....apparently, I'm overdressed as the receptionist but it's what I like to wear. A group went out for tea/coffee at a cafe down the road at 10:00.
Not much to say about the position. It's a job for which I'm "over qualified" (which is how Janine, the lady who hired me, introduced me around the office...asking if people had read my CV). Being "over qualified" doesn't prevent you from making mistakes, however, as I arranged an appointment for a walk-in visitor with one of the staff for a time the staff member was unavailable. Oh well, it got worked out.
Angela with Palmerston North Personnel called at the end of the day to see how I was getting on in the job. I told her I liked it. Josh has asked me if the job is fun and if I like it and I say, no, not really. But, I don't like being at home with nothing to do either. And at least the people are nice and I'm making some travel money.
Wednesday, March 14
Today, I learned how to sort the mail....a new task! I spent part of the day filing which was also a new task. A younger group of us went out for morning tea today. Somehow, it turned to talk about America (nothing heated) but one of the girls, Hannah, said, "Oh, let's talk about something else like...religion and Christianity." Funny...but I didn't think we were going down any controversial paths by talking about America.
Later in the afternoon, Kate showed me how to set up the meeting rooms for training sessions that are held there. I didn't realize I'd be doing some catering type duties like making coffee (never done that before), setting out "biscuits," organizing different glasses (juice, water, coffee/tea, wine) on a table, getting alcohol set up.
When Kate looked in the mini fridge and there were at least 6 bottles of wine and some beers she said, "That's not enough alcohol." I found that humorous. We got some more drinks to chill (glad I'm not anti-drinking of I wouldn't be able to perform my job duties). I was scheduled to stay until 5:30 that night to meet with the real catering company who would be bringing the dinner to the company. Remember, everything is free to people who take these training courses...the class, the dinner, and the drinks.
Thursday, March 15
I came in at 9 this morning after having stayed "late" the night before. Found it funny that I has this flexibility in this job whereas in other positions where you're salaried, like Admissions, you're lucky if you only worked 30 minutes late and still came in at the usual time in the morning.
At lunch, Josh called the Tui brewery to schedule a tour for this Saturday.
Didn't go out for coffee this morning. Same thing with work: phones, copies, etc. I told Angela at Palmerston North Personnel that I was taking off from April 27-May 27. That means six more weeks of working unless they cut me loose first. Then, big South Island trip.
Josh and I attended the Rotary club meeting tonight. The meeting was on Deaf Communication~last year was the first year that NZ sign languge was recognized as an official language in New Zealand. It was interesting and dinner was really good! It was rice with a beef stew sauce. The Verdict cafe has done really well with catering.
Friday, March 16
Cara, the other secretary, is gone for the day. Hope I can manage.
Staff meeting. I'm supposed to take minutes but I can't understand these people's accents (a problem I have on the phone sometimes too). Fortunately, I was bailed out of the minute taking this week, however, next Friday I'm sure it will be inevitable (wish me luck).
Everyone went out for coffee after the meeting, however, as the receptionist with Cara gone, I had to stay behind and man the phones/watch the empty office. The shoe is definitely on the other foot here folks as in the past I've been the one who gets to go out for coffee/lunches. A humbling experience perhaps, but no one likes to feel this way.
Low point of the day for me: the CEO had an appointment with someone in the office and he asked for me to bring the two of them a glass of water in his office. I've never been a waitress in my life...I know this is what receptionists do sometimes, however, I literally felt sick to my stomach for 30 minutes after getting these guys water. Is that weird? I just didn't like the feeling of doing that.
I will no longer have my primo parking space at the back of the building now that Kate is leaving. She has a spot in the parking garage about 5 minutes walk away. Great to still have free parking but apparently I've been spoiled with the good parking this first week.
It turned out to be a quiet afternoon in the office and I figured out what all that crazy stage stuff set up in the Rose Gardens was all about. Hannah, the data entry gal, is also a student/actress. She is performing in a modern interpretation of Hamlet that occurs in the Rose Garden during good weather and the Hokowhitu Auditorium. The show is running this weekend so Josh and I may go since it only costs about $1 each to attend.
At home on Friday night we watched American Idol and I looked at flights to Nelson on the South Island. Josh's parents called to say they will be visiting Australia for a week and then coming to New Zealand for a week in August. Awesome!
Saturday, March 17
St. Patrick's Day. When I woke up this morning, I checked the Air New Zealand website to see if there were any deals I'd be interested in. Imagine my surprise when I saw the exact tickets I was looking at the night before (Palmerston North to Nelson on April 29) had dropped from $89 NZD/person to $49 NZD/person.
Josh was still in bed but I ran in the other room to tell him I was going to book those tickets because it was such a good deal. I ran and got my wallet...you have to be quick with these fares because they go fast. Example: there were only 7 PN - Nelson flights left at $49. Quickly, I booked the tickets so Josh and I are set to go to Nelson on the upper South Island at the end of April...AWESOME.
Josh and I had planned to visit the Tui brewery today, however, after clarifying things with Fleetwood (RAS Mississippi) his club is going with the visiting Group Study Exchange (GSE) from New York State next weekend. We changed our reservation to coincide with that tour.
Later in the day, Josh and I took a walk to feed the ducks at the duck pond in the Esplanade. When we came home, we picked a restaurant out of the phonebook and ordered "take away." We picked Bangkok Thai not knowing what to expect. We went and picked up the food from the restaurant which is directly across the street from Rosie O'Grady's Irish Pub, which, as you can imagine, was swelling with people.
We had heaps of food and made it back to the house right at 7:00 to watch the girls perform on American Idol. They are so much better than the boys! The Thai food was soooo good. I had a sweet and sour chicken (which was more like BBQ) and Josh had a curry beef thing. Add on some rice, spring rolls, and "curry puffs" and we were set. It was $29.50 NZD for all that food so not a bad deal.
We realized after dinner we didn't have any dessert in the house, however, we didn't want to drive back to town with all the St. Patrick's drinkers out....Rosie O'Grady's is also right next to the Pak N Save. So, we just watched a couple of Angel's before going to bed.
Sunday, March 18
Rainy, rainy day (again). Josh and I may watch Hannah's performance in the "Ode to Hamlet" show tonight. No other plans except for trying to plan out the South Island itinerary.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
March 2-12
Friday, March 2
Today's main event for me was going into Palmerston North Personnel (PNP) at 10:30 to watch a workplace safety video and take a test over its contents. Boring. I made like 93% on the test, however, the test didn't go over the question(s) that you missed so what's the point in trying to learn this material? Anyway, you only had to make a 70% to pass, so I was "good as gold" as they frequently say in New Zealand.
Saturday, March 3
Josh and I went to the Golden Shears competition in Masterton-this is THE sheep shearing competition in the WORLD. I'd read about this competition in our New Zealand book. Just like the Kapa Haka Festival, we were up to check out a quintessential New Zealand event. We weren't up and ready until 11:30 and when we called to check on ticket availability
, the man on the phone told Josh he'd better hurry if he wanted to get tickets for the afternoon show that began at 12:50. On our way to Masterton, we passed by the Tui Brewery in the town of Mangatainoka. We plan to take a tour sometime. 
Well, we didn't arrive in Masterton until about 1:10 or so (but we did make it into town faster than the predicted 1.5 hour trip). We drove through the Manawatu Gorge again i.e. terrifying experience. We took this route because we could not figure out the other way out of Palmerston North to get to Masterton.
Once in Masterton, we stopped to buy gas and ask directions to the event. As it turned out, we were only about a block away from the arena where the competition was being held. We found a spot to park at then walked to the arena to buy tickets. It was about $15NZD/person for a three hour session. We could have purchased additional tickets for the finals, however, we didn't know if we were going to like the event so we didn't want to commit ourselves to watching the finals too.
Well, the event was different than I thought it was going to be in the sense that it was a lot cleaner. Every event took place on a stage and Josh and I were able to grab seats up close to the show. We watched several different competitions: some were junior sheep shearing, some were senior (not actually senior citizens) sheep shearing, another was a Pakeha (white) and Maori team sheep shearing competition, and a wool pressing competition. The sheep were bigger than anything I've ever seen on the side of the road...Josh said he'd heard they were bred for the competition. It was a great cultural experience.
Something Josh and I have experienced in the two events we've attended in New Zealand is that there is not a rule (at least at the places we've been to) banning you from bringing in your own food and drink into an event. As an example, we were able to bring our own snacks into the Kapa Haka Festival and at the Golden Shears (which was located right next to the New World grocery store) people were bringing in snacks that they had just purchased...like Popsicles! It's not that they don't have a snack bar at these events either, it's just that they're more open to the idea of people bringing in their own food. This is a plus in our book!
That said, however, Josh and I did purchase a corn dog, "chips" (fries) and a diet coke from the snack bar. The chips were good but the corn dog was nasty...I'm afraid it might have been sheep! It was really gross.
Josh and I were able to watch history in the making at this Golden Shears event. During one of the finals, it was 5 males against 1 female. We were actually seated behind the guy "Angus" who came in first place so it was neat to watch his family/friends get all excited. However, the girl finished fifth overall for speed.
But it's not all about speed when shearing the sheep. It's mostly about the QUALITY of shearing that you do. So, when the awards were handed out, Angus took first place with $1200 NZD...but the girl got 2nd overall...which I guess had never been done before. Pretty cool.
Josh and I decided not to stay for the finals...there's only so much sheep shearing you can take when your not in that business...so we headed home determined to take the other way back to Palmerston North...the one that doesn't go through the Manawatu Gorge. We stopped in the town of Eketahuna to take Josh's picture with the giant kiwi bird. 
When it came time to exit the main road so as to avoid going through the gorge area, we thought we'd made the right decision. It wasn't insanely curvy like the gorge....AT FIRST! Then, out of nowhere come up and down tight turns as you make your way up and over the mountains. We had thought this road was going to be faster than the gorge road, however, it definitely wasn't. Both roads are curvy but the gorge road is flat through the mountain not up and down over the mountain.
Sunday, March 4
Nothing of note except that I went to the Warehouse Stationary store to buy a printer. Amazingly, I got a scanner/photocopier/printer 3-in-1 for $59 NZD. Poor customer service in the store until I paid and the check out guy carried the printer to the car for me. That was nice. Well, you get what you pay for and while the printer prints (more than we had before) it is pretty low quality. Oh well, it will serve its purpose. I made some copies of my resume in case I needed them the following day for my UCOL interview.
Monday, March 5
I interviewed with UCOL today about the International Student Support Co-Ordinator part-time position. I interviewed while sitting at a round table...uh oh I thought...round table interviews have never boded well for me (this refers to a time I interviewed for a job at the Rogers Sophomore Campus when I was trying to leave Admissions...I will never forget those 3 women and me sitting around a round table-them not smiling once-and one of the ladies having her leg propped up on another chair because it was in a cast)!
I had arrived to the campus early and once I had answered all their questions they were like, "That was fast." In defence on my part, I don't "uh" or "um" to waste time and I was able to answer the questions without taking time to think for an answer-which is either a good thing and/or shows that I can think fast on my feet from working in Admissions.
Called Angela at Palmerston North Personnel about taking the Massey 2 month temp job...great, she'd forward my CV...1 hour later while walking around the Countdown grocery store, I got a call back from Angela saying that the Massey people said I wasn't qualified. People! Give me a break...I CAN CUT AND PASTE and TYPE!
Later that night, Josh and I had a picnic dinner in the Esplanade rose garden. We had garlic bread, olives, chocolate and Tui beer. There were people setting up to make a movie or something in the garden and they were wearing really crazy aluminum foil like costumes.
Tuesday, March 6
Josh went to Takaro Readers...I woke up late. When Josh came home, he told me that one of the Takaro teachers asked him to come speak to her class that morning. Josh said he taught the kids the Hog Call. The teacher has invited him back to make "Texas-size" hamburgers. She was really enthusiastic and told Josh to provide her with a list of ingredients and she'd work it all out.
I worked on journaling, mailed a thank you card to UCOL, and went to Pak N Save for diet coke. While we were out in town, I got a phone call from Palmerston North Personnel (PNP)about a temp job as a school secretary at a "busy" school coming up this Thursday and Friday. First, I was like, yeah, they're just going to reject my CV when they see it, but I told Angela to give it a shot. She said she'd call me around 9 am the next morning.
Wednesday, March 7
Angela called around 10 am and said that the school had accepted me (ok, I'm in). I made an appointment to meet with Angela at 3:30 to discuss the details of the job. I've been up to PNP so many times I could drive there with my eyes closed...well almost.
So, I go and have a sit down with Angela who says almost straight away, "I know you'll be on your bestest behavior." Uh, yeah...I'm a professional. Should I feel insulted by this patronizing attitude?
So, I get the scoop on the place I'm going to be working, Awatapu College. This is the school that Pauline, the French Rotary Youth student, attends. Pauline's on holiday with her family now though. Info. in hand, I'm out the door to enjoy one last night as unemployed...until Monday anyway because this is just a two day gig. The pay is 13.50 NZD/hour. A big improvement over the $10.38 NZD/hour I got for working the inventory job.
Josh and I took a walk around Savage Crescent before sitting down to watch "Bert's Family Feud" and having some dinner. I got my outfit ready for the next day. Then later that night, EARTHQUAKE!!!
About 8:05 pm, I was sitting in the guest bedroom at the computer and Josh was at the dining room table at the computer. I heard this rumbling sound (like Josh's mom's washing machine as it finishes the wash, which is ironic because that always reminded me on an earthquake before) just as I asked, "What is that noise?" we felt a jolt ....AN EARTHQUAKE! While it didn't last more than 5-7 seconds...and was over by the time Josh and I got into the bedroom doorways...I was shaken up (pun intended). Physically shaking and crying...I don't live in an earthquake region back home for a reason!! Josh took it all in stride, however, and hoped that the next one would be "cooler." It was small, however, so we wonder if it really was a quake! Confirmed: http://www.geonet.org.nz/latest.html (click Recent Quakes link) we had a 4.6 magnitude earthquake!!!
I had a hard time going to sleep that night because I was afraid there was going to be another earthquake. Too, my sleep schedule for an 8-5 job was off as well.
Thursday, March 8
I was up and ready to go by 7 minutes till 8 am or so. Remember, it was a 2 minute drive down to Awatapu College. I came in to the school office and was immediately put to work filing in a little cubby hole-in-the-wall. Okay, I can handle this. Had morning tea around 10:30 or so. I love the concept of complimentary tea or coffee and cookies. This is a great tradition!
Angela called after morning tea to see how I was getting on in the position. No problems. I'd answer the phones when needed then go back to filing. Lunch from 12:30 to 1:30...I went home and found a package waiting on the doorstep. It was the package that Aimee and Elizabeth had given me at Hog Haus filled with goodies that they were going to mail to me once I was in New Zealand. It took about 2 weeks to get here~and I was totally excited. My first package and filled with travel themed books! Back to filing...afternoon tea around 3 and at 4, Deborah, my immediate supervisor, upgraded me to working on the computer-SCORE! Data entry until work ended at 5.
As work ended, Elizabeth, the head boss, came in to say that Angela at PNP had sent her my CV in regards to a teaching assistant position available at Awatapu College. Elizabeth had then forwarded my CV to the appropriate teacher. Great! I'm in!
Okay, I just have to get through the secretary gig one more day. My feet/legs hurt really bad at the end of the day because I'd been standing up for 6+ hours. Can my body handle this?
Josh and I took some of the personality tests that were in one of the books that Aimee and Elizabeth sent. One quiz illuminated that I am very competitive and ambitious while Josh was more laid back (no news flash there)!
Friday, March 9
8:00 and back to the filing. At least for an hour until Deborah put me on the computer to do more data entry. Well, at least my feet wouldn't hurt, however, my arms and wrists were killing me (complainer much...but it did hurt)!
Angela called to offer me a temp position with a company called Vision Manawatu. She billed it as a tourism company but after looking it up they are really more a economic development organization for the Manawatu. Anyway, good learning experience and the job is for a minimum of one month at $14-$15 NZD. Only thing is I have to pass up on the Massey interview Tuesday because I'm told the position starts on Monday. I take the offer and tell Angela to forward my CV (I won't cancel the Massey interview until something is solid on this Vision Manawatu gig as I've been burned before).
I went home for lunch and I said good bye to Josh since he would be leaving for Wellington before I made it home in the evening. Josh was going to the Inbound RAS Orientation and he was going down there with David, Bernice, and Anand.
Made it through the end of the work day and noted to self that it is hard to be a temp because you don't belong to the team. You're just there to do a job. I don't like that feeling. When I came back to the empty house, I noticed that there were two more dining room chairs at the table. David and Bernice had brought them over when they picked up Josh.
Saturday, March 10
I spent the majority of the day reading my Paris book, "Paris in Mind," sent to me courtesy of Aimee and Elizabeth. Even if you don't buy/read the entire book, you should still check out page 11, the last two paragraphs (maybe at Barnes and Noble) where Edith Wharton describes how she found out about the end of WWI. I dare you not to cry it is so good!
It was a hot and sunny day so I spent some time on the back porch reading until I felt like my uncovered feet were getting sunburned. For whatever reason, the interior of the house always stays cool (cool enough to wear jeans and an Old Navy fleece jacket in summer without AC).
That night, I watched a DVD my dad and Yadi had given me at Red Lobster before we moved (Love Comes Softly). The writing left something to be desired, however, as it is a Hallmark movie, I cried, as Yadi had warned me I would. I made microwave popcorn to watch with my movie. Popcorn in New Zealand is obscenely expensive at $4.30 NZD for 3 packs! But, it tasted like a little bit of home.
Sunday, March 11
Still home alone, I read more of my Paris book, went into town to scope out the local of Vision Manawatu (will I have to pay for parking?), and went to the Woolworth and Pak N Save. I'm about to give up on the Woolworth though. Twice now, I've gone there expecting lower prices on a certain item as advertised in a flier, only to get to the store and it's more expensive. WASTE OF TIME!
Josh came home from Wellington around 7:30. He is sick with a cold. Don't give me the germs! He had an okay time but said the Kansas City outbound orientation was better in his opinion. In two weeks time, Josh and I will spend the weekend at the District Conference in Upper Hutt (just north of Wellington). I'll get to meet some of the scholars that Josh spent time with this weekend. I'm excited to finally meet Jessica and Ike who we've emailed for almost a year now. Josh met them over the weekend and said they are fun people.
Monday, March 12
I thought I was going to be working today at Vision Manawatu. As it turned out, when I called Angela around 8:10 this morning, I found out today was just going to be a "mini interview" to check out that I was okay for the receptionist position. Actually, I was very happy with how that turned out because I like having an extra day off. When I told her I'd gone by the Vision Manawatu site the day before to make sure I knew where it was located she said, "Good Girl!" These comments make me feel like a child.
Before heading to my 9:00 appointment with Vision Manawatu, I dropped off my timesheet for working at Awatapu College at PNP. Then, I went to VM. The two people I met with were really friendly and they talked about how they're a team and once a week everyone goes out together for morning tea/coffee. It all sounded great (especially since I missed that feeling in the last job). I just hope I am considered part of the team and not as an outsider!
I got the gig and sent an email to decline the interview with Massey tomorrow. The job is mainly as a receptionist type person with a minimum contract of 1 month. However, it could go longer and I'm like, can someone give me something more definite because I want to book a three week trip to the South Island starting at the end of April. I'll be making $14 NZD/hour and working 7.5 hours a day, 8:30-5. I get a spot in the "car park" (parking lot) rather than having to shell out cash for the meter spots. Fingers crossed and positive thoughts about this job.
When I came home, Josh and I went to the Pak N Save to buy more hamburger meat because the practice burgers he had made at home before making them with the Takaro kids were not Texas size but rather petit gourmet burgers in a garlic and onion sauce. After Josh made his practice burgers I asked him why he didn't make them Texas size but he didn't know. So, now he has to try again!
Today's main event for me was going into Palmerston North Personnel (PNP) at 10:30 to watch a workplace safety video and take a test over its contents. Boring. I made like 93% on the test, however, the test didn't go over the question(s) that you missed so what's the point in trying to learn this material? Anyway, you only had to make a 70% to pass, so I was "good as gold" as they frequently say in New Zealand.
Saturday, March 3
Josh and I went to the Golden Shears competition in Masterton-this is THE sheep shearing competition in the WORLD. I'd read about this competition in our New Zealand book. Just like the Kapa Haka Festival, we were up to check out a quintessential New Zealand event. We weren't up and ready until 11:30 and when we called to check on ticket availability
, the man on the phone told Josh he'd better hurry if he wanted to get tickets for the afternoon show that began at 12:50. On our way to Masterton, we passed by the Tui Brewery in the town of Mangatainoka. We plan to take a tour sometime. 
Well, we didn't arrive in Masterton until about 1:10 or so (but we did make it into town faster than the predicted 1.5 hour trip). We drove through the Manawatu Gorge again i.e. terrifying experience. We took this route because we could not figure out the other way out of Palmerston North to get to Masterton.
Once in Masterton, we stopped to buy gas and ask directions to the event. As it turned out, we were only about a block away from the arena where the competition was being held. We found a spot to park at then walked to the arena to buy tickets. It was about $15NZD/person for a three hour session. We could have purchased additional tickets for the finals, however, we didn't know if we were going to like the event so we didn't want to commit ourselves to watching the finals too.
Well, the event was different than I thought it was going to be in the sense that it was a lot cleaner. Every event took place on a stage and Josh and I were able to grab seats up close to the show. We watched several different competitions: some were junior sheep shearing, some were senior (not actually senior citizens) sheep shearing, another was a Pakeha (white) and Maori team sheep shearing competition, and a wool pressing competition. The sheep were bigger than anything I've ever seen on the side of the road...Josh said he'd heard they were bred for the competition. It was a great cultural experience.
Something Josh and I have experienced in the two events we've attended in New Zealand is that there is not a rule (at least at the places we've been to) banning you from bringing in your own food and drink into an event. As an example, we were able to bring our own snacks into the Kapa Haka Festival and at the Golden Shears (which was located right next to the New World grocery store) people were bringing in snacks that they had just purchased...like Popsicles! It's not that they don't have a snack bar at these events either, it's just that they're more open to the idea of people bringing in their own food. This is a plus in our book!
That said, however, Josh and I did purchase a corn dog, "chips" (fries) and a diet coke from the snack bar. The chips were good but the corn dog was nasty...I'm afraid it might have been sheep! It was really gross.
Josh and I were able to watch history in the making at this Golden Shears event. During one of the finals, it was 5 males against 1 female. We were actually seated behind the guy "Angus" who came in first place so it was neat to watch his family/friends get all excited. However, the girl finished fifth overall for speed.
But it's not all about speed when shearing the sheep. It's mostly about the QUALITY of shearing that you do. So, when the awards were handed out, Angus took first place with $1200 NZD...but the girl got 2nd overall...which I guess had never been done before. Pretty cool.
Josh and I decided not to stay for the finals...there's only so much sheep shearing you can take when your not in that business...so we headed home determined to take the other way back to Palmerston North...the one that doesn't go through the Manawatu Gorge. We stopped in the town of Eketahuna to take Josh's picture with the giant kiwi bird. 
When it came time to exit the main road so as to avoid going through the gorge area, we thought we'd made the right decision. It wasn't insanely curvy like the gorge....AT FIRST! Then, out of nowhere come up and down tight turns as you make your way up and over the mountains. We had thought this road was going to be faster than the gorge road, however, it definitely wasn't. Both roads are curvy but the gorge road is flat through the mountain not up and down over the mountain.
Sunday, March 4
Nothing of note except that I went to the Warehouse Stationary store to buy a printer. Amazingly, I got a scanner/photocopier/printer 3-in-1 for $59 NZD. Poor customer service in the store until I paid and the check out guy carried the printer to the car for me. That was nice. Well, you get what you pay for and while the printer prints (more than we had before) it is pretty low quality. Oh well, it will serve its purpose. I made some copies of my resume in case I needed them the following day for my UCOL interview.
Monday, March 5
I interviewed with UCOL today about the International Student Support Co-Ordinator part-time position. I interviewed while sitting at a round table...uh oh I thought...round table interviews have never boded well for me (this refers to a time I interviewed for a job at the Rogers Sophomore Campus when I was trying to leave Admissions...I will never forget those 3 women and me sitting around a round table-them not smiling once-and one of the ladies having her leg propped up on another chair because it was in a cast)!
I had arrived to the campus early and once I had answered all their questions they were like, "That was fast." In defence on my part, I don't "uh" or "um" to waste time and I was able to answer the questions without taking time to think for an answer-which is either a good thing and/or shows that I can think fast on my feet from working in Admissions.
Called Angela at Palmerston North Personnel about taking the Massey 2 month temp job...great, she'd forward my CV...1 hour later while walking around the Countdown grocery store, I got a call back from Angela saying that the Massey people said I wasn't qualified. People! Give me a break...I CAN CUT AND PASTE and TYPE!
Later that night, Josh and I had a picnic dinner in the Esplanade rose garden. We had garlic bread, olives, chocolate and Tui beer. There were people setting up to make a movie or something in the garden and they were wearing really crazy aluminum foil like costumes.
Tuesday, March 6Josh went to Takaro Readers...I woke up late. When Josh came home, he told me that one of the Takaro teachers asked him to come speak to her class that morning. Josh said he taught the kids the Hog Call. The teacher has invited him back to make "Texas-size" hamburgers. She was really enthusiastic and told Josh to provide her with a list of ingredients and she'd work it all out.
I worked on journaling, mailed a thank you card to UCOL, and went to Pak N Save for diet coke. While we were out in town, I got a phone call from Palmerston North Personnel (PNP)about a temp job as a school secretary at a "busy" school coming up this Thursday and Friday. First, I was like, yeah, they're just going to reject my CV when they see it, but I told Angela to give it a shot. She said she'd call me around 9 am the next morning.
Wednesday, March 7
Angela called around 10 am and said that the school had accepted me (ok, I'm in). I made an appointment to meet with Angela at 3:30 to discuss the details of the job. I've been up to PNP so many times I could drive there with my eyes closed...well almost.
So, I go and have a sit down with Angela who says almost straight away, "I know you'll be on your bestest behavior." Uh, yeah...I'm a professional. Should I feel insulted by this patronizing attitude?
So, I get the scoop on the place I'm going to be working, Awatapu College. This is the school that Pauline, the French Rotary Youth student, attends. Pauline's on holiday with her family now though. Info. in hand, I'm out the door to enjoy one last night as unemployed...until Monday anyway because this is just a two day gig. The pay is 13.50 NZD/hour. A big improvement over the $10.38 NZD/hour I got for working the inventory job.
Josh and I took a walk around Savage Crescent before sitting down to watch "Bert's Family Feud" and having some dinner. I got my outfit ready for the next day. Then later that night, EARTHQUAKE!!!
About 8:05 pm, I was sitting in the guest bedroom at the computer and Josh was at the dining room table at the computer. I heard this rumbling sound (like Josh's mom's washing machine as it finishes the wash, which is ironic because that always reminded me on an earthquake before) just as I asked, "What is that noise?" we felt a jolt ....AN EARTHQUAKE! While it didn't last more than 5-7 seconds...and was over by the time Josh and I got into the bedroom doorways...I was shaken up (pun intended). Physically shaking and crying...I don't live in an earthquake region back home for a reason!! Josh took it all in stride, however, and hoped that the next one would be "cooler." It was small, however, so we wonder if it really was a quake! Confirmed: http://www.geonet.org.nz/latest.html (click Recent Quakes link) we had a 4.6 magnitude earthquake!!!
I had a hard time going to sleep that night because I was afraid there was going to be another earthquake. Too, my sleep schedule for an 8-5 job was off as well.
Thursday, March 8
I was up and ready to go by 7 minutes till 8 am or so. Remember, it was a 2 minute drive down to Awatapu College. I came in to the school office and was immediately put to work filing in a little cubby hole-in-the-wall. Okay, I can handle this. Had morning tea around 10:30 or so. I love the concept of complimentary tea or coffee and cookies. This is a great tradition!
Angela called after morning tea to see how I was getting on in the position. No problems. I'd answer the phones when needed then go back to filing. Lunch from 12:30 to 1:30...I went home and found a package waiting on the doorstep. It was the package that Aimee and Elizabeth had given me at Hog Haus filled with goodies that they were going to mail to me once I was in New Zealand. It took about 2 weeks to get here~and I was totally excited. My first package and filled with travel themed books! Back to filing...afternoon tea around 3 and at 4, Deborah, my immediate supervisor, upgraded me to working on the computer-SCORE! Data entry until work ended at 5.
As work ended, Elizabeth, the head boss, came in to say that Angela at PNP had sent her my CV in regards to a teaching assistant position available at Awatapu College. Elizabeth had then forwarded my CV to the appropriate teacher. Great! I'm in!
Okay, I just have to get through the secretary gig one more day. My feet/legs hurt really bad at the end of the day because I'd been standing up for 6+ hours. Can my body handle this?
Josh and I took some of the personality tests that were in one of the books that Aimee and Elizabeth sent. One quiz illuminated that I am very competitive and ambitious while Josh was more laid back (no news flash there)!
Friday, March 98:00 and back to the filing. At least for an hour until Deborah put me on the computer to do more data entry. Well, at least my feet wouldn't hurt, however, my arms and wrists were killing me (complainer much...but it did hurt)!
Angela called to offer me a temp position with a company called Vision Manawatu. She billed it as a tourism company but after looking it up they are really more a economic development organization for the Manawatu. Anyway, good learning experience and the job is for a minimum of one month at $14-$15 NZD. Only thing is I have to pass up on the Massey interview Tuesday because I'm told the position starts on Monday. I take the offer and tell Angela to forward my CV (I won't cancel the Massey interview until something is solid on this Vision Manawatu gig as I've been burned before).
I went home for lunch and I said good bye to Josh since he would be leaving for Wellington before I made it home in the evening. Josh was going to the Inbound RAS Orientation and he was going down there with David, Bernice, and Anand.
Made it through the end of the work day and noted to self that it is hard to be a temp because you don't belong to the team. You're just there to do a job. I don't like that feeling. When I came back to the empty house, I noticed that there were two more dining room chairs at the table. David and Bernice had brought them over when they picked up Josh.
Saturday, March 10
I spent the majority of the day reading my Paris book, "Paris in Mind," sent to me courtesy of Aimee and Elizabeth. Even if you don't buy/read the entire book, you should still check out page 11, the last two paragraphs (maybe at Barnes and Noble) where Edith Wharton describes how she found out about the end of WWI. I dare you not to cry it is so good!
It was a hot and sunny day so I spent some time on the back porch reading until I felt like my uncovered feet were getting sunburned. For whatever reason, the interior of the house always stays cool (cool enough to wear jeans and an Old Navy fleece jacket in summer without AC).
That night, I watched a DVD my dad and Yadi had given me at Red Lobster before we moved (Love Comes Softly). The writing left something to be desired, however, as it is a Hallmark movie, I cried, as Yadi had warned me I would. I made microwave popcorn to watch with my movie. Popcorn in New Zealand is obscenely expensive at $4.30 NZD for 3 packs! But, it tasted like a little bit of home.
Sunday, March 11
Still home alone, I read more of my Paris book, went into town to scope out the local of Vision Manawatu (will I have to pay for parking?), and went to the Woolworth and Pak N Save. I'm about to give up on the Woolworth though. Twice now, I've gone there expecting lower prices on a certain item as advertised in a flier, only to get to the store and it's more expensive. WASTE OF TIME!
Josh came home from Wellington around 7:30. He is sick with a cold. Don't give me the germs! He had an okay time but said the Kansas City outbound orientation was better in his opinion. In two weeks time, Josh and I will spend the weekend at the District Conference in Upper Hutt (just north of Wellington). I'll get to meet some of the scholars that Josh spent time with this weekend. I'm excited to finally meet Jessica and Ike who we've emailed for almost a year now. Josh met them over the weekend and said they are fun people.
Monday, March 12
I thought I was going to be working today at Vision Manawatu. As it turned out, when I called Angela around 8:10 this morning, I found out today was just going to be a "mini interview" to check out that I was okay for the receptionist position. Actually, I was very happy with how that turned out because I like having an extra day off. When I told her I'd gone by the Vision Manawatu site the day before to make sure I knew where it was located she said, "Good Girl!" These comments make me feel like a child.
Before heading to my 9:00 appointment with Vision Manawatu, I dropped off my timesheet for working at Awatapu College at PNP. Then, I went to VM. The two people I met with were really friendly and they talked about how they're a team and once a week everyone goes out together for morning tea/coffee. It all sounded great (especially since I missed that feeling in the last job). I just hope I am considered part of the team and not as an outsider!
I got the gig and sent an email to decline the interview with Massey tomorrow. The job is mainly as a receptionist type person with a minimum contract of 1 month. However, it could go longer and I'm like, can someone give me something more definite because I want to book a three week trip to the South Island starting at the end of April. I'll be making $14 NZD/hour and working 7.5 hours a day, 8:30-5. I get a spot in the "car park" (parking lot) rather than having to shell out cash for the meter spots. Fingers crossed and positive thoughts about this job.
When I came home, Josh and I went to the Pak N Save to buy more hamburger meat because the practice burgers he had made at home before making them with the Takaro kids were not Texas size but rather petit gourmet burgers in a garlic and onion sauce. After Josh made his practice burgers I asked him why he didn't make them Texas size but he didn't know. So, now he has to try again!
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Feb 28-Mar 1
Wednesday, February 28
I was scheduled to meet with Palmerston North Personnel from 9:30-11:30 am. Josh was going into Massey at 9. I had my suit all ready but didn't manage to practice my typing one last time before we had to leave. I though it funny that the previous day I went to work in jean shorts and a tank top and today I was in a business suit! Variety is the spice of life!
We dropped Josh off at the campus and then I headed up town to find the agency. Not so easy and I drove up and down Princess Street a few times...this is why I always scope out a place ahead of time. Parking was a nightmare as the first place I parked wasn't legit (after confirming with the PNP secretary...office is located on the second floor). Moved the car to a meter spot and, miracle of miracles, Josh had left coins in the car.
Back upstairs and it was time for the long awaited and much dreaded Microsoft Office tests! Turns out, they were easy enough...the learning of Pivot Tables and further advanced things in Excel that I had been studying wasn't needed so much. For confidence building, the first Excel question was essentially opening up Excel from an icon on the computer screen. Woo Hoo!~I think I got one right. Seriously though, I prayed hard before opening each of the individual tests.
I felt confident enough after the tests which, by the way, were taken on a 1980s computer. Seriously, New Zealand has been left behind in the technology age! The secretary then put me another room to wait to talk to Cushla, the Temporary Work Manager. Well, I needed to pee since arrival but a bathroom hadn't been offered so...I was going to burst. I managed to keep myself together, Cushla came in and we chatted about what I could do work-wise.
This is the best kind of interview. No stress because they want to help you find a job...they're not judging you to see if you're good enough for them! Cushla showed me my test results...85% on Word, 70% on Excel and 60 wpm typing. There was also a numbers test with the ten key thing...but I've never used that before and I don't really care about that! I told my mom that I wouldn't normally be happy with scores like that on a test but this time I was HAPPY! Heck, I didn't fail Excel! Sweet!
My main point to Cushla was that I'd like to work at a university like Massey, IPC, or UCOL. She asked what I'd like to do when I returned to the states and I said work with international students or do study abroad stuff. Also, why was I looking for work. I told her working gave me a sense of self worth and a purpose in life. She asked how I'd heard about PNP and I told her that Tracey, the secretary in Josh's Massey office, referred me...she seemed to know Tracey and was happy about that.
At the end of the meeting, Cushla arranged for me to come back this Friday at 10:30 to watch a work safety video. I went back home and waited for Josh to call so I could pick him up from Massey.
Later that day, the phone rang and, surprisingly, it was for me. UCOL's Human Resources office wanted to arrange an interview with me for a part-time position as International Student Support Co-ordinator. Awesome! I'm set to interview Monday, March 5 at 10 am. This position was advertised online with the phrase "incumbent applying" so I'm not overly optimistic about my chances, however, I'm a firm believer that any opportunity to interview is good for your professional development skills.
More Scattergories playing tonight.
Thursday, March 1
Josh and I took it easy today (minus the my-having-to-get-up-early-to-take-the-trash-out-because-Josh-is-too-lazy-to-help bit). Around 2pm, Palmerston North Personnel's Angela (works with Cushla for temp positions) called to offer me a six week job at Massey University as a Word Processor...basically, typing all day. Fine enough, but I told her that UCOL called yesterday afternoon and I wanted to interview for that first and that I'd get back with her on Monday after that interview. The UCOL job is more along the lines of what I want to do professionally so it makes sense to try for that first.
Then, it was time to meet up with Anand, Fleetwood, and Kim. Like I said, Anand is from India and F&K are from Jackson, Mississippi. Josh and I pretty much picked a place out of the phone book when we emailed them about meeting up. It's called Barista's Espresso Bar on George Street. George Street is cool.
Josh and I arrived about 15 minutes early. Pay parking here too! More coins! Sitting in the cafe, we waited for them to show up. Once they arrived, we hung out for about 2 hours...minimal awkwardness for meeting up with complete strangers. Anand gave Josh and I some small gifts from India so that was really nice. We mentioned that we'd like to speak at their sponsoring Rotary clubs soon.
I was scheduled to meet with Palmerston North Personnel from 9:30-11:30 am. Josh was going into Massey at 9. I had my suit all ready but didn't manage to practice my typing one last time before we had to leave. I though it funny that the previous day I went to work in jean shorts and a tank top and today I was in a business suit! Variety is the spice of life!
We dropped Josh off at the campus and then I headed up town to find the agency. Not so easy and I drove up and down Princess Street a few times...this is why I always scope out a place ahead of time. Parking was a nightmare as the first place I parked wasn't legit (after confirming with the PNP secretary...office is located on the second floor). Moved the car to a meter spot and, miracle of miracles, Josh had left coins in the car.
Back upstairs and it was time for the long awaited and much dreaded Microsoft Office tests! Turns out, they were easy enough...the learning of Pivot Tables and further advanced things in Excel that I had been studying wasn't needed so much. For confidence building, the first Excel question was essentially opening up Excel from an icon on the computer screen. Woo Hoo!~I think I got one right. Seriously though, I prayed hard before opening each of the individual tests.
I felt confident enough after the tests which, by the way, were taken on a 1980s computer. Seriously, New Zealand has been left behind in the technology age! The secretary then put me another room to wait to talk to Cushla, the Temporary Work Manager. Well, I needed to pee since arrival but a bathroom hadn't been offered so...I was going to burst. I managed to keep myself together, Cushla came in and we chatted about what I could do work-wise.
This is the best kind of interview. No stress because they want to help you find a job...they're not judging you to see if you're good enough for them! Cushla showed me my test results...85% on Word, 70% on Excel and 60 wpm typing. There was also a numbers test with the ten key thing...but I've never used that before and I don't really care about that! I told my mom that I wouldn't normally be happy with scores like that on a test but this time I was HAPPY! Heck, I didn't fail Excel! Sweet!
My main point to Cushla was that I'd like to work at a university like Massey, IPC, or UCOL. She asked what I'd like to do when I returned to the states and I said work with international students or do study abroad stuff. Also, why was I looking for work. I told her working gave me a sense of self worth and a purpose in life. She asked how I'd heard about PNP and I told her that Tracey, the secretary in Josh's Massey office, referred me...she seemed to know Tracey and was happy about that.
At the end of the meeting, Cushla arranged for me to come back this Friday at 10:30 to watch a work safety video. I went back home and waited for Josh to call so I could pick him up from Massey.
Later that day, the phone rang and, surprisingly, it was for me. UCOL's Human Resources office wanted to arrange an interview with me for a part-time position as International Student Support Co-ordinator. Awesome! I'm set to interview Monday, March 5 at 10 am. This position was advertised online with the phrase "incumbent applying" so I'm not overly optimistic about my chances, however, I'm a firm believer that any opportunity to interview is good for your professional development skills.
More Scattergories playing tonight.
Thursday, March 1
Josh and I took it easy today (minus the my-having-to-get-up-early-to-take-the-trash-out-because-Josh-is-too-lazy-to-help bit). Around 2pm, Palmerston North Personnel's Angela (works with Cushla for temp positions) called to offer me a six week job at Massey University as a Word Processor...basically, typing all day. Fine enough, but I told her that UCOL called yesterday afternoon and I wanted to interview for that first and that I'd get back with her on Monday after that interview. The UCOL job is more along the lines of what I want to do professionally so it makes sense to try for that first.
Then, it was time to meet up with Anand, Fleetwood, and Kim. Like I said, Anand is from India and F&K are from Jackson, Mississippi. Josh and I pretty much picked a place out of the phone book when we emailed them about meeting up. It's called Barista's Espresso Bar on George Street. George Street is cool. 
Josh and I arrived about 15 minutes early. Pay parking here too! More coins! Sitting in the cafe, we waited for them to show up. Once they arrived, we hung out for about 2 hours...minimal awkwardness for meeting up with complete strangers. Anand gave Josh and I some small gifts from India so that was really nice. We mentioned that we'd like to speak at their sponsoring Rotary clubs soon.
Back home to type up the blog. Josh and I are considering attending the Hurricane vs. Stormers rugby game in town this weekend.
Feb 25-26
Saturday, February 25
Today Josh and I planned to watch the Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival. Kapa Haka is a series of traditional Maori songs and dances. More info at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapa_haka This event only happens every two years and it just happened to be in Palmerston North this year. This event sees different Maori tribes compete against each other for the national title. Basically, IT ROCKS!
The slogan for this year's competiton was, "200 years ago, the loser didn't go home." I think they used to kill the losers of these competitions! Josh and I caught the last 6 performances of the semi-finals and then returned the following day for the finals.
It cost $100 NZD total for the two of us to watch the event over two days. We considered it a good deal because we figured you might spend about that much to watch one or two perforances at a touristy type show with dinner somewhere. Here, we could watch various performances over two days. These were the best performers in the country since they had to pass regional competitions to make it here.
We thought the Kapa Haka was pretty cool. Especially when the men did the Haka part where they beat/slap on their chests/thighs, contorted their faces, stuck out their tongues, and yelled (sometimes with spears). This was the best part to us. Sure, some of the choir singing parts were neat...but the hostile parts were AWESOME...except you never knew what they were saying in Maori...and it could have been "Kill the White man." White people (European decent) are called Pakeha here. Basically, Maori means "ordinary or usual" and Pakeha means "different." Josh and I were definitely in the minority at the Kapa Haka Festival.
Sunday, February 25
Josh and I went to the finals of the Kapa Haka Festival. I was tired during/after the show so I went to bed early...like 7:00 pm early.
Monday, February 26
This morning, Josh called President Lindsey to see about getting a ride to the Takaro Readers program the following morning since I'd be taking the car to Home Direct early on. Josh got it situated to get a ride to Takaro School and then I'd pick him up at noon after my job at Home Direct and his volunteer work were over.
I was scheduled to start the temporary job at Home Direct at 5 pm today. I spent the afternoon trying to learn more Excel stuff so I didn't totally embarrass myself on Wednesday morning at Palmerston North Personnel. I left the house around 4:35 pm and drove out to the Home Direct warehouse which was on the north side of town (Josh and I drove out to find it the other day). Basically, it is an industrial area and the building itself has bars on the windows...not exactly a confidence builder for Josh or myself...but Josh still let me drive out there myself.
I made it on time and saw other people in the parking lot and as it turned out, they were there to work the job too. We met with the supervisor, a younger guy named Brit, and we waited for the rest of the workers to show up. When they hadn't, he had the four of us start. About 10 minutes into pulling pieces of metal clothing racks out of the back of a mini-van, the two other girls showed up.
So, as I was saying, the first task was to pull metal pieces out of the van and put them into organized piles on the floor. Next, we used the pieces to construct clothes racks (about 38 of them). Then, we got a quick lesson on how to use a hand held scanner.
There were three metal sheds along the wall in the warehouse. Each shed had a number on it that corrosponded to a Home Direct truck number. There was green tape on the floor to designate the area you should stay in for your shed. We broke up into three teams with two people on each team to unload the shed onto the metal clothes racks and onto a tarp on the floor for items like shoes, toys, pillows, and blankets.
Items emptied out of the shed, we scanned each item's barcode into our scanners. Then, we waited for the Home Direct trucks to arrive. During this break, we had tea (again, provided compliments of the company). I stood outside with three other workers and compared America to New Zealand. The two girls who showed up late (they were friends) stayed inside to talk.
The trucks were running late so we had about an hour break (nice). When the trucks did show up, we had to unload them...and they were full of stuff...toys, shampoo, pillows, clothes, shoes, etc. After emptying the trucks we scanned all the stuff....then it was time to go home. The two girls who were friends wouldn't be returning the following morning because they had class. Brit told us that we would have a busy morning the following day because the trucks had arrived late that night (great).
Driving home this night, it struck me: driving in New Zealand is just like driving at home. I feel totally comfortable driving here now. No big deal! When I got home, Josh had a glass of Diet Coke waiting for me. I hadn't called him to ask for it, he had just read my mind!!! Off to sleep (after 3 rounds of Scatergories).
Tuesday, February 27
Work started at 7 am so that meant waking up at 6. My life philosophy: waking up while it still dark outside is WRONG! But, I told myself it was only one day.
I got to work early, headed in, and Brit and other people were there (not the same people as the day before). Turns out, these were other Home Direct employees. Soon enough, the other three people I'd worked with yesterday arrived. More scanning, more hand counting to validate the scanned numbers. I think I impressed Brit with my counting accuracy when others couldn't perform that simple function accurately (yeah for me!).
Brit pulled me aside to count different orders that were in a closet and hand write the order numbers in a ledger...I thought he was going to offer me a chance to come back for future work...not so much. But, I still felt like I got a more "important" task (regardless if that is true or not).
Wrapping up the work, Amy (one of the girls I was working with at Home Direct) asked if we'd all like to have coffee after the assignment...sure, I'm all about making some friends here. We finished by loading up the trucks and we were done by 10:30...1/2 hour ahead of schedule so we got to go home-but then nobody wanted to go have coffee-whatever!
The other temp workers and I exchanged phone numbers to update each other about other temp jobs in town. Shane, an IPC student, said he knew the guy who ran English Outside the Classroom there and that he'd put in a good word for me. Interestingly enough, one of the other workers, Sarah, didn't have a ride home because of the bus and finishing the work assignment early...so I gave her a ride into town! Funny!
Later that afternoon, Amy called to say that there were temp jobs through an agency on Broadway. She'd gone in there after the Home Direct work and they sent her to a laundry to start work at 1:30 that afternoon! I told her I was meeting with PN Personnel the following day, but I'd look into that too.
I spent the rest of the afternoon cramming on Excel info. I passed another Excel test just barely. I also had been practicing my typing skills to get my words per minute up. In the end, I wasn't nervous about my appointment the following day, I just wanted to do well.
Also, Josh and I sent an email to the Rotary Amb. Scholar from India , Anand, and the other American Rotary Scholar, Fleetwood and his wife, Kim, to have coffee with us on Thursday afternoon at 4 pm.
Today Josh and I planned to watch the Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival. Kapa Haka is a series of traditional Maori songs and dances. More info at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapa_haka This event only happens every two years and it just happened to be in Palmerston North this year. This event sees different Maori tribes compete against each other for the national title. Basically, IT ROCKS!
The slogan for this year's competiton was, "200 years ago, the loser didn't go home." I think they used to kill the losers of these competitions! Josh and I caught the last 6 performances of the semi-finals and then returned the following day for the finals.
It cost $100 NZD total for the two of us to watch the event over two days. We considered it a good deal because we figured you might spend about that much to watch one or two perforances at a touristy type show with dinner somewhere. Here, we could watch various performances over two days. These were the best performers in the country since they had to pass regional competitions to make it here.
We thought the Kapa Haka was pretty cool. Especially when the men did the Haka part where they beat/slap on their chests/thighs, contorted their faces, stuck out their tongues, and yelled (sometimes with spears). This was the best part to us. Sure, some of the choir singing parts were neat...but the hostile parts were AWESOME...except you never knew what they were saying in Maori...and it could have been "Kill the White man." White people (European decent) are called Pakeha here. Basically, Maori means "ordinary or usual" and Pakeha means "different." Josh and I were definitely in the minority at the Kapa Haka Festival.
Sunday, February 25
Josh and I went to the finals of the Kapa Haka Festival. I was tired during/after the show so I went to bed early...like 7:00 pm early.
Monday, February 26
This morning, Josh called President Lindsey to see about getting a ride to the Takaro Readers program the following morning since I'd be taking the car to Home Direct early on. Josh got it situated to get a ride to Takaro School and then I'd pick him up at noon after my job at Home Direct and his volunteer work were over.
I was scheduled to start the temporary job at Home Direct at 5 pm today. I spent the afternoon trying to learn more Excel stuff so I didn't totally embarrass myself on Wednesday morning at Palmerston North Personnel. I left the house around 4:35 pm and drove out to the Home Direct warehouse which was on the north side of town (Josh and I drove out to find it the other day). Basically, it is an industrial area and the building itself has bars on the windows...not exactly a confidence builder for Josh or myself...but Josh still let me drive out there myself.
I made it on time and saw other people in the parking lot and as it turned out, they were there to work the job too. We met with the supervisor, a younger guy named Brit, and we waited for the rest of the workers to show up. When they hadn't, he had the four of us start. About 10 minutes into pulling pieces of metal clothing racks out of the back of a mini-van, the two other girls showed up.
So, as I was saying, the first task was to pull metal pieces out of the van and put them into organized piles on the floor. Next, we used the pieces to construct clothes racks (about 38 of them). Then, we got a quick lesson on how to use a hand held scanner.
There were three metal sheds along the wall in the warehouse. Each shed had a number on it that corrosponded to a Home Direct truck number. There was green tape on the floor to designate the area you should stay in for your shed. We broke up into three teams with two people on each team to unload the shed onto the metal clothes racks and onto a tarp on the floor for items like shoes, toys, pillows, and blankets.
Items emptied out of the shed, we scanned each item's barcode into our scanners. Then, we waited for the Home Direct trucks to arrive. During this break, we had tea (again, provided compliments of the company). I stood outside with three other workers and compared America to New Zealand. The two girls who showed up late (they were friends) stayed inside to talk.
The trucks were running late so we had about an hour break (nice). When the trucks did show up, we had to unload them...and they were full of stuff...toys, shampoo, pillows, clothes, shoes, etc. After emptying the trucks we scanned all the stuff....then it was time to go home. The two girls who were friends wouldn't be returning the following morning because they had class. Brit told us that we would have a busy morning the following day because the trucks had arrived late that night (great).
Driving home this night, it struck me: driving in New Zealand is just like driving at home. I feel totally comfortable driving here now. No big deal! When I got home, Josh had a glass of Diet Coke waiting for me. I hadn't called him to ask for it, he had just read my mind!!! Off to sleep (after 3 rounds of Scatergories).
Tuesday, February 27
Work started at 7 am so that meant waking up at 6. My life philosophy: waking up while it still dark outside is WRONG! But, I told myself it was only one day.
I got to work early, headed in, and Brit and other people were there (not the same people as the day before). Turns out, these were other Home Direct employees. Soon enough, the other three people I'd worked with yesterday arrived. More scanning, more hand counting to validate the scanned numbers. I think I impressed Brit with my counting accuracy when others couldn't perform that simple function accurately (yeah for me!).
Brit pulled me aside to count different orders that were in a closet and hand write the order numbers in a ledger...I thought he was going to offer me a chance to come back for future work...not so much. But, I still felt like I got a more "important" task (regardless if that is true or not).
Wrapping up the work, Amy (one of the girls I was working with at Home Direct) asked if we'd all like to have coffee after the assignment...sure, I'm all about making some friends here. We finished by loading up the trucks and we were done by 10:30...1/2 hour ahead of schedule so we got to go home-but then nobody wanted to go have coffee-whatever!
The other temp workers and I exchanged phone numbers to update each other about other temp jobs in town. Shane, an IPC student, said he knew the guy who ran English Outside the Classroom there and that he'd put in a good word for me. Interestingly enough, one of the other workers, Sarah, didn't have a ride home because of the bus and finishing the work assignment early...so I gave her a ride into town! Funny!
Later that afternoon, Amy called to say that there were temp jobs through an agency on Broadway. She'd gone in there after the Home Direct work and they sent her to a laundry to start work at 1:30 that afternoon! I told her I was meeting with PN Personnel the following day, but I'd look into that too.
I spent the rest of the afternoon cramming on Excel info. I passed another Excel test just barely. I also had been practicing my typing skills to get my words per minute up. In the end, I wasn't nervous about my appointment the following day, I just wanted to do well.
Also, Josh and I sent an email to the Rotary Amb. Scholar from India , Anand, and the other American Rotary Scholar, Fleetwood and his wife, Kim, to have coffee with us on Thursday afternoon at 4 pm.
Feb 20-23
So, it's been a couple of busy days around here.
Tuesday, February 20
Josh and I had volunteered to help with the Takaro Readers program. This a Rotary project where about 5 Rotary members meet with selected students to help them with their reading skills. The program restarted on February, 13 since summer was over.
Josh and I had spoken with Lyndsey Chadwick the night before because her husband, Jon, started the program. Lyndsey said Jon was in the hospital so he wouldn't be there to meet us the following day.
Josh and I arrived at Takaro School on Tuesday morning and it was nothing like showing up at a school in the states. When we entered the "office" (a small front room with a desk) we didn't have to sign in or wear a name badge. The secretary told us to walk around to the library and the kids would be there soon.
As we waited in the library, the lights were off but the windows let in some light. I thought I'd wait until people showed up to turn them on. Well, once the Rotarians and kids showed up, nobody turned the lights on...I guess that's how they do it down here to conserve energy.
Speaking of the students, they were a mix of ages as this school has kids from Year 1 to Year 8. It's also a "low decile" school or what we'd call "low income" in the states. The kids were predominately barefoot or in socks...no shoes as per the Kiwi style...not because of their economic status. If kids in the states went around school barefoot or in sock feet, teachers would not have. Here it's so laid back (a good thing).
I was the only girl volunteer. Besides Josh, the other volunteers were old men. Kids come in groups of five for 20 minute reading sessions. They pick out whichever book they want to read and they pick one volunteer to listen and correct them as they read. Being the only girl volunteer, the girls I helped seemed happy that I was there.
The reading levels of the kids was so varied. Before they started reading, I'd ask what Year they were in. One of my Year 4 girls read 4 pages, immeadiately following her was another Year 4 girl who picked the same book to read and she got through 25 pages!
After three 20 minute sessions, there is a tea break. This is a literal "tea" break. All the volunteers and some teachers, administrators go to the break room and have a cup of hot tea. There are communal mugs and spoons and -coolest thing ever-hot water comes out of a spigot on the wall! Everyone makes a cup and has a seat to chat.
Since this school is low decile, they receive free fruit from the government twice a week for the teachers and students. I didn't know if I could eat one of the bananas on the table so I refrained. Josh and I talked to the Deputy Principal (Vice Principal in the states). The Deputy Principal asked what I was doing here so I said I was looking for a job and hinted that I'd like to work in education...she wasn't buying what I was selling though.
We went back to do another three sessions with our students. It was fun to volunteer and have a purpose rather than being around the house all day. Once we were back in the car, however, Josh with his "Educational Policy" background went into all the problems associated with that type of "pull out" program. How do they know what they're doing helps? Are they running any assessments? Studies show that pulling kids out of class is detremental. Blah, blah. I'm like, isn't it good to have one-on-one time with a kid and give him/her encouragement?
Later that night we took a walk around the Victoria Esplanade. We walked a different path than usual and saw something called the Fernery. This is a part of the park that has all different varities of ferns. We played at the park swings a bit and went home.
Wednesday, February 21
...nothing of note...except Josh and I finished up the powerpoint and practiced the speech we would be giving to the Rotary club the following day. Earlier in the day, I got a phone call from the Temp Agency, Palmerston North Personnel about coming in next Wednesday for a series of tests and to register with them. How are my Microsoft Word skills? Excellent. How are my Excel skills? Intermediate. It was only after I got off the phone, took an online Excel test (which I failed), did I start getting nervous.
Thursday, February 22
The day started off well enough. Josh and I were comfortable with the presentation we would be giving later that night. We took a walk around the Esplanade around 2:30. David was coming to pick us up for the Rotary meeting at 5.
As I was about to take a shower and get ready for the presentation, the phone rang. It was the HR lady at Chandler McLeod in Wellington calling to see if I had mailed in my application and received my IRD number to work the temporary job on Monday, February 26. I told her, no, I hadn't filled out the application or mailed it in because I didn't have my IRD number yet.
I thought you had to have an IRD number (tax number) to legally work in New Zealand. She said, no, you can work without one and once we get it from you we'll pay you. Well, she was obviously upset with me. I told her I'd mail in the application and call the IRD office about why my number wasn't out yet.
When I called IRD, they were closed for the evening (4:30 pm). And, I had to get ready for the Rotary presentation! Quick shower, get ready, Josh packed up all the gear (laptop), David arrived, and we were gone! I left the application at home to pick up and mail once the Rotary meeting was over. Thought it was odd that the application asks for your bank account number (to automatically pay you) but a quick Google search proved that this is standard protocal in NZ.
Onto the Rotary meeting, dinner was before the presentation. Dinner was good too! Fish and chips-yum. I learned NOT to say something is "quite good." In NZ, quite means "not really/almost" instead of "really." So everytime I was saying things are going quite well, these people thought I was saying things were almost going well! Instead, you're supposed to say you're "perfect" or "awesome." I said if you said that in the states people would think you're stuck up.
Pauline was at the meeting but most of the Rotarians were not in attendance...we joked it was because we were scheduled to speak. Speaking of speaking, I didn't know if the presentation was something Josh should do alone as the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar or if I should present too (since I'm from Arkansas/USA too). In the end, we split the presentation into three parts. Josh did the beginning and the end and I took the middle part.
When it was time for us to present, we realized while going through the slides that they had a different version of Powerpoint so not all the pictures were displaying as they did at home. No big deal, just the way it was.
I think we did a really good job. Josh sweat a lot-the Verdict is a hot place though. The best part was getting everyone to Call the Hogs...it was AWESOME. They picked it up really fast, too. As we ended the presentation, we gave club president, Lindsey Knowles the Fayetteville club banner and then we gave David a gift bag with Razorback stuff inside for being our host counselor (Bernice was at Lake Taupo because they had a newborn grandchild a few days ago).
After the meeting, Rory (Bernice's brother-in-law) asked if I could meet with his 24 year old son about motivation because his son has been to university, dropped out, and was back again. I was like, okay we can go have coffee, I guess.
As everyone left and we went outside of the Verdict to the car with David, we stopped while David talked to another Rotarian. I told Josh, look there's Pauline standing by herself while Lindsey and Jill talk...then Josh was like, we're by ourselves too because David was talking to someone else. It's just that we have each other and are not here alone like Pauline is. We had a laugh at that.
Driving back to the house, David told Josh that he and Bernice would drive him to the Wellington Orientation for Inbound Scholars on March 10-11. David asked me if I was coming and I said no. Once back at the house, Josh and I picked up the application that needed to be mailed and went back out to the post office. No worries. I emailed an apology to the lady in Wellington, "Sorry for the delay. Blah. Blah." Heck, I made it through the Rotary presentation, I figured the job thing would work itself out.
Friday, February 23
The job thing did work itself out. I woke up around 8:30 this morning to call the IRD office. The lady I spoke to gave me my IRD number after I answered a few identification questions. Then, I emailed the IRD number to the Wellington contact. I went back to sleep.
Around 11 or so, the Wellington lady called and was like, did you send in your application and get your IRD number? I was like didn't you get my emails? No, she hadn't because they were having IT problems. Worked it out and I was set to work on Monday, Feb 26 from 5-10 pm and Tuesday, Feb 27 from 7-11 am. Everybody is happy.
I called my mom on Friday afternoon and watched some American Idol with Josh. AI here is about two weeks behind the AI at home. Note to self: be careful when looking at yahoo news or you'll see who is making it through each AI round.
Josh and I also bought Scatergories at The Warehouse so we had a game to play with each other and company if we ever have any!
Tuesday, February 20
Josh and I had volunteered to help with the Takaro Readers program. This a Rotary project where about 5 Rotary members meet with selected students to help them with their reading skills. The program restarted on February, 13 since summer was over.
Josh and I had spoken with Lyndsey Chadwick the night before because her husband, Jon, started the program. Lyndsey said Jon was in the hospital so he wouldn't be there to meet us the following day.
Josh and I arrived at Takaro School on Tuesday morning and it was nothing like showing up at a school in the states. When we entered the "office" (a small front room with a desk) we didn't have to sign in or wear a name badge. The secretary told us to walk around to the library and the kids would be there soon.
As we waited in the library, the lights were off but the windows let in some light. I thought I'd wait until people showed up to turn them on. Well, once the Rotarians and kids showed up, nobody turned the lights on...I guess that's how they do it down here to conserve energy.
Speaking of the students, they were a mix of ages as this school has kids from Year 1 to Year 8. It's also a "low decile" school or what we'd call "low income" in the states. The kids were predominately barefoot or in socks...no shoes as per the Kiwi style...not because of their economic status. If kids in the states went around school barefoot or in sock feet, teachers would not have. Here it's so laid back (a good thing).
I was the only girl volunteer. Besides Josh, the other volunteers were old men. Kids come in groups of five for 20 minute reading sessions. They pick out whichever book they want to read and they pick one volunteer to listen and correct them as they read. Being the only girl volunteer, the girls I helped seemed happy that I was there.
The reading levels of the kids was so varied. Before they started reading, I'd ask what Year they were in. One of my Year 4 girls read 4 pages, immeadiately following her was another Year 4 girl who picked the same book to read and she got through 25 pages!
After three 20 minute sessions, there is a tea break. This is a literal "tea" break. All the volunteers and some teachers, administrators go to the break room and have a cup of hot tea. There are communal mugs and spoons and -coolest thing ever-hot water comes out of a spigot on the wall! Everyone makes a cup and has a seat to chat.
Since this school is low decile, they receive free fruit from the government twice a week for the teachers and students. I didn't know if I could eat one of the bananas on the table so I refrained. Josh and I talked to the Deputy Principal (Vice Principal in the states). The Deputy Principal asked what I was doing here so I said I was looking for a job and hinted that I'd like to work in education...she wasn't buying what I was selling though.
We went back to do another three sessions with our students. It was fun to volunteer and have a purpose rather than being around the house all day. Once we were back in the car, however, Josh with his "Educational Policy" background went into all the problems associated with that type of "pull out" program. How do they know what they're doing helps? Are they running any assessments? Studies show that pulling kids out of class is detremental. Blah, blah. I'm like, isn't it good to have one-on-one time with a kid and give him/her encouragement?
Later that night we took a walk around the Victoria Esplanade. We walked a different path than usual and saw something called the Fernery. This is a part of the park that has all different varities of ferns. We played at the park swings a bit and went home.
Wednesday, February 21
...nothing of note...except Josh and I finished up the powerpoint and practiced the speech we would be giving to the Rotary club the following day. Earlier in the day, I got a phone call from the Temp Agency, Palmerston North Personnel about coming in next Wednesday for a series of tests and to register with them. How are my Microsoft Word skills? Excellent. How are my Excel skills? Intermediate. It was only after I got off the phone, took an online Excel test (which I failed), did I start getting nervous.
Thursday, February 22
The day started off well enough. Josh and I were comfortable with the presentation we would be giving later that night. We took a walk around the Esplanade around 2:30. David was coming to pick us up for the Rotary meeting at 5.
As I was about to take a shower and get ready for the presentation, the phone rang. It was the HR lady at Chandler McLeod in Wellington calling to see if I had mailed in my application and received my IRD number to work the temporary job on Monday, February 26. I told her, no, I hadn't filled out the application or mailed it in because I didn't have my IRD number yet.
I thought you had to have an IRD number (tax number) to legally work in New Zealand. She said, no, you can work without one and once we get it from you we'll pay you. Well, she was obviously upset with me. I told her I'd mail in the application and call the IRD office about why my number wasn't out yet.
When I called IRD, they were closed for the evening (4:30 pm). And, I had to get ready for the Rotary presentation! Quick shower, get ready, Josh packed up all the gear (laptop), David arrived, and we were gone! I left the application at home to pick up and mail once the Rotary meeting was over. Thought it was odd that the application asks for your bank account number (to automatically pay you) but a quick Google search proved that this is standard protocal in NZ.
Onto the Rotary meeting, dinner was before the presentation. Dinner was good too! Fish and chips-yum. I learned NOT to say something is "quite good." In NZ, quite means "not really/almost" instead of "really." So everytime I was saying things are going quite well, these people thought I was saying things were almost going well! Instead, you're supposed to say you're "perfect" or "awesome." I said if you said that in the states people would think you're stuck up.
Pauline was at the meeting but most of the Rotarians were not in attendance...we joked it was because we were scheduled to speak. Speaking of speaking, I didn't know if the presentation was something Josh should do alone as the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar or if I should present too (since I'm from Arkansas/USA too). In the end, we split the presentation into three parts. Josh did the beginning and the end and I took the middle part.
When it was time for us to present, we realized while going through the slides that they had a different version of Powerpoint so not all the pictures were displaying as they did at home. No big deal, just the way it was.
I think we did a really good job. Josh sweat a lot-the Verdict is a hot place though. The best part was getting everyone to Call the Hogs...it was AWESOME. They picked it up really fast, too. As we ended the presentation, we gave club president, Lindsey Knowles the Fayetteville club banner and then we gave David a gift bag with Razorback stuff inside for being our host counselor (Bernice was at Lake Taupo because they had a newborn grandchild a few days ago).
After the meeting, Rory (Bernice's brother-in-law) asked if I could meet with his 24 year old son about motivation because his son has been to university, dropped out, and was back again. I was like, okay we can go have coffee, I guess.
As everyone left and we went outside of the Verdict to the car with David, we stopped while David talked to another Rotarian. I told Josh, look there's Pauline standing by herself while Lindsey and Jill talk...then Josh was like, we're by ourselves too because David was talking to someone else. It's just that we have each other and are not here alone like Pauline is. We had a laugh at that.
Driving back to the house, David told Josh that he and Bernice would drive him to the Wellington Orientation for Inbound Scholars on March 10-11. David asked me if I was coming and I said no. Once back at the house, Josh and I picked up the application that needed to be mailed and went back out to the post office. No worries. I emailed an apology to the lady in Wellington, "Sorry for the delay. Blah. Blah." Heck, I made it through the Rotary presentation, I figured the job thing would work itself out.
Friday, February 23
The job thing did work itself out. I woke up around 8:30 this morning to call the IRD office. The lady I spoke to gave me my IRD number after I answered a few identification questions. Then, I emailed the IRD number to the Wellington contact. I went back to sleep.
Around 11 or so, the Wellington lady called and was like, did you send in your application and get your IRD number? I was like didn't you get my emails? No, she hadn't because they were having IT problems. Worked it out and I was set to work on Monday, Feb 26 from 5-10 pm and Tuesday, Feb 27 from 7-11 am. Everybody is happy.
I called my mom on Friday afternoon and watched some American Idol with Josh. AI here is about two weeks behind the AI at home. Note to self: be careful when looking at yahoo news or you'll see who is making it through each AI round.
Josh and I also bought Scatergories at The Warehouse so we had a game to play with each other and company if we ever have any!
Feb 13-18
A day-by-day account of the last week is not really necessary. Things were fairly slow around here, minus Valentine's Day and Josh's birthday. Besides watching a lot of Angel DVDs, hitting up the job search pretty hard (and already getting 3 rejection emails...I'm not qualified to be a part-time library assistant?!?...give me a break), and taking a couple of trips to the Victoria Esplanade, it was pretty slow around here.
Tuesday, February 13
This day's big event was going out to the Manawatu Gorge. Now, keep in my mind, I thought this gorge was going to be like the gorge just outside of Taos, New Mexico: a big, deep gap (like a mini Grand Canyon) between flat land spanned by a long bridge. I was wrong.
The Manawatu Gorge is a gorge that runs between two tall green mountains in the Tararua Mountain Range about 25 kms-roughly 15 miles-north of Palmerston North (there are windmills on top of these mountains). The gorge is deep and long and you can see the Manawatu River at the bottom...that is, if you stop to get out of your car on one of the pull-offs because there is no bridge here...just one long and windy, make-you-sick road.
Basically, the road through the gorge is a death trap reminiscent of the road from Palmy to Lake Taupo. Not so much up and down winding like going to Taupo but sheer cliff, impending doom, "why isn't there a guardrail?" winding nonetheless. We made it through...only to get ourselves into trouble by a combination of bravado and stupidity.
So, having survived the gorge, there was this turn off the main road that crosses a wooden, one car only, bridge. Nerve wracking, but cool, and we made it across no problem. About half a mile down the road on the right was another turnoff. Well, the bright orange sign post said that they'll be doing construction on this road until May 2007 but the brown sign said this was the way to the wind farm, so we decided to go up and check out the windmills.
The asphalt road turned to gravel after 50 yards...and it was gravel all the way up the hill on what, for the most part, was a one car only road. And, if the gorge road had seemed dangerous, this "road" was certain death. HELLO!~loose gravel, no guardrail, going up higher and higher on a mountain, 17 year old Japanese import car! Well, we made it most of the way to the top, but no kidding, we reached this one part of the road where it started to go downhill before snaking it's way back up and Josh and I were both like, "Agh, agh...ain't goin' happen."
This was actually one of the only places on the whole way up that there was enough room to turn the car around at, so it made sense to do so. I was terrified but Josh got out to take a gander at the landscape. Get me down off of this mountain! We made it down, thankfully, almost getting into a head on with another car that was going up the mountain.
At the bottom of the mountain, we saw a sign for Manawatu Gorge walking trails. One of the trails was 4 hours ONE WAY and the other was a ten minute loop walk. No brainer...seeing as we were in flip flops and oh yeah, I don't think I'll ever do an 8 hour nature walk! It was a really nice walk and there were sign posts along the way describing some of the trees and brush.
We got to see the silver fern which is one of New Zealand's symbols. It's leaves really do have a silver tint to them. Taking this walk, I told Josh that we need to keep two pairs of shoes in the trunk of the car. One pair of sneakers for walks in the woods and one pair of flip flops for the beach...especially because everything is so close to each other that you want to be prepared.
We made it back to the car and she started right up...always a good sign when you're in the middle of nowheresville.
Wednesday, February 14 (Valentine's Day)
I was scheduled to meet with Dr. Elizabeth Hiser, one of the Assistant Deans at International Pacific College, for coffee at 9:30 am (since Josh wasn't going to come with, I practiced driving the car into town the night before...Feb 13...we tried to get the car washed at the BP gas station but the car wash was broken...more about car washes later). As soon as I got out of the shower around 8:30 am, the phone rang and it was Elizabeth calling to rearrange our meeting for the following day because she realized she had another appointment this morning. Okay, so I was the least important of those two meetings...understandable and rearranged. I told Josh that it seems pretty common for people to cancel meetings on the day of the scheduled meeting (Josh's meeting with Wayne and Roger about Massey, for example).
Josh and I didn't have big plans to go out for dinner (seeing as the one time we tried to go out for a nice meal at the Shed in Lake Taupo we got burned). We did, however, decide to go for a walk in the afternoon and feed the ducks in the Esplanade. It was SO FUNNY to see how many couples were picnicing in the rose garden...it was a great, sunny evening when we took our walk and the rose garden is a romantic setting, HOWEVER, there were so many couples it wasn't really private. Hint: come on the 13th or 15th for a picnic!
The ducks appreciated our bread...although, truth be told, it was a bit moldy. And not the green mold you think of back home, a white fuzzy mold...and the bread was kinda wet. This leads to a side bar about bread in New Zealand...
Although we had bought the loaf of bread on the Thursday before we went to Lake Taupo (Feb. 9) the bread was covered in the white fuzz by Feb. 11 when we returned from the lake. What the heck?!? This wasn't the first loaf of NZ bread to go moldy on us so quickly.
Well, Josh had heard on the news that apparently they don't use a certain preservative in New Zealand that keeps bread from molding. I did an online search and the story gets more interesting (considering the source)....
from http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/factsheets/Fact282.htm
The use of calcium propionate (282) as a preservative in bread became widespread in Australia in the early 1990s. This preservative is rarely used in Europe or New Zealand, used increasingly in the UK, and is common in Australia and the US. Consumers are often confused by a label claiming "now with extra calcium". Calcium propionate is used for the propionate, not the calcium. Calcium is added to bread in other forms...
Contrary to what the food industry would like you to believe, this additive is not to keep your bread fresh. Calcium propionate (282) is added to inhibit the growth of mould. There is no mould on a freshly baked loaf of bread, so why use a mould inhibitor? Bakers who keep their work benches and slicer blades clean and mould-free, by wiping with vinegar every day, do not need this additive. However, bakers in large factories prefer the less time-consuming method of "fogging" their equipment with a chemical spray. Putting hot loaves in plastic bags makes the problem worse. Preservative 282 allows for sloppy hygiene. It is for the convenience of the manufacturer not the consumer.
At least that explains why the bread has been getting so moldy, so quickly. We started buying sliced bread directly from the grocery store bakery to hopefully give us a few extra days of mold-free bread. The first loaf we ate from the bakery turned out well and the second one is looking promising for us!
So, back to feeding the ducks. The Esplanade ducks are really friendly and most are your garden variety brown speckled duck. Most are grown adults, however, you can make out by size and feathers the teenage ducks and the babies. I love the baby "duckels" (as I refer to all the ducks). There are two black ducks. One of the black ducks is of normal intelligence. However, the other black duck is so SLOW (mentally)!
This slow black duck cracks us up. Everytime we go to feed the ducks we will actively seek out the slow black duck and he always provides a laugh. When you try to feed this duck directly, more than just throwing some bread crumbs on the ground...because the black duck certainly won't go for those, he just stands there or physically moves so slowly that the other ducks get the bread first.
Josh and I have thrown bread specifically at this duck's bill and he just stands there (maybe opening his bill a little). In all the times we've tried to feed him (and we've targeted him a lot because we feel like he deserves some food) he's maybe got some bread like 5 times. And the times he does get a nibble, the other ducks will bite his back feathers. He's just so slow!
Thursday, February 15
Part two of getting ready to meet Elizabeth for coffee. Well, I made it out of the shower and got dressed and no phone call...so, I guess that meant we would be meeting today. I wore dress pants and a button down shirt because although this wasn't technically an interview, Elizabeth may have IPC contacts and I wanted to make a good impression.
Before I left the house, I asked Josh if he wanted to help me back out of the driveway (a feat of great accomplishment even for the best drivers) and he said he thought I could make it on my own (basically, he didn't want to get out of bed). Well, I did make it...but I got a little close to the landlord's house backing out.
I made it to the Plaza without a problem, parked the car, then walked through the mall to reach Robert Harris, the coffee shop we were meeting at. The day before, when Elizabeth had called to rearrange the date, she asked how we would know each other so I sent her a picture of myself. When I arrived at the coffeeshop, the place was virtually empty, so I ordered a Flat White which is a New Zealand type of coffee that is the middle ground between a cappucino and a latte...I wasn't that impressed.
When Elizabeth showed up, about 3 minutes after I had ordered, we shook hands, she ordered, and we grabbed a seat next to the open window and door at the front of the building. After brief introductions (she left the US during the anti-Vietnam era to join the peace corp being placed in Iran, traveling onward to Korea and Japan, before moving to NZ with her husband and becoming a NZ resident about 3 years ago) she asked why I wanted to meet with her. I told her that she was recommended to me to contact by Lyndsey Chadwick, the woman, who with her husband Jon, had given Josh and I a ride home from New Plymouth two weeks ago.
I told Elizabeth that I wanted to learn more about IPC (because Lyndsey had made it seem like Elizabeth thought it was a bad place to work). Well, E. made it sound like it was a fine place to work. Although, it soon became clear that the ESOL job for which I applied really wouldn't work for me as I wasn't qualified for that. However, E. did mention that there may be openings in something called English Outside the Classroom (taking students on trips to cultural activities and events in town to improve their social skills and English in social settings). Right before we parted ways 45 minutes later, E. gave me the name of her boss who would have more info. regarding openings in the Student Development area at IPC.
Walking back through the Plaza, it was time to shop for Josh's birthday presents. I knew he needed cologne since he'd left his in Arkansas. For fun, I stopped into the $2 store (interestingly, they don't have $1 stores here like in the states...they're $2 stores). I found streamers and birthday party hats so I got those. Then, I found what I thought was a globe...but it also was a pencil sharpener...even cooler. Especially since the other day Josh asked how he could sharpen a pencil for a Sudoku puzzle and I said use a knife! I bought those three items and went back on a search for cologne.
Well, Kiwi men must just like the smell of soap because they don't sell men's cologne anywhere in this mall. The closest thing is Axe deoderant stuff you can get at home...no thanks. I checked out the DVDs for sale in Kmart. They seemed a bit pricy so I thought I'd head over to the Warehouse to comparison shop.
My philosophy when driving in New Zealand has been to follow the guy driving ahead of me. Well, that took me the scenic route to the Warehouse (all the way around the Square, then back down Fitzherbert to Ferguson to Cook to Church rather than just going straight on Church street...check out a map of Palmy sometime at: http://www.manawatunz.co.nz/Pages/AboutManawatu/PalmerstonNorthMap.php
You can actually see our street at the bottom of the map-Savage Crescent.
The Warehouse had DVDs for about .50 cents less. A better deal nonetheless. I bought V for Vendetta and the first three Harry Potter movies for Josh. The fourth Harry Potter wasn't available. I also bought a gift bag and birthday card. The birthday card was of a local series called "Eliot." Eliot is an elephant and he has a mouse friend.
I bought Josh a birthday card with Eliot and the mouse writing Happy Birthday in the sand on the front of the card. When I wrote inside Josh's birthday card, I told Josh the two characters on the front of the card represented Josh and I at Himitangi Beach...little did I know that Josh and I would actually go to the beach on Josh's birthday (talk about fate)!
I also bought Josh the closest stand-in for cologne I could find in Palmerston North, a knock-off of CK One called Gender One. I also bought a pack of 30 batteries at the Warehouse to use in the digital camera. I returned home and I don't think Josh was any the wiser although his birthday was quickly approaching. I put all his presents in my purse before going into the house...then inside the house, I put his presents in my dresser drawer.
Note when moving abroad: If someones birthday is coming up in close proximity to the time when you are moving abroad, please buy their gift at home and find room in your suitcase to bring it with you. It will save you a lot of grief later on when you are in a foreign country that doesn't carry the item you are looking for.
This afternoon, we returned to the Victoria Esplanade to give the ducks the second loaf of bread that had molded over.
Friday, February 16
Josh went to Massey today saying he was sad about leaving me alone...he doesn't want me to be the highly qualified international wife who stays at home all alone and becomes depressed with her life...i.e. a story I read from the book Maybe Baby before we left home about an Indian woman in a similar situation in the states.
Josh got his Massey library card which was a laminated piece of yellow cardstock with a bar code on it. It reminded me of my 7th grade library card in Alaska...they must not be up on the technology here yet. While Josh was at the university, I played domestic (albeit, I am getting better at it what with the unemployment and all). Note: I figured out why I like washing dishes better here than I did in the states. Here I don't fill up the sink with water and soap and load all the dishes into the sink at once. Rather, I wash each dish individually with soap and a sponge. No sticking my hand into greasy, manky water to fish out the dishes to wash. Besides, the sink here is too small to hold more than a few dishes at once anyway. Also, we've only taken two plates, two bowls, and four glasses out. Basically, everytime we eat, we immediately wash dishes because we don't want to have too many dishes out as that equals more dishes to wash.
I also wrote out Josh's birthday card and put his gift bag together.
While he was out, I applied for a two day, temporary position taking inventory. I submitted my application online and the recruitment agent called me back with several questions, the most important of which was "Do you have an IRD number." Well, no, I've never even heard of that.
A quick Google search later (thank goodness for the internet) I found out that after applying for and receiving my working holiday visa, I should have applied for an IRD number. Basically, this number is used for taxation purposes and you have to have one to get paid in New Zealand. Well, I want to work, so I had to apply for one of these things and you can't just submit your info online, you have to print off a form and mail it in.
Which would be fine, except we don't have a printer here. Nevermind the fact we had THREE computer printers at HOME in the states (two came with the laptops and were still in their boxes when we moved) AND the printers at work. So, this meant I had to go uptown to the library to print off the needed IRD number form.
It was quite surprising how easily it all worked out though. I brought my passport, copies of my passport and working holiday visa, copy of our electricity account being opened, two $1 coins, and cell phone with me. I had to drive uptown by myself again...no worries. I parked at the Plaza, since it's free for 2 hours, rather than paying to park on the Square directly in front of the library. I went into Kmart to buy envelopes to mail the form in.
Envelopes purchased, I made my way across the Square on foot to the library. At the library, I had to obtain membership before being able to use the computers. Electric bill information and cell phone (with my phone number that I haven't yet memorized programed inside) came in handy in opening the account. Easy enough...now about using the computer.
The public library charges .50 cents per 15 minutes of internet usage and .10 cents per page to print off material. Well, I need the internet to print off my pages, so I used one of my $1 coins to buy a vending card. The computer system was easy enough to use (although both the printer and copy machine were out of paper...tsk, tsk). I was able to print off the IRD form in my 15 minute session.
Since I still had moolah on my vending card, I photocopied my passport and working holiday visa to have an extra copy of each. I walked back across the Square to one branch of the post office. Because it was almost 5 pm I didn't know if they'd still be open. Let me tell you about Kiwi post offices-they rule!
Not only can you mail letters and take care of your banking and get car ownership papers, the branch on the Square also has a Lotto booth in it...crazy! So, I was able to address an envelope I had just purchased at Kmart with the IRD location, inserted the form and a photocopy of my passport, bought a stamp, and mailed the letter which wasn't due to be picked up until 6 pm. Weird how somethings work out, huh?
Apparently, it takes 8-10 days to get an IRD number so we'll see if that comes in time to work the inventory job which runs from Feb. 26-27. The job pays just over $10/hour for 9 hours of work...but something is better than nothing. Either way, at least I'll have an IRD number for other potential jobs.
On the way home, I grabbed Josh an early birthday present of Canadian whiskey. It was the only Canadian whiskey at the Liquor King store and it really blew my mind that Johnnie Walker Red Label (Scotch whiskey that is expensive back home) costs the same as the Canadian whiskey here. Checking out, I could not for the life of me understand what the clerk was saying in his HEAVY Kiwi accent! Note about alcohol in New Zealand: Kiwi grocery stores sell both wine and beer, however, to purchase liquor, you must go to a liquor store where they not only sell liquor but also beer and wine...but it costs more....Note: liquor stores ARE open on Sundays in NZ.
Saturday, February 17
Mostly a do-nothing day. We went to the Pak N Save to pick up birthday eats for Josh's birthday. A note on grocery stores and food in New Zealand: They don't sell any healthy food here and it's driving me up the wall! Sure, I could eat the healthy fruits and veggies...but I want junk food that has been manipulated to be good for me i.e. Baked Cheetos and Lays, Right Doritos, Fat Free Cottage Cheese, Turkey Bacon, Reduced Fat insert name of cookies or ice cream here. It's enough to make a girl go crazy and/or vegetarian in order to maintain her weight (minus all the trips to McDonald's). The closest I've come to some light foods here are what we'd call 2% milk, cottage cheese, and cheddar cheese (their version of 2% is called lite...I can't even get fat free for crying out loud). And trust me, whenever I do find something that's lite, I do my happy dance in the middle of the grocery store because it's so amazing. Okay, rant over.
This night, we had early birthday cake and ice cream to celebrate Josh's birthday weekend. Top Deck ice cream (a chocolate and vanilla mix) by Cadbury is THE BEST ice cream I've ever had. Almost like gelato in the sense that it is so creamy, light, and soft. So good (because it's full of fat-see above).
Sunday, February 18 (Josh's 28th birthday)
Josh and I stayed up until 1:17 am or so...the time he was born in Arkansas (although technically it wasn't that time in Arkansas while we were celebrating). We went to sleep and I had two nightmares of not waking up in time to put up Josh's birthday streamers. So, my internal alarm clock was like, "Get Up!" around 7 am. I put up all of the streamers and went back to sleep.
Josh and I woke up, put on our birthday hats (we wore them all day except at the beach), had some breakfast, and then headed out to Himitangi (putting sunscreen on in the car) for some birthday on the beach. Well, everyone and his brother had the same idea on this gorgeous summer Sunday and cars were lined up and down the beach when we arrived. No worries. We found a spot, parked the car, and I literally ran into the surf. Cold! Josh and I played in the waves until hypothermia started setting in on me and I headed to shore. Josh stayed in the water another hour or so.
I milled around the beach, trying to find a comfortable place to lay down on my towel. But, remember, the beach is a road and I found myself laying down in between two lanes of coming and going traffic. The smell of exhust and the fear for my life got to be a bit much so I tried moving locations. Not long after getting re-situated, a group of 20-somethings guys started up a cricket game. This couldn't end well for me (picture junior high embarassment as the sports ball hits me or even comes close enough for me to throw back to the guys with all the finesse of....well, myself). Third time to move's gotta be the charm, right?
I saw further down the beach, an isolated area near the shore where I could actually see Josh better while he swam. I walked over, laid my towel down, sat down and realized why this spot was void of other sunbathers. Wet Sand. You couldn't tell by loooking at it because the water was just below the surface, until you place your body weight on it...completely soaked towel later...Josh was out of the water and ready to take a walk on the beach.
Okay, so remember how I don't like dogs swimming in the water with humans. Well, that was everywhere at Himitangi this day...but even worse than that were the miniature horses in the ocean! Ugh! After our walk, we returned to the car and drove back home so Josh could be there to get a phone call from his family at 4 pm our time.
We went to a different BP car wash since the one by our house was broken. There was someone ahead of us so we took the time to read the 12 step instruction board. Whoever heard of turning your side mirrors inward? Putting the antenne down would be a good idea...if possible in our car...seeing as it's mostly broken. By this time, there were two cars behind us and a grate that was up in the car wash that wouldn't permit us to drive forward. Car in reverse (the car makes an irritating ding, ding, ding sound in reverse) we left the car wash. The car is now dirtier than ever.
We stopped into McDonald's for birthday lunch, Josh opened his cologne (which pictures of him opening attest to the fact he didn't like it very much), Josh talked to his family on the phone, and then Josh opened more presents. The last of his presents were the DVDs I'd bought him.
Excitement! Josh liked his DVD presents and was ready to watch the first Harry Potter. Into the laptop....and....it won't read it!
Oh yeah, I seem to recall something about DVDs and different geographical zones. And the receipt says that the Warehouse won't accept DVD returns unless they're dysfunctional...does having the wrong laptop count as dysfunctional?
So, as quick as he had opened his DVDs, Josh and I were off to the Warehouse to see if we could return them. Not, however, before calling Pizza Hut for two large pizzas (Beef Italiano and BBQ both stuffed crust) to pick up. The Warehouse did allow us to get a refund and we learned that we need DVDs for Zone 2...NZ is in Zone 4. Josh has more birthday money to spend now.
We left the Warehouse to pick up our pizzas. We paid for them first (a good deal at $15 NZD), however, a check in the box when we reached the car reveiled they weren't stuffed crust. Back inside, the guy tells us it'll be 8 minutes to make the right pizzas, but they'll give us the two wrong orders for free and throw in two orders of garlic bread on the side. Now that's what I call customer service.
Josh and I hit up the Woolworth grocery store across the parking lot while we wait. $1.67 for 2.25 liters of Diet Coke is the second best deal in town for the stuff but the Pak N Save ran out of their Diet Cokes for $1.64. Back to the Pizza Hut, we leave with 4 large pizzas and 2 breads for $15! Ridiculous!
Birthday dinner at home followed by the real birthday cake with candles. Josh had a good birthday all in all.
Tuesday, February 13
This day's big event was going out to the Manawatu Gorge. Now, keep in my mind, I thought this gorge was going to be like the gorge just outside of Taos, New Mexico: a big, deep gap (like a mini Grand Canyon) between flat land spanned by a long bridge. I was wrong.
The Manawatu Gorge is a gorge that runs between two tall green mountains in the Tararua Mountain Range about 25 kms-roughly 15 miles-north of Palmerston North (there are windmills on top of these mountains). The gorge is deep and long and you can see the Manawatu River at the bottom...that is, if you stop to get out of your car on one of the pull-offs because there is no bridge here...just one long and windy, make-you-sick road.
Basically, the road through the gorge is a death trap reminiscent of the road from Palmy to Lake Taupo. Not so much up and down winding like going to Taupo but sheer cliff, impending doom, "why isn't there a guardrail?" winding nonetheless. We made it through...only to get ourselves into trouble by a combination of bravado and stupidity.
So, having survived the gorge, there was this turn off the main road that crosses a wooden, one car only, bridge. Nerve wracking, but cool, and we made it across no problem. About half a mile down the road on the right was another turnoff. Well, the bright orange sign post said that they'll be doing construction on this road until May 2007 but the brown sign said this was the way to the wind farm, so we decided to go up and check out the windmills.
The asphalt road turned to gravel after 50 yards...and it was gravel all the way up the hill on what, for the most part, was a one car only road. And, if the gorge road had seemed dangerous, this "road" was certain death. HELLO!~loose gravel, no guardrail, going up higher and higher on a mountain, 17 year old Japanese import car! Well, we made it most of the way to the top, but no kidding, we reached this one part of the road where it started to go downhill before snaking it's way back up and Josh and I were both like, "Agh, agh...ain't goin' happen."
This was actually one of the only places on the whole way up that there was enough room to turn the car around at, so it made sense to do so. I was terrified but Josh got out to take a gander at the landscape. Get me down off of this mountain! We made it down, thankfully, almost getting into a head on with another car that was going up the mountain.
At the bottom of the mountain, we saw a sign for Manawatu Gorge walking trails. One of the trails was 4 hours ONE WAY and the other was a ten minute loop walk. No brainer...seeing as we were in flip flops and oh yeah, I don't think I'll ever do an 8 hour nature walk! It was a really nice walk and there were sign posts along the way describing some of the trees and brush.
We got to see the silver fern which is one of New Zealand's symbols. It's leaves really do have a silver tint to them. Taking this walk, I told Josh that we need to keep two pairs of shoes in the trunk of the car. One pair of sneakers for walks in the woods and one pair of flip flops for the beach...especially because everything is so close to each other that you want to be prepared.
We made it back to the car and she started right up...always a good sign when you're in the middle of nowheresville.
Wednesday, February 14 (Valentine's Day)
I was scheduled to meet with Dr. Elizabeth Hiser, one of the Assistant Deans at International Pacific College, for coffee at 9:30 am (since Josh wasn't going to come with, I practiced driving the car into town the night before...Feb 13...we tried to get the car washed at the BP gas station but the car wash was broken...more about car washes later). As soon as I got out of the shower around 8:30 am, the phone rang and it was Elizabeth calling to rearrange our meeting for the following day because she realized she had another appointment this morning. Okay, so I was the least important of those two meetings...understandable and rearranged. I told Josh that it seems pretty common for people to cancel meetings on the day of the scheduled meeting (Josh's meeting with Wayne and Roger about Massey, for example).
Josh and I didn't have big plans to go out for dinner (seeing as the one time we tried to go out for a nice meal at the Shed in Lake Taupo we got burned). We did, however, decide to go for a walk in the afternoon and feed the ducks in the Esplanade. It was SO FUNNY to see how many couples were picnicing in the rose garden...it was a great, sunny evening when we took our walk and the rose garden is a romantic setting, HOWEVER, there were so many couples it wasn't really private. Hint: come on the 13th or 15th for a picnic!
The ducks appreciated our bread...although, truth be told, it was a bit moldy. And not the green mold you think of back home, a white fuzzy mold...and the bread was kinda wet. This leads to a side bar about bread in New Zealand...
Although we had bought the loaf of bread on the Thursday before we went to Lake Taupo (Feb. 9) the bread was covered in the white fuzz by Feb. 11 when we returned from the lake. What the heck?!? This wasn't the first loaf of NZ bread to go moldy on us so quickly.
Well, Josh had heard on the news that apparently they don't use a certain preservative in New Zealand that keeps bread from molding. I did an online search and the story gets more interesting (considering the source)....
from http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/factsheets/Fact282.htm
The use of calcium propionate (282) as a preservative in bread became widespread in Australia in the early 1990s. This preservative is rarely used in Europe or New Zealand, used increasingly in the UK, and is common in Australia and the US. Consumers are often confused by a label claiming "now with extra calcium". Calcium propionate is used for the propionate, not the calcium. Calcium is added to bread in other forms...
Contrary to what the food industry would like you to believe, this additive is not to keep your bread fresh. Calcium propionate (282) is added to inhibit the growth of mould. There is no mould on a freshly baked loaf of bread, so why use a mould inhibitor? Bakers who keep their work benches and slicer blades clean and mould-free, by wiping with vinegar every day, do not need this additive. However, bakers in large factories prefer the less time-consuming method of "fogging" their equipment with a chemical spray. Putting hot loaves in plastic bags makes the problem worse. Preservative 282 allows for sloppy hygiene. It is for the convenience of the manufacturer not the consumer.
At least that explains why the bread has been getting so moldy, so quickly. We started buying sliced bread directly from the grocery store bakery to hopefully give us a few extra days of mold-free bread. The first loaf we ate from the bakery turned out well and the second one is looking promising for us!
So, back to feeding the ducks. The Esplanade ducks are really friendly and most are your garden variety brown speckled duck. Most are grown adults, however, you can make out by size and feathers the teenage ducks and the babies. I love the baby "duckels" (as I refer to all the ducks). There are two black ducks. One of the black ducks is of normal intelligence. However, the other black duck is so SLOW (mentally)!
This slow black duck cracks us up. Everytime we go to feed the ducks we will actively seek out the slow black duck and he always provides a laugh. When you try to feed this duck directly, more than just throwing some bread crumbs on the ground...because the black duck certainly won't go for those, he just stands there or physically moves so slowly that the other ducks get the bread first.
Josh and I have thrown bread specifically at this duck's bill and he just stands there (maybe opening his bill a little). In all the times we've tried to feed him (and we've targeted him a lot because we feel like he deserves some food) he's maybe got some bread like 5 times. And the times he does get a nibble, the other ducks will bite his back feathers. He's just so slow!
Thursday, February 15
Part two of getting ready to meet Elizabeth for coffee. Well, I made it out of the shower and got dressed and no phone call...so, I guess that meant we would be meeting today. I wore dress pants and a button down shirt because although this wasn't technically an interview, Elizabeth may have IPC contacts and I wanted to make a good impression.
Before I left the house, I asked Josh if he wanted to help me back out of the driveway (a feat of great accomplishment even for the best drivers) and he said he thought I could make it on my own (basically, he didn't want to get out of bed). Well, I did make it...but I got a little close to the landlord's house backing out.
I made it to the Plaza without a problem, parked the car, then walked through the mall to reach Robert Harris, the coffee shop we were meeting at. The day before, when Elizabeth had called to rearrange the date, she asked how we would know each other so I sent her a picture of myself. When I arrived at the coffeeshop, the place was virtually empty, so I ordered a Flat White which is a New Zealand type of coffee that is the middle ground between a cappucino and a latte...I wasn't that impressed.
When Elizabeth showed up, about 3 minutes after I had ordered, we shook hands, she ordered, and we grabbed a seat next to the open window and door at the front of the building. After brief introductions (she left the US during the anti-Vietnam era to join the peace corp being placed in Iran, traveling onward to Korea and Japan, before moving to NZ with her husband and becoming a NZ resident about 3 years ago) she asked why I wanted to meet with her. I told her that she was recommended to me to contact by Lyndsey Chadwick, the woman, who with her husband Jon, had given Josh and I a ride home from New Plymouth two weeks ago.
I told Elizabeth that I wanted to learn more about IPC (because Lyndsey had made it seem like Elizabeth thought it was a bad place to work). Well, E. made it sound like it was a fine place to work. Although, it soon became clear that the ESOL job for which I applied really wouldn't work for me as I wasn't qualified for that. However, E. did mention that there may be openings in something called English Outside the Classroom (taking students on trips to cultural activities and events in town to improve their social skills and English in social settings). Right before we parted ways 45 minutes later, E. gave me the name of her boss who would have more info. regarding openings in the Student Development area at IPC.
Walking back through the Plaza, it was time to shop for Josh's birthday presents. I knew he needed cologne since he'd left his in Arkansas. For fun, I stopped into the $2 store (interestingly, they don't have $1 stores here like in the states...they're $2 stores). I found streamers and birthday party hats so I got those. Then, I found what I thought was a globe...but it also was a pencil sharpener...even cooler. Especially since the other day Josh asked how he could sharpen a pencil for a Sudoku puzzle and I said use a knife! I bought those three items and went back on a search for cologne.
Well, Kiwi men must just like the smell of soap because they don't sell men's cologne anywhere in this mall. The closest thing is Axe deoderant stuff you can get at home...no thanks. I checked out the DVDs for sale in Kmart. They seemed a bit pricy so I thought I'd head over to the Warehouse to comparison shop.
My philosophy when driving in New Zealand has been to follow the guy driving ahead of me. Well, that took me the scenic route to the Warehouse (all the way around the Square, then back down Fitzherbert to Ferguson to Cook to Church rather than just going straight on Church street...check out a map of Palmy sometime at: http://www.manawatunz.co.nz/Pages/AboutManawatu/PalmerstonNorthMap.php
You can actually see our street at the bottom of the map-Savage Crescent.
The Warehouse had DVDs for about .50 cents less. A better deal nonetheless. I bought V for Vendetta and the first three Harry Potter movies for Josh. The fourth Harry Potter wasn't available. I also bought a gift bag and birthday card. The birthday card was of a local series called "Eliot." Eliot is an elephant and he has a mouse friend.
I bought Josh a birthday card with Eliot and the mouse writing Happy Birthday in the sand on the front of the card. When I wrote inside Josh's birthday card, I told Josh the two characters on the front of the card represented Josh and I at Himitangi Beach...little did I know that Josh and I would actually go to the beach on Josh's birthday (talk about fate)!
I also bought Josh the closest stand-in for cologne I could find in Palmerston North, a knock-off of CK One called Gender One. I also bought a pack of 30 batteries at the Warehouse to use in the digital camera. I returned home and I don't think Josh was any the wiser although his birthday was quickly approaching. I put all his presents in my purse before going into the house...then inside the house, I put his presents in my dresser drawer.
Note when moving abroad: If someones birthday is coming up in close proximity to the time when you are moving abroad, please buy their gift at home and find room in your suitcase to bring it with you. It will save you a lot of grief later on when you are in a foreign country that doesn't carry the item you are looking for.
This afternoon, we returned to the Victoria Esplanade to give the ducks the second loaf of bread that had molded over.
Friday, February 16
Josh went to Massey today saying he was sad about leaving me alone...he doesn't want me to be the highly qualified international wife who stays at home all alone and becomes depressed with her life...i.e. a story I read from the book Maybe Baby before we left home about an Indian woman in a similar situation in the states.
Josh got his Massey library card which was a laminated piece of yellow cardstock with a bar code on it. It reminded me of my 7th grade library card in Alaska...they must not be up on the technology here yet. While Josh was at the university, I played domestic (albeit, I am getting better at it what with the unemployment and all). Note: I figured out why I like washing dishes better here than I did in the states. Here I don't fill up the sink with water and soap and load all the dishes into the sink at once. Rather, I wash each dish individually with soap and a sponge. No sticking my hand into greasy, manky water to fish out the dishes to wash. Besides, the sink here is too small to hold more than a few dishes at once anyway. Also, we've only taken two plates, two bowls, and four glasses out. Basically, everytime we eat, we immediately wash dishes because we don't want to have too many dishes out as that equals more dishes to wash.
I also wrote out Josh's birthday card and put his gift bag together.
While he was out, I applied for a two day, temporary position taking inventory. I submitted my application online and the recruitment agent called me back with several questions, the most important of which was "Do you have an IRD number." Well, no, I've never even heard of that.
A quick Google search later (thank goodness for the internet) I found out that after applying for and receiving my working holiday visa, I should have applied for an IRD number. Basically, this number is used for taxation purposes and you have to have one to get paid in New Zealand. Well, I want to work, so I had to apply for one of these things and you can't just submit your info online, you have to print off a form and mail it in.
Which would be fine, except we don't have a printer here. Nevermind the fact we had THREE computer printers at HOME in the states (two came with the laptops and were still in their boxes when we moved) AND the printers at work. So, this meant I had to go uptown to the library to print off the needed IRD number form.
It was quite surprising how easily it all worked out though. I brought my passport, copies of my passport and working holiday visa, copy of our electricity account being opened, two $1 coins, and cell phone with me. I had to drive uptown by myself again...no worries. I parked at the Plaza, since it's free for 2 hours, rather than paying to park on the Square directly in front of the library. I went into Kmart to buy envelopes to mail the form in.
Envelopes purchased, I made my way across the Square on foot to the library. At the library, I had to obtain membership before being able to use the computers. Electric bill information and cell phone (with my phone number that I haven't yet memorized programed inside) came in handy in opening the account. Easy enough...now about using the computer.
The public library charges .50 cents per 15 minutes of internet usage and .10 cents per page to print off material. Well, I need the internet to print off my pages, so I used one of my $1 coins to buy a vending card. The computer system was easy enough to use (although both the printer and copy machine were out of paper...tsk, tsk). I was able to print off the IRD form in my 15 minute session.
Since I still had moolah on my vending card, I photocopied my passport and working holiday visa to have an extra copy of each. I walked back across the Square to one branch of the post office. Because it was almost 5 pm I didn't know if they'd still be open. Let me tell you about Kiwi post offices-they rule!
Not only can you mail letters and take care of your banking and get car ownership papers, the branch on the Square also has a Lotto booth in it...crazy! So, I was able to address an envelope I had just purchased at Kmart with the IRD location, inserted the form and a photocopy of my passport, bought a stamp, and mailed the letter which wasn't due to be picked up until 6 pm. Weird how somethings work out, huh?
Apparently, it takes 8-10 days to get an IRD number so we'll see if that comes in time to work the inventory job which runs from Feb. 26-27. The job pays just over $10/hour for 9 hours of work...but something is better than nothing. Either way, at least I'll have an IRD number for other potential jobs.
On the way home, I grabbed Josh an early birthday present of Canadian whiskey. It was the only Canadian whiskey at the Liquor King store and it really blew my mind that Johnnie Walker Red Label (Scotch whiskey that is expensive back home) costs the same as the Canadian whiskey here. Checking out, I could not for the life of me understand what the clerk was saying in his HEAVY Kiwi accent! Note about alcohol in New Zealand: Kiwi grocery stores sell both wine and beer, however, to purchase liquor, you must go to a liquor store where they not only sell liquor but also beer and wine...but it costs more....Note: liquor stores ARE open on Sundays in NZ.
Saturday, February 17
Mostly a do-nothing day. We went to the Pak N Save to pick up birthday eats for Josh's birthday. A note on grocery stores and food in New Zealand: They don't sell any healthy food here and it's driving me up the wall! Sure, I could eat the healthy fruits and veggies...but I want junk food that has been manipulated to be good for me i.e. Baked Cheetos and Lays, Right Doritos, Fat Free Cottage Cheese, Turkey Bacon, Reduced Fat insert name of cookies or ice cream here. It's enough to make a girl go crazy and/or vegetarian in order to maintain her weight (minus all the trips to McDonald's). The closest I've come to some light foods here are what we'd call 2% milk, cottage cheese, and cheddar cheese (their version of 2% is called lite...I can't even get fat free for crying out loud). And trust me, whenever I do find something that's lite, I do my happy dance in the middle of the grocery store because it's so amazing. Okay, rant over.
This night, we had early birthday cake and ice cream to celebrate Josh's birthday weekend. Top Deck ice cream (a chocolate and vanilla mix) by Cadbury is THE BEST ice cream I've ever had. Almost like gelato in the sense that it is so creamy, light, and soft. So good (because it's full of fat-see above).
Sunday, February 18 (Josh's 28th birthday)
Josh and I stayed up until 1:17 am or so...the time he was born in Arkansas (although technically it wasn't that time in Arkansas while we were celebrating). We went to sleep and I had two nightmares of not waking up in time to put up Josh's birthday streamers. So, my internal alarm clock was like, "Get Up!" around 7 am. I put up all of the streamers and went back to sleep.
Josh and I woke up, put on our birthday hats (we wore them all day except at the beach), had some breakfast, and then headed out to Himitangi (putting sunscreen on in the car) for some birthday on the beach. Well, everyone and his brother had the same idea on this gorgeous summer Sunday and cars were lined up and down the beach when we arrived. No worries. We found a spot, parked the car, and I literally ran into the surf. Cold! Josh and I played in the waves until hypothermia started setting in on me and I headed to shore. Josh stayed in the water another hour or so.
I milled around the beach, trying to find a comfortable place to lay down on my towel. But, remember, the beach is a road and I found myself laying down in between two lanes of coming and going traffic. The smell of exhust and the fear for my life got to be a bit much so I tried moving locations. Not long after getting re-situated, a group of 20-somethings guys started up a cricket game. This couldn't end well for me (picture junior high embarassment as the sports ball hits me or even comes close enough for me to throw back to the guys with all the finesse of....well, myself). Third time to move's gotta be the charm, right?
I saw further down the beach, an isolated area near the shore where I could actually see Josh better while he swam. I walked over, laid my towel down, sat down and realized why this spot was void of other sunbathers. Wet Sand. You couldn't tell by loooking at it because the water was just below the surface, until you place your body weight on it...completely soaked towel later...Josh was out of the water and ready to take a walk on the beach.
Okay, so remember how I don't like dogs swimming in the water with humans. Well, that was everywhere at Himitangi this day...but even worse than that were the miniature horses in the ocean! Ugh! After our walk, we returned to the car and drove back home so Josh could be there to get a phone call from his family at 4 pm our time.
We went to a different BP car wash since the one by our house was broken. There was someone ahead of us so we took the time to read the 12 step instruction board. Whoever heard of turning your side mirrors inward? Putting the antenne down would be a good idea...if possible in our car...seeing as it's mostly broken. By this time, there were two cars behind us and a grate that was up in the car wash that wouldn't permit us to drive forward. Car in reverse (the car makes an irritating ding, ding, ding sound in reverse) we left the car wash. The car is now dirtier than ever.
We stopped into McDonald's for birthday lunch, Josh opened his cologne (which pictures of him opening attest to the fact he didn't like it very much), Josh talked to his family on the phone, and then Josh opened more presents. The last of his presents were the DVDs I'd bought him.
Excitement! Josh liked his DVD presents and was ready to watch the first Harry Potter. Into the laptop....and....it won't read it!
Oh yeah, I seem to recall something about DVDs and different geographical zones. And the receipt says that the Warehouse won't accept DVD returns unless they're dysfunctional...does having the wrong laptop count as dysfunctional?
So, as quick as he had opened his DVDs, Josh and I were off to the Warehouse to see if we could return them. Not, however, before calling Pizza Hut for two large pizzas (Beef Italiano and BBQ both stuffed crust) to pick up. The Warehouse did allow us to get a refund and we learned that we need DVDs for Zone 2...NZ is in Zone 4. Josh has more birthday money to spend now.
We left the Warehouse to pick up our pizzas. We paid for them first (a good deal at $15 NZD), however, a check in the box when we reached the car reveiled they weren't stuffed crust. Back inside, the guy tells us it'll be 8 minutes to make the right pizzas, but they'll give us the two wrong orders for free and throw in two orders of garlic bread on the side. Now that's what I call customer service.
Josh and I hit up the Woolworth grocery store across the parking lot while we wait. $1.67 for 2.25 liters of Diet Coke is the second best deal in town for the stuff but the Pak N Save ran out of their Diet Cokes for $1.64. Back to the Pizza Hut, we leave with 4 large pizzas and 2 breads for $15! Ridiculous!
Birthday dinner at home followed by the real birthday cake with candles. Josh had a good birthday all in all.
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