Monday, June 11

June 11, 2007

I'm heading into my second week of work as an International Student Co-ordinator at Universal College of Learning (UCOL) in Palmerston North. It's one of those jobs you have to learn as you go seeing as I've never worked with international students before. So far, I've been successful in taking students' online visa applications and running off a letter of enrollment so a student could open a bank account. Career-wise, I'm excited to return to the States, or our next destination, to try to enter the Study Abroad arena at a university there.


Apparently, I'm coming in at the middle of semesters at UCOL (students are taking exams right now) so it's kind of quiet. This makes it a good time to learn about my position without being overwhelmed. I'm working part time in this position (4 days per week from 10-3 = 20 hours per week). This is good because it leaves me time to make Rotary commitments. This schedule will change somewhat when I begin my second role at UCOL as an Academic Counselor which will be in addition to the International Student Co-ordinator role. I'll still try to keep to the 4 days per week schedule as it allows flexibility to travel around New Zealand over long weekends.


Speaking of Rotary, this week is a very Rotary heavy week. Although we returned to Palmerston North on May 31 and had scheduled a week off to recover from the trip and get settled back into Palmy again, we were called to present at Woodville (about 20 kms out of Palmy) last minute on Thursday, June 7 (a scheduled speaker canceled). Since we didn't have other plans, we agreed to present.


Then tonight, we presented at the Milson Rotary club in Palmerston North (we've had this scheduled for about 2 months). Once we returned from the meeting, we received a phone call to present at a Feilding Rotary club tomorrow night because their scheduled speaker canceled. Feilding is only 12 kms away and we didn't have any other plans for tomorrow so we agreed to speak. Wednesday, we are meeting with David and Bernice regarding our July 5 presentation on how Americans celebrate the Fourth of July. Finally, this Thursday, we are speaking to our host club, the Takaro club, about our careers in the States. Whew!


Josh and I have a pretty good statistic regarding our presentations in New Zealand. At the end of this week, we'll have completed 16 presentations in 19 weeks (and we have more scheduled)! In truth, we are SO EXCITED to be here on the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship because we've looked forward to it for so long (since Henderson State). Everytime we speak at Rotary, I remind myself that I am actually living out my dream. I told Josh that when I dreamed about the scholarship (again, since like 2000), I never thought about where we'd specifically be located, but it's nice to be in New Zealand.


All this to say, we are very happy here. Sure, if I start to think about all the Chili's, Outback, Mexico Viejo, and Red Lobster I'm missing I can get stir-crazy (don't get me started on how I've labeled all our kilojoule food labels to kilocalories thanks to Google!). Too, I think Josh and I are both ready to begin "grown up" life in the sense of having our own house and a place to be more settled. Whether or not that place is in the States or abroad, we'll have to see. Ultimately, when the scholarship ends and job offers begin to come in, we'll have to determine whether or not we can see ourselves in a particular place for an indefinite amount of time. Josh REALLY is ready to not have an end date in mind when beginning a new position. For example, we knew HSU was 4 years, NMSU was 2 years, UofA was 4 years, and the Ambassadorial Scholarship in New Zealand is slated for 1 year.
On another note, winter is fully on in Palmerston North. It is so rainy, cloudy, windy here right now. I took for granted all the things I'd read online before moving here about New Zealand houses being cold in the winter. They are cold! Well, houses like ours (which lack insulation, central heating, or a log burner) are really cold anyway. We have one "oil heater" (thanks to a VERY KIND Rotarian) which is like an electrical, portable radiator that you might see attached to the wall in older homes in the States. Anyway, during the day, Josh and I shut off the doors to the two bedrooms and sit as close as we can to the heater to stay warm. Then, at night, we roll the heater into the bedroom and close the door. Fortunately, because the bedroom is one small room, we usually turn off the heater in there durign the middle of the night. Then, the process starts all over again.

Before we had the heater, and keep in mind this was in April during fall here, I was wearing my jacket with a hat and gloves inside the house in order to stay warm! Crazy! A special thanks to Aimee for the multi color slippers she sent me (and which I'm currently wearing) and to my mom for sending my bathrobe in the last care package. Taking a shower in the morning is less cold now that I have that. Although I have a sporty red jacket, Josh and I went to a thrift store today so I could buy a winter coat here. I only ended up spending $20 instead of $70 for a new coat, so I was happy. It would have cost a lot of US money to mail my business-y coat down here so I feel like I got a bargin. The coat is dark navy rather than black but beggers can't be choosers so I'll take what I can get.

I must admit, however, that I'm beginning to feel a longing to shop for new clothes. 4 1/2 months is a long time for a girl not to buy herself several somethings new for the wardrobe. Ultimately, (although it's a borderline hard choice) I'd rather spend the money we have in New Zealand on travel rather than clothes so I have to remind myself of that. I can get new clothes once we have "real jobs" and are settled somewhere.

I'm including some pictures of our oil heater and also of the electrical plugs in our home. In New Zealand, you have to flip a switch in order to generate power to it. One picture is of a standard outlet, the other is the switch you have to turn on to give power to the stove.