Long Overdue Pictures

This was on my birthday. The amazing meal I had at Cafe Valentino (the place I got a reaction to). It was still delicious.
These three picturs are of the ferry ride from Wellington to Picton (where we got the train to ride into Christchurch).

Just a Few More Days

Friday 25 June 2010

The past couple of days at work have been quite stressful. Among the screaming children lately, we have had more accidents than usual. On Monday, I was in the bathroom to help clean one child when another one came in. When I was finished with that child, another child needed to be taken care of. I had to do this several times in a row, and it was getting quite ridiculous. I started getting a major headache after a while.

After work, it has been fine. I'm trying to get all the last minute calls and confirmations together for the big trip with my mom. I think I have it all worked out now. I hit a couple of snags here and there, but I think everything is good now. I guess I really won't know until the actual trip when they tell me I needed to do something. Hopefully that won't happen.

On Wednesday, I went to the Salvation Army Choir (Songsters). It was nice being a part of the choir again. They sang so many songs, and I didn't know a single one. They had sung all of them before, but I was very unfamiliar with them. One of the ladies asked if I had sung them before since I followed it so well, so that made me really happy.

Also, Alison and I got to see some of the Captain and his wife's pictures of their Bible tour through Greece and Turkey. It was so neat and fun to go through their journey with them. Then they showed us a few of their holiday pictures (London, Paris, Brussels, parts of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy...). Can I just say their trip looked amazing?

So, it is the weekend now. I have just a few more here and of work, and then it is a big holiday for me with my mom and Alison. We will finally be able to travel New Zealand!

A Little Down

Monday 21 June 2010

Today is one of those really sad days for being out of the country. I feel like I am missing out on life in the States. Life is going on without me. I know it is true, but I feel worse about it now.

Today, one of my best friends got married. I was so sad not to be there and share in her special day. Alicia, congratulations, and I wish all the best for you and your husband!

The other thing that has been really hard is that today is Father's Day. Well, it was yesterday for me, but it's all the same. It is hard not to be able to talk to Dad, or even Grandpa or Papa. I really missed them today.

I decided to do something about Father's Day, though. I bought my mom's favourite candy bar (since my dad's favourite candy bar was not available) and went to the captain. I told him that it is Father's Day in America (it is a different day in New Zealand), and because he was my adoptive father, I wished him a Happy Father's Day. Then I gave him a Snickers bar. Fortunately, he said it was one of his favourites. It made me feel a bit better.

Today was all in all a not so good day. Along with missing Alicia's wedding, the children were screaming all day. One kid started ripping one of my earrings through the skin (not all the way through, but enough), so it is quite sore.

There were several things that happened that helped the day. I got a couple extra hours at work by baby sitting. I got several emails from people. My friend Daisy sent me pictures of Alicia's wedding, so that helped.

Well, now to share stuff that happened before today. Life at the Captain's couldn't be better. Alison and I meet each other and walk home. Just as get home, dinner is ready. They are such amazing and wonderful people. I don't know how we have survived without them!

I got an extra day last week for work. On Saturday, Alison and I got to see the Scotland Symphony Orchestra. It was fun, but long. At one point, we thought they were done, but they weren't. It was just intermission. There was a world famous violinist from the States. After he finished playing, he received a 10 minute applause. It was kind of ridiculous. At the end, we ran to the bus stop, and the bus we wanted was no where near the stop. So we took another bus. It was quite late by the time we got back.

Yesterday, I did a lot of Christmas, birthday, and random present shopping. I was able to get everything I wanted, so now I am all finished with presents. I feel quite relieved about that. Now I have to figure out how to pack everything.

So that is all for me up to this point. Hopefully tomorrow will be looking up.

More Changes

Wed. 16 June 2010

I guess it has been about a week since my last post. I have been struggling with bad congestion and heavy coughing. It doesn't help that we were in a freezing cold flat. I was hacking all over the place. One of our flatmates gave me some medicine. It was really sweet.

I also did some babysitting. It was actually a really easy job. There were three girls. One girl went to bed as soon as I arrived, another went to bed 1/2 hour later, and the last girl went to bed 45 minutes after that. So I was in the house keeping an eye on them for over an hour. It was a nice babysitting time.

So the big news is, we moved! It was difficult to pack and tidy up the room. We needed to get everything back in our suitcases. Unfortunately, we accumulated several things, so we had more to pack in than we originally had. It was pretty embarrassing. We texted the Captain and said that we had more stuff than we thought, and we would follow him on the bus. He told us he was coming. He and his wife each drove a car, so we were able to fit everything in. It was so nice, and we were so embarrassed for having so much stuff.

We made it to their house and unpacked everything. It is a smaller room, but so much nicer. We were able to put everything away and then have tea (dinner). It was fish and chips.

Our life here has been so nice. It is so much warmer, the beds are amazing, the pillows are amazing...We have really been enjoying being here.

If there is a downside, it is the distance. The house is a lot further away from everything. It takes about an hour to walk to the city centre and 1 1/2 hours to walk to work. So I will definitely be getting my exercise. I guess it is good, because we will probably not be eating quite as healthy as we had in our flat. The meals have been amazing though. We haven't worked everything out yet, but we will. We have a key now, but there is an alarm, so that will be scary. We have dealt with alarms before...

As for the weather, it has been sunny and raining and hailing all in the same day. Always unpredictable, but it has been nice usually. Tonight it is supposed to get down to -1 degrees C, so it will be quite cold. Going to work, I walk in the dark and in the frost. Just wanted to get that out there. Pretty soon, I will get to say that I had to walk to work in the snow.

Well, I guess that is about it for now.

Cheers!

It Figures!

Wed. 9-6-10

I know I have said this before, but it is COLD! I can always see my breath morning, noon, and night, inside or outside, cloudy or sunny. It doesn't help that we have cracks in the room that lead to the outside. We can see the curtains move when it gets really windy outside. Yesterday, it hailed all day. We really want to use our portable heater, but we are afraid the electricity will go off. So we are in freezing weather (literally) without any heat. Imagine that. Two California girls (who can put up with a lot, but my goodness!) who are living in the freezing winter without any heat. We don't even have blankets. We have a sheet and a comforter (that couldn't warm anything). Lately, we have been sleeping with the sheet over our faces! We will be so grateful to move! Just a few more days!!!

We found out that the new flatmate that came, doesn't live here anymore. It is a very strange situation that makes absolutely no sense to us. Apparently, she moved in the room (after living a couple days with one of our flatmates), but had no money to pay for it. Actually, we were told that she had no money at all. Including to pay for food. So she was supposedly starving herself for over a week...and not paying rent...We don't understand how the landlady would approve of that. Well, a couple days ago, the door to that room was open, everything was gone, and the keys were left. Very, very strange.

Also, apparently we have a new property manager in whose account we are supposed to deposit our rent money. We only had one week left to pay before moving, so we weren't sure what to do. So we actually deposited it into the landlady's account and will let her deal with it. We have all of our stubs, so we should be okay.

As I have said before, we are running out of food. Well, we decided to make lemon squares, but we didn't have enough ingredients (including some flour). We mixed more powdered sugar into it, knowing full and well it would be strange and liquidy. Well, it definitely was that. We figured if it doesn't look good, maybe it will taste good. So then we went to the second half of our baking. We didn't have enough sugar, so we used the sugar in a container on the counter . So we finished making it. Later, when we tasted it, we realised the sugar on the counter was not sugar at all, but salt. Imagine our surprise and the immediate disposal of the remaining lemon squares. If that was not bad enough, I burned the rice. The whole bottom layer was stuck to the bottom of the pan, and we were not able to scrape it off completely. It was a really sad night for food.

I got a text from the preschool director asking if I could work a couple extra hours. I said yes. The preschool owner rang me in the morning to ask the same thing. I rode the bus, but was still sopping wet from waiting at the bus stop. Also, walking to the bus stop was difficult, because it was starting to hail, and the ice was hurting my face. It hailed throughout the entire day. Fortunately, the preschool owner gave me a ride home.

I got some disturbing, but not that surprising news. I found out that as of November, being a primary registered teacher, I will be qualified to be a preschool registered teacher. Meaning, I would be able to be a regular preschool teacher instead of a relieving teacher in November, which is of course when I will be leaving New Zealand. Isn't this timing amazing? If I had come to New Zealand next year, everything would have been perfect. Well, that is not my luck.

Marathon and Shuttle Delays

Monday 7 June 2010

Today is the Queen's Birthday, so no work for me today. It is kind of a bummer since I only have two days a week, but now I only get one day this week. Hopefully I will get more days somehow.

On Saturday, I actually encountered a demonstration. There was a group of people in front of the Cathedral chanting:
"1, 2, 3, 4" "Occupation no more!"
"Free, free Palestine!" "Free, free Palestine!"
One person would chant the first part, and then the crowd of people would chant the other part. They had signs up and were screaming at the top of their lungs. I am not exactly sure what it was all about. No one else seemed to know about it when I asked.

Later that evening, I went to my co-workers birthday party at Cafe Valentino. It is a fancier restaurant in Christchurch. I got the cheapest thing on the menu. I was among very unfamiliar people, so it was quite uncomfortable at first. I did get to meet a couple people, so that was good. I started getting really hot (which was interesting as I was freezing before on my way there). I just figured it was the room.

I asked for a box, and they were a little confused. I came to find out that they call it a doggy bag. I know in the States, it used to be called that. I felt like I was going back in time.

Well, it started getting really cold again that night, so I went under the covers, even though it was quite late enough to go to sleep. We did some researching on Australia before going to bed. When it was time for bed, we realized one of us would have to get up to turn off the lights. I am always the nominated person, because I am closer to the switch. So I was thinking of every way not to get out of bed. I got my toothpaste bottle and threw it at the light switch. I didn't make it. So then I threw my flip flops. I was way off. Since I threw my flip flops, I didn't have any shoes to walk on the carpet with, and I refused to touch the carpet with my socks. The floor is really gross. So what do I do? I started leaning on my night stand (where the knobs are attached to the drawers). Well, I almost reached the flip flops and light switch, when I felt the knobs move. Before I could react, two of the knobs fell off the draws and I landed on the floor. So much for my brilliant ideas. So I grabbed my flip flops, turned off the light and ran into bed to get warmed up.

On Sunday, we went to Church. We had quite an interesting time getting to Church, because there was a marathon going on. We literally had to run through all the runners to get to the other side. We had to go through the runners twice to get to the Church. After Church, we went to get some lunch. In order to do that, we had to use the shuttle. The problem was, the shuttle was not doing it's regular stops, because of the marathon. So we were at a stop and saw the shuttle. We ran to the other stop and found out the shuttle would not stop there. So we ran to another stop. We ran, because it was raining. We finally got the shuttle and waited for the stop to get off. At the stop before we wanted to get off, everyone but us got off. Then the shuttle driver started looking at his door. He was taking so long that we asked if we could get off. He let us, so we walked the rest of the way. In the restaurant it was actually getting cold, so we went back home to try to get warmed up. We, again waited for the shuttle. It picked us up, but at one of the stops, the driver actually left the doors open and left the shuttle. We found out later she went to get a coffee. It would have been nice to at least close the doors. We finally made it to our room, but what an adventure. Inside the room is freezing, but under the cover helps. No matter where we are, we can always see our breath, at any time of day.

We spend the rest of the day talking, reading, and researching. At dinner, I ate the rest of my leftovers. I started getting really hot again. My cheeks were really red, and I realised, it has to be something in the food. I felt that way each time I ate. It actually was an uncomfortable heat, which is strange with how cold it is. It wasn't until late in the night, that I actually felt cold and had to put another layer on. So, I can have no more food in Cafe Valentino.

Nasty Surprises

Sat. 5 June 2010

I have to say that I have been doing pretty good keeping up with my blog this week. Not that anyone is reading it anymore.

I just wanted to share a couple of amusing stories that have happened. First off happened at work. Someone made pikelets (mini pancakes) for morning tea. I got to do morning tea and was distributing the pikelets. There were three types of sauces (I guess) to put on the pikelets. Honey, jam, or chocolate. So I would the kids would ask me to pass one of the three items and put the sauce on themselves (sometimes with my help). One girl wanted the chocolate and needed my help. I helped her and found that a little of the chocolate got on my finger. So at the end of morning tea, I licked it off. DEFINITELY NOT CHOCOLATE!!!! It was marmite with a yeast base like what they put in beer. It is a New Zealand (and Australian) thing. They love it and eat it like candy. It is VILE! There are three forms. marmite, promite (or something like that), and vegemite. All three are horrible. Apparently the only difference is that marmite is sweeter than vegemite and promite is sweeter than marmite. There was no sweetness that I could detect. Only nastiness.

Now with the second story. So last night, after coming back from being outside (it was finally sunny), I got ready for my shower. I finished, but then one of my flip flops broke. Completely unusable now. This is a really bad thing, because I walk all over the house in these flip flops. I never want my feet touching the floor in the flat. So then I resolved to fix the shoe somehow. The problem is, we are low on resources. We have no string, and we have no tape. Even if we had string, I really don't know how we could cut it unless it was with a knife. So, I did the only thing I could do. I used plasters (Band-Aids). I used two of them. Believe it or not, it worked. I have no idea how long it lasts, but for now, it is working just fine.

So there are my two stories. Besides this, we have been slowly thinking of the places we want to visit in Australia and trying to come up with some kind of format of where and when to go. We will see how that goes. Anyway, after all the Australia talk, we decided to watch Finding Nemo. Just a side note.

Anyway, I am actually going to a party tonight. Today is one of my co-workers birthday. She invited me to go to her dinner party celebration, so I am going to be going in just a little while. Other than that, I have nothing more to say except enjoy the heat! It is quite cold down here!!!

Complaints and Surprises

Thurs. 3 June 2010

All and all, there is really not a whole lot to report on. I cannot put up pictures, because our Internet is ridiculously slow again. So I will have to wait until we move out to post some pictures.

So yesterday, I went to the Fendalton Library. I walked there. It is a really beautiful walk. The trees are all kinds of colours (red, orange, yellow, green). Believe it or not, seasons actually change the colours of the leaves. It is not a myth!

It was raining and it was a long walk, so my pants were soaking wet by the time I got back to the room. I was desperately trying to find something to eat, but settled for eating an English Muffin and cabbage. We have been trying to use all our food up before we move. We don't want to move things to the Captain's house that we don't need. The less we travel with, the better. So we had a goal of not buying any food until we get to their house. It has not been easy. We have 1 1/2 weeks left, and are really running out of food. We are putting interesting dinners together. For example, yesterday, I had spaghetti with carrots and garlic. It was all mixed together, because I had no sauce for the spaghetti.

So we are really on countdown mode to leave this place. It is getting dirtier and dirtier. It is getting colder and colder. It smells. Plus, we recieved a lovely gift in our mailbox yesterday. We had a nasty letter telling us we would be charged $500 fine for loud music during band practice. We have had three complaints about loud drums and guitars and have had three visits from the county to tell us about the complaints. Well, we do not have drums, guitars, or anything else like that. The only instrument in the house is a violin, and I can tell you, it isn't loud enough to stir the neighbors. There is a house that does play quite loudly, and they play quite late into the night. It is either across the street or next to us. It is actually hard to place what house it is exactly.

Sooo, one of our flatmates called the number on the letter and told them they had the wrong house and explained the situation. All the person could say was, "I believe you, but we are not wrong." So, there's a contradictory statement for you. So now we are not exactly sure what to do. I think someone is going to come to the house, but I am not sure. Oh, and by they way, in the letter, they said that three people came to talk to us. Well, that wasn't true either.

We are really ready to move out. We are tired of all these things happening. Although, our troubles seem to follow us everywhere. Another thing that happened was our landlady and another lady came in to look at the room. The landlady was supposed to text both Alison and I, but she only texted Alison. So I was surprised to see her. The other lady was someone who could advertise our room, but we would have to pay her. Apparently, no one has enquired about our room at all. It looks like we will lose the money in the bond.

Well, I guess that is about it for now. We will see what happens in the next couple of days.