christmas

It turns out I will be having a Kiwi Christmas after all. Ed's girlfriend, Kirstee, invited me to her parents house for a christmas bbq. I am excited to enjoy a christmas outside in shorts. It should be interesting. It works out well since me, Ed, and Kirstee are all driving to Napier together the next day.

That's right...I am leaving Wellington. It has been fun while I was here and I enjoyed being settled for a bit but now it's time to move on. So right after Christmas I am heading back up north to the east coast of NZ to a town called Napier. There I will camp, yes tent and sleeping bag camp, for 3 weeks. I am really excited about it. I am looking foward to having nothing to do, not even anything touristy. And the camp site I am going to isn't geared towards backpackers, it's more for the locals so I will be meeting more Kiwis which is always a plus. The cool thing is that there is a hostel attached so I still have access to toilets and a kitchen. So its roughing it but not really roughing it. The best part is that I will be out of the hostels for a bit. No window wars for me for awhile.

Speaking of the window wars. ..the other night I was sleeping and John, my window war enemy, came in and walked to the window to close it. I popped out of bed and asked if he wouldn't mind keeping the window open since it gets really hot in the room overnight with eight people sleeping in it with no window open. He said he guesses so but that he likes it shut since it's so loud outside. He had a valid point. The backpackers is right in downtown Wellington where all the bars are so you can hear the music all the time. It doesn't matter if he had a point though. I said back to him that there were at least two people in the room who snored (him included) so the chances of it ever being quiet in the room were impossible so we might as well have some fresh air. Obviously he couldn't argue with my flawless logic and since then he has left the window open. The kicker to the story is the very next night a new person stayed in the room and as he went to bed he closed the window. Same war just a different enemy.

The King Kong premiere was good. There wasn't that many people but it was still nice to see everything done up. They had the red carpet and they did up the embassy theater to look like a 1930s theater. Besides having the stars walk down the red carpet they also had extras dressed in 30s garb walking down to go to the movie it was nice. Here is the only pic I got though.




Ok so before I leave Wellington there some more

pics to show. This one is NZs parliament building known as the Beehive. I didn't go inside...it felt a little too educational.

Below is a pic of one of the trees that I wrote about before. This is the NZ Christmas tree in full bloom.

So that's it from me for awhile. The plan while in Napier is to try and stay as far away from computers as possible. I think I am a little too connected and although I love sharing my experiences with everyone I think it'll be better if the blogs are longer instead of me blogging so much.

I hope everyone has a good holiday season and enjoys the cold weather for me. Happy New Year!

Peace out.

Eat Christmas Outing

A couple of weeks ago my boss, Nic, handed me an invitation to the eat Xmas outing. She did't tell me or Ed what we were going to do. It was a surprise. The plan was that we were going to meet at the shop at 12:30 and do the outing and then open the shop at 5:30. So yesterday I didn't work for accomodation (which was fine with me since they keep on putting me on bathrooms) and instead I went to the outing. It turns out the outing was going sailing and it was awesome. We get on the boat and the pass out some beers and we just relax and sail on the Tasman Sea. We sailed out to the middle of harbor and out to an island. Apparently this is the island where all animals entering NZ used to be quarantined for 3 months.
We sailed around the island and then attached the boat to a buoy so we could enjoy lunch. The lunch consisted of more beer and cheese and crackers and strawberries and chocolate. Yummmy. We hung out on the boat for about an hour and a half just talking. It was really the first time that we were all just hanging out outside of work and it was fun. There's a part of Wellington called the Hutt and we were comparing it to NJ. The Hutt takes a lot of flak from Wellington kind of like how NJ takes a lot of flak from the rest of the states. It was pretty funny to talk about. Unfortunately my sunglasses were a casuality of the outing since they fell off of my head and into the water. We started sailing back around the island and heading toward the harbor again when I turned to Ed and said how I really didn't want to go to work after this. Not even ten minutes later Nic told us that we were going to keep the shop closed and go out for more drinks and dinner instead. Woo hoo!!

But before we could go out we had to get back. The ride back was interesting. It started to rain a little and the wind really picked up. It turns out that to catch the wind one side of the boat needs to be in the air. For the whole way back we were all riding on a tilt. So essentially one side of the













boat was always leaning into the water. If you tilt your head a little and look at the picture you'll see what I mean. For the pic on the right, the woman on my left is Nic my boss and Ed is the guy. The shirt I am wearing is free because it was left in a room and was brand new. It had a tag attached that explained that it wouldn't fit into their bag so they hoped that someone would take it. I always have followed directions well. No comments about the picture, I know it's a bad one of me.














The guy with the pink crown on is Norm. He is my other boss and Nic's partner. In NZ they have these things called Christmas crackers. Two people hold an end of this long tube and pull. Once they pull a the tube cracks and out comes presents. Everyone got a different colored crown and then some plastic toy. I got a thimble. Norm got crabs. The woman in the grey sunglasses is JoJo. She is from the Hutt and Norm kept on making comments about the amount of peroxide in her hair. His jokes definetly reminded me of the Jersey girl stereotypes back at home. The guy in the yellow crown who is steering is Barty. He helps out at the store when it's busy. Basically what he does is try to have all the customers buy mushroom burgers since they are the most expensive. Normally we sell five mushroom burgers in a day. When Barty worked once they sold 30. The other guy in the picture is Mark. Despite the fact that Norm was calling himself El Capitain, Mark was the only one who actually knew what to do with boat.

Once we safely docked we all met up at the pool hall and drank some more and played some pool. It was fun except for the fact that I am terrible at non-American pool. The balls are smaller and the table is bigger. It's wicked hard. After some pool we went out to eat at this place that would be considered a pizza and pasta back home. Norm and I started talking about pizza and the differences. Here they only have gourmet pizza. It is impossible to just buy a slice and it's unheard to just get a plain pizza (you will also get weird looks if you call it a pie but that happens in some parts of the US too). Norm was explaining to everyone how he was in the US once and got a slice of pizza. He said how he was amazed at how big it was and he had no idea how to eat it. I explained that what he should have done was use the paper plate,fold the pizza in half and eat it. They were all flabbergasted by this idea. Eating gourmet pizza involves knifes and forks since there are lots of toppings and since there basically is no crust. Well halfway through dinner I showed them how I would normally eat the pizza. The were amazed as to how I folded the pizza. Norm equated it to watching Asians using chop sticks, "It's an art form."

It was a pretty funny night. I got made fun of a lot for my accent but it was all in good fun. The best part of the night was the fact that Nic and Norm footed the bill. It was a totally relaxing day and it was good to just hang out with some more Kiwis.

Wednesday is the King Kong premiere. The red carpet is going right down the main street where I work and the movie is premiering across the street from my hostel. I have to work the whole day which I was kind of bummed about until I heard that Jack Black won't be at the premiere since he is doing SNL. Since he won't be here it means that he won't come into eat and fall madly in love with me at first sight and wisk me away to the premiere and after party and a quicky marriage at the library (where the justice of the peace is always in). I'll take a break from work and take some pictures of all of the other people that are going to walk the red carpet though.

I am not a morning person

The only person who might actually think I am a morning person is my mom and she thinks that because she has found the key to making me talk in the morning...coffee. When I wake up and come downstairs there is always a coffee there waiting for me. As long as I have coffee I can hold a conversation with ease. Anyone who has had to deal with me in a work capacity knows that I do not function very well without at least one cup of coffee. So I guess I should say I am not a pre cup of coffee morning person.

Anyway there is no way for me to get a cup of coffee before starting work at the hostel so I am always a little grumpy. What adds to the challenge is that I am sleeping in the same room as the other workers. One of them, Gareth, is an extremely nice Welshman. Unfortunately Gareth hasn't figured out that I am unable to form sentences let alone smile within the first few hours of getting up. Every morning when I wake up Gareth rolls over and starts talking to me. Inevitably he tells me I am not my cheery self this morning and I try with all of my will not to tell him to just shut up and leave me alone until I wake up a little more. Usually I just grunt. Poor Gareth then usually runs into me after my cup of coffee and then I am all smiles and I am able to hold a conversation with him. It must be really confusing for him. Maybe I should put a disclaimer on my bed. "Warning: Dangerous to talk to before 1pm."

Another guy in the room, John from Macedonia didn't heed this warning and we got into a fight this morning. I woke up and went to the tv room to watch the news and eat my cereal. The headline was about that person being killed at the Miami International Airport. The only info I knew at this point was that a person was killed and that he had a bag that was suspected of having a bomb in it. There was a guy on tv saying how the us marshals are instructed to shoot to kill in situations like this. Well John comes in and turns to me and asks me how it is possible that us marshals that are so expertly trained would have to kill someone. He wanted to know why they didn't just shoot him in the leg so he couldn't run away. Keep in mind this is only about fifteen minutes after I have woken up so the normally level headed me that loves having debates is not in existence yet. I turn to him and with a lot of attitude in my voice explain that the guy was suspected of having a bomb. The marshals don't care if he can't run away they care if he can't set the bomb off. John didn't like this answer and said that it doesn't make sense why such trained gunners would miss and kill someone. That's when I exploded and said that they did exactly what they needed to do, that they were instructed to shoot to kill. He said oh and that he still didn't think it was right. I felt like saying maybe you should see if you thought it would be right if that person were in Macedonia and was shouting that they had a bomb. But I didn't. Instead I just turned around and ignored him. He's allowed to have his opinions and I think I should be allowed to not have to talk about political things before my first cup of coffee.

We had a full room last night. That means that eight people were sleeping in this room. One of these people started snoring in the middle of the night. I don't mean lightly snoring either. It sounded like Gollum for Lord of the Rings was trying to escape from this guy's body with every breath. I had to actually leave the room and walk around for five minutes because if I didn't I was going to hurt the snorer. I guess you can say my patience is wearing a little thin with this whole hostel thing. It's just people seem to oblivious to the fact that seven other people are sleeping in the same room, less than five feet from each other. I know snoring is something that can't be helped but then this snorer woke up at 7am and started packing to leave. He had lots of plastic bags. So not only did he keep me awake through snoring, he then kept me awake with excessive plastic bag packing.

There's a window war going on in my room as well. With eight people in one room the room is going to smell if you don't let some air in. There is one window in the whole room. Everytime I walk into the room I open it. It's summer here but it still gets kind of cold at night. Each bed at the hostel comes with a top sheet and a comforter so it's not like with the window open you will be freezing. Well John from Macedonia apparently gets cold in the middle of the night. He closes the window every night. And every night I wake up in the middle of the night in stifling heat. So now the window wars have started. Instead of being adult-like and talking to him about it I will instead just wake up in the middle of the night and reopen the window. Gareth agrees with me. We even went so far as to try and barricade the window after we opened it with Gareth's bike. It didn't work last night, John still managed to close it. But tonight, oh oh tonight I will be ready to spring out of my bed and re open it. Ha!

I know all of this is a little childish but whatever. If I wanted to be a responsible adult I would have stayed in the US and got a job.

I definetly think that my next trip in NZ will be up North. I am going to buy a tent and a sleeping bag and go work on a farm for a bit. It will be hard work but it will be worth the experience and I will have an entire tent to myself so I won't be bothered with window wars or snorers. Since I have now had two mocachinos it is time for me to go be my post coffee social butterfly self and find people to talk to who will be utterly confused tomorrow morning when I yet again can't form sentences.

High School

So I know that I graduated high school awhile ago but through talking to some Kiwis I realize that high school at home and high school here are entirely different. A question that I have been asked more than once by traveller's from all over the world is if high school and college are really like the movies they see. I thought about it for awhile and I have decided that for me they were like the movies. Albeit the movies glorified and made a happy ending to all of the experiences, ie everyone realizes cliques are stupid and new found friendships and peace resound throughout the high school by the time the credits roll up, but all in all there were cliques and stupid fights and crying and dreaded gym class and that terrible teacher who told us we all had head up butt syndrome and by the time I got to college there were keg parties and frat parties and nights I would rather forget and other nights that I would love to live over and over again. There were all nighters and lots of coffee and all of us thinking we were extraordinarily deep people with these amazing ideas about changing the world. And all of these experiences can be seen in dozens of very popular movies. Just look at John Hughes and the Brat Pack and I think most of my experiences are covered.

Here high school is called college. It seems that college is about as far as most people go. A lot don't attend University, there are only a handful of them around New Zealand. Since the drinking age here is 18 they go out to bars instead of throwing house parties. Also there are no open container laws here so there is really no need for the sort of sneaking around that happens in the US. It's weird though talking to travellers from around the world and that they can relate to my past experiences because they have seen the movies. I, on the other hand, have no idea what their high school or college experience is like because movies aren't made about it. There is no media coverage about a Kiwi college. The more time I spend away from the US the more I realize how ego centric our country is. I have never really taken the time to look into other countries' cultures or media output. Other countries, however, are constantly bombarded with US culture. Hollywood is worldwide.

Ed, my co-worker, asked me a very surprising question. He said, "I'm not racist or anything but what is it like living with black people?" I then realized that since I have been in New Zealand the number of people that I have seen that don't have the same skin tone as me and that aren't Maori is close to zero. I hadn't really thought about (if this were an intellectual paper I would start talking about white privelege but luckily American Diversity class is over and done with). The problem with Ed's question is he wants to know what the entire US thinks about desegregation. I find it daunting to think that the answers I give are going to be taken as the answers that any American would give.

A little deep compared to my last blog but this is what this experience is about. Having some fun and learning some more about myself.

Just another drinking blog

Last night Ed and I had to close the shop. It was really slow and boring so Ed decided to open up a bottle of wine. He was having a house party that night so it was kind of like pre gaming. I know I know it is kind of bad ethics to drink while at work but I am on vacation in a different country and the lack of responsibility is nice. What are they gonna do, fire me? Anyway so I get back to the hostel after work and I run into a new guy that is cleaning for accomodation. I tell him about the house party and he tells me that the bar in the hostel is doing three dollar jose cuervo for the whole night. So me, Mark and his roommate go down and do some shots and then head to house party. I forgot that we could have gotten alcohol in the supermarket so we wander around Wellington for a bit finding a place buy some.

The house party was really fun. I was happy to just be hanging out with a bunch of Kiwis. Everyone was really friendly. It was nice to just be at a house instead of out at a bar. This guy Carmen was making a sangria-like drink that was incredible. As I was walking home at four am, without getting lost, I decided that I wasn't going to work for accomodation this morning. Instead I took the morning off and slept until I went to work at 1pm. I was hung over but not a bad hang over...just a headache and some of you know that that isn't bad for me.

I really do like working at Eat. It's definitely a job I never would have done at home and I like that it adds to the uniqueness of my experience. I will be glad though when the job is over. It's a little too much regularity sometimes. I am getting restless almost. I want to start travelling around again. It will happen soon enough though.

I don't really have any plans yet for Christmas. One of the guys who is working for accomodation, Mark, is planning on heading back up North to Whitianga, which was one of the first stops that I did on the Kiwi bus. He invited me along. He plans on staying there for a bit and then being in Wellington for New Year's. It's a possibility. I don't think I am going to make a decision on what I am going to do until the week before.

Speaking of planning, I have been superproductive and have already booked my accomodation for Fiji. I was able to book a private double bed room with ensuite for a week in a hostel on the beach for less than 200 US dollars. They also do free airport transportation. So that part of the trip is figured out. Whoo hoo.

Sadly I received news from Adena that my fish, Obtuse, has died. He was 11 months old and a very good beta fish. He now joins his brother, Acute, in the beta fish netherworld. Unlike Acute, Obtuse did not get stuck underneath a castle and suffocate. Apparently he died peacefully.

People

Since the hostel is getting busier they decided to put all of the people working for accomodation into one room. So now I share my 8 bed dorm room with 4 guys. It's not too bad yet, but I am a little anxious about it. Mainly...boys smell. And I am even neater than them. Check it out. Everything I own fits into my drawer underneath my bed. And it still is that neat. You should all be impressed.But I am keeping an open mind about. All of them seem really nice and laid back, except for this one guy who I find annoying. But this is only for a month and it's not like I spend that much time in my room anyway so it shouldn't be too bad. If anything it should lead to more stories for the blog.

Walking around Wellington I get to meet a lot of random people that make this a city. For example there is Blanket Man. For serious that is what everyone calls him. He is a thin guy who has a blanket wrapped around him at all times and grey dreads. He walks around barefoot listening to his mp3 player. He just rocks and dances to the music or he just chills on the sidewalk and watches everyone go by. He's wicked nice too. He doesn't ask for money or anything he just asks how your day is going and continues to rock out to his music.

Blanket Man used to be my favorite person in the city. My new favorite is yet to be named. This guy sets up a microphone, a speaker, and two bowls to collect change. Then he hums. That's it. He just stands there staying out into space never making eye contact and just hums into the microphone. He doesn't even hum a tune or anything. He legitamately just hums. He's my new favorite because he moves all of this stuff around on a bicycle and is humming day and night. Maybe I will call him Humming Man.

Burger work is good. Hostel work is bad. I had to clean out the refrigerators today. It's days like this where it doesn't seem worth it to work for accomodation but I just keep telling myself that it is only for one more month and that I am saving loads of money. Also after I get out of work I go to the beach so it all doesn't seem so bad then. That is the view that I have while I am laying on the beach. Not too shabby. It's just while I am scrubbing things that I am thinking of how sucky cleaning is. I have never cleaned so much in my entire life. And I hope I never clean as much again.


I might go to a rock club tonight. I haven't been out much since I started working and it should be a good show tonight. Also since I don't have my ipod anymore I am craving some music. Yep, tonight I think I will rock out like Blanket Man.

Nightmares

This is the busy season for the hostel right now. In fact it is completely booked so I now have seven people in my room. I didn't really get a chance to talk to them last night. I vacuumed in the morning until 1 and then went straight to the burger place until 10:30pm. I fell asleep before anyone else got into the room. Around 3 am I hear one of the girls say "What the f? Get the f off of me!" We all wake up and the girl says how her nose is bleeding. We turn on the lights and she is standing in the middle of the room looking really scared. Apparently while she was sleeping she felt this weight on her face. She said it felt like someone was holding her down.
She thought the bunk above her fell on her. But nothing hit her face, which made it even weirder that her nose was bleeding. It was pretty weird. I also just finished reading a book The Lovely Bones. I highly recommend it. It's really good. It's about a girl who dies and how her spirit world interacts with earthly world as her family grieves. Having read that book and then have this random girl in my room say that she felt like someone was holding her down when on one was their really freaked me out. I don't know. Maybe my room is haunted by a disgruntled backpacker who just wanted a good night sleep.

Nothing else new. Today and tomorrow are my days off from the burger place. I spent today in a coffee place drinking some flat whites and reading which was great. I have no set plans for tomorrow and I like it that way. Hope Thanksgiving was fun...now back to work all of you!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just want to wish everyone at home a very happy thanksgiving! Have no fear I am not missing the turkey at all, but of course I miss being home with the fam. It's always a fun relaxing time watching the parade and eating dad's peporoni and provolone turkey. I'll eat some cranberries today in honor of thanksgiving. Being away for this thanksgiving is just gonna make me enjoy next year's even more.

It's the usual around here. I've been working and hanging. I am getting excited thinking about all of the things I want to do in the South Island. I have heard from other traveler's that the South Island is even more beautiful than the North! I really can't wait to get down there. I do think I am going to hold off on going down until after January. The concert I bought tickets to is on the North Island so I think I am going to stay North until after the concert.

I hope all my friends had fun last night on Thanksgiving eve. I am sure there are some stories to be told. Love Peace and Turkey Grease!!

Quiz Night

My English boys, Nate and Alan, were back in Wellington for one night last night. Last night was also the quiz night at the basement bar at the hostel. The prize was a fifty dollar bar tab. We created a team and got two other people, Ed and Jacky from their Kiwi bus to join. Alan and I had done the quiz the last time he was here and we remembered that on top of the questions there was also bonus rounds. The bonus rounds were like treasure hunts. The dj would say he wanted a bra and guys underwear and the first team to run up with both things in their hands would win the bonus rounds. The bonus rounds were worth 1000 points so essentially if you won them you won the quiz (yes we won a bonus round last time and yes it was my bra that was taken off so speedily, but nothing was seen). Our team this time decided to be a little dorky and think ahead...Alan put a pair of boxers in his pocket and I had a bra in mine.

After the first round of the quiz the dj does a bonus round. It turns out to be scooter race around the pool table. The next bonus round was that a teammate had to spin with his head down on a broom five times and then race around the pool table. Ed did this one for our team. He spun and then started to run but he ran the wrong way and ran straight into the dj booth. When he finally sorted himself out and started running the right way he got to the pool table and instead of running around it managed to put his hands on the table and jump over it, without messing up the pool game that was being played. We lost that round but it was a good effort on Ed's part and he got a free drink at the bar for the pool gymnastics.

The last bonus round Nate did. He had to race around the pool table on a bouncy ball. We lost.

We were getting a decent amount of the questions right. They were mostly name the song and the artist which we were really good at. So it comes down to the last bonus round. It's worth something ridiculous like 10000 points so basically whoever wins this one will win the bar tab. The dj says that he wants a bra, a pair of boxers, two t-shirts and a pair of jeans. Alan and I rip out our boxers and bra, Nate drops his jeans AND his shirt (so he is now standing in the middle of the bar in his underwear...like a bad nightmare), and Ed takes off his shirt. I run it all up to the dj and we win. Hahah we got the 50 dollar bar tab. We also got a pair of sandals each and a condom sponsored by some vodka.

Well we had each drank a pitcher of beer during the quiz and now we were given five more pitchers of beer to enjoy. The bar closed with Frank Sinatra singing "New York, New York" and we were all dancing around doing the rockettes kicks and singing along. Needless to say it was an enjoyable night but this morning was a little rough. I had to bathrooms again at work...booo. So Nate and Alan are gone from NZ but we all exchanged emails so I have no doubt that they will be coming to the states when I am back. Ed will be back in Wellington in a couple weeks and I think we will try to win that bar tab again.

It was a random and good night.

Can't think of anything to put here

I just finished my first week at eat. It was really good. The place is usually busy so the time goes by fast. The two owners, Nic and Norm are really laid back and chill. They are in their thirties. The only other person who works there right now is Ed and he's my age. It's a pretty neat little place. It's only been open for a couple of months but the business is steady.

Basically all I do right now is vacuum in the morning, bake burgers at night, and in the afternoon wander around and soak up the sun. It's not a bad life I must say. I am really relaxed and just enjoying having no responsibilities.

I did a typical Elyse thing. The first day that I was in NZ I set up a bank account here so when I got a job the money could be directly deposited. Well when I set up the account I also chose a pin number. I was jet lagged though and for the life of me I can't remember what the pin number is. So I have to get a replacement bank card...even though I have never used the original one! Go me. It's not soo bad since there's little money in that account anyway I just think its funny that I probably came up with a pin that I thought there was no way I would forget. And I did forget it. I am a genius.

So random question. I just finished reading a biography of the Dalah Lama's mother (yes Steph the person) and I was thinking about the whole idea of reincarnation. If reincarnation is true, then how can a population growth be explained? To me reincarnation means that there is a finite number of souls that are rebirthed after death. But what happens if the finite number of souls is less than the finite number of bodies? Do the souls split in half? I know it's random but I figure that someone out there that I know might have a good answer.

llama llama llama llama llama

Eat gourmet burgers and then some

Yesterday I started my new job at "Eat, Gourmet Burgers." The people are really nice and by the end of the shift I had been bumped up from ten hours a week to 20. Today I came in and was bumped up to 30 hours a week. I am psyched. The more money I save now means the more adventures I can go on when I head to the South Island and to Fiji. It works out that I clean in the hostel from 10-1 and then I go into work at 5. So I still have the afternoon to hang out around Wellington and just hang at the beach. Whoo hoo. I couldn't have planned this to work out soo well. The job is until Christmas eve so my new idea is that I will stay in Wellington until the New Years and the look for a job on a farm for a month or so. When am I ever going to get the chance to work on a farm again? I have to try it out.

Ohh and it turns out that I don't flip the burgers. They are baked.

I have actually been in Wellington long enough that people that I traveled on buses with to Wellington are already back here after going to the South Island. It's really funny. A couple of them saw me and their eyes went wide and they said "You're still here" in this surprised tone. I laughed to myself and then I explained to them what I was doing. I think next time it happens I will make up a story like I am working in a brothel or something.

Speaking of brothels...apparently there is one right around the corner. Today my cleaning supervisor Ian asked if I was still looking for a job. I said yes and he told me about a job that would be in the mornings before I start cleaning in the hostel and it would pay 12.50 an hour. I was intrigued until he told me I would be cleaning for the brothel! Ewwwwwww. And he said how the women who usually clean the brothel also worked in the hostel but both have disappeared. In a split second I weighed the pros and cons of the job. (Pro: 12.50 an hour, Brothel cleaner on my resume; Con: cleaners tend to disappear and who knows what I would find in there). I kindly turned down the job offer and explained to Ian how I found the burger job and so I wouldn't need his help in directing me towards further employment opportunities.

I got a Wellington library card so now I can hang on the beach with all of the good books that I want to read. Dorky yet exciting. And no there won't be any math books (well at least not ones that contain problems to do).

The Christmas trees that bloom red flowers are starting to bloom. I will take some pictures of them once they are in full effect.

There is this horrible duo of guitarists singing in the bar right below me. Even I can tell that they aren't in key. They sure aren't the guitar dudes. I def miss wednesdays back at umass. sigh. I have to end this blog I can't stand to hear them sing U2 With or Without You. They are at the point where Bono is ooohhhohohohing and it is t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e.

The cleaning team

It looks like for the duration of my stay in Wellington I will be working for accomodation every morning. It's just too good of a deal to pass up. Besides me there are four other women on the cleaning team. They are all Maori and all of them are very interesting characters.

Fiona is my supervisor. She talks fast, works fast and calls all of us girl when she is speaking. I have trouble with her accent sometimes. When she says 410 I hear 14. She thinks it's because she doesn't speak proper english which isn't true its just with a vacuum running I can't really hear. It's interesting, when she is around the girls she is loud and running around but when a boss comes in she gets real quiet. I don't mean that she doesn't talk I mean that her decibel level decreases.

It seems that all of the other girls live around each other just outside of the city. They all have kids and I don't think any of them are older than 35. Most of them work other jobs on top of this one. It's interesting to see the class difference between all of us. I am here in New Zealand on vacation and decided to work for accomodation to save money so that when I go to the south island and to fiji I will have more to spend. They are working at the same job to support families and to make a living. I think Fiona is the only one out of the girls that has a car, the rest take the bus into work. Another thing about the cleaning team that is interesting is that they really don't like the reception workers. They feel like the reception workers think that the cleaners are below them. One of the other cleaning workers, Ian, who is probably late thirties actually told me that he was hurt because the reception people were going out drinking but none of them thought to invite the cleaners. From my interaction with the reception people I don't feel that they think that I am below them, but then again they know I am a backpacker and doing this for a relatively short amount of time to save money. Interesting stuff.

Anyway, even though they don't have thanksgiving Wellington still has a thanksgiving day parade. They just call it the Santa parade. I am pretty sure it's this weekend and I am definetly going to check it out. Of course nothing will ever compare to Macy's parade but it'll be an ok subsitute for this year. The stores already have christmas stuff up. Even though it will be summer in December the decorations are basically the same. Snowmen, tinsel, lights, light up Santa's sitting on a sled atop some snow. A lot of signs say "I am dreaming of a green christmas."
I am excited to see how the christmas season is going to be around here.

I start flipping burgers on wednesday but other than that my only goal for the week is to try and get a library card so that I can get books to read on the beach. It's a tough life I lead.

Big day out

To celebrate my new job I bought my ticket for the Big Day Out, the concert in January that is going to have The Living End. The concert is in Auckland, which is about ten hours north of where I am right now but I'll figure out how I am getting there later. Whoo hoo for concerts!!

Jobness

Mischief night was last weekend. It was weird. Basically everyone just chilled by the beach and the city had a fireworks display shoot off from a barge in the middle of the sea. But before and after the city's display, everyone else got to shoot of the fireworks that they bought at the supermarket. Ha it kind of reminded of the fourth of July in Brooklyn how when we were little we went inside and we just kept on hearing the loud booms of M-80s and stuff like that. Instead of blowing up the telephone booth like they did in Brooklyn, the Welly's threw the loud stuff into the street as cars drove by. I stayed out for a little bit but since I had nothing that I felt like lighting on fire I went back to the hostel.

I was supposed to go to my try out for the zoo tomorrow but the girl who said she was leaving the zoo isn't anymore so there is no room at the zoo for me. Which works out since I got a call today from a food place around the corner from my hostel. I went in for a try out at 6 and it looks like I got the job. The boss, Nic is going to let me know for sure tomorrow. So what kind of food is it? Well none other than gourmet hamburgers! That's right no waitressing for me. Instead I will be in the kitchen taking orders and making burgers. The gourmet part is that they are baked and stuff like mushrooms or blue cheese is put on them. It's take out only. I think of it like an upscale McDonald's. Everyone there seems really nice and laid back which is good. The pay isn't great, only slightly above minimum wage and for right now I am only working ten hours a week. Also they only want me until Christmas Eve (or was it New Year's eve?) I don't remember. But despite all of the downsides I figure its money in my pocket and they will fall in love with me (as all of my past employers have) and then I will get more hours which will lead to more money. Also I am not finished looking for a job. I put my cv into a job agency here so if they come up with something better I will take it. So for now I am flipping burgers every wednesday and thursday from 5-10pm (no I don't have to wear a hair net) and vacuuming the hostel everyday from 10-1. Apparently my showers weren't streak free enough so I got moved back to vacuuming and making beds. I am incredibly relieved. Not too shabby.

For right now I think this is as settled as I am going to get. I do really want to get a flat but I don't think it's going to be possible. The whole point of the job is to save up more money so that when I hit the south island sometime in February and then go to Fiji I will be able to do all of the activities that I want to do, like go whale watching or go find me some yellow eyed penguins. The flat would just take money away from that since right now I can get my accomodation for free. It's not the perfect of circumstances but it's not worst either.

I'm a couple days ahead but just in case I don't blog before it, Happy Anniversary Meryl and Harold (aka Mom and Dad)!

The freckles are out

Instead of vacuuming for accomodation today I had to do something much worse....bathrooms! I had to scrub the showers. It was not fun. The only good thing that came out of it is that it motivated me to job hunt some more. Ughh I still can't believe I scrubbed showers. Backpackers are dirty dirty people who apparently do shower and leave all of their dirt there. What's worse I will probably be doing the same tomorrow. Some big honcho is coming to check up on the hostel so everything has to be clean. I have to give the shower doors streak free shines! I am not too good at it which is weird since we all know my mom can do streak free in her sleep. I guess cleaning is not embedded in DNA.

After the whole shower cleaning terribleness I handed in some more job applications and then went to the beach. I just hung out and soaked up the sun. The freckles are out! It was good and relaxing. I read a lot and just people watched.

As for the job I still haven't really heard back from anyone. The places that I have stopped into to check up on have said that they aren't making any decisions yet. But we'll see. I still have the zoo try out on Friday so hopefully something will come of that. And now that I am on shower duty I am seriously thinking about getting a flat once I get a job. Forget saving money. Not scrubbing showers is worth way more to me than a bed at the hostel. Hopefully the day will never come where they expect me to, uggh, do the toilets. Let's not forget I am here for a vacation!

Picalicious

A waterfall that we walked to before leaving Tangariro National Park. This is the park that has Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings.

Waterfall

These were the beds we had to sleep in. Four on top. Four on bottom. There were four bunks all together. It was an interesting night.

Just playing cards and drinking (actually drinking lots since we all have to sleep in giant beds together tonight)

The Englishmen!! I have no idea what Alan is doing to Nathan

Some people from the Kiwi bus just chillin at River Valley where I went rafting

An English man named Alan and my favorite Kiwi beer, Tui

One of my Kiwi bus drivers, Dallas

This is the pic he told me to send home to mom.

A giant shell that was found in NZ. It dates back millions of years and is said to be unique to NZ alone. PS there term for Pangea which was what we call the connected continents is Gwondalaland

A bull made of cans on display at Te Papa museum

Never far

Duckies

Doesn't it look fake? I still think it does

Still haven't figure out how to rotate pics

OK so now it doesn't look so fake

Zebra!

A bear

An Emu(or maybe it's an ostrich, I don't remember)

Kangaroos from Alan's point of view

Kangaroos from my point of view

A view of Wellington from the zoo

An English man named Nathan with a giant fake Kiwi bird at the zoo

Nathan thought he looked scary so...

he tried to look cool

Flo, my German roomie from Auckland who I met up with again in Wellington

Alan and me in the hostel kitchen

An English man named Ben

Wellington from the top of Mount Victoria...

...when I look straight ahead...

...when I look to the right...

...when I look to the left

Peace out!

Boo on the Zoo

An hour before I was supposed to go to my try out at the zoo(that sounds weird) I got a phone call from the manager. He had to post pone until next Friday. Booo. It's frustrating. So now it's back to submitting applications until next Friday. The weird thing is is that I am not even guaranteed the job. So it makes no sense to depend on the zoo job. I contacted bunac (the company that hooked me up with my work visa) because they have a job search company set up here. Hopefully they can help with my job search. Essentially if I don't find anything promising by next weekend I think I might have to leave Wellington. I don't really want to leave. It seems like a cool place to hang around in for awhile. Since I have absolutely nothing to do I spend my days just wandering around the city. It's really eclectic. I like it.

So for the next week it's vacuuming and wandering. At least I found some nice beaches so I can work on my tan.

One good thing that came out of all of this free time is that my grad applications are completely done. Nothing else is needed from me. Well nothing besides me nagging my recommenders and worrying about rejections. I won't find out anything until I get home so there really is no use worrying about it. I am still going to worry even though it is futile. I wouldn't be me if I didn't.

Tomorrow is Guy Fawkes day. That means fireworks. And they aren't illegal here. I can buy them at the supermarket. Don't worry. I may jump out of planes but I know me and fires and I am sticking to sparklers. I figure tomorrow I will go and hang out down by the beach and watch the fireworks that the city puts on. It should be good.

I am going to try to put up the rest of pictures tomorrow so look out for them.

So yes I am fustrated about not having a job. This budgeting and cooking thing is for the birds. But as I get fustrated and yes maybe even a little homesick I just look at my pictures and I can't help but smile. I am enjoying what I am doing and I can't believe half of the stuff I have already done. I guess working on my tan for a bit isn't a bad deal. I just need to find a good cheap book.

News

First off, I finally found a replacement for my US Weekly obsession. There is a magazine here called NW Weekly. It's perfect. The cover this week was celebrities without their makeup. It doesn't have the quotes from the celebs like US Weekly, but instead it has sarcastic captions to pictures. It's pretty funny. It's trashier than US Weekly but it'll do. I know most of you don't care about my mag obsession but there are a few out there who will enjoy this knowledge.

Halloween is not a big deal in NZ at all. I saw not one kid dressed up and trick or treating. I think part of the reason is because they don't have a Thanksgiving so it's basically Halloween and then they wait two months for Christmas. So it's not like the start of a holiday season or anything.

I might actually have gotten a job. It's not for sure yet. The zoo cafe called back and I went in for an interview today. The manager, Chris, was wicked chill but when he found out that I didn't have any waitressing experience he was kind of disappointed. So I am now going in on Friday for 2 hours as a trial run. He said he will make a decision after it. I am not too worried about it but any suggestions will be appreciated.

Short and quick. I want to know how Halloween was on the Jersey end of things. I am sure some of you have plenty of stories. Peace out.

Budgeting my money and wasting my time

It's been a rainy Sunday in Wellington which means I have done pretty much nothing besides my vacuuming. I filled out a bunch of job applications yesterday and went back to the places that had my old number so hopefully something will turn up by the end of the week. I am not strapped for cash I just want to get out of the hostels and get some regularity into my schedule.

My English boys have left to travel the south island so basically when I am done with my vacuuming instead of playing cards I kind of twiddle my thumbs. I think the boredom that eventually will set in will motivate me to look for jobs a little bit more. It's weird travelling on your own. It's not very consistent. At home or in school I always had a schedule, a very busy schedule at times. Now I really don't have much to do. It's a good thing and it is very relaxing, it's just taking some getting used to.

Thanks for all the support about the stolen stuff. I hope everyone is going to have a great Halloween. I still don't think I am going to be anything. I can't think of anything good. The job hunt continues!!

I am a stupid stupid girl

I woke up this morning, put my cell phone on my bed and then went to clean rooms. When I came back three hours later, my phone and my ipod, which was in my backpack next to my bed were gone. The guy whose name I don't know that had been sleeping in my room was also gone. I was soo stupid and didn't lock my stuff up and now it's stolen. I had to go to the police station to fill out a report so that I can start my insurance claim. Baahhh.

What sucks is that my cell phone number is the only way for employers to contact me. Now they have the wrong number. After I left the police station I went and bought another phone, so tomorrow I am going to retrace my job hunt steps and update the information.

In perspective, things could have been worse. My credit cards and passport were on me and my digital camera wasn't in it's case, it was in a shoe (dis-organisation helped me there). I think the worst thing about this was that there was this guy Ben who was around when I realized that my stuff was stolen and all he could do was tell me how it should have been expected since my stuff was just lying about. I know he's right and all but I didn't want to hear it. If I wasn't so stunned I think I would have told him to shut up. Fortunately my english boys were there and one them told him to shut up about it. I feel like a wuss since I was near tears over a stolen phone and ipod. I think what got me is just that my stuff was stolen, not the actual material property of it, but my ownership. I have no idea if that makes sense.

Anyway, besides that debacle things are good. Alan and I went to a punk show last night. It was good to go somewhere else besides the hostel bar. The bands were good too. There's another concert in a couple of months called Big Day Out. It's in Auckland and is a lot of money but...The Living End is playing!! I am definetly considering buying the ticket and just finding a way there when it happens. For those who don't know, The Living End is an Australian band who I have loved since high school. I have never seen them in concert and one of my goals while I was here was to see them. The White Stripes and Franz Ferdinand will be playing too plus a bunch of NZ bands. I think it will def be worth the money. It's just hard to commit to something that is two months away (the concert is Jan 20). But I think the commitment needs to be made. If worse comes to worse I can always sell my ticket when it gets closer.

At the hostel bar there are always drink specials for girls, like dollar refills. Well the boys were upset over the sexism so they conquered it by dressing in drag to take advantage of the specials. It was really funny. They were all trying to play pool in mini skirts. Hilarious.

Basically when I am hanging in the hostel all I really do is play cards and pool. Pool is a little hard here though. Their balls are smaller and the pockets are smaller also. It makes a huge difference. Since the cue ball is smaller, it's center of mass is smaller. That means that if you don't hit right in the center it won't go straight whereas in the states if you don't hit the cue right in the center, it still will go straight. They also play different rules. Say you are solids and you hit a striped ball first, then the next player gets two shots since you fouled. They don't call their shots at all either. It's pretty interesting. Everynight there is a pool competition and the winner gets a 50 dollar bar tab. My friend Nate has won two nights which was great because he is a sharer.

I don't have any plans for Halloween. It does look to be kind of big out here, but they also just started selling fireworks, which apparently are legal so who knows how they celebrate it here. I don't know what I will be doing tonight. I ran into the girl from the coffee shop who told me about some jobs and she said she's having a bbq tonight. I want to go, but tonight is also the last night that the English boys will be here. We'll see.

I am kind of bummed about getting my stuff stolen but in the same respect, it was just materialistic stuff. I didn't need the ipod to survive in NZ and cell phones are replaceable. It sucks that it happened but I learned my lesson and everything is going to be locked up constantly. Hopefully the insurance claim will go through easily. And in the end I am still in a beautiful country having fun and having amazing experiences. No worries.

Chillin in Wellington

The job hunt is on!! Luckily, there looks to be lots of jobs out here. Basically I have just been walking around Wellington and when I see a help wanted sign I walk in and fill out an application and give them my resume. I have feeling that by the end of next week I will have found something. That will be great because I really want to find a flat and get out of the hostels. They aren't bad it's just tedious to always have new people sleeping around you and being around your stuff.

Today me and the English boys went to the zoo. It was really fun and I got some good pictures. The zoo is hiring for their cafe so I filled out an application there too. I think it would be cool to serve coffee and then on breaks walk around and see the animals. The chimpanzees were my favorite, as they always are at any zoo that I go to. We saw this Australian pelican that looked fake. It was floating in the water I was saying how weird it was that they had a fake pelican when the pelican moved to land and started flapping its wings and walking towards us. I freaked out and ran away. I thought for some reason that I had offended the pelican. It was pretty funny.

Nothing crazy on the agenda for the near future. There are some walks I want to do but that's about it. When I hit the South Island in a couple of months I think I will start with the adrenaline rushes again. Although I do get an adrenaline rush everytime I cross the street. That's because in NZ they drive on the otherside of the road and I still habitually look the wrong way. It's to the point that I just look both ways constantly and I even wait for the crosswalk signal. My jaywalking habit has become too dangerous. Sad.

Randomness

I've been in Wellington for only two days, but it's been a random two days. I spent the better part of yesterday walking around the Te Papa museum. It was free and really interesting. They had a whole section on families who migrated to New Zealand. There were family portraits and background stories on the families. Anyway, when I left the museum I got a text message from this guy that was on the plane with me over here. We had both hung out in Auckland and apparently he was in Wellington. We went to this coffee shop and caught up on what we both were doing. As we were talking one of the waitresses picked up on our accents and asked where we were from. We started talking to her and I told her how I was staying in Wellington to look for a job. She told me that I should come back on Tuesday because she knows a lot of places that are looking for employees and she will give me there contact info on Tuesday. Random.

I got back to the hostel and just decided to ask if I could work for my accomodation. They said yes. So in exchange for staying in a room that will normally cost 26 NZ$, I will vacuum for three hours in the morning and get the room for free. Sweet. That's gonna save me some moolah while I look for jobs. The cleaning people are really nice too so it's a pretty relaxed thing. Don't get any ideas, mom. I will not be vacuuming when I am home.

Today I heard about a punk festival and thought it would be cool to check out. One of the other people on the bus, Allan and I went to the festival. It was five dollars and really fun. The festival was held in this small one room building on top of a hill that had great view and a soccer field next to it. Everyone went inside for the bands and then just chilled on the field while the next band set up. This one band was made up of a girl on the drums and a guy on guitar. At one point the girl stopped singing and playing and turned to the guitarist and said that she couldn't hear him playing over her playing. So he turned the speakers toward her. She got made and said don't turn the speakers toward me, turn the volume up. He turned the volume up and then she said it was too loud. He said he thought everything was fine and then just started to play. I just think it's funny how they stopped their sight to have a squabble for no reason. Everyone was laughing. It was a fun time.

Tomorrow is laundry day yet again and then Tuesday it is hunt for a job day. I'm not too worried though. It looks like Wellington will be a cool place to live for awhile so the job will just follow after I work at it. Peace out.

In Wellington

Today is Saturday and I got to Wellington yesterday. Before I got to Wellington, I white water rafted! I hopped on the Kiwi bus and we were driven to River Valley. It is a small hostel whose sole purpose for existence is to house people who are going white water rafting. The hostel is in the middle of nowhere and the bed situation was very interesting. About thirty of us who were on the bus walked into this giant room that contained eight enormous bunk beds. Each bed fit four people. We all just started laughing and decided if this was gonna work, we were all gonna need to drink a little. So we spent the night just hanging out drinking and playing cards. It was really fun. The sleeping wasn't too bad except that some people thought that that night would be a good time to hook up. Needless to say they were pretty embarassed the next morning. We woke up around 8:00 but since it had been raining all night we didn't know if we would be able to raft. The guide came by a half an hour later and said it was a go, so I squeezed myself into a wetsuit (no pics of that ever!) and we were ready to go. We hopped onto a small bus to take us up the river. I was really nervous. The rapids were grade 4 and 5, which is the highest grade before it's classified as waterfall. And to add more adrenalin we found out that someone drowned last week. By the time I was getting into the raft I was seriously considering not doing it. But I got in...in the front.

Our guide took us through some smaller rapids so we could get the feel of it...then he flipped the raft over so that we could get a feel for falling out. The water was cold and your first instinct was to breathe in, which is bad because then you inhale water. We body surfed down the small rapid and then the guide showed us how to help each other into the raft if we actually did flip. We then started doing the rapids and it was so much fun. We kept paddling and then the guide would scream hold on and then we would put death grips on the ropes attached to the raft. We went down a four meter drop which was awesome. It was weird being in the front because I say the dips and everything and I got most of the water in my face. We almost flipped over once. We went down this one rapid and my side went up in the air. I lost the rope in my left hand, but held on for life with my right. Everyone else on my side held on also then the raft leveled itself out without any of us falling in. It was a rush.

At one point we had to get out and carry the rafts because the river was to rough due to the rain. We carried the raft over rocks, which were falling. It was insane! When we got back into the raft we went down another rapid and then the raft pulled to shore. Our guide pointed up to a ledge about 30ft up and said "You don't have to jump off of it, but it's obligatory." We climbed up the ledge and started jumping. I, as usual, did a death scream while I was falling but it was fun. White water rafting is definitely something I want to do again in the states. It's a rush.

It's labor day weekend in NZ so I'm gonnna just chill out and start looking for a job on Tuesday. Wellington is a cool city, but it is really windy. I feel like I'm back in Southwest at UMass. It looks like there are a lot of jobs here so I'm pretty confident that if I really get out there I will find something. And yes Mr A I am looking for stages to sweep, although the theater doesn't look to be that popular here, but we'll see.

Skydiving Pics