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