New Zealand: week two- June 20-25

Saturday June 20

Suz, Emerald, and I went to Suz's parents' house to help them get things in order for their open house the next day (they are "shifting"…I find that I like this term better than "moving" now.) I finally got to meet Rob and his wife. And here's where the back story to how I came to be in this family begins…My friend, the one I mentioned in the previous post, dated Rob for a couple of years and even moved to New Zealand for a bit with him. Funny how the universe works, eh? Anyway.

Hello, chicken.

Hello, cows.

Hello, more cows.

For some reason, they were freakin' me out. Shouldn't have though because my grandparents had cows when I was little.

Little road-side statue

As you probably noticed, the sky was dark & cloudy from rain...

But it made for a beautiful sunset.

Sunday June 21

Someone I worked with at Hebrew school told me about some relatives of hers that moved to Queenstown, so I added them on FB and she told me about her son that lives in Auckland so we had become FB friends as well and met up to watch "The Hobbit" (only the first one) and walked around the marina for a little bit before I went back home.

Monday June 22

I went back to one of the places I thought seemed promising to hire me, but unfortunately the manager wasn't around, so I ended up going to the bank to open up an account and had to set up an appointment for the next day. I guess at least it got me out of the house for a bit.

Tuesday June 23

I went back to the promising café and met with the manager and she told me to come in for a few trial shifts starting Saturday and Sunday 7-4:30! Woo-hoo! Then I went over to the bank…not even kidding, it felt like a date. They asked me so many questions and wanted to get to know me and I guess it's nice they want to try to get you the best account possible, but like an hour later it kinda becomes annoying. I just want a cheap/free checking account for the time that I'm here…now open that account up for me. Just super drawn out in my opinion. Then I went to buy some new pants for my new job. Today was Suz's birthday! So her in-laws and her friend and friend's son came for dinner. Another daughter of a friend of Suz's made her a really amazing cake. It was a lovely night.

Finally had some hokey pokey ice cream. I'd eat it again :)

Wednesday June 24

It was much too cold to enter the world…it got down to the low 30's the night before and I couldn't fathom leaving my warm bed. So, in case you didn't know. It's winter in the southern hemisphere. In New Zealand, they don't have central heat/ac. They're doing good to even have a wood-burning stove to heat the house, and some houses have towel warmers because it's so cold (and humid) that the towels won't dry. Also, like in Israel, dryers are a luxury so you hang everything to dry. It's been much easier to dry clothes here because of the fireplace than it was Tel Aviv with no air movement in the apartment and didn't run the heat much because of the possibility of causing a high electric bill. Suz's friend and her son stayed the night the night before and again this night. She lived in China for 14 years and picked up some pretty tasty recipes and treated us to one of them.

Thursday June 25

I have now officially been here TWO weeks :) I decided I would make us dinner. Super easy-looking recipe, how could I not give it a try? I went out to go to the grocery store and while out, I went in a couple of restaurants/cafes and gave them my CV. Why not? Picked up the groceries I needed and headed home. I hadn't been home for more than an hour when one of the places gave me a call to see if maybe I'd be interested in having a couple of trial shifts! Score! Two potential jobs! So I am to start this one Monday morning, 6am sharp. I really hope this one works out because it's maybe a 10 minute walk. Back to dinner, it was a hit. So easy…I even had some (heavy) cream left over so I made some whipped cream. I am so proud that I know how to make that so now I don't have to buy it out of a can anymore!

What a great week...home-cooked meals, mini-farm visit, meeting a bunch of family and friends, learning how to do things/cook, and two upcoming job trials. In case you are wondering what in the world is a trial: a trial is where you come in and work for a couple of hours, usually unpaid, and management can see how you work and if they want to offer you a job or not. Interesting concept, yeah?