SURFING!

Ever since I knew Tim, he's wanted to become a surfer. Now he has! He's gone surfing a bunch of times in the past few weeks with our flatmate, Ashley. I went with them tonight! I didn't stand up on the board, but I did ride a few waves on my stomach. So fun. So unbelievably fun. The only thing that I hated were all the CRABS that pinched our feet! I even found one in the ankle buckle of the surfboard....terrifying! Tim and I also went swimming in the ocean today. It was pretty sweet to bust out the bikini on December 8th and go swimming outside :)

I also worked at a wellness fair today, promoting how beautiful hula hooping is! It was so nice to be able to talk about all the amazing benefits to hooping, how it's changed my whole perspective on things, how it's such great exercise. I hooped quite a bit so was pretty tired (swimming and surfing didn't help much, I suppose). I'm going to do some instructional videos for the website soon...I'll inform everyone when they are up so that laughing at can commence.

I ordered some special Lush fragrances the other week and they came today. Now I smell like So White Ballistic!

Kia ora,
KT

ramblings!

Hello all!!! It's been hectic here lately. Hoop classes have STARTED!!! Hooray!!! However, I am still not done at the restaurant so this week I have been doing all 3 jobs....so tiring. I love teaching though! My classes are really fun and there are a lot of enthusiastic learners!! Two more tomorrow, right after Lush and right before the restaurant.

We got a kiddie pool at Lush to do bubble bath demos outside. This excites me more than I can convey. I want to work at Lush forever!

The weather is getting WARMER and it's wonderful!!! Today I didn't need a jacket at all. Glorious. We are going to start surfing soon, the waves are getting near perfect!! We probably already would be if we had TIME.

Had a great Lush bath today. So White + Lil' Lush Pud = CHAI LATTE BATH! Very, very exciting. And I (and the house) smell so good!!

Hope everything is well in Wisconsin, all! I walked past a German Bratwurst stand the other day and got really homesick for like one minute. I miss real brats!! And yellow mustard (it's all stone ground here).

There's actually a lot I miss, but a lot of really awesome things to replace it.

The very moment I get home, probably in the airport, I shall acquire the largest Taco Bell meal I have ever eaten.

Kiwi to American Dictionary

Part one, as I will probably forget some good ones.

Kiwi = a person from new zealand or the bird.
KiwiFRUIT = a kiwi.
Barbeque = a grill/grilling out
Twink = whiteout (isn't this a derogatory term?? what does it mean?)
Ice block = popsicle
rock melon = canteloupe
capsicum = green or red or yellow pepper
serviette = napkin
ta = thank you
cheers = thank you
good on ya = way to go
knackered = tired
gutted = disappointed/upset
keen on/to = willing to/eager
heaps = lots
mate = friend
flatmate = room mate
flat = apartment
dairy = convenience store
cutlery = silverware
fag = cigarette
smoke-o = cigarette break


hmmmm. i bet i will think of more, but that should appease sean. :)

cheers,
kt

AHH!

I just got a job teaching hula hoop classes!!!! I'm the only teacher in Christchurch, and will be teaching for a company that makes hoops. I'm so excited!!!! They have partnerships with the city council (to organize some kids workshops), and we're going to make a TV COMMERCIAL! AHHHHH! This is the best thing to happen in New Zealand so far. Wow I love it here.

Sorry about the lack of posts! I've been working many 14+ hour days between Lush and Burrito Brothers. Phew, so tiring! But we've still been making time to travel. Tim got free tram tickets from work the other day so we spent all day riding the cable car tram! We were tourists in our own town, if you will. It was funny because we knew everything already, but really fun to see the city from another viewpoint.

I've also been traveling around quite a bit on my own, on days off (I don't have many! hahaha). I went to Sumner, a coastal city just outside of Christchurch, and explored a place called Cave Rock. It was a cave on the beach! I was exploring inside it when all of a sudden I heard a noise behind me. I turned around and saw a white water rapid-style tide coming in! I was totally caught off guard, got thrown into some rocks and scraped my arm, and then the exit was blocked off by water! So I had to climb a rock wall to get out. Whew! I was fine, but it was really scary/exciting! I also went to Lyttleton, another really beautiful coastal community with one of the only working ports in the area (and the shipping off point for most expeditions to Antarctica!). My friend Ellen grew up there and her mom's house had the most gorgeous view. We had a picnic in a lagoon, tried to go swimming but it was freeeeeeezing (still pretty cold here), and had a really nice day. It's really beautiful here! Come visit!!!! I'm so excited for Jess to come for Christmas. We're saving a lot of the "big stuff" for when people visit us, like dolphin swimming, visiting Middle Earth, and camping in the bush and in the mountains. Very very excited for visitors :) :) :)

Hmmmm...not much else is new! The locals are all really nice here. I went to Starbucks one day (wow, so foreign...) and there were no tables. In the US, that would remain, since people really like their "own space," but locals just started offering their tables to me! And then we had really nice conversations! Everyone is like that here. I can't understand some of their crazy words still, but am getting better. Tim's getting it too, since he has to listen to Kiwis all day at work when they call the hotel! It's weird that tipping doesn't exist here though. I did get a tip yesterday from a man named Stu who was from Chicago! It was cool to have someone from the midwest in my section :)

My skype is absolutely awful, so I apologize to those that I've called. If you all want to call US, instead of us calling you, our number is: 0064-3-382-4990. Check the time difference though! And it's really cheap with skype, only like 2 cents a minute. If you miss me, call me :)

The Wetlands!

Tim and I traveled to the Travis Wetlands today! They were beautiful, and really fun even though it was cold and overcast. We saw a TON of pukekos, which are a native New Zealand bird. We also, strangely enough, saw a bunch of Canada Geese. Tim exclaimed that they must have flown south for the winter. Hahaha. Very far south. There were a ton of cats there too, which I guess made sense because of all the nearby houses, but it was still funny. One of them followed us for a full 15 minutes! I named him Puma.

Our car is amazing. Tim's getting pretty good at driving it and it's already proven itself useful and better than taking the bus! I can't wait to take it travelling. We're going to get up early tomorrow and try to go somewhere else! Hooray!

Cheers,
KT

We're Mobile!!!!!

Hello all! so much to tell!

First of all, I hate my work visa. I am not allowed to take "permanent jobs," and even though my really awesome and high responsibility job at lush was only 14 hours a week, it had the word "permanent" in the job title. They couldn't give me the job, regardless of how much they wanted to, because corporate found the glitch with my visa. So now I am just a casual worker and might only be able to work through january :( Ugh. This other girl got my flashy job. Oh well. I really want to try for it again back in the states.

AH it just started hailing! That makes me think of dear Tim because he is driving to work right now.

Two important news tidbits in that sentence: Tim got a job and we bought a car! Tim is working at the front desk of a New Zealand exclusive hotel, The Heritage. It's pretty huge and really nice from what I've seen of the outside (they don't allow anyone to visit employees so I haven't seen the inside yet). However, his shifts go until 11:30 every night, and the bus system stops running out to our house around 11. Tim had two days off this past week and we used those two days to BUY A CAR! Ahhhh! We had to, but it's really exciting to have a vehicle that we can travel with! It's an '89 Subaru Justy. The only problem is that it is manual transmission, which I have nooooo idea how to drive. Tim is getting the hang of it (we even drove around a bunch for practice last night!). But I do hope that he was already at work when the hail storm hit! Small hail, but still nervewracking to drive in.

Other than our important news tidbits, we have still been having a ton of fun! I took Tim out to eat at Flying Burrito the other night, and it was delectable. I'll probably get sick of all the Mexican food soon, but for now it's just heaven every time I eat it (used to Taco Bell much?). But he got to meet my coworkers, hang out a bit....it was really fun! We are going to go on an adventure to a mountain or nearby lagoon tomorrow which I am ecstatic about. We've been meeting some great people and are still having the most wonderful time! Hooray!

One of my favorite things to do (when it's not hailing like crazy...) is walk around the beach and look for cool things. I found this crazy shrimp creature the other day! It was dead, but still pretty cool to see (you really don't get sweet finds like this very often!).

I also enjoy taking pictures whenever there is something picture-worthy. The skies were very ominous the other day and the mountains looked amazing (I think these are the mountains we want to go to tomorrow!). Amazing. Just amazing. I got our street sign in there too so you could all see the view we get to enjoy!
On another note, even though I am well aware that it is a day early, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKIEEEEEEE! :) AND fay is moving back to downtown Milwaukee? And Jess is coming to visit in December? And Drea got in to Vet school and we will see each other soon? And Gina just moved into a sweet place? And Shelby is a NEW AUNT and has an adorable baby nephew and we need to party asap to celebrate!? (I AM an asswipe...sorry lady). And fire dancing with Rita? And Amy lives on her own again and has a place to stay for me in Madison? Million things to look forward to. I love you girls :)

That's all for now!!!
Cheers,
KT

Life is good!

Tis been awhile!!!

Not much has changed except that I got another job! Woohooooo! I am the new keyholder/sales assistant at LUSH cosmetics! It's this really amazing store that has all-natural handmade soaps, shampoos, lotions, bath bombs, massage bars, etc. Definitely check out the website, I'm officially addicted to their products for life (Jacko, you can relate to this I know!). http://www.lushnz.com

I also drastically changed my hair. I knew that this was probably my last year without a "grown-up" job, so this was the last year to do it! It currently has amazing turquoise streaks in it, and I think I'm going purple next!! Yessssssss. Also, as you can see from the picture, my LED hoop finally arrived!!! (thanks mom!) It sucked though, because New Zealand charges a huge import tax on everything that you ship in to the country. Thus, I had to pay $69 import tax, plus another $10 to have them shipped here! Laaaame. I think I'll be buying anything else that I need (what sucks is that I could have just bought another led hoop for that! uggggh).

FINALLY found feathers, including a vintage shop that has vintage featherpads! Big plans for those little guys. Biiiig plans.

It's raining like crazy here right now! Tim was lucky enough to see a giant double rainbow that started in and ended in the ocean yesterday. It's making everything very green but we are getting sick of the rain! It did take THIS long to rain at all though...so can't complain much.

Tim had a second interview at the hotel! He finds out next week if he got the job. Aaaaand he got a sweet new suit in the process. Double win.

What else! I don't think there's too much. Here's a cute picture of our flatmate's pets to keep you going.
Cheers,
KT

Sweet New Jobs

Kia ora!

So my job at Flying Burrito Brothers is going great! I'm making some awesome friends, and they are such a fun (and eclectic) group of people! There are others from the US there, someone from Wales, one from Argentina, one from France...it's a really cool place to work! Haven't been getting many hours because it's been slow, but hopefully that will pick up once summer comes around.

I have a trial (basically like a work audition) for LUSH cosmetics on saturday! It's "Talk Like a Pirate Day" so I have to dress like a pirate. Hahaha! I'm going to get a fake bird and put it on my shoulder.

Tim had a job interview today at a hotel! It went well according to him, which is great!

The website is back up, too!!! I haven't found anywhere that sells feathers yet (come ON new zealand, get with it) but will have new stuff up as soon as I do!

Ooooo and I started a hoop group here in Christchurch. I try every day to make it more popular (aka get SOMEBODY to join it) but pretty much am resigned to having to perform on the street to get the word out. Bring it, Christchurch. Just bring it. I'm so excited to have some people join and have hoopjams on the beach! I mean, hooping by myself is great, but it's always fun with more people :)

I'll let you know how the job trial goes on saturday!

Cheers,
KT

Hooray! Pictures at last!!

Hooray! We got all the pics uploaded and I'll try to intersperse a few in here. They are located on facebook in their entirety, but I'll put a select few here for ya'll.

So, first off is our place!!!! We really really love it here. Aren't too thrilled about the fact that there is no real heat (apart from our fireplace/wood furnace) or insulation, thus making it really cold at night, but you can't beat our location. And dad, I did realize that New Brighton beach (which is right outside our door practically) is connected to Waimari Beach, and we can actually see Waimari. So yes, we are going/have been to Waimari beach :)

Here are a few more!!! Our bathroom and backyard:

Second is that I got a job! It's not a teaching job as I'd hoped, as in Christchurch they are hard to come by (the one drawback to our split-moment decision to relocate from Auckland), but it's a pretty cool job! I'm working at a restaurant called The Flying Burrito Brothers, a fancier Mexican restaurant in downtown Christchurch. The street is really awesome and has this old-world feel. There is even a cable car tram that goes down the middle of it!!!! There are a few other Americans that work there as well, but mostly the employees are all very nice Kiwis. It's exciting, because we haven't met a ton of people yet, but now I will meet a bunch at work. I'm quite thrilled!


Also, we went to a heavenly place today. Christchurch is nicknamed "The Garden City," and boasts one of the largest botanical gardens in the entire world! We only saw a section today, but really couldn't believe the size of it!!! There was a daffodil section, and the daffodils spanned for about a kilometer it seemed (I use that term loosely...still haven't really grown accustomed to how much a kilometer really is). But it certainly was beautiful. We had a lot of fun being tourists today! Check out the facebook album for the full photo account of our first week and a half! :)

That's about all for now! Enjoy the pictures on here and on facebook :)

Cheers,
KT (and Tim, in spirit)

(hope that's easier for you, sean)

Skype

Also, for those of you who want to talk to us for free, download Skype!! I have it on my computer and will keep it logged in as soon as we get our wireless code. Here's some info about it, and it's FREE to download! Friends and family, it's essential! just go to http://www.skype.com

Free calling

You’ve downloaded Skype, and so has your friend. Now you can get started on the really cool stuff – such as making completely free and great quality calls from your computer. That’s the great thing about Skype, you can use your internet connection and turn your computer into an internet phone and make free Skype-to-Skype calls.

You and your friend will need to have a headset (or use your computer’s built-in microphone and speakers) to talk to each other. You can really improve the sound quality of your calls with a headset, or take your calls to the next level with free video calls.

You can also use Skype to make terrific value calls to phones and mobiles.

Making free calls on Skype

It’s really easy to call a friend from Skype. Locate the person you want to call in your contact list and click their name. To call your friend for nothing, simply click the green button. This will start the call and you can talk for as long as you want, whenever you want.

Address

OH! For all that have been asking, here is our address. We'd really love you to write, or send presents! :)

KT Freund and Tim Schafer
8 Effingham St
New Brighton
Christchurch, 8083
New Zealand

Home phone (in case you want to call us!!!! please do, we haven't figure out how to call you yet. But don't forget about the time difference! Our flatmate goes to bed at like 9pm our time.)

0064-3-382-4990

We're settled in!

Hey all!

I know, I know. You're reading this and secretly thinking "No pictures AGAIN? What are they doing to us?" Well, our flatmate isn't quite sure of our wireless code yet so we're waiting until that gets figured out. All the pics are on my computer and we don't want to have to save a bunch of them on his computer. Once we figure that out....facebook album and blog pictures GALORE! I promise.

We're all settled in to our new home!!! There were no closets in our room so we used some quick engineering genius to construct some yesterday. They look pretty sweet. We're sleeping on an air mattress for now since we don't feel like dropping upwards of $300 on a bed. We also have no car to even transport one! It's not as uncomfortable as you would think, it's actually quite nice!!!

I spend every morning waking up, walking to the beach, and enjoying the ocean. It's perfect. There are a lot of crab shells on the beach, which is weird, and a lot of a certain kind of white seashell. I still go there every day and wish for a crazy shell, because obviously beach combing is one of my favorite activities, but have yet to find one. I'll obtain it. You'll see.

Still no jobs obtained but I have a lot of good leads. I have an interview/trial run at a restaurant on Saturday, which is a sweet place to work because they love Americans! The manager said that she wasn't sure what it was, but American servers were consistently her best workers. I'm quite excited to work there, it's a really cool "fancier" Mexican restaurant, with a lot of cool kiwis and a lot of cool Americans working there! I also applied at this shoe store (as the assistant manager) and at LUSH (an all-natural cosmetics store that's also back in the states). Still holding out for the Home of Poi job (I'm in constant contact with them) and for a teaching job, but teaching jobs are slim pickins here in Christchurch! Most start in 2010 and we aren't sure if we want to stay an extra 6 months (or if Tim even can, if I get a work permit and he doesn't). So I'm holding off on those for a bit. I am trying to organize some hooping lessons or hoopjams on the beach currently, as a sidejob and just a way to destress :)

That's about it! We're getting set up with a bank today, and applying for even more jobs and hoping that one will work out soon! More adventures (AND PICTURES) to come!

Cheers,
KT and Tim

We found a place to live today!!!!!!

Auckland just wasn't for us, so we flew to Christchurch today in hopes of a better environment to settle in.  The plane ride was beautiful!!!!!  Really bumpy, but beautiful!  Here are a few of the views from our plane window.

It's an adorable flat in a suburb of 

Christchurch called New Brighton.  We're living with this really cool guy named Ashley, he's a 26 year old business owner and SURFER!  He has a really sweet dog and an orange (and very friendly) cat.  

Our room is pretty big and we're buying the bed too so that we don't have to worry about finding one.

The best part is that it is about an eighth of a block away from the OCEAN!  There is just a 

small hill we have to walk over and then this is the view that we see.  I can't believe that we are going to live here....seriously.  I will post pics of 

the flat once we take a few :)

Other than that things are going really swell here!!  I have been collecting some funny pictures of other amazing differences between NZ and the US.  When we aren't on total shit for internet I will post them :)

I made these pictures too big...per Sean's request (thanks a lot, sean).  haha.  oh well, here are a few more that we took from our OCEAN VIEW.

Cheers for now,

Tim and KT

Auckland--the city that always sleeps.

Auckland is boring.

Hahahaha, everything closes at 5:30 pm and people aren't very friendly.  Our impressions of it were not very good, as we found ourselves already bored in the first 3 days of arriving.  Most New Zealanders think that Auckland is a terrible place to live, too expensive, and too mundane. We looked at a bunch of places today.  The first place we saw was being rented by this guy named Qili ("Chilli").  Not only did he come pick us up from our hotel (and take us back), but he took us out for ice cream and showed us around the ocean!  He was definitely the "Alex" of New Zealand.  Too bad the place was dingy and falling apart, or we would have stayed in the Auckland area.  We then went to a suburb called Avondale, which we equated to the grossest part of West Allis.  The place we saw was immaculate, but there was NOTHING in the town for us to do!  Nowhere to work!  And sooo far from the ocean.  It was lame.

We thus decided to try our luck elsewhere, and are traveling to Christchurch tomorrow!  Christchurch is on the south island, very scenic, on the coast, and lots of surfing!  It was described as "New Zealand: Lord of the Rings style."  We hope it will be a better fit.  We just aren't big city people.  Will post pictures once we find a place with internet, which is tricky.

A continuation of the list of dramatic New Zealand differences:

~Cell phone plans only come with 30 minutes of talk time!  WHAT!  The most you could get was 200 minutes, which New Zealanders think is an astronomical amount (we asked a few).  They mostly text.  All plans come with 600 texts.  No charge for incoming things (calls or texts) but stillllll.  Wow.  How do people do this?  It's .89/min after you go over.  UNHEARD OF.

~Light switches are different.

~Plugs are different.  They have slanted prongs.

~Wendy's and Burger King and KFC have CRAZY sandwiches that we don't.  They put avocado on burgers, pineapple slices on chicken, and (get ready for this) KFC has a sandwich that has a HASH BROWNS PATTY on top of a chicken patty!  Yummmm.  This makes up for there being no Taco Bell in sight, methinks.  Wendy's also has these crazy deep-dish cup desserts, including cheesecake, strawberry something, and banana creme cake.  

~There is no free internet/wifi ANYWHERE.  Even in hotels.

More to come.  Keep your fingers crossed for us that Christchurch is the most wonderful place in the whole world! :)  I couldn't add pictures for some reason, tried twice.  Sorry!

Cheers,

~KT and Tim

Funny differences we've noticed so far...

Day Three.

Still waiting on places.  We are looking at about 7 today and hopefully we will find one, as we are only in our hotel through tonight!  We are looking mostly out of the city, near the ocean.  Mostly in this suburb (still technically Auckland) called Avondale.  There is this one surfer girl that we really like, we hope her place is enjoyable too!

Alright.  So here are the differences we have noticed so far:

~Toilets are really DEEP.  It's like you are peeing into a cavern.

~I haven't found anywhere that knows what "just regular black coffee" means.  They look at me like I'm crazy.

~Some crosswalks are only what I can describe as "Everywhichaway crosses."  All the stoplights change and people can cross diagonally and crazily.  I think this exists in New York, but nowhere else that I've been!

~Each time we get a walk sign to cross the street, a laser beam noise comes from the street post!  It's like we are in a constant video game.  This is my favorite thing so far.

~It rains.  A lot.

There are more to follow but we have apartments to see!

Miss you all!

~KT and Tim

The trip over and the first few hours!

We are here!!!

Current temperature: 13 degrees C
Weather: Cloudy, small drizzle

Wow I love that this is winter in New Zealand (13 degrees is about 55 degrees F, by the way).
We apologize that we didn't update you all sooner, 

it wa

s hard to find a cafe with a free WiFi connection. But here we are, sitting in a cute little coffeshop, me with a delicious (and really artistically-served) caramel macchiato and Tim gazing out the window at passers-by.

The trip here was wonderful! We had an amazing night in Chicago with Pat and Sean. The night went long, as expected, and we began our travels with little sleep and less-than-ideal hangovers. Still, we were optimistic and excited as we embarked for LA. Plus, we were MORE than excited to learn that we didn't have to pay for a single checked bag! Lucky day, I suppose?

I got a little camera happy on the plane. I saw the Grand Canyon too (Tim was unluckily in the bathroom) but it was too cloudy to take a picture of. I'll stick more pics in here when I have more time to be on the internet!
Galen met us at LAX shortly after we arrived, and we headed to his place to check out some of Santa Monica.
Alex soon joined us and we scoped out San

ta Monica pier, the 

beach, and most importantly The OCEAN! We had lunch at an amazing sushi place where Alex ordered the most amazing appetizers (whitefish and chiles! yummm). We had so many delicious rolls that it wouldn't even do it justice to write about. There were even bagpipers that walked by as we ate!! Too cool.After Galen left, and we checked out the pier and the beach, we stopped for a few delicious treats an

d then Alex dropped us off at LAX. We waited for a few hours, since security was a breeze, then boarded for our hella-long flight to New Zealand. 

Last picture in the states!!!!!  ---->

It wasn't the worst of flights, actually. We slept for most of it, there was a ton of food, and great TV programs like New Flight of the Conchords to watch :)
After arriving, we showered, changed, then walked around to explore our new city!!!! We've only been here for a few hours (it's about 3:20pm on MONDAY here right now, we got in at 7:30am), and are very excited to see all we can

 see!  Will keep ya updated.

Our first sight at Auckland airport, the LUSH that they had downtown (for you, Jackie!), and the Sky Tower, Auckland's tallest building!

Sorry the formatting sucks.  Still getting the hang of it.

Until the next adventure,

KT and Tim