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