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