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 :)