So a few random thoughts before I forget. So one, small disappointing aspect of New Zealand is that the toilets flush down. Like I said, it is small, but I admittedly was excited to see the toilet swirl the opposite way when flushed because we are located south of the equator. It does not here in New Zealand. It only goes straight down.
Now onto something amazing about New Zealand, there is NO TRAFFIC, at least in Nelson. I drive 15 minutes to work about 5 days a week and it does not matter what time of the day it is, it always takes me the same amount of time. It is a wonderful feeling, and decreases my daily stress level by a lot. I attribute most of the lack of traffic to the traffic circles. Basically no matter what direction you want to go you are initially turning left and yielding to the cars on your right. Maybe we have these in the states, but I’ve never seen them, and I’m not entirely sure they would work, even in the busy suburbs of Philly. Needless to say, I only go through one stoplight on my way to work. I estimate this same ride, but at home would have about 4 stoplights and take 25 minutes, maybe 30 with traffic. Life is good.
Third random thing about life in New Zealand (sort of), one which I hated and grew to love, is the fact that I generally do not have a cell phone. Jeff and I share a cell phone, but usually it just sits on the dining room table, and we only ever get a call from the temp agency, and it’s not like we really have too many friends to text. Jeff uses it to text basketball friends, and I text one lady about work. At first I would reach in my purse to check my cell phone constantly and now I am usually wondering what the loud noise is coming from my pocket. I would say my cell phone use has decreased 98%, and it’s a good feeling to be able to live without it, but I do find myself wishing I could share parts of my day with Jeff or people back home. I guess that’s what the blog is for.
I can’t remember any more random things, so I’ll go on to describe my week. I haven’t written in a while, but honestly not too much happened this week except working my butt off. I strained my back on Sunday when we went to the bird sanctuary, so I had been taking a few days off yoga, but I went to a vinyasa flow class this morning and got my butt kicked.
This week I worked at the airport café Mon through Thurs and had my first day of housekeeping work on Wednesday. I really thought I could do anything for 6 hours a day for a month or two, but this housekeeping job was at a five star resort, and it wasn’t that the work was too physically demanding (although quite rough), but they were so meticulous that it drove me insane. I think I am meticulously clean and neat, and I understand people pay a lot of money to stay at these places, but I decided that I cannot care enough about a smear on a granite wall that I just finished buffing enough to do that for 20-30 hours a week, especially for minimum wage (This is part vacation after all). I politely declined further employment at the hotel, and did a little employment damage control… I know in the coming weekends I will have catering opportunities for $15/hour and I have been getting pretty steady hours at the airport café (which I love) so I thought quitting the hotel would be fine. I went to talk to my temp agency lady (Cynthia) to tell her I have more availability and she said that I could be the main airport café person from the temp agency (her and I are like bff). And then it got even better, she calls me shortly after this conversation to send me on an interview for a position managing a small café, with one other lady, for 30hr/week for 2 weeks while the head chef is away. The boss there offered me the job and I start Monday! I am very excited because I will get the chance to work in a commercial size kitchen baking and cooking, but also talking to customers (a huge improvement from cleaning rooms). Once these 2 weeks are up holidays and summer will be in full swing and I can pick up more hours at the airport café. I am pretty much the luckiest person alive to have gotten that position at the small café, because I was worried I would quit the hotel and all my jobs would die off. I guess New Zealand wants to keep me for a little while longer J
It’s Friday here and my first day off since last Sunday. Because the house we rented is also advertised as a holiday home, it is being rented for the weekend. It sounds unusual, and it is, but we basically get paid $15 a night each to go away for the weekend while other people stay at the house. We’ve been out of the house since yesterday morning and stayed in a hostel in Nelson last night because Jeff had a job today doing relocation (moving boxes around). Tonight we will head to Takaka (about 2 hours north-west of Nelson) camp there, do some activities, then camp in Abel Tasman and do some more activities (I don’t want to spoil the future blog topic, but we booked a very cool activity for tomorrow!) then return home Sunday night. We’ll see how Bluberry holds up on the “Takaka Hill” which is basically a drive over a really windy mountain. (The first time I ever realized the windy and windy were spelled the same was here in New Zealand). You’d be surprised at how many times I was expecting a gusty ride through the mountains rather than one with a lot of turns haha
I’ve gotta go find some sunscreen before we head off into the wild because the sun is so much more brutal here than in the states, and I’m willing it to be a sunny weekend. Hope everyone is looking forward to the holidays and the time off! Miss everyone a ton and its great to hear from those who write!! Love and hugs!
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment