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Hi everyone, have you missed us?? It's been a pretty quiet couple of weeks, mostly because Jeremy has finally succumbed to that lovely teenage affliction known as mono (which I had a decade ago - ha!!). He was down and out for about three weeks but has finally rejoined the land of the living, not to worry.
Well, one of the reasons we put this blog off was because we figured one or both of would have exciting new jobs to tell you about by now...but alas, such is not the case. We've both been on several interviews which have gone (at least from our end), exceptionally well...yet we've not had any offers of employment! I interviewed for a brand-new bar opening next month, thought it was a sure thing...no such luck. Had an interview set up at a day spa here to get back into massage therapy, and the manager never showed for the interview (how unprofessional is that??). We both interviewed for positions at one of the ski lodges...they LOVED us, it went fantastically well, they were even talking about promoting Jeremy into the purchasing department...and we just got emails an hour ago saying that we weren't selected.
Too bizarre!! We have no idea what's going on at this point, but for now we're just plugging away at the hotel...we could stay here through the winter, of course, but both of us would prefer a change of scenery. We'll see how it goes.
On a brighter note, we found a wonderful place to live for the winter! One of our friends from the hall is going to Europe for three months, and we are going to be moving into his lovely home from June through September while he's away. After over a year of living in literally a single room, we can't even describe how excited we are at the prospect of having a whole house (with an amazing fireplace, by the way) all to ourselves. Will send lots of photos along once we're moved in, of course!
So what's been happening in Queenstown for the past month? Our ensemble of photos will tell the story. Three weeks ago the town went into panic mode as we got about ten straight days of rain and Lake Wakatipu rose to dangerously high levels. Sandbags went flying, roads closed down, and businesses moved all their belongings to higher
ground. It didn't turn out to be nearly as bad at they were predicting, thank goodness, but it created quite the stir for a couple of days. Apparently, back in 1999, the town flooded so badly that people were KAYAKING down the main street (see photo from newspaper clipping)...so compared to that, our flood wasn't nearly as exciting. But it made things interesting for a couple of days.
I have an obsession with Arrowtown and have been going out there at least once a week, feasting on French cuisine and wandering under the autumn colors...got a couple of my girlfriends here into the food, as well, so we've been making pilgrimages out there on a regular basis. Finally discovered a great Italian place in town, too, called "The Cow," which is tiny and resembles an old cozy barn. We're still on the hunt for spicy food, though...this weekend we were down at our special assembly day in Invercargill and discovered a gorgeous new bar/restaurant that had (brace yourselves) chicken wings with blue cheese dressing! Almost as a joke, we ordered "fire" sauce, and tried not to laugh as the pathetically mild wings landed on our tongues. They were tasty,
of course, but they simply have no idea what "hot" is in this country...I tried the Mexican chicken pizza with the same hopes, but alas...it too proved to be quite mild. But delicious.
What else? I took a drive up the Remarkables range to the ski fields, which are due to open in about four weeks, and could not BELIEVE the views from up there!! Hope you enjoy the photos of the perfectly sunny day I had up there...sweeping views of Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, Arrowtown, and endless layers of mountains. Spectacular! It's a shame we won't be working up there, but we'll be going up plenty to snowboard this winter...
That's about it for now! We'd been hoping to tour the north island this month while it's slow season here, but when Jeremy came down with mono, that pretty much shot that idea. We'll try to get up there at the end of the winter before we leave, I suppose! I added a few photos I snapped at the grocery store here so you could see some of the shocking price tags on certain items, so I hope you get a laugh out of those! Hope everyone is
well and things are good back home...hard to believe it, but we've been gone over seven months now, so we're more than halfway through our year abroad! You'll see us again before you know it...and, if you notice the photos at the end of this blog, you might not even recognize me (wink, wink)...
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Joe Smuin
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Waitin' fer winter!
The one thing Americans (especially from comfortable backgrounds) who are amazed by the price of consumer goods abroad tend to forget is that in places like NZ (to the best of my knowledge) the social support systems and health care systems give the average citizen a level of support unknown in the United States. I doubt that anybody in New Zealand loses their home to pay for medical treatment. As for the bland food ... oh to be able to go into a restaurant and get food that isn't spiced to the point that it makes your nose bleed!! Up here in Canada, we don't have the same percentage of Hispanics as in the United States, but the huge Asian population here can match the Hispanics for hot spices - bite for bite. They don't have those wonderful dark eyes and tans because of their ethnic backgrounds ... it's because their insides are burned to charcoal from the hot spices they eat virtually from birth. As for your photos - what amazing pictures!!! What a beautiful country!!! We trust that your good husband is feeling MUCH better. He still looks a little peaky in those photos. cheers, Joe