I made it!

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A lot has happened since my last post and last visit to New Zealand. Back in Wisconsin, Paul and I had some difficult decisions to make regarding our move, our house, and our cats. After much deliberation, we decided to give our wonderful cats, Bagheera and Zoe, to Paul's Aunt Kathy. She adopted them and she has been taking great care of them. It wasn't easy saying goodbye, but knowing they're with family and with someone that will take good care of them made it easier. We also decided to sell our house. Paul moved to New Zealand to start his new position on June 25th. We had a little going away party and it was so nice to see everyone before Paul left. With Paul in NZ, I was left in WI to finish up my job at Froedtert and work on packing up the rest of the house. I couldn't have done this without my parents, my in-laws, my Uncle, or my Grandmas. They were all such a huge help. I was able to pretty much clear out the house, except what's being left behind for staging, but I had to leave the cleaning and final house projects for my family. Sorry! So the house isn't listed yet, but hopefully it will be within the next month! That'll be weird to come back to WI, but suddenly not have a house of our own anymore. I'm not too sad about selling the house as I never saw it as my forever house, but it was the first major purchase of my adult life. That also meant it was a huge learning experience and I know more about what to look for next time. At the same time, though, it was the first home for Paul and me as we started our life together so that part makes it sad to leave. Fingers crossed it will sell quickly, though. 😊

It was also hard to say goodbye to family, friends, and work. It is much easier saying goodbye knowing we'll be back in two years, though. I had a couple last night out events and I really appreciate those who stopped by. It's been two weeks since my last day working at Froedtert as a Nurse and it's starting to sink in that I'm not coming back, at least not for awhile. I'll certainly miss my amazing coworkers, but thank God for facebook and snapchat. haha. In between working and moving, I also found time to sneak in a trip to Washington DC to visit my friend, Amy. She is an amazing friend and hostess. We pretty much spent the long weekend just chatting and hanging out, but that was the perfect way to unwind after all the chaos at home in WI. On the plane ride back home, I sat next to a man who was very talkative and we discussed our jobs. As I told him I'm a nurse on a post-surgical floor for abdominal/oncology patients, it hit me that I can't really say that in present tense anymore. What do I say now? I'm still a Nurse. I don't see that as a term associated with employment. I see it as more of my identity than my occupation (more detail on this to come).

Now to discuss my actual move to NZ! I left Wisconsin on August 14th. My parents were so kind and drove me down to O'Hare Airport for my departure. I had two large suitcases, a small carry-on suitcase, and a full backpack. That's not really that much considering I'm an overpacker to begin with. Thankfully I didn't run into any hitches and the plan took off for LAX on time. I bought a book, "The Boys in the Boat-Nine Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics." It's based on a true story and it's really good. I'm about 40% through it so far. I enjoy reading, but I think the best places to read are on airplanes or sitting on a lounge chair in the sun (especially by the beach or pool). I had a three hour layover in LAX so I thankfully didn't have to rush over to the International Terminal. I made it over and had time for a light meal before my flight. I flew Air New Zealand and they serve really good food for dinner and breakfast so I didn't want to fill up too much. There wasn't too many great choices available, but I chose a Mexican restaurant. I sat next to a woman from Australia and struck up a conversation. She said her in-laws currently live in Cambridge, same town as me. Small world! She was very pleasant. The same couldn't really be said for the food or atmosphere. We were sitting at the bar and the waitress/bartender was nice enough, but was awfully busy/distracted. The worst part was the fruit flies buzzing around in front of my seat. I assume they were around cut up limes or something like that, yuck. Thankfully I didn't have a lime in my Corona! At one point the waitress was swatting the flies from her face and told us, "oh, I'm just waving like this because of the flies." I don't know if she was saying that to point out she wasn't doing it like we smelled bad or what, but regardless, the fact that saying it was the flies in a way that was supposed to make us feel better DID NOT make us feel better. What a way to savor my last meal in the USA.

My Air NZ flight took off without a problem. I was lucky enough to be seated in Premium Economy which offers a little more leg space and free alcohol. I watched "The Longest Ride" on the TV, a movie based off a Nicholas Sparks' book. It was different than the book, but what's new. The movie was alright. I had my two glasses of wine and then I got ready to try and sleep for at least a couple hours. After sleeping for about 30 minutes or so I heard a passenger nearby making a weird noise. I through on my glasses and got up to ask if he was okay. His eyes were closed, he was making a weird coughing/snoring noise, and there was spit at his mouth. His wife said, "he's having a seizure." Another passenger notified the flight attendant and I got some tissues to wipe his mouth. I identified myself as a Nurse, but I felt so helpless. I was wracking my brain for what to do for a seizure, but I just thought about airway and safety. The flight attendant quickly notified two Doctors on board the plane, just like 7 rows ahead of us, and they came to help. The man was in his 70's and the wife said he's only had one seizure before, about two months prior, and the followup scans didn't identify a problem so he wasn't started on medication. The Doctors (man-orthopedics and woman-general surgery?) took over and basically just tried to wake him up. They decided the best thing would be to lay him on the floor so two strong male passengers assisted with that. I was hovering nearby, but there wasn't much I could do. I talked with the wife a little bit to get some information and "provide emotional support," but she was surprisingly calm. At this point we were two hours past Hawaii-so pretty much middle of nowhere over the Pacific Ocean (like 8 hours remaining of the flight). The flight attendants brought the "physicians' bag" over and the flight attendant tried to get a fingerstick. I was kind of watching, and realized after like 5-10 minutes they still hadn't taken one. The flight attendant was pulling the needle too hard in the lancet so it disengaged when she pulled the cap off. I tried to volunteer and a Doctor said, "yeah, you probably know how to do this better than us," but the flight attendant got it then. The FS reading was like 4.6 or something. The Doctor said it was a normal reading and I looked like an idiot. I guess FS are different in metric? Learn something new all the time, I guess. (I just looked it up at a FS of 70 mg/dl is = to 3.89 mmol/L). Anyway, the Doctor was going to check a BP on the passenger and the physician kit had an isolation type stethoscope. In the many bags of travel, I actually packed my own stethoscope in my carry-on backpack. I offered it to the Doctor and she accepted it. The least I could do. A passenger next to me asked, "do you always travel with that?" I said no, "just that I was a Nurse in the USA and moving to NZ so I figured I'd bring it along." Eventually, the passenger came to and was stable and alert enough to make it back to his seat. The Doctors went back their seats and I tried to go back to sleep. About 5 hours later I woke up to the man making the same sounds. I didn't take the time to put on my glasses, though, so I tried running up the aisle to find the Doctors "blind", didn't work so well. The flight attendant saw me and helped to point out where the Doctors were, so we woke them up and go to the passenger. He was still in the active seizure state. They pulled him back to the ground and monitored him. I gave them my stethoscope again to check a BP, but I was pretty much standing in the back and not helping so I went back to my seat. I felt helpless and guilty that I just sat down and watched a movie. I think the passenger was moved to a different spot and the Doctors stayed by him the remainder of the flight (about 3 hours). Anyway, long story short, I sort of got to feel like a Nurse even though I'm not currently employed as one. At least, I was the one to hear the passenger immediately both times and get the help that was needed. I feel good in that sense even though I didn't actually do anything. The paramedics came on board shortly after landing in Auckland and then I departed and made my way through customs to find Paul waiting for me. A very welcome sight after the craziness of the flight.

It was pitch black still, as a I landed at 6 AM on Sunday, and it was pretty cold. I quickly remembered it's Winter here and I quickly missed Summer in WI. As the day progressed and the sun came up, though, the temp rose to 50-60 degrees F, and I was comfortable with jeans and a fleece pullover-not so bad. Paul took me to our new home here in Cambridge which I had only seen pictures of, and I was pleasantly surprised. It's actually pretty nice. Some things are outdated and not really high quality, but I like the space. The showers have warm water and good pressure so that's a big plus. I took a nap on our air mattress and woke to start a productive day. Due to jet lag, I was pretty tired the entire day but Paul and I got a lot accomplished. We hit up a lot of different stores in Hamilton and bought a bed, which is thankfully being delivered any minute, and some other things. Probably the best purchase, though, was Diet Coke with Lime at a random kiosk at the mall. Seriously, it's a regular 12 pack of 12 oz cans for $20 NZD. This is a super rare find, like black market soda. They sell Diet Coke here, but usually it's mini cans. I'm going to try to wean myself off soda since it's fairly expensive here and it's just not that healthy, but I love it so it may take some time. Some furniture stores were open and we looked around, found some Ashley furniture, but nothing cheap enough but good enough for 2 years. We came home, I took a nap, barely woke up enough to eat dinner and went back to bed.

Monday morning, Paul went to work for a 1/2 day so I took to emptying my suitcases and organizing stuff in the bathroom and clothes in the closet. We have a nice walk-in closet in the loft/master bedroom and a full bathroom. When Paul came home we went off to the Post office to register for a tax number which only took like 10-15 minutes. Way better than going to social security office in the USA! We then went to an AA office to apply for my NZ driver's license. Again, it only took like 10 minutes for the paperwork and my picture and it'll get mailed to me in a couple days. Again, way better than the DMV in WI! We then went back to Hamilton and went to a furniture warehouse to buy a sofa. It was a weird store. It is literally a warehouse with about 20 different furniture items and a couple toys in the front, and the back is all the stuff in boxes. Sofa was definitely more affordable than the other stores and it will be comfortable enough. Similar to IKEA, but unfortunately there are no IKEA stores in NZ. The sofa will be delivered in a day or two as well. The turn around on stuff here is great. Paul then suggested we go to the Kmart we saw the previous day. I am so glad we did. It is like an American store. It's huge, well lit, clean, cheap, and open until Midnight. Most stores close by 5/6pm. Basically, we fell in love. We bought some towels and decided we're going back tonight because we had to leave to go to the store to purchase a bicycle for me. Paul's mountain bike was shipped from the USA and should be arriving in a month, but mine was so old we decided we'd just buy one here. We got a great price and it'll be delivered to the store in a day or two and we'll pick it up next weekend. For dinner we went to a restaurant about 2 blocks away from our apartment called "The Five Stags." "Five Stags is a concept bar based around a Hunting Lodge." I know where we'll take Dad to eat. The food was really good but it took awhile. The service was pretty standard for NZ. People are nice, but tipping is not practiced in NZ and the tax is pretty much included in all the prices, so the customer service aspect isn't as nice as in the USA. The restaurant/bar was pretty packed as we left so it seems like a good place to go for a drink and maybe we'll meet people there or something. It's weird enough to meet a "mate" at a bar, but it seems weirder to meet friends at one. We'll figure it out. It's also nice it's close enough to walk to because the legal BAC for driving is lower here-0.05.

So now it's Tuesday here and I'm taking it easy. I woke up with a cold consisting of sore throat/runny nose. Not fun. The bed just got delivered but they don't assemble it so I'll wait for Paul to get home for that. My to-do list consists of cleaning and laundry until Paul gets home and we can go back to KMart. Other stores in NZ you have to go to like 4 different stores for different topics, but Kmart has it all. I think we'll pretty much outfit our apartment there tonight. I'll post pictures once we get a little more settled. My goal is to have it feel "homey" but not still try and be minimal about the amount of furniture and accessories. Less to clean and less to sell when we move back to the USA.

Well this was a long post with not much cool information, but I am sure I'll do more cool adventures as time progresses. The next big purchase we're going to make it getting me a car so I can drive around. Learning to drive on the left side of the road will be interesting, but I'm optimistic I'll learn quickly. I'll update as to how it goes.

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