When you pick up your entire life and move around the world its easy to dream about how easy it will be, but the reality is that even though people speak the same language and have a similar culture there are so many unanticipated difficulties that come up.
Having a working holiday VISA means that I technically can only work for three months with one employer. If I want to work longer the employer needs to sponsor me for a temporary work permit. This means that if there is a NZ applicant who is close to the same skills as me, they will obviously get the job first. I expected this, but what I didn't expect was the lack of response to putting CVs out into the world. I am used to a culture that says "thanks for your resume, unfortunately you didn't make the short list". Especially for professional jobs. But at the same time I am finding myself really wondering if it isn't my energy around the resumes that is causing them to not be responded to. When I think about where I would like to see my life going, I do not see myself in an administration role. The idea of jumping into another job where I am behind a desk all day does not appeal to me, so perhaps I am causing the resumes to not be responded to.
Navigating finding people and meeting people becomes so much more difficult when you don't have any idea where to start. I had never had to start over in a new city (besides when I was 5 and moved to the lower mainland) and so have never really had to create a new zone of people for myself. But even when I have had to start meeting new people there has been this wonderful thing called the internet just sitting there waiting for me. Problem arises with New Zealand as it doesn't seem to be a large part of their world here, and certainly there isn't any Criagslist Platonic Ads equivilent here so unless you are looking to date someone there really isn't an online resource for just meeting people with similar interests. So the only options are with courses and classes which cost money that I just can't afford to put out until I have a job bringing in income.
Culture shock is of course less here than it would be many other places but there are just little things that begin to rub you the wrong way. People bump into you and don't say sorry, pretty much all of them, at least in Canada some people apologise. People are very blunt and open here, which I am very much not used to. I am not used to a culture that openly talks about other peoples problems pronouncing who has cancer, or who's child killed themselves due to schoolyard bullies like it is as common as what you eat for dinner. I suppose that I put value in privacy and respect for situations that shouldn't be spread around like gossip.
But weirdest of all is that most every faucet is a double faucet rather than one. I am not sure how people manage to not burn themselves in the simple act of washing ones hands. Its weird these little things that you only seen in the movies that come up and make you realize that you are far away from what you would normally expect home to be like.
But with all the faults I am loving the act of learning a new city. Finding interesting cultural nuances and learning how to navigate them has me infinitely interested in observing. I just at times wish parts of it were easier, but if this trip is testing anything it is my ability to be patient. Patience and the answers will come.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
House Tour and Job Update
As per Andreas request a while ago I have taken some basic photos of our place and posted them on our photo albums. Hoping to get more photos up of the city shortly. The link to the album is the usual (also found in the right hand corner of the site if you were so inclined).
And on the job front there are some positive changes and some that I am not too sure about. The job I was getting really excited about still has some complications around payment and timing. So I have been thinking about how I could make that position work for me without completely taking up all of my time so that I can still have time to do paid work while not working 24 hours a day. So hopefully my proposal of a day a week goes well. It would be a great thing as it essentially will be an apprenticeship at a whole foods cooking school. So I would learn a ton!
But in the meantime I have accepted a position at a home as a caregiver. I start next Friday the 6th. It doesn't pay the best but it will get me some health experience here in NZ and hopefully teach me a ton of skills that I can transfer to other health jobs. I want to try to do something as far away from administration as possible so that I can test out what type of job would be best for me in the future. I am really looking forward to starting this.
I also have a job interview in order to work an international flower and gardening show which would be fun since now that I have a yard I can go to these type of shows and actually take ideas home!
So things are looking up on the job front, just in a bit of limbo still but should be so busy I can't think soon enough, which I adore, so here's hoping.
And on the job front there are some positive changes and some that I am not too sure about. The job I was getting really excited about still has some complications around payment and timing. So I have been thinking about how I could make that position work for me without completely taking up all of my time so that I can still have time to do paid work while not working 24 hours a day. So hopefully my proposal of a day a week goes well. It would be a great thing as it essentially will be an apprenticeship at a whole foods cooking school. So I would learn a ton!
But in the meantime I have accepted a position at a home as a caregiver. I start next Friday the 6th. It doesn't pay the best but it will get me some health experience here in NZ and hopefully teach me a ton of skills that I can transfer to other health jobs. I want to try to do something as far away from administration as possible so that I can test out what type of job would be best for me in the future. I am really looking forward to starting this.
I also have a job interview in order to work an international flower and gardening show which would be fun since now that I have a yard I can go to these type of shows and actually take ideas home!
So things are looking up on the job front, just in a bit of limbo still but should be so busy I can't think soon enough, which I adore, so here's hoping.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
apology to commenters
We've discovered today that comments to the photo album weren't initiating notice email to us. We swears we haven't been ignoring you! Hopefully all is sorted now.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Large Picture Upload
In the process of doing a large photo upload to the album. Check it out. Album on Picasa.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Promised Wellness
So far the blog has really just been about our trip rather than the promised "wine and wellness" angle, but I am about to change that!
Starting with: worm composting.
I got some worms set up last week so that I can start composting our food wastes. I converted an old city of Christchurch recycling bin into my new worms home and found wood and a brick for a lid, and off it went. They seem to be settling into their new home nicely, however a weeks worth of kitchen scraps has easily filled the entire bottom of the container which makes me think we need a larger container. Our new flatmate said no to me setting up an old bathtub in the yard as the new compost, so I moved on to the next best thing; old tires. Now it may not sound like a very good compost solution but there are a few really great bonus' to using tires. 1. They can be found for free. 2. They are stackable and thus are unstackable to get to the good bits of your compost heap. 3. Did I mention they could be found for free? So I had been keeping my eyes out for garages in the area where I could call and see if they have any tires that I can take off their hands, rather than them needing to dispose of them, when a miracle happened. I was driving down a desolate gravel road going to my job interview and low and behold there are a tires at the side of the road, and they are not behind barbed wire, score. So in driving home I carefully parked the car, looked around for any signs of human life and promptly stole three tires. Next step on my compost journey will be figuring out how to control the insane amounts of fruit flys that are making friends with the worms.
You can view my original attempt of supplying them with a good home on my self portrait a day site.
Onto: Finding a job in Wellness
Onto the second bit of wellness news, I had a job interview (of sorts) today with a woman who runs a holistic nutritional cooking school and I think it went really well. The trick is that due to the recession she may not exactly be able to pay me. So we have come up with a few ideas which include paying me in cooking classes and also training me on essentially everything she knows. I have told her that I just need to ensure that gas is covered (its about 60km away from where we live) as that is an expense I can't afford if I am not making money but other than that I am flexible in regards to renumeration. Especially for the next little while as I still have money that I saved back home. The opportunities to learn are amazing. I was thinking of taking a Holistic Nutritionist course and by working with her I may be able to learn most everything I need and save the expense. Just need to work out the budget for the next little while and see what is feasible for us. But I am so excited about the opportunities with her that I am beside myself.
Better go out and make a tire compost.
Starting with: worm composting.
I got some worms set up last week so that I can start composting our food wastes. I converted an old city of Christchurch recycling bin into my new worms home and found wood and a brick for a lid, and off it went. They seem to be settling into their new home nicely, however a weeks worth of kitchen scraps has easily filled the entire bottom of the container which makes me think we need a larger container. Our new flatmate said no to me setting up an old bathtub in the yard as the new compost, so I moved on to the next best thing; old tires. Now it may not sound like a very good compost solution but there are a few really great bonus' to using tires. 1. They can be found for free. 2. They are stackable and thus are unstackable to get to the good bits of your compost heap. 3. Did I mention they could be found for free? So I had been keeping my eyes out for garages in the area where I could call and see if they have any tires that I can take off their hands, rather than them needing to dispose of them, when a miracle happened. I was driving down a desolate gravel road going to my job interview and low and behold there are a tires at the side of the road, and they are not behind barbed wire, score. So in driving home I carefully parked the car, looked around for any signs of human life and promptly stole three tires. Next step on my compost journey will be figuring out how to control the insane amounts of fruit flys that are making friends with the worms.
You can view my original attempt of supplying them with a good home on my self portrait a day site.
Onto: Finding a job in Wellness
Onto the second bit of wellness news, I had a job interview (of sorts) today with a woman who runs a holistic nutritional cooking school and I think it went really well. The trick is that due to the recession she may not exactly be able to pay me. So we have come up with a few ideas which include paying me in cooking classes and also training me on essentially everything she knows. I have told her that I just need to ensure that gas is covered (its about 60km away from where we live) as that is an expense I can't afford if I am not making money but other than that I am flexible in regards to renumeration. Especially for the next little while as I still have money that I saved back home. The opportunities to learn are amazing. I was thinking of taking a Holistic Nutritionist course and by working with her I may be able to learn most everything I need and save the expense. Just need to work out the budget for the next little while and see what is feasible for us. But I am so excited about the opportunities with her that I am beside myself.
Better go out and make a tire compost.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
return to the helm
Woah Nelly what a few weeks these have been. We've climbed mountain-side rock staircases for hours, been eaten alive by sand flies, burned our feet at the aptly named Hot Water Beach, and met some truly great people along the way.
Complete strangers have put us up and put up with us for days on end! I've been well humoured with the amount of wine networking happening in this country, and I am slowly learning how to pitch it to Karen. Organic or Biodynamic producer? She's in! Good to know...
Immersion in a new culture is a shocking experience, and despite the many similarities and common language shared between Canada and New Zealand, I find this country maddening. There really is no good reason why things should cost so much. There may be perfectly valid reasons, but they're certainly not good in my books. Luckily, as with so many places in the world, if you search for it, you can find it. Second-hand bike shops. Bulk food stores. Smaller grocers. Those who don't boast of having "NZ's lowest prices" are the ones who typically do.
However, of all the things I miss about back home, it's what I intend to do tomorrow that I've missed most urgently.
I'm going to ride my bike.
Complete strangers have put us up and put up with us for days on end! I've been well humoured with the amount of wine networking happening in this country, and I am slowly learning how to pitch it to Karen. Organic or Biodynamic producer? She's in! Good to know...
Immersion in a new culture is a shocking experience, and despite the many similarities and common language shared between Canada and New Zealand, I find this country maddening. There really is no good reason why things should cost so much. There may be perfectly valid reasons, but they're certainly not good in my books. Luckily, as with so many places in the world, if you search for it, you can find it. Second-hand bike shops. Bulk food stores. Smaller grocers. Those who don't boast of having "NZ's lowest prices" are the ones who typically do.
However, of all the things I miss about back home, it's what I intend to do tomorrow that I've missed most urgently.
I'm going to ride my bike.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Reflections on New Zealand
I know I keep saying I will update with more information about our travels but time just seems to be getting away from me. We are still trying to find a bed to sleep on, for a reasonable price. Going to go see one tonight so hopefully that works out. If not, more floor sleeping which leads to bad sleep and cricked necks. But things are going really well in our new place. Hopefully have pictures up shortly!
But here are some of my positive and negative reflections on New Zealand so far.
Neg: No Craigslist. I didn't realize how much that site rocked until we came here and have to use Trade Me, which is essentially eBay. It is done on an auction system which is great for the seller as people who haven't even viewed the product jack the price up which means in the last five minutes of the auction the price goes up 50-hundreds of dollars. This system sucks.
Pos: Ketchup. The Ketchup (or they call it Tomato Sauce) is amazing. It tastes like it has a little bit of nutmeg in it and actually doesn't taste like one is eating a red blob of sugar. So tasty.
Neg: Prices. Everything seems to be more expensive. Food, bikes, supplies, gas (currently at a lower price of $1.65/litre), absolutely everything is higher. And we are trying not to get into the habit of thinking of how good the exchange rate is as soon we will be living off of NZ money.
Pos: Rent. We are currently living in a shared hosue that has two large bedrooms, a shared office, huge kitchen and huge living area, as well as a nice yard that we can do gardening in. We are paying just $600 a month, plus expenses. This blows me away as we were paying $740 for a small attic suite (all in) just a few months ago. Amazing.
Neg: Lack of familiar foods. They don't know what perogies are here. I have yet to see a 99 cent pizza joint. Breakfast foods are $15 for a plate of food we could get in Vancouver for $3 at Bons. There is no cheap sushi (Drew more than I). No familiar potato chip flavours, chicken potato chips just seem sacreligious.
Pos: New foods, or old foods that are better (in addition to ketchup). Rice milk is stunning here and tastes just like milk. Meat Pies are the staple cheap food, tasty but not too good for the belly. Fruits and veggies taste like organic although they aren't.
Neg: Bad drivers. No one seems to know how to drive here. This isn't so bad in a car as Drew is a really good driver, but its scary to think of what cycling will be like.
Pos: Small city. Christchurch is a very small city in comparison to back home. This is making it very easy to figure out where things are and learn how to get there. After just a week of navigating around I am starting to sort out where things are. Drew not as much as he is paying attention to the bad drivers and trusting my navigation skills.
Neg: No Ikea. You don't realize how wonderful a place like Ikea is until you are trying to furnish a home on the cheap and its not available to you. This is when you need to rely on something like Trade Me and lose auctions because spending $200 for a stained mattress is just plain gross.
Pos: Free things. We went to see some beds to see if we wanted to bid and ended up getting a free dresser and chair. That was cool.
Neg: Effort. It seems that everything here is just a little bit more difficult than back home. That is all due to being in a new place and all, but its exhausting trying to navigate a new system of buying, driving and eating.
Pos: Having a yard. Having a yard means that we can a) garden and b) compost! I got worms yesterday, very exciting. It is like having a pet!
Neg: Owning a car. Having access to a car is fantastic, liberating and we wouldn't have seen as much if we didn't have it. Trick is that it costs, a lot. That isn't so much fun.
Pos: Extremely friendly people. I read in a Winnipeggers blog post before coming here that NZ was more friendly than Winnipeg. And, well, they might be right. Its been great meeting people and have them give us their numbers and say to call anytime. Our flatmate is also really awesome and gets along well with both of us. I am hoping that this trend continues as with Drew starting classes soon I will need more people to fill my time with until I find a job.
There are lots more little things. Will try to write more soon.
But here are some of my positive and negative reflections on New Zealand so far.
Neg: No Craigslist. I didn't realize how much that site rocked until we came here and have to use Trade Me, which is essentially eBay. It is done on an auction system which is great for the seller as people who haven't even viewed the product jack the price up which means in the last five minutes of the auction the price goes up 50-hundreds of dollars. This system sucks.
Pos: Ketchup. The Ketchup (or they call it Tomato Sauce) is amazing. It tastes like it has a little bit of nutmeg in it and actually doesn't taste like one is eating a red blob of sugar. So tasty.
Neg: Prices. Everything seems to be more expensive. Food, bikes, supplies, gas (currently at a lower price of $1.65/litre), absolutely everything is higher. And we are trying not to get into the habit of thinking of how good the exchange rate is as soon we will be living off of NZ money.
Pos: Rent. We are currently living in a shared hosue that has two large bedrooms, a shared office, huge kitchen and huge living area, as well as a nice yard that we can do gardening in. We are paying just $600 a month, plus expenses. This blows me away as we were paying $740 for a small attic suite (all in) just a few months ago. Amazing.
Neg: Lack of familiar foods. They don't know what perogies are here. I have yet to see a 99 cent pizza joint. Breakfast foods are $15 for a plate of food we could get in Vancouver for $3 at Bons. There is no cheap sushi (Drew more than I). No familiar potato chip flavours, chicken potato chips just seem sacreligious.
Pos: New foods, or old foods that are better (in addition to ketchup). Rice milk is stunning here and tastes just like milk. Meat Pies are the staple cheap food, tasty but not too good for the belly. Fruits and veggies taste like organic although they aren't.
Neg: Bad drivers. No one seems to know how to drive here. This isn't so bad in a car as Drew is a really good driver, but its scary to think of what cycling will be like.
Pos: Small city. Christchurch is a very small city in comparison to back home. This is making it very easy to figure out where things are and learn how to get there. After just a week of navigating around I am starting to sort out where things are. Drew not as much as he is paying attention to the bad drivers and trusting my navigation skills.
Neg: No Ikea. You don't realize how wonderful a place like Ikea is until you are trying to furnish a home on the cheap and its not available to you. This is when you need to rely on something like Trade Me and lose auctions because spending $200 for a stained mattress is just plain gross.
Pos: Free things. We went to see some beds to see if we wanted to bid and ended up getting a free dresser and chair. That was cool.
Neg: Effort. It seems that everything here is just a little bit more difficult than back home. That is all due to being in a new place and all, but its exhausting trying to navigate a new system of buying, driving and eating.
Pos: Having a yard. Having a yard means that we can a) garden and b) compost! I got worms yesterday, very exciting. It is like having a pet!
Neg: Owning a car. Having access to a car is fantastic, liberating and we wouldn't have seen as much if we didn't have it. Trick is that it costs, a lot. That isn't so much fun.
Pos: Extremely friendly people. I read in a Winnipeggers blog post before coming here that NZ was more friendly than Winnipeg. And, well, they might be right. Its been great meeting people and have them give us their numbers and say to call anytime. Our flatmate is also really awesome and gets along well with both of us. I am hoping that this trend continues as with Drew starting classes soon I will need more people to fill my time with until I find a job.
There are lots more little things. Will try to write more soon.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Settling into home
So, we have been in Chch (Christchurch) for about 32 hours or so now. In that time we have found a place to live with what seems like a cool roommate and will be moving in in just a few hours. Not bad I think!
Will have internet there (in a cafe right now) so will be able to update on our travels in much more detail.
Now the trouble of finding a job starts. Wish me luck.
Will have internet there (in a cafe right now) so will be able to update on our travels in much more detail.
Now the trouble of finding a job starts. Wish me luck.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Four Weeks In
We are now about four weeks into our travels. Currently staying in Napier with wine contacts (the friends through friends scenario) and looking forward to moving our way towards Christchurch in the next couple of days. Traveling has been fantastic and I am hoping to have time to update in more detail soon enough but as of now I am just too tired when I do sit down to the computer to write much of anything and keep it interesting.
I have updated the photo albums with a few new sets of pictures if you are so inclined to take a look. You can view them at my photo pages.
Loving it here, but also starting to feel a bit homesick as it is sinking in that this isn't just a vacation. Looking forward to settling in one place, but think I will miss this freedom of travel as well.
I have updated the photo albums with a few new sets of pictures if you are so inclined to take a look. You can view them at my photo pages.
Loving it here, but also starting to feel a bit homesick as it is sinking in that this isn't just a vacation. Looking forward to settling in one place, but think I will miss this freedom of travel as well.
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