Kia Ora, Y'all!

And so it seems we come to the end.

2010-02-19T22:27:00.004+13:00

Chris has accepted a really great job in Nashville. Tennessee. USA. Home of the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame and barbecue. They don't eat a lot of Marmite there. Zach will grow up with a very different accent. We head back in May.

We are excited. To be honest, we have been quite homesick for some time. As amazing as this New Zealand adventure has been, I am ready to start a new chapter. I'm a little sad to say, but it looks like this may be the end of dunedinyank. Technically there are a few months left in our New Zealand stay, but I can barely get my act together to update this blog, so I'm afraid it's time to part ways, devoted readers.

(As an aside to family and friends, I may start a new password-protected blog when we get settled in Nashville so you can keep up with all of our excitement. If and when that happens, I'll let you know.)

I'm not really one for mushy goodbyes, so I think the best way to end this will be a list of things we'll miss about New Zealand and a list of reasons I'm excited to be moving on. These are long lists, so I'll divide them into two parts. Here goes Part #1.

Top Things I'll Miss About New Zealand

1) Media. You turn on the TV news or open a newspaper in New Zealand and you can't help notice that it's unbelievably boring. Someone tells you what happened, then they get a quote from one side, and a quote from another, and they move on. There are no pundits. No "media personalities." No crazy graphics, no banners rolling across the bottom of the screen. No yelling, no crying, no panic, no vitriol. Civility. The thought of returning home to any of the U.S. cable news channels makes me want to pull the covers over my head.

2) The baking. Yeah, yeah, New Zealand is pretty. You've heard that already. But what no one tells you is, these people can bake. Savouries and scones and afghans and pies ... oooh. A special shout-out to our friend Fiona, Kiwi baker extraordinaire.

3) Safety. Okay, so Kiwis love to tell you that they do, in fact, have crime, and they will talk about the gang problems and tell you about that one guy who went crazy fifteen years ago and killed a bunch of people in that nearby town. All I know is I've felt safer here than I've ever felt in my entire life. Maybe it has something to do with the lack of panic from the news media (see #1 above). Maybe it's because we moved here from a transitional neighborhood in a fairly high-crime city, so I was pretty hardened. Whatever the reason, I have never once felt uncomfortable or harassed here, even as a woman walking by myself. It does not occur to me to lock my car doors while driving, even when I'm going through the "bad" part of town. When I hear a strange noise at night, I assume it's our creaky house and not some crazy person out to get us. I enjoy this feeling immensely.

4) Health care. This is a hot topic (see #1). By saying I'll miss Kiwi health care I don't mean to insinuate that the U.S. doesn't offer excellent health care (because it does, since we can afford it). I'm not saying the Kiwi system could easily be implemented in the U.S. (because it couldn't). I'm saying I'll miss the lack of hassle. Maybe I'd feel differently if I was really really sick and needed ongoing treatments or major surgery -- I don't know. But between the pregnancy, well-child visits, sick child visits, and sick mama and daddy visits, we've used the health system a LOT during our time here and we've always received excellent, efficient care with no associated paperwork headaches. I absolutely adore our family doctor and could probably devote an entire post to the aggressive care she's given us. Once she told me not to worry about making an appointment if Zach ever seemed sick -- just bring him in and they'd make time to see him. It's been good stuff.

5) Time. Americans work hard. Really hard. It's part of our charm. It's part of what makes us -- us. But for all the lip service we give to saying that family time is the most important thing, we rarely act like it. Kiwis (and much of the rest of the world), on the other hand -- they know how to separate work and play. Here, there's no shame in taking long (3-4 weeks!) vacations. It's not uncommon for women to take up to a year of maternity leave. When there's a public holiday, everything truly shuts down. No running to the grocery store -- they have the day off. When the evenings and weekends roll around, you don't see Kiwis typing madly on their Blackberries. It's been a real treat to slow down for the two years we've been here. It's been a real treat to have my son in a place that didn't expect us to get right back to work, that allowed us to enjoy our time with him, free of guilt.

6) So much stuff to see. I'm really annoyed that time and budget won't allow us to see more of this part of the world before we go. We still haven't been to Abel Tasman. We still haven't been to much of the North Island. I'm very sad we didn't make it back to Australia. I would give my right arm for a week at the beach in the Cook Islands, or Samoa, or Fiji. But such is life. We've seen more of the country than many New Zealanders (and this is not an exaggeration ... I'm shocked at how many people here have traveled all over the world but barely know their own country), and we've been fortunate to do so.

Okay, that's it for now. I'll get started on Part II. Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion.

Yes, it really is that pretty.

2010-01-01T21:29:00.005+13:00

I'm not trying to make you jealous. Okay, maybe just a little bit.

This is the view from the front porch of house we rented at Lake Tekapo over the New Year. Outrageous. (I am not in the advertising business, but I cannot recommend Parkbrae Estates highly enough if you find yourself at Lake Tekapo. Perfect location, comfortable, spotlessly clean, super nice proprieter, reasonable rates ...)

So anyway, we had an outrageously nice and relaxing time. Although this was our second visit to Tekapo, the weather was so much better this time and we had a much slower pace. It may be my new favorite place in New Zealand.

A little hiking. A little porch sitting. Nice weather. Nice scenery. Good stuff.

Lupines by the lake.

Mount Cook Village

Top of Mount John

Piano man entertaining us in the lake house. (As an aside, I will reveal that my mom and I fought for years about her unsuccessful attempts to make me play the piano. I was TERRIBLE and HATED it. For her sake it will be quite poetic if he grows into a piano genius.)

Playtime with daddy

Backpack Zach. He rides very well in this thing

Happy 2010, everybody! Bring it on!

Ho ho ho!!!

2009-12-21T21:12:00.002+13:00

Hello, my gorgeous readers, and Merry Christmas! I know, I know, it's not quite Christmas yet, but I'm in the spirit of things. Last year we were traveling pretty much the entire month of December so we didn't get a tree or do much in the way of gifts, and with it being summer here the season went by so quickly that it never quite felt as Christmas-y as I would have liked. (Incidentally, I thought Kiwis were quite Scrooge-y for not putting up Christmas lights on their houses until someone pointed out to me that it stays light until well past 10 pm right now so it's not exactly easy to find a time to turn them on ...)

Anyway, this year, being Zach's first Christmas and all, I've been determined not to let it get away from us too quickly. I actually ordered cards and had them in the mail by the first week in December. We have a cute little four-foot tree with some simple red and gold decorations and way more gifts under it than anyone has a right to hope for. We have entered the season of Christmas parties (barbecues seem to be the thing here) and Zach even attended his first kid's Christmas party at Chris's work. Zach was not impressed with Santa but had a wonderful time exploring all of the different kinds of fruit on display at the food table. (Have I mentioned how that boy can eat? Anything. Everything. All the time.)

As usual, the only sad thing is that we are not spending this Christmas with our families, but let's not dwell on that. Let's be happy. Photos. Photos make us happy, right? I've got some of those. We just got back from a quick trip to Central Otago with some friends and took a little stroll around Lake Hayes. Absolutely gorgeous and reminds us of everything we love about New Zealand.

Yes, I'm biased. But this boy is cute.

We forgot to pack Zach's backpack (say that three times fast) so little Z rode on Daddy's shoulders. Daddy may now need neck surgery, but Zach absolutely loved it.

Dads and Bubs.

Wishing you Christmas joy and a wonderful 2010! Lots of love to you all!!!

Hello again ...

2009-12-07T21:53:00.000+13:00

I've been a bad blogger. Such a bad blogger. Perhaps you have given up on me, faithful readers, and for that I could not blame you. My excuse is I only get about three waking hours each day when Zach is sleeping, and I tend to spend this time in a vegetative state on the couch. On the off chance someone is still checking this thing, I offer my most sincere apologies. And now I'll try to get you up to speed from the last three months. Bear with me!

1) The trip. What a fun, fun, fun trip to North America we had. (A million years ago now!) Five weeks of amazing times with Chris's family in Vancouver, my family in Texas, and dear friends in Georgia. Could not have been happier to see everyone. Zach was an angel baby on every plane ride and aside from a couple of rough jet-lagged nights he was a trooper.

Very strange ... I thought it would feel odd to be back in North America but it honestly felt like we'd never left. And then when we came back to New Zealand it felt like we'd never left here, either. Hard to explain.

2) Work. I returned to work 2 1/2 days per week. Chris is staying home with Zach two half-days per week, which leaves the boy at a very nice day care 12 hours per week (Three four-hour days.) I am generally fine with this. It's a nice place and the women there are lovely. He has smiles for his teacher when I drop him off and he looks perfectly content when I go to pick him up. It's good having two incomes and most days I find it refreshing to use non-mommy parts of my brain for a while. But other moments I feel like a terrible mother leaving him and I think everybody is judging me and I feel wildly jealous of stay-at-home moms. I suspect these conflicting feelings will not miraculously resolve themselves any time soon. Blah.

3) Swimming. Zach started baby swimming lessons in October and it has quickly become one of our favorite family pass times. After a few ambivalent sessions he now adores the water and happily kicks his legs and puts his face in the water. We feel very lucky to have facility as fantastic as Moana Pool nearby, where I can swim laps while Zach takes his lesson with daddy. Fun for everyone!

4) Thanksgiving. We just hosted an American Thanksgiving dinner for 18 -- yes, 18 -- people. I had a bit of a panic when I realized how the guest list had spiraled out of control, but it turned into a really funny, casual evening with people hanging out, eating and drinking on our floor. (Was glad I vaccuumed.) Fried turkey, pecan pie ... what more do you want?

5) Milford Track. Our friends Tom & Libby from the US recently came for a visit and Chris went with them on the Milford Track, a four day, three night hike described as one of New Zealand's (and the world's) best. I believe it was excellent, but you'll have to ask him.

There's more, of course, much more, as always. Zach is fantastic and hilarious and adorable and Chris has oodles of ridiculously cute pictures on his Flickr page, so hopefully you've been checking those while I've been a rogue blogger. I had good intentions to upload some new photos with this post but the Blogger.com site is being fickle, and I just don't have the energy. Next time, I promise.

I'm back on the blogging wagon again, and it feels good. You will hear from me soon.

Five weeks, four cities, one infant, tons of luggage

2009-08-14T08:01:00.002+12:00

Well, devoted readers, we're off again!

Piggybacking on yet another conference for Chris, we are heading to North America for five weeks so Zach can visit his ancestral homeland and everyone at home can get a look at the boy. Could not be more excited to see all of our family and friends, enjoy some hot summer weather, and eat Mexican food that doesn't taste like ketchup. Also curious and a bit nervous about how the return to North America is going to feel after more than a year ... I'm finally at the point that New Zealand doesn't seem very foreign any more, and it makes me wonder how home will feel once I'm there. If that makes any sense.

Wish us safe & happy travels! I apologize in advance to the person sitting next to us on our 13 hour flight to Vancouver. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do!

I leave you with a Zach and Livy pic. Blurry & washed out, but cute. Real cute.

Bureaucracy and natural disasters

2009-07-20T02:44:00.000+12:00

Am I the only person who thinks it is completely insane to make babies pose for passport pictures? Maybe you shouldn't get me started.

Flying to Auckland today to get Zach's US passport from the consulate. Yes, we actually have to fly up there and show him off in person. Maybe you shouldn't get me started. (Some of you may be familiar with Chris's recent immigration snafu that necessitated a trip to Hawaii ... I'm a little tired of bureaucracy, these days.)

But we all know there's no fighting the man, so we've just got to roll with it and accept it as part of the cost of our jet-setting lifestyle. Zach's passport situation needs to be in order ASAP as we are coming home to North America for five weeks in August and could not be more excited. (For those keeping score at home, Zach is also a NZ citizen by birth and eligible for Canadian citizenship through his dad, but we decided to go for the US passport first for a number of reasons, which we'll not get into here ...) So, off to Auckland. Try to make a mini-vacation out of it. Maybe I'll get some more pictures for the blog, which has been sadly neglected as of late.

In other news:

1) Earthquake. You may have read in the news that the South Island experienced an earthquake last week, though fortunately damage was minimal. We had just put Zach to bed and were sitting on the couch when I noticed a water glass sitting on our table was starting to move. And then our 1970s granny-style light fixtures started to sway. Fun is certainly the wrong word for it, but since it was my first earthquake it was definitely exciting. Zach and the dogs slept right through it, so that gives you an idea of how mild it was from our standpoint.

2) Zach is now 12 weeks old and continues to amaze us & make us laugh. New Zealand has a program called Plunket which offers fantastic support for babies and new parents, including home visits by a nurse. At Zach's last visit on Friday, he weighed in at a whopping 16 pounds (the wee one is not so wee any more) and the nurse marveled at his strength and alertness. Perhaps she fawns on all of the babies this way, but as his mother I prefer to think he's just highly advanced. Like his mom.

I'll leave you with two recent tummy time pictures of the handsome devil.

I'm on a train

2009-06-16T21:23:00.010+12:00

Hello, everyone! I'm finally getting around to posting some photos from a train trip we took last week with Chris's parents on the Taieri Gorge Railway. This is a little four hour roundtrip train ride that takes you from Dunedin to Pukerangi in Central Otago, a very comfy way to see some nice scenery that is not accessible by car.

I rarely travel by train except during our visits to Europe -- train service is not very extensive in New Zealand and like most Americans I hardly ever used Amtrak -- but this reminded how much I like it. I like that you can stretch your legs, take in the scenery, buy some snacks and drinks, eavesdrop on the other people in your car. Not a bad way to go.

Caboose view

Chris and Maria enjoying the ride. We had the car to ourselves except for some very nice folks from Invercargill who could fairly be described as "rednecks." If there is anything I have learned in my travels: The accents may change, but rednecks are rednecks wherever you go.

Zach's first train ride. He was not so impressed by the scenery but definitely enjoyed the rocking motion, which lulled him to sleep almost instantly and kept him that way for most of the trip.

Butch documenting me documenting Butch

View from the window

Taieri River

Baby on the platform. He looks oddly at home here.

In other news, we had LOTS of snow yesterday, to the point that Zach and I were pretty much homebound and Chris went to work only because he walked as usual. Snow in June still boggles the mind, don't you think? Anyway, I took some pictures of the snow but still have trouble with uploading from our new camera without Chris's technical help. (I know, I'm hopeless.) So I'll work on that, but in the meantime picture us in a wintery wonderland.

Zach, 7 weeks

2009-06-15T06:20:00.003+12:00

If this doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will.

I'm meaning to upload photos of our train trip with Chris's parents to Taieri Gorge ... stay tuned!

Why, hello again!

2009-06-03T20:11:00.003+12:00

Man. Where has the last month gone? (Answer: Feed, change diaper, sleep. Repeat.)

Zach is nearly six weeks old and absolutely perfect and gorgeous, as usual. He's getting HUGE and is in the 85th percentile for his age group in length and weight. A year ago, if someone told me their kid was in a particular percentile of anything I'd be like, "So what?" However, now that it's my kid and I'm the one who's feeding him, I find it terribly interesting.

We had a fantastic four week visit with my mom, and are now enjoying Chris's folks. I will say that having a baby in a foreign country makes you really appreciate your family. It's kind of weird -- on one hand, I've never been more disgustingly homesick and ready to stowaway on the first plane back to North America. On the other hand, so many nice people here in Dunedin have popped up to welcome Zach and make things easier for us that I have never felt more at home since we arrived here. It's a pretty complex situation. Lots of tears, both joyful and sad, and sometimes it's hard to tell which is which.

But enough of all of that. Let's look at some pictures. More are available on Chris's Flickr site; if you don't know how to find that and you want to see, let me know.

With Chris's folks in Moeraki. We went to Christchurch last weekend so Chris could run the marathon and Maria could run the 10k, and stopped in Moeraki on the way back to see the boulders. It's fun to remember that we did this race last year and unbelievable how much things have changed in the meantime.

Chris & Maria at the finish line. Zach is under the plastic tarp, bundled up in aboug 40 layers like the little brother from "A Christmas Story." Winter in Christchurch = Cold!

And now for some random Zach photos that I find amusing:

Touchdown!

He loves, loves, loves the bath. He can be screaming his head off and then Chris puts him in the water and his whole body just relaxes and his eyes get all big. We need to take him to the swimming pool soon.

It's just cute. That's my kid.

Here he is!

2009-05-04T11:06:00.001+12:00

So we've got big news. Look!

Zachary Thomas (Zach) arrived April 25, weighing in at a rather solid 8 lbs 7 oz (3.85 kg). (By the way, April 25 is Anzac Day, a national holiday in New Zealand akin to Veteran's Day. We've renamed it AnZach Day. Ha ha. Get it?)

We are, as you might expect, completely & totally in love with this guy. He is not only adorable but pretty sweet-natured and even-tempered. He's been a good eater and a good sleeper (for the most part). Everyone comments on his enormous hands and his strong neck.

It was a pretty easy birth (relatively speaking). We arrived at the hospital at 7 pm on the evening of April 24 and he showed up at 3:50 the next morning. I had said I wanted a natural birth but ended up getting an epidural and have no regrets except that I didn't get it hooked up sooner. (Hooray for epidurals!) The New Zealand public health system is certainly not perfect but overall we've been very pleased with the maternity care. It is very different than the US system in that most births are attended by midwives unless there is some sort of complication. The midwife then does regular home checkups with you until the baby is five weeks old, and our midwife has been wonderful about giving us advice and helping me with nursing. I could probably write a lot more about the differences between the two systems another time, but who cares about that right now? There are baby pictures to look at!

Me & Zach at the hospital:

Very proud papa. I'll be the first to admit that Chris and I have never been particularly child-oriented people, but it's unbelivable how natural it feels to be with your own kid. Chris has been an amazing dad from the very first moment Zach was born.

My mom is here from the US for a month to visit Zach and help us get settled. She flew in Monday and all three of us met her at the airport. Here are Zach and grandma getting acquainted:

We were not sure how the dogs would react to Zach, but so far they have been great. Livy is very interested in him and protective of him and whenever he makes a noise she runs over to sniff him, tail wagging. When the midwife comes over to examine Zach she sits right next to them like Zach's personal bodyguard. Owen seemed pretty oblivious that there was a new baby in the house for the first few days, but now he regularly comes over to give Zach a friendly sniff when we are playing with him. I think they'll all be good friends in no time, especially when Zach starts eating (and dropping) solid foods.

Zach cozy in his carseat ...

Giving grandma a smile. (Okay, so it's probably just gas, but it's cute, no?)

37 Weeks

2009-04-10T17:09:00.003+12:00

Whoa!

I know, I know ...

2009-04-05T03:24:00.001+12:00

It's been a long time since my last post and some of you, devoted readers, are getting impatient. Sorry. I'd like to say it's because I've been so busy, but really there is lots to say and I've just been an extremely lazy blogger. Perhaps it is some pregnancy-induced phase. (I blame all of my shortcomings on being pregnant, these days. It is nice to have a scapegoat.)

Anyway, just wanted to reassure you that all is well. The Wee One is now more than 36 weeks along, which means less than four weeks until the due date! Crazy excitement! For a long time I felt sure s/he would go past the May 1 due date, mostly because Chris and I were both very late babies and I figured our kid would be the type to sleep in. However, in the past few weeks I've decided it's an April baby. We shall see.

S/he continues to be quite active and seems to be doing well. Our new favorite pass time is sitting on the couch, watching my abdomen move and bulge in different places as the baby shifts and kicks. It's like that scene from the movie "Alien," only sweet and endearing. I am rather balloon-like but generally feeling pretty great for someone this far along. (Sleep comes a little tough, though. I'm writing this at 3 am. Probably nature's way of preparing me for the months ahead.)

Will try to post more pictures very soon. (Chris just got a new camera and I'm a little afraid of it, though I suspect I'll will become proficient very quickly when it's time to take baby photos.) In the meantime, here's to healthy babies and easy labors ...

Chop Chop

2009-02-18T18:56:00.002+13:00

Look what we saw for sale in a Dunedin storefront the other day:

I thought maybe they were selling a whole bunch of US baseball jerseys, but this was the only one. I think it's some kind of sign.

Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi oi oi!*

2009-02-11T22:05:00.000+13:00

We're back! We spent five days in Brisbane and the surrounding beach areas, and had a glorious time basking in the brilliant Aussie sunshine. Felt very fortunate (and more than a little guilty) that we enjoyed absolutely perfect weather while areas in the rest of the country were enduring horrific wildfires, floods, and record heat waves (116 F in Melbourne!!!) The Wee One traveled just fine, and seemed to enjoy getting some fresh air and relaxation time as much as we did.

Australia is a really big country -- roughly the size of the continental U.S. I think -- so it's impossible to see any more than a sliver on such a short trip. Trying to make generalizations about Australia based on five days in Queensland is kind of like saying you know all about America based on five days in Florida. That said, I was really surprised by the fact that the sliver we saw was so unlike anywhere I've been in New Zealand.

I would argue that it felt very similar to the U.S, but with kangaroos, koalas, and lots of stuff that will bite and sting you. (I went 31 years without a wasp bite. Three days in Australia, and I manage to step in a nest.) All things considered, though, I really like Australia. Sign me up for more.

Some pics for your viewing pleasure:

Surfer's Paradise, on the Gold Coast. It's kind of like Vegas, Miami and Orlando rolled into one, but on a smaller scale. If that makes any sense at all.

After Surfer's, we drove south of the Gold Coast to a resort in Kingscliff, a much quieter beachside town. Because most people seemed to stay by the resort pool for some weird reason, we generally had the beach almost all to ourselves. Sweet!

Christopher with his hardcore boogey board.

In Brisbane, we went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, where you can get up close to all kinds of Australian animals. Here is a napping dingo.

Little kangaroo!

Big kangaroo! Check out the claws!

Me & a koala named Petal. Petal was totally not in the mood for picture posing.

Napping wombat.

* A little background for those who don't get the title of this post.

December Whirlwind, Part II

2009-02-01T22:03:00.005+13:00

Okay, so it's February 1 and I'm just now posting pictures from our December trip with Dot. I'm off my game a bit. Sorry. If it's any excuse, we've just moved house (pictures of the house to follow shortly ... really ...) so things have been in slight disarray. More on all that another time.

In other news, we are headed this week for a short beach trip to Australia -- our last pre-baby vacation. Very excited for some sunshine and lounging time, although a pregnant lady in a bathing suit is likely to frighten some folks. Pics and details of that trip soon to follow, no doubt, but in the meantime, enjoy the second part of our South Island adventure:

Lake Tekapo. It's hard to explain the color of this water.

New Zealand cherries are PHENOMENAL, especially from the little roadside stands. After a month and a half of stuffing myself silly, I'm still sad the season is almost over.

We stopped by this bungee jumping center and watched people jump for a while. I like to pretend that I would jump if I wasn't pregnant, but really I am a big chicken. I don't think I will ever need that much adrenaline.

Sheep outside of Dunedin. Baaa.

The lovely Dot (aka Dottie P., Dorothy Anne, The Notorious D.O.T.) on Franz Josef Glacier. I should add here that aside from being an amazing photographer, Dot makes incredible salsa and is also the most talented white female freestyle rapper that I know. You really should invite her to your next party.

Franz Josef. To give you a sense of scale, the little dots in the center left of the photo are people in another hiking group.

Before we sign off, let's give a shout out to Dunners for being named the best city in New Zealand. You'd better recognize.

Let's talk about big ole bellies

2009-01-21T18:30:00.004+13:00

25 (nearly 26) weeks. Is it okay to be terrified that the Wee One and I still have three months of growth to go?

"Kia Ora, Y'all" gets moving pictures!

2009-01-09T22:01:00.016+13:00

I am not a tech-savvy person. Left to my own devices, I'd probably be writing this blog through a dial-up connection on my Commodore 64. Or typing it up and distributing it by fax.

Chris, on the other hand, is very tech-savvy. As I write this, he is actually sitting across from me reading an entire book on his iPhone, for crying out loud. So he occasionally clues me in on techie stuff, which I appreciate. And so should you, because thanks to him we got a Flip, which means we'll start having video. Which makes me feel very fancy.

Our first video feature is not from our new Flip, however, but from Dot's camera. One of our stops on the 2008 NZ Tour was the Franz Josef glacier.* Chris and Dot did a long day hike on the glacier, which they described as awesome but rather grueling. Because pregnant women are expressly banned from doing this hike and because we had driven a long way to see this damned glacier and I wanted a good view, I took a short helicopter ride over it instead. Amazing. And much easier than hiking for ten hours through icy crevasses, I dare say.

In any event, here is a little snippet of their footage the hike. There's no sound, as there will be when we use the Flip, but after all, it's a glacier. Trust me when I say there's not much to hear.

Enjoy.

* Kiwis pronounce "glacier" as "glah-see-air" instead of "glay-sure." At the risk of sounding insensitive to cultural differences, this drives me absolutely insane.

Our awesome offspring

2009-01-09T21:35:00.003+13:00

Here are the last ultrasound pictures of The Wee One that I promised you, devoted reader.

Profile!

Feet!

The Wee One is now 24 weeks along (full-term pregnancy is 40 weeks, give or take two weeks on either side). S/he is now approximately the size of a large ear of corn. And I am now approximately the size of a small bus. Chris, so far, remains normal size.

We'll take a cup of kindness yet ...

2009-01-02T20:58:00.000+13:00

We're home and December whirlwind is officially over. We had an awesome trip with Dot, who flew home on Jan. 1. Since Dot is a professional photographer (among her many talents), I figured I'd wait to post pictures from her part of the trip until I get some from her, since her stash is almost certainly better than what I've done with my little point-and-shoot. So more photos are coming. Be patient.

In place of those photos, I thought I would write a little "Happy New Year!" post, where I would wax poetic about all of our experiences in 2008 and our hopes for 2009. Sitting here, though, I realize there is just too much to cover. Too much has happened, and we have too much to look forward to and too much to be grateful for. I don't even know where to start.

So for now, I'll just wish all of my devoted readers a happy and healthy new year. Here's hoping that 2008 leaves you with beautiful memories, and that 2009 brings you nothing but the best.

December Whirlwind, Part I

2008-12-25T23:50:00.000+13:00

Merry Christmas, Everybody! Let's catch up.

We had the best visit ever with my parents. SUCH a perfect trip and I was really sad to see them go but so grateful for the time we spent. Here are some pictures from our travels. I wanted to post them in order of the trip, but they got kind of messed up so they're in all kinds of order.

How cute are my parents?

Dad got pulled from the crowd to participate in a street show during our last night in Queenstown. He did a good job of helping to hold up the pole so this guy didn't fall on his face while juggling fire torches. Go Dad!

Mom & our good friend Dot with their matching thumb injuries. There's a story there, but you will have to ask them about it. Dottie is visiting us now, but we'll get to that later.

View of Queenstown from the gondola.

Dad & Chris on our boat in Milford Sound. Despite the rainy weather Mom & Dad agreed this was their favorite part of our travels.

Chris!

Me & Dad. Please ignore my hair. Thanks.

Pretty!

More pretty!

The four of us at Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel Peninsula. One of the nicest beaches I've seen.

More Cathedral Cove.

On the Coromandel.

Devil's Bath at the Wai-o-tapu geothermal wonderland. This place made me wish I'd paid more attention in geology class.

Champagne Pool at Wai-o-tapu.

In short, good times.

We dropped mom & dad off at the airport in Queenstown on Monday and met up with Dot, who had already been traveling for two weeks on the North Island. The three of us are now back in Dunedin for a very low-key and rather lazy Christmas celebration before heading out again for another week of travels with Dot. That's how we roll.

I hope that wherever you are, you are having a beautiful and peaceful holiday! Merry Christmas!

Wee One, 21 Weeks

2008-12-25T23:39:00.006+13:00

You want belly pictures, you get belly pictures. Here's the last one, taken at 21 weeks in our hotel last week:

In other Wee One news, s/he is now kicking regularly and if you're patient you can actually feel him or her when you put your hand on my stomach. Chris has gotten a number of kicks and I was glad mom & dad got to feel the baby move while they were visiting.

We also know the baby's sex, which is exciting and makes him/her a little easier to imagine. So far we've been able to keep it secret from the Moms, who do not want to know. I thought for sure I'd slip up and spill the beans when spending two weeks with my mom, but amazingly we managed to keep her guessing for now.

We have some very cute new ultrasound pictures but in all of the travel hoopla (see "December Whirlwind, Part I") we haven't yet gotten them scanned. S/he's a cute kid. I'm rather in awe.

Where to start?

2008-12-04T22:41:00.006+13:00

Okay, kids, we've got a lot of ground to cover. So pay attention.

1) Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving dinner went off without a hitch. Paid a small fortune for two small turkeys but found it was well worth it as dinner was TASTY and I've been enjoying leftovers all week. As per usual, the hubby fried them up in his giant deep fryer. (Yes, we moved the giant turkey fryer to New Zealand. As I recall, it was the source of much debate.) As per usual, it was a hit. I think the Kiwis were a little suspicious about the concept of fried turkey -- one guest admitted she was mortified when she showed up and the turkey was uncooked on the counter and she figured she'd be at our house all night. But I think we've made a few converts.

2) Guests! Travel! Christmas! New Years! Excitement! Right now we are gearing up for a number of fun visitors, and December is shaping up to be quite the eventful month. It starts with the arrival of my darling parents on Wednesday, followed by our darling friend Dot on the 22nd, followed by a visit from our darling soon-to-be newlywed friends Kevin and Nadine. I'll spare you the whole guest schedule and itinerary, but there will be lots of adventure and moving around all December. So I might not be checking in as much this month but I promise there will be complete reports with pictures. Be patient.

3) The Wee One! I had been fretting all last week that I was approaching 18 weeks and hadn't felt the baby move, and then whaddya know, I finally got some little flutters last Friday. (Which, with the time change, happened to also be my actual birthday and American Thanksgiving. Cool, no?) Since then there has been lots of fluttering and a few honest-to-goodness jabs. S/he's a feisty one.

Next ultrasound is Monday so hopefully I'll get some new pictures to post.

4) Chocolate Fish! I knew I had forgotten something important on my list of NZ culinary quirks, and today I realized what I was. Chocolate fish. Which are fish-shaped marshmellows covered in chocolate, and are not nearly as gross as the name implies. Usually they are served as a side to hot chocolate. So when you come to visit NZ and you order hot chocolate and the counter person says, "marshmellows, or fish?" you will not be flabbergasted, as I was. You will say, "Fish, please." And you will look like a pro.

Only because you asked for it ...

2008-11-22T19:21:00.005+13:00

Devoted readers Elizabeth and Jen demanded a baby belly photo. So here you go. 17 weeks down, 23 (give or take) to go.

It actually doesn't look like much in this photo, but I'm feeling rather large and in charge. When I wear baggy clothes it just looks like I've been hitting the buffet line a little too hard, but I think it actually looks like there is some bona fide baby belly action in this particular shirt. So that's good.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend and our devoted American readers are looking forward to a happy holiday week. We are supposed to be hosting an American Thanksgiving this weekend and I'm not sure what we've gotten ourselves into as we still have not secured a turkey. (Turkey = rather rare and pricey in NZ.) But have no fear, we will persevere, as we always do.

Addendum: A belated Kia Ora, Y'all! welcome to the world to Noam Kaplan Thrift, who was born on Saturday, and an even more belated welcome to Isham Elliot Koons, who is already well over a month old! Athens, Georgia has suddenly become a whole lot cuter!

Finally.

2008-11-18T21:34:00.004+13:00

Here is a picture of Owen, as we know and love him. As my devoted readers know, he is terrified of cameras so pretty much every picture we have of him is 1) from far away, when he is not paying attention; 2) him looking frightened and miserable; or 3) his butt, as he runs in the other direction. As it turns out, however, he will pose happily for photos on Chris's iPhone.

This is a small victory.

Some more stuff you won't see in the U.S. The culinary version.

2008-11-16T07:23:00.004+13:00

1) Cheese rolls. I'm told these are more of a regional South Island thing (and more specifically, an Otago/Southland thing) than a NZ thing. White bread, cheese, and french onion soup mix rolled up into little pinwheels and grilled or baked until the bread is toasty and cheese/soup mix combo gets all gooey. What's not to love?

2) Beets. Kiwis LOVE beets. Except they call it beetroot. And then they put it on all of your sandwiches. And it makes your bread turn pink. I was picking it off of a sandwich the other day and a friend commented, "Americans aren't into beetroot, huh?" I confirmed this was correct. She responded, "But you still put it on burgers, right?"

3) Lemonade. Order this in a restaurant and they will bring you Sprite, 7-up, or a similar fizzy lemon-lime beverage. If you want lemon juice with water and sugar, you'd probably better make it yourself.

4) Pavlova. I've mentioned this before, but no list of Kiwi culinary quirks would be complete without it. It's a meringue desert, usually topped with fruit. It's good.

Whenever a Kiwi talks to me about pavlova (which happens more than you would think) they always make a big point to note that it originated in New Zealand, and that Australians have merely stolen the idea and claimed it as their own and are a bunch of damned liars. It appears to be a sensitive issue.

5) Sweet chili sauce. You don't really need to worry about this. Just avoid it at all costs.

6) Marmite. You don't really need to worry about this. Just avoid it at all costs.

7) Vegemite. In fairness, I haven't actually tried this, but after my Marmite experience I am avoiding it at all costs. My more adventurous readers can probably find it in the larger North American grocery stores if anyone wants to give it a go and report back. Go ahead. I dare you.

Stuff that makes you happy.

2008-11-13T12:57:00.003+13:00

For weeks, Chris has been telling me about this funny dog he sees riding around town in a delivery truck, and I thought it was a cute story, but whatever. And then yesterday he said he saw the dog wearing dog goggles ("doggles," I believe they are called) and I was like, hmm, that's funny.

And then today he finally got a picture, and now I get it. Hysterical.

A big Kia Ora, Y'all Happy Birthday to my favorite cutie sister-in-law, Lisa, and my favorite cutie IP lawyer, Elizabeth, who are both celebrating on Friday! Have a good one!!!

Your Kiwi civics lesson for the day.

2008-11-08T14:01:00.005+13:00

With all of the hoopla surrounding a certain U.S. election this week, my devoted North American readers may not realize that New Zealand is having its own major election today. Prime Minister Helen Clark -- in office since 1999 -- is defending her seat against National Party candidate John Key. (By the polls, things aren't looking so hot for Helen. Appears voters everywhere are feeling antsy, these days ...)

Because NZ gives voting rights to permanent residents, Chris and I were out rocking the vote, as demonstrated the blurry photo of my little voting sticker. (The freaky little crash test dummy-looking guy on the sticker is the NZ Election mascot. He's freaky even in sharp focus.)

And so I give you my list of things I've found interesting about the NZ voting process:

1) Everyone must register to vote in NZ. You don't actually have to vote, but you are required to register.

2) In NZ, you can show up to any polling location in your district, so I got to choose between about three or four places all within walking distance. Voting took all of two minutes. No one asked to see ID.

3) There are a bazillion little parties here. Labour and National are the big two -- the Democrats and Republicans, if you will -- and because I am new to all of this they're the only ones I worried about. But should you be inclined to get behind a "Legalise Cannabis Party" or a "New World Order Party," they've got you covered.

4) When voting in NZ, there are no touch-screen machines or levers to pull. They literally handed me a paper ballot and an orange magic marker. I suppose this is possible when you have a population of only four million, but it still brought me back to the days of voting for a student government president in high school.

On another civics note, I am glad to report that it appears The Wee One qualifies for triple citizenship -- U.S. (from me), Canadian (from Chris), and Kiwi (because s/he is going to be born here). Fun, huh?

Meet The Wee One!

2008-10-25T20:32:00.005+13:00

As promised, here is a first look at Baby F., or as s/he is currently known, "The Wee One." We thought it was kind of funny that ultrasound technician kept referring to the baby as "The Wee One" ("... and there's The Wee One's arm ... and there's The Wee One's bladder ...") but it's really grown on me. I think it fits for now. It sounds much nicer than "Baby," or "It," or, as Chris suggested, "Alien Robot Shrimp."

Here's the side view at 13 weeks

Compare it to the view at 8 weeks. Pretty amazing how much s/he has grown in just over a month.

Back to 13 weeks. You can actually see a face!!! (Though perhaps this helps you understand where the"Alien Robot Shrimp" moniker came from.)

Good looking kid, but then again that's no surprise ...

Up the duff*

2008-10-23T21:53:00.000+13:00

We're having a BABY!!! That's right, devoted readers. There will soon be another member of the Fonze clan, scheduled to make his/her debut on May 1. Exciting and hard to believe!!!

I took a home pregnancy test on my lunch break on August 20, after I felt a little queasy and suspected something might be up. Still, I was rather shocked and astounded when it actually turned positive. So I went and bought two more. They both turned positive, and suddenly things seemed a bit more real and exciting. I called Chris at work and asked if I could come by to bring him a present. He thought I was bringing him candy, so he was pretty speechless & excited when I plopped the pregnancy tests on his desk. Definitely the most fun surprise I've ever been a part of!

Sorry to have held out on you this long, devoted readers, but we wanted to get through the first trimester before spreading the word. Baby Fonze is now at 13 weeks and looking good. We just had a great ultrasound today and all of the measurements were in a healthy range. I promise to post new sonogram pictures in the next day or two.

So far I've had a pretty easy pregnancy with only a few symptoms -- extremely tired, acne (gross! no one warns you about that one!), and little waves of nausea, but no serious sickness. No crazy cravings -- no crazier than usual, anyway -- although I do swing from eating super healthy one day to wanting burgers and chips the next. No cute baby belly yet, though my pants are getting tight from bloating (and from burgers and chips).

We are planning to learn the sex of the baby at the next ultrasound, which will probably be around the first week in December. (Not so much because we have any preference, or because we want the nursery dripping in blue or pink, but because I am painfully impatient.) We will not be sharing Baby's sex on the blog, however, because our two most devoted readers (Hi, Moms!) have both specifically requested that they don't want to know until s/he is born. But if you are not our either of our mothers, and you don't want to wait until May, pop me an email and I'll hook you up with the highly classified info once we know.

I think that's about all of the exciting news to report for now, though I suspect there will be lots more where that came from. Looking forward to meeting you, Baby!

* Kiwi slang for "preggo."

Awww.

2008-10-18T22:39:00.003+13:00

I looked up a minute ago to see Chris konked out in the chair, still listening to whatever is on his headphones. It is super cute. He will probably be mildly annoyed when he wakes up and learns I put this on the blog, but fortunately he is generally a good sport about such things.

Boo.

2008-10-06T17:52:00.004+13:00

Every day at work, I spend about a twenty minutes engaged in a cultural dialogue with the other researcher in my department, a Kiwi who was born and bred in Dunedin. She is quite bubbly and outspoken and she has travelled rather extensively in the U.S., so we regularly have a little back-and-forth about our two countries.

Our conversations about the United States tend to go like this:

Her: Help me understand the electoral college. It hardly seems democratic that your presidential vote has no effect if you are in the political minority for your state.

Me: Look thoughtful and try to remember what they told us in 12th grade government class. Give up. Shrug.

My questions about New Zealand tend to be much simpler. (e.g. Me: Is there any good American-style pizza in Dunedin? Her: No. And I agree that the pizza I had in America was much, much better than anything I've had in New Zealand. Sorry. Me: Will you proofread this letter I wrote to check my NZ English? Her: You forgot to put a "u" in "behaviour.")

Today I wanted to know if Kiwis celebrate Halloween. Our conversation went something like this:

Q: Do Kiwis celebrate Halloween?
A: Eh, sort of.
Q: So, I should expect to get some trick-or-treaters? I should have some candy on hand?
A: Eh, you may get a few, but don't worry if you forget. They don't necessarily expect it.
Q: What do you mean? Isn't candy the whole point of trick-or-treating?
A: Well, they know that some people won't have it, so if you don't have it, they won't care.
Q: You just answer the door and say, "Ooh, nice costume. But we're not giving you candy." ?
A: Basically.
Q: And that's okay?
A: Well, yeah.
Q: Nobody eggs your house?
A: No!
Q: Do people carve pumpkins? (in retrospect, I now realize this was kind of a stupid question, since we are going into spring here and pumpkins are going out of season)
A: Nah.
Q: Do people have costume parties, like for adults?
A: Nah. I mean, if you want to have a costume party it wouldn't be the weirdest thing ever -- especially since you're American people might expect it from you -- but generally, no.
Q: So it's just a handful of kids, wandering the neighborhoods, maybe or maybe not hoping to get some candy?
A: Pretty much. What day is Halloween again, anyway?

I don't know why this conversation depressed me as much as it did. It's not like I'm a huge Halloween person. In the States I was usually digging through a thrift store on October 30, frantically trying to find something to pass for a costume. Last year we had to shut off the lights on our house and sit in the dark because we ran out of candy at 7:30 (except for the peanut butter cups which I saved, of course). But still, it is an important day to mark the season, act a little silly, eat miniature candy bars you would normally never buy, and drink beer with your friends. I believe I am going to miss it. Eat a Reeses cup for me.

A very happy birthday to my dear Daddy-o! I love you!!!

Me & two Canadian scientists in one of the prettiest places on earth

2008-09-29T08:19:00.001+13:00

Our friend Aaron (a Canadian and fellow UGA grad we met while living in Athens) just took a job in Queensland, Australia. He is visiting us this week, and it's been wonderful seeing an old friend here in the southern hemisphere. (This is your cue to start planning a trip, devoted reader. Hint.)

His plane got in Friday night. Our plan was to get up Saturday morning, grab some breakfast at the farmer's market, drive into Central Otago for some wine tasting, and then on to Queenstown for the night. Saturday morning it was POURING rain and cold. And we looked at the weather forecast in Queenstown and it was POURING rain and cold. And we were dubious.

But we pushed on, and much to our relief the weather cleared up and we had an awesome little weekend trip. It's ridiculous that the Queenstown lakes region is an scenic 3 1/2 hour drive and we have not been to visit since we were on vacation here in January 2007. We WILL make it back more often. The air here just feels good to breathe.

Stopping to take pictures along the way. We took an obscene amount of pictures.

Peregrine winery

Outside Peregrine. Cool building in a cool spot.

I think this was only their third tasting of the day.

Our picnic lunch at Gibbston Valley winery & cheesery. Mmm. Cheesery.

Two tourists, a Kiwi, and his sheep.

Queenstown is super cute. I think a lot of Kiwis like to complain about it being too touristy because it attracts a lot of international visitors, but it's easy to see why they come.

Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown

View of Lake Wakatipu coming out of Queenstown Gardens

It seems like I should be able to make a funny comment about this statue, but I'm fresh out.

View of Queenstown from across the lake

One more lake picture

All in all, the weekend could not have been more fun and relaxing (except for learning an important lesson that gas stations are few and far between in Central Otago, and it is somewhat stressful to drive through the middle of nowhere for over a half-hour with the gas light blinking in your face). Just a great time.

Karitane

2008-09-22T21:11:00.003+12:00

Okay, so I was wrong. 1) We have not lost the camera; and 2) We do have new pictures besides the dogs. Sunday night, some new friends invited us to a little dinner party in Karitane, a pretty little coastal village about a half hour north of Dunedin. Before gorging ourselves silly on a delicious dinner and enormous pieces of lemon meringue pie, we took a little hike ("tramp") along the coast. So it was all good. Here are the pics:

Karitane coast

Long view of the track

Blow hole. A little sign nearby indicated that two star-crossed Maori lovers committed suicide on this site a long time ago because their families wouldn't allow them to be together. Seems a bit drastic to me, but makes the place extra interesting.

Dusk

Who is the cutest husband ever?

Yup, that's me.

Checking in.

2008-09-20T12:45:00.008+12:00

Devoted reader Jen (aka "Defeasible Fees") lodged a complaint that it's been too long since the last post. I'm afraid this is because we are being quite old & boring, lately. Work. Eat. Watch TV. Vaccuum up dog hair. Complain about how I miss Mexican food. That's about it.

Actually, I drove to Queenstown this week for work and the drive was so gorgeous I was kicking myself at every turn for not bringing my camera with me to share the views with you guys. Sorry. And then I've just learned that we can't find the camera, so hopefully it is not permanently lost.

In the meantime, we took the dogs to the dog park today and Chris had his camera phone, so that will be an update. Being a camera phone, the quality is not great, but the pro is that Owen does not seem to mind the camera phone, so you get to see his pretty face.

That's my boy

Chris's good friend from Athens, Aaron (aka "A-Mac") is coming to visit next week. (I don't believe he is a devoted reader. Yet.) We're planning to get out of town for a bit and show him around, so hopefully we'll have some new wacky Kiwi adventures. Stay tuned, eager readers!

Kiwispeak

2008-09-10T18:15:00.002+12:00

In the interest of cultural exchange, here are some Kiwi slang terms and expressions. Impress your friends.

"Good on ya!" -- "Great!" or "Good for you!" (I heard you won the lottery. Good on ya!)

"Sweet as!" -- "Great!" or "Cool!" (I heard you won the lottery. Sweet as!) I also heard it in place of "thank you" at the grocery store the other day, although I'm not sure what that was all about. (Me to the checkout girl: Thanks! Checkout girl: Sweet as! Me: ??????????)

This one is just weird. Sweet as what, exactly? Nobody knows! It's just an incomplete thought! The other problem with this expression is that, coupled with the Kiwi accent, I sometimes think people are saying "sweet ass" and I get temporarily disoriented by the impropriety of it until I remember what's going on.

"Flash" -- Fancy or expensive. (He got a new car with really flash rims.)

"Mate" -- Buddy. Can be used to describe an actual friend (We watched a movie at my mate's place.) or just as a term of comraderie with a stranger or acquaintance (You dropped your keys, mate.). I always kind of suspected the whole "mate" thing was just an act that Australians put on to charm Americans during the "Crocodile Dundee" era, but in fact it turns out that both Kiwis and Aussies really do use it all the time. I also thought it was more of a guy word, but women use it too.

"Nutter" -- Crazy person. This just rolls off the tongue when Kiwis say it -- "nah-tah" -- but it does not work with my accent. With my accent, it sounds like "nudder." Not as nice. Also, it reminds makes me think of those little peanut-shaped Nutter Butter cookies they feed you when you donate blood at the Red Cross.

Those little cookies were all right.

Some fun, some mishaps.

2008-09-07T12:47:00.001+12:00

Devoted reader Elizabeth (aka "Mrs. Fox" or "Foxy E") asked for an update on Chris's first Kiwi birthday, which passed Sept. 3 without any mention on this blog. I have been off my blogging game.

I don't want to speak for Chris, but we had a great evening at Scotia, a swanky restaurant here in town. Food was good, and the birthday boy took full advantage of its excellent whisky bar. On Friday, the people from his office went to happy hour to celebrate Chris's birthday and two others. Lots of Virgo statisticians, apparently.

That brings us to this weekend, which has FINALLY been sunny and beautiful and perfect walking around temperatures. So yesterday we decided to go for a little day hike to enjoy the weather and give the puppies some exercise. It started out well enough.

Chris in the bush

This crazy tree that has paper-thin bark. I don't know what they're called but they're really pretty.

View of Dunedin from about halfway up the track (Otago Harbor is barely visible in the distance)

Then we came to a little clearing where we planned to stop for a snack. And we came across about five sheep that had wandered on to the track from the adjacent farm. And all hell broke loose. Before you could blink, Livy was chasing all five sheep through the bush, off the track, straight down the hill. I literally had to grab a tree to avoid being knocked over. Owen, I'm proud to say, was on leash at the time and handled it all in relative stride.

For the next 30 minutes, Chris and I wandered back down the track, shouting for our badly-behaved dog to no avail. We later admitted that we had both written Livy's doggie obituary in our heads, guessing she had fallen off of a steep track perhaps met her fate with an angry sheep farmer. It was not a fun half hour. Then, finally, Chris saw her little orange body slowly staggering up the hillside. Much to our relief, she was not covered in blood (dog or sheep), nor was she injured in any other way. And as much as I was REALLY mad at her, it was hard not to laugh a little at her stupid, delerious dog grin. Aside from being in trouble with us, I'm pretty sure it was the happiest day of her life.

Nothing screams "Brooklyn" like guacamole and ham.

2008-09-02T07:13:00.003+12:00

I went out for dinner to Dunedin's "gourmet" pizza place with our friend Claire last night. You can tell a lot about a culture by what they put on their pizza, but I'm not sure what this menu says about Kiwis. Chicken, bacon, banana and brie? Ham, eggs, and tomatoes? Spaghetti, pineapple, and pepperoni? Anyone?

If you're wondering, we split a Mediterranean pizza, no olives on my half. It was lovely.

Congratulations, Laura & Anthony!

2008-08-31T08:38:00.001+12:00

My dear friend and longtime roommate Laura is getting married today at a swank resort in Mexico. As most of my devoted readers know, Laura is extremely important to me. We have seen each other through countless fun times and not-so-fun times. We laugh at the same things. She handles my moods. I count on her to tell me the truth when pants make me look fat, and I count on her to tell me this in the gentlest way possible. When Chris and I got married, Laura was maid of honor extraordinaire -- throwing fabulous pre-wedding parties, fixing my makeup, helping me use the toilet while I was wearing the most cumbersome wedding dress ever, etc. She rocked. For so many reasons, I really should be at her wedding.

Luckily, Laura is also very understanding about the whole living on the other side of the world thing, and has allowed me to serve as "honorary matron of honor" from afar. It's a nice thought and all, but I still feel like a lousy friend for not being there in person to help her get ready, to remind her to relax and enjoy herself, to have too many drinks at the reception and make a rambling speech about what a fantastic person she is and what a lucky guy Anthony is to spend the rest of his life with her.

So I guess this will be my speech. Laura and Anthony: I see the joy that you bring each other, and I am thrilled to see you come together in marriage! I send you all of my love and wish you many, many happy years ahead!

Yet another tool for procrastination on the Internet

2008-08-19T20:45:00.006+12:00

Does this lady look familiar?

Yes, dear readers, it is me, transformed into a swell teen from the late 1950s. Freaky, huh? Chris and I spent waaaaay too much time on this site last night, imposing our faces onto yearbook photos through the years. I probably shouldn't have used such a smirky-looking photo -- it looks like I'm smelling something bad -- but it's really hard to find a photo where I'm staring straight into the camera and not wearing sunglasses. I'm elusive like that.

I'm kind of happy that the one above turned out the best. My current obsession is the TV show Mad Men (season one is now on NZ TV), partly because it has really interesting and complex characters and partly because it makes 1960 look like a crazy time to be alive. So there I am, kickin' it Mad Men style.

Here are a few other highlights from the decades:

1960s. My head is about to float off of my body.

1970s. Is this my militant phase?

1980s. I really did have hair like this in 7th grade. It was the first and only time in my life when people frequently complimented my hair.

Supposedly this is from 1996, which is the year I actually graduated from high school, but my yearbook photo looks NOTHING like this. And I don't know ANYONE who would be caught dead wearing a denim vest thingy in 1996. AND no one had the asymmetrical haircut back then. I'm not yelling, I'm just saying.

Some of Chris's photos turned out very frightening, in part because I don't think we cropped his face very well and in part because the photo we used was rather dark. Thus, he is somewhat deformed in the 1950s:

Rather dreamy in the 1970s, though. David Cassidy better watch his back.

Finally, I leave my darling readers with a photo I call, "Me in 30 years, on doughnuts."

I plan to pull this out whenever I don't feel like going to the gym.

Older. Crazier.

2008-08-17T18:52:00.001+12:00

Every now and then, something happens that reminds me that we are veering, full-speed and out of control, toward middle age. We're not there yet. We are an unusually youthful and adventurous (immature and in denial, the haters might say) 30-something couple. We rock pretty hard, most days. But we're on our way.

Chris bought be a present this weekend. It was a vacuum. I don't know what is scarier: 1) that he decided to buy me a new vacuum as a nice gesture; or 2) that I was so thrilled you'd have thought he brought me diamonds. You see, most vacuums in New Zealand, including the first one we got, are these very wimpy things with flat, non-rotating heads. They are no match for two slobbery, mud-tracking long-haired dogs. Then yesterday Chris came home with a heavy, super-suction model that has a million awesome attachments and roars like a grizzly bear. The rest of the afternoon went like this:

Me (shoving the vacuum filter under Chris's nose): Look! LOOK at all of that dog hair and dust that the other vacuum wasn't getting!!!

Chris (not looking up from his laptop): Mmm.

Me: No, really! Look! That's like, an inch of dust! That was in the carpet! I'm going to be sick!

Chris: Mmm.

Me: This is the most fun! Awesome!!! Best present EVER!!! Woo hoo!!!

Scary, huh?

In other news, I made Carolina-style pork barbeque in the crockpot and some coleslaw today. Baked beans and potato chips. Beer. Apple cobbler for dessert. Yes, this is a butt-widening, stroke-inducing, nutrient-deprived pile of deliciousness, but I had been planning and dreaming about it all week as my Sunday treat. Totally worth it. The heart wants what it wants.

Crime in Otago

2008-08-15T10:50:00.003+12:00

I feel safer knowing that this guy is now behind bars.

Pineapple Track Tramp

2008-08-10T21:01:00.001+12:00

People spend a lot of time talking about the fact that New Zealand is an unusually beautiful place. They're right. For such a small country there is a ridiculous amount of scenery and outdoor activity. Beaches, mountains, vineyards, rolling green hills, farmland, geysers ... Whatever floats your boat. We have great intentions to get out and see every inch of it, but so far our round-the-globe trip has left us with limited time and resources to do much traveling within New Zealand.

Luckily, there are a lot of great tramping tracks ("tramping" = Kiwispeak for "hiking") right around Dunedin. The weather was awesome this afternoon so we packed up the dogs and hit the Pineapple Track, which amazingly is only about a five minute drive from our house. As you can see, there was lots of snow on the track as we ascended to the top. The dogs were in heaven.

Start of the track

Pretty stuff

Mountain man

More pretty stuff

Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula

Mmmm. Snacks at the top.

Don't I look outdoorsy?

As you can see, Owen was completely mesmerized by this snowman. Owen is very lucky to be so cute because he would not get very far on brains alone.

Out and about

2008-08-09T13:56:00.004+12:00

First week of work went well.

Here is the view from my office (yes, the window is a bit dirty):

View continued

My rather naked-looking office. I need some books, or something.

My building from the outside:

Some campus shots. Chris's building is just a two-minute walk in this direction, so we will be able to get lunch and whatnot.

We went to the market this morning and got a bunch of bread and meat and cheese and veggies. Here is Christopher:

The Cadbury factory is right in the center of town. The nice thing about having a Cadbury factory is you can buy those Cadbury Easter eggs all year round. Treat!

That's about it for pictures for the time being. What else?

The weather has been absolutely insane, ranging from sunny and so warm you don't need a coat (Thursday) to sunny but cold (Friday morning) to rainy and cold (Friday noon) to sunny and cold again (Friday early afternoon) to hail (Friday late afternoon) to snow (overnight) and back to sunny and nice (Saturday afternoon, as I write this). In the past I have gotten annoyed by people who want to talk about the weather all of the time and secretly thought that these people really need a hobby, but suddenly living here I am totally obsessed with the weather and completely at its mercy.

What else, what else ... I saw an older Maori guy at my gym this week who had the full facial tattoos, which apparently are called ta moko. I'd seen full-face tats on TV but this was the first time I'd seen somebody wearing them in person and let me tell you, it is trippy. I was trying not to stare at the guy but this is just not something you see in Georgia. I really wanted to ask him if that tats mean something, or if they're just decorative, but I was a little intimidated to talk to a guy with full-face tats while he was lifting heavy weights. So I just came home and looked up Maori tattooing on Wikipedia. I know. I'm a wuss.

Raindrops on Roses

2008-08-06T00:11:00.000+12:00

I'm not going to lie to you. It's been a rough week.

Nothing bad has happened, exactly. It's just a severe case of the blahs and my insomnia is acting up and I've been really homesick and missing my devoted readers. I can't blame it on my new job, since the work promises to be interesting, everyone treats me well, and I can pretty much come and go as I please. Maybe it's that I'm still coming down from the vacation high. Maybe it's that there's no end in sight to this dreary grey winter (though we did get another little glimmer of sun today ...). Maybe it's simply that after three months in a foreign country, you tend to stop marveling at how delightful and interesting everything is and start noticing everything that bugs you.

Whatever the cause, I am determined to beat the negative voices into submission. Let's take a cue from Julie Andrews twirling around in the drapes and make a list of a few of my favorite (Kiwi) things:

Unlocked doors. I never thought I felt particularly unsafe at home (even though, at times, we lived in a "transitional" neighborhood), but it astounds me how much safer and more relaxed I feel here. Half the time I forget to lock the car doors, just because I'm not thinking about it. When I hear things that go bump in the night, my automatic response is, "Gee, our rental house makes some weird noises," and not, "Agh! A meth-head is breaking in with a gun to murder us in our sleep!" Another American couple here in Dunedin tell us how their 12-year-old daughter is allowed to walk or ride the bus pretty much anywhere she wants around the city centre -- something the family would not have considered anywhere else they have lived. This is not to say that New Zealand is crime-free -- like any place, it's got it's share of wackos -- but for one reason or another there is not the same culture of fear.

Scarfies. This is the long-running nickname for the university students here in Dunedin, because of their penchant for scarves. Especially now that I'm working on campus, I get the biggest kick out of observing their antics and especially their often extremely questionable sense of fashion. The girls seem to favor black leggings or the tightest jeans they can possibly squeeze themselves into,* paired with some sort of hoodie and/or elaborate scarf arrangement. But the most amazing thing is the total disregard for matching footwear to an outfit. Brown cowgirl boots and black leggings? Check. White Ked-like sneakers and black jeans? You're good to go. As for the guys, about 90% of Dunedin men under the age of 25 have unapologetically horrible hair, which I find endearing. Lots and lots and lots of hair gel. White guys with dreadlocks. Faux hawks galore. Reading this, I realize I'm sounding kind of mean about the Scarfies, but I truly think they are adorable and fun and in the prime of their lives. I'm slightly jealous I can't rock the faux hawk, myself.

Commuting is awesome. It's a five minute drive (or 30 minute walk) from our front door to the campus and downtown. I can drive to the other side of town in 15 minutes. Aside from some congestion on the main road in Christchurch, I have yet to see anything that resembles heavy traffic anywhere on the South Island. Bite me, I-85!

Okay, I think I really am feeling better. I actually have more to add, but this is getting kind of long and I may need to save a few more for another rainy day. When the dog bites ...

* An aside to the 99% of Scarfie girls who have hips or any body fat whatsoever: Buy bigger jeans. I'm saying this as a friend.

Woo hoo!

2008-07-29T22:43:00.004+12:00

After all of the complaining I did yesterday about the weather, look what happened:

Yes, I know that's kind of a shadowy and sinister blue sky, but it's really hard to take a picture into the sun with my little digital camera. It's still sun! And blue sky! And not only that, but as I type this Dunedin and the surrounding region are the only places in the entire country that are not under severe storm watch. I was so excited I took some more pictures around town.

Road leading to our house (same shadow-y problem, but you get the idea)

The Octagon in downtown Dunedin (no raincoats or umbrellas!)

St. Paul's Cathedral downtown

The citizens of Dunedin can rest easy tonight, knowing that any violent weather-related tendencies I may harbor are subdued.

In other news, I am now not starting work until next Monday. (Kind of long story, but I really do have a job. Honest.) I'll keep you posted.

Grey Days

2008-07-28T11:33:00.001+12:00

Hello, my lovely readers! What has been going on this week, you ask? Let's see ...

Rain, drizzle, overcast skies, and more of the same. The sun came out for about 20 minutes last Thursday, so the dogs and I promptly ran outside for a nice walk. It was raining again by the time we got home. The optimist in me says that those 20 minutes are better than nothing. The pessimist in me says that if I don't see the sun again soon, I'm going to cut somebody.
Work. I start tomorrow. Wish me luck!
High-brow cinema. The Dunedin Film Festival began Friday, and it could not have come at a better time, weather-wise. Chris and I each bought a pass and spent Saturday and Sunday afternoon holed up in the movie theatre.

Before we sign off, let's wish a very happy birthday to devoted readers Laura, who celebrates today, and Kristina, who celebrated while we were still in Tokyo. You keep getting better with age, you fine ladies!

Tokyo

2008-07-20T15:42:00.000+12:00

Moshi Moshi, devoted readers! We loved Tokyo. Loved Tokyo. There's no way I can sum up this part of the trip, except to say that for years to come many of my cocktail party stories will begin, "Well, when we were in Tokyo ..." It will be very annoying to everyone. I'm just warning you.

I have been to countries where I didn't speak the language before, but this is the first time we couldn't read street signs or make out any words on menus. Pictures came in handy in restaurants, and our record for receiving what we thought we ordered was a respectable 60-40. A very tasty place to visit, overall. Chris did a good job of memorizing some essentials from the phrase book, but I would just smile and nod furiously, saying "arigato" as often as possible. This strategy, coupled with a lot of pointing and gesturing, worked surprisingly well. Furthermore, if we stood in one place for a while looking stupid, someone would eventually approach and ask in broken English if we needed help. (Note to self: Be extra nice to non-English speaking tourists.) That said, I'd like to take a basic Japanese course before we go back and see the rest of Japan.

The sitting area in our Japanese-style hotel room

Shinjuku in the daytime

Visitors breathing "holy smoke" outside a Shinto temple in Asakusa. A Japanese man sweetly told us that if we inhaled the smoke it would make us "beautiful and healthy." No discernable improvements, so far.

There is an extremely busy Krispy Kreme in Shibuya. You'll be glad to know that the original glazed and the coffee are exactly the same as in the States, but they also have a few unusual doughnut choices:

Waiting in the long line for doughnuts, it occurred to me that everyone speaks the international language of deliciousness.

We talked to this guy for a long time when we were eating lunch in a soba noodle house. By "talked" I mean he gestured a lot and we gestured back as he only spoke a few words of English.

Me blending in with the locals. Tokyo has the most sparkly clean subways I've ever seen, though they were crazy during rush hour.

Shibuya at night.

Grounds outside the Imperial Palace

Chris grabbing a beer from the vending machine near our hotel. There are vending machines on every corner in Tokyo, selling soft drinks, water, alcohol, cigarettes -- you name it. (Incidentally, I think Chris was embarrassed that I made him pose for this picture on a very busy street. I argue that if there is any place in the world to feel completely comfortable as a camera-wielding tourist, it is Japan.)

Now we are back in NZ, completely exhausted but really happy and grateful for such a smooth and amazing around-the-world adventure. It has been wonderful to kiss the dogs and sleep in our own bed and eat food from our own kitchen. (Chris is making spaghetti tonight! Woo hoo!) I'd be lying if I said returning to Dunedin feels like coming "home," but I'm ready and excited to start working and regain a routine and a sense of normalcy that I really haven't had since we moved here. Let's see where we go from here ...

Scotland (Part II)

2008-07-13T04:47:00.003+12:00

Last day in Scotland. I don't have a ton of time, but here is a quick recap:

The Scots are friendly. I like they seem to be very kind to their dogs. Haggis tastes great, but I still can't eat more than a couple of bites without getting freaked out when I think about what's in it. (Furthermore, I still can't eat black pudding. I just can't do it.) Scotland has a lot of cemeteries.

Edinburgh is a nice city. Edinburgh Castle is overrated. (In the interest of full disclosure, we arrived at the same time as a massive cruise ship group, so that may have skewed our perspective.) St. Andrews is my kind of town. High school student groups are the most annoying tourists. A pint of beer is always a good idea.

Here are some pictures from St. Andrews. (We took a few in Edinburgh as well, but none to get excited about. I think we are starting to get photo weary.)

View of St. Andrews from St. Rule's Tower (the remains of the St. Andrews Cathedral and cemetery are below)

St. Andrews self-portrait. Chris was working all day and I don't know how to work the photo timer, so this is all you get with people in it.

Ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral.

This marks the spot where George Wishart, a Protestant reformer, was burned at the stake outside of St. Andrews Castle in the 1500s. An Audi was parked almost on top of it.

The ruins of St. Andrews Castle. This was very cool and I would recommend it or Sterling Castle over Edinburgh Castle. Any day.

Here's where they'd keep you at St. Andrews Castle if you were a lucky prisoner.

Here's where they'd keep you at St. Andrews Castle if you were an unlucky prisoner. (Yes, that is, in fact, a pit. Lots of morbid stuff went on in Scotland.)

See you in Tokyo, devoted readers!!!

Scotland (Part I)

2008-07-09T16:43:00.007+12:00

Okay, now we're in Scotland. It reminds me a lot of our little neck of New Zealand if it had more interesting architecture, less interesting food, and more complicated accents. We started out with a day in Stirling (home of the Braveheart guy and an impressive old castle - very cute town) and then met up with some of Chris's colleagues for a whisky tour in Islay.

Stirling. So cute. It felt like a little Disney village designed to look old, but in actuality it was just old.

Some annoying tourists outside of the old Stirling Jail.

Chris suffered a sudden and serious bout of jet lag during our first afternoon in Scotland

But after a quick rest he recovered to resume his posing tourist duties

Stirling Castle, stomping grounds of Mary Queen of Scots. I took a ton of pictures and none do it justice.

The lighthouse in front of our B&B in Islay. The cemetery down the road had two graves of a father and son who drowned at this lighthouse in 1916, so that made it a little spooky. (As you will probably tell from the pictures, Islay is seriously the most rustic, middle-of-nowhere place I've ever been, and I live in New Zealand. As my guidebook said, however, it does have "a certain rugged beauty.")

Rams in front of our B&B in Islay. There were about a dozen of these guys always hanging about. They really freaked me out. I came back from a jog one morning and about 8-10 of them had completely blocked the only path to the B&B and a few of them were actually butting heads and acting crazy. After panicking for a minute at the idea of being impaled in jogging shorts, I mustered up all of my courage and continued down the path, mostly because there was absolutely no other option. As it turned out the rams are actually big sissys around people and they all ran away from me while I was still about ten feet from them. I still think I'm pretty brave, though.

The ruins of a very cool church that dates to 1200 (Islay's other tourist attraction, besides whisky)

We have taken a lot of rustic beach pictures this year.

This is how they make your Scotch whisky

Pretty view from Caol Ila distillery

Chris enjoying Islay's most popular tourist attraction. (Now may be a good time to disclose that although I was the designated driver and did not drink the whisky, I STILL managed to get in a minor fender-bender, completely sober and in the middle of nowhere. Luckily our car was fine, the other party's damage was super minor, and she was very nice and took cash instead of haggling with the car rental agency. Still, the whole thing was quite a blow to my ego after I had so bravely confronted the rams. Sigh.)

We're now in St. Andrews for Chris's conference. I'll post more soon ...

Vancouver

2008-07-05T22:50:00.003+12:00

Just a quick note to check in, loyal readers, and post a few photos. Aside from a series of airport snafus that made us miss the flight from Auckland to Vancouver, it has been a flawless trip so far. Great time in Vancouver catching up with the family and a few of Chris's high school friends. Never, ever enough time.

We're now in Scotland, touring around just a bit before the start of Chris's conference. More to follow ...

My packed carry-on bag (for your reference, Dot). It broke for the second time on our way out of Vancouver and I ended up dumping it at the YVR airport and getting a new one.

Chris enjoying snacks in the lounge while we were stuck at the Dunedin airport

Nephew Jake, a splashy fellow

Nephew Pete, up close and personal

My hair never behaves

Mom & Dad enjoying English Bay

Chris, Mom and Butch with some new friends at Queen Elizabeth Park. Such tourists!

Maria and Lisa enjoying the awesome weather

Three weeks. Three continents. One carry-on bag.

2008-06-23T17:13:00.003+12:00

We're leaving on a trip this week. A big trip. I know we just moved to the other side of the world, and generally that would be enough travel to tide us over for a while, but when opportunity knocks you'd best answer the door. So we are off. Vancouver. Scotland. Tokyo. In three weeks.

How did we arrive at this itinerary, you ask? It's a long story. Here it goes: Chris is presenting a paper at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in mid-July. He figured he would use the opportunity to stop over for a few days and see his family in Vancouver on the way to Scotland. (I was way jealous.) Then his folks were nice enough to help us out with another ticket so I could go along. (I was way excited!) Chris's family also invited my parents up to Vancouver while we're there, so we are thrilled to see both sides of the family during our limited time in Canada.

When we were booking the tickets, the travel agent told us we'd have to connect in Tokyo on the way home from Scotland. Japan has been on our list of dream trips for a long time, and since the ticket price was the same whether we stopped over for four hours or four days, we added a four-day stop in Tokyo.

So that's the plan: family reunion in Vancouver, work trip in Scotland (for my darling Christopher, anyway ... I'm just going to be hanging out, touring castles and eating haggis), pure vacation in Tokyo. Three continents, three weeks. Crazy.

As far as the one carry-on bag ... it is true. Chris and I are limiting ourselves to one carry-on bag each. For three weeks. Stop looking at me like that. It's okay. Really. For one thing, we are taking lots and lots of planes, and some connections are involved, so checked luggage would be a catastrophe waiting to happen. For another thing, we can easily do laundry at Chris's parents house, and I am told they have laundromats in Scotland and/or Japan. (In my experience laundromats are also a good place to meet highly colorful locals. Bonus!) Finally, I like being married, and the odds of me staying married increase exponentially each time I manage to pack light. Chris lugging my heavy suitcases all around the world = cranky husband = less fun had by all.

Three weeks of vacation feels like a very long time. I remember when I took two weeks off of work to visit New Zealand in 2007 and that felt outrageously indulgent. People here -- at least the academics I've met -- don't seem to think twice about traveling for 3-4 weeks at a time, and all of the Kiwis I've met are extremely well-traveled. Maybe it's because it takes a long time to travel anywhere from here, so if you're going to take the time and money to go all the way to North America or Europe you'd might as well make the most of it.

I will try to post updates of our trip from the road but realistically I don't know how often I'll be checking the computer. Hopefully I'll have some good pictures and some exciting adventures to share. The good kind of adventure. We'll see how it goes. Talk to you soon!

As we sign off, let's all wish a very happy half birthday to Fox! I hear I missed a raging party.

Addendum: In response to reader concerns, let me assure everyone that the dogs are staying in a very fine, highly-recommended facility while we are gone, complete with numerous play areas and underfloor heating. No more doggie jail. Doggie resort.

Progress.

2008-06-21T14:08:00.000+12:00

The week has zipped by. A recap for my devoted readers:

1) Professional development. It looks like I have found some work doing legal research for a new center (centre) at the university. I'm meeting with the dean again next week to talk about it further, but it sounds like they'll have me starting in mid-July. The work sounds super interesting, and I hope it will be a good opportunity to learn more about the NZ legal system and get to know some folks without taking the plunge just yet to get certified to practice law.

What does the certification process entail, you ask? I keep avoiding this topic because it is rather dry reading, and because it gives me an ulcer, but since you asked: I am told that it is six classes for most foreign lawyers -- mostly first-year foundation classes like property, contracts, blah blah blah. BUT technically there is no clear set standard that applies to everybody, and each foreign lawyer simply has to submit their credentials to the council that oversees foreign lawyers with a $1200 application fee. No, $1200 is not a typo. Yes, that's just the fee for them to tell you exactly what classes they want you to take -- not tuition. I'm told that a few very hardcore foreign lawyers who go to school full-time have gotten certified in a year, but most people take about two years. Ulcer.

2) Social development. I had two lunch dates this week with people I met at a luncheon for women lawyers, so it has been fun to meet some new folks. Yesterday I hung out with this really hilarious Australian lawyer who introduced me to several of her friends, also lawyers. (My K&S readers may be interested to know that based on this limited exposure, I have concluded that lawyers around the world basically complain about the same things ...)

3) Physical development. Yoga is the only thing that consistently helps my back pain. I took a long-overdue level-one iyengar class this week and have concluded that Kiwis practice a very sadistic form of yoga. My back now feels great but every other muscle in my body feels like it has been pummeled with a cricket bat.

Also, after much searching, the dogs and I discovered a really awesome dog park hidden less than a mile from our house. It's huge and it's got some short walking trails and bush areas within the fenced area that they've enjoyed exploring. By the time we walk up there, play, and walk back, they are blissfully passed out for the rest of the day.

4) Marital development. Chris and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary this week on the 19th. (Woo hoo! I love you, honey!) We celebrated on the 19th, but since technically it was the 20th in NZ on the day we got married, we dragged out the celebration an extra day. Gotta love the international date line. I fully plan to have two-day celebrations for all birthdays, holidays and anniversaries in the future.

5) Cultural development. We're about to go on a big trip. This post is already getting way too long and chatty, so I will write another one in the next day or two to tell you all about it. I'm way excited.

I miss you guys!

Beach Day

2008-06-14T13:41:00.007+12:00

To say the dogs like the beach is an understatement. They go crazy. They lose their little walnut-sized minds.

These aren't the greatest pictures (again, Owen's camera phobia forced me to be discreet so he wouldn't go running over the dunes, never to be seen again) but it gives you an idea.

Off-leash.

Treats.

Chillin'.

Livy action shot.

I like that they include "public toilets" among the list of destinations. That is practical. (In case you have trouble reading the "New York" arm, it says 14893 km. 14893km = 9254 miles. Can that be right?)

Before we sign off, a great big congratulations to devoted readers Lauren and David, who are getting married in Georgia today!!! Here's to many happy, loving years ahead!

Some stuff you won't see in New Zealand (Part I of ???)

2008-06-11T12:23:00.002+12:00

1) Central Heating. I believe I already covered this in "Some stuff you won't see in the U.S. (Part I of ??)." I'm still fascinated, though.

2) Tipping. People don't tip here. As a tourist visiting NZ last year, I felt extremely weird about this. I somehow made it through my 20s without ever waiting tables (I was a more of a retail/office rat ... be kind to your Barnes & Noble sales clerks, people!!!) but I have had enough friends in the American food service industry to understand the unadulterated wrath directed toward bad tippers. This wrath made me very afraid. This wrath made me a good tipper.

It's a little different here. Unlike the U.S., where servers earn less than minimum wage and make up the difference with tips, the waiters here get a decent hourly wage which is built-in to the menu prices. Pro: The price on the menu is the total price you pay. No math. I like that. Con: Service is generally slow and less attentive (but still friendly enough) by American standards. In any event, I've gotten used to it and no longer feel like a cheap loser every time we go out to eat.

3) Napkins. Okay, they've got napkins, but count yourself lucky if they give you one and it's bigger than one of those cocktail napkins you get with the little passed hors d'ouvres at wedding receptions. I've concluded that Kiwis are extremely neat eaters. Or perhaps I am an extremely sloppy eater. Or perhaps Americans just have a wasteful love affair with excess napkins. I suspect all three of these factors are in play.

4) Drip coffee. The coffee here rocks pretty hard. It's pretty much all espresso-based, and it comes with its own unique lingo. "Long black" = espresso shot with extra hot water. "Flat white" = espresso shot with milk. "Cappuccino" = you already know what that is. These options keep me pretty well caffeinated, but sometimes I want just a regular old cup of coffee made with ground coffee beans, and it does not seem to exist in cafes or restaurants. We make it at home with the french press.

5) Krispy Kreme. Do me a favor, loyal North American readers. Get in your car, right now, and drive to your local KK. It's okay -- I'll wait. Is the red "Hot Doughnuts" sign on? Good. Perfect. Park the car, and go inside. (If you're at the one on Ponce in Atlanta, take care not to get assaulted by one of those colorful characters loitering in the parking lot.) Inhale the sweet sweet glaze aroma. Close your eyes and really breathe it in. Is it as beautiful as I remember? Yes? That's what I thought. Approach the slightly haggard-looking doughnut proprietress and order two hot original glazed (Ah, what they hay? Make it three. I'm certainly not going to judge you.) and a small bold roast coffee.

You have no idea how good you have it.

Snow Day!

2008-06-08T15:22:00.000+12:00

Woke up this morning to snow! It all melted by about 1 pm, but it was pretty. It seems unreal that it was 90 degrees F in Atlanta yesterday.

View from our living room window

Dusted backyard

Owen enjoying the snow while fleeing from the camera.

On a little walk. This isn't a great picture but I love the hills behind our neighborhood ...

Primary school near our house

Some more stuff you won't see in the U.S. (Part II of ???)

2008-06-07T13:57:00.002+12:00

1) Netball. From what I can tell, it's a lot like basketball, only you don't dribble the ball, there's no backboard behind the hoop, and it looks like there are some kind of rules about how far you can move with the ball. I haven't seen anything about men's netball -- seems like mostly a women's sport, although astoundingly they still show games on TV.

I will add that sports in general are quite a bit different here. For starters, they refer to collective sports as "sport" rather than "sports," as in, "Please hand me the sport page." Rugby has got to be hands-down the most popular sport, and there are more leagues than I can keep up with.* Cricket is probably the second most popular, but I fall asleep just thinking about it. There is a pro basketball league but you don't hear much about it. No baseball or American football to speak of.

2) Music videos. Before you get all huffy and argumentative and try to tell me that the U.S. does have music videos and, in fact, America invented MTV, ask yourself: When was the last time you turned on the television and actually saw a music video? Hmmm? I think they still used to come on when I was in college, but since then both MTV and VH1 have been devoted solely to crappy reality shows about B-list celebrities, crappy reality shows about spoiled rich teenagers, and crappy countdown shows like "I Love the '90s, Part 29" and "Top 100 Craziest Hair Band Moments." For the record, I'm not saying I haven't enjoyed watching some of these shows. I'm just saying they're crappy.

So it's interesting to see music videos again. About half of them are bands I've never heard of, which is probably partly cultural (there seem to be a fair number of Maori hip hop artists -- who knew?) and partly because I am old and out of touch with what the kids are into these days. Much of what they play is not really my kind of music (Does anyone else feel an urge to impale the lead singer of Panic at the Disco?) but interesting enough to have on the TV for background noise while you are making silly blog lists for your friends at home.

3) Pineapple Lumps. Apparently, they are chewy, pineapple-y, and chocolatey, all wrapped into one convenient candy morsel. They are widely touted in commercials as a distinctive Kiwi treat. I saw a very sane-looking 20-something woman buying these at the grocery store yesterday, so this confirms that someone is, in fact, consuming them. They make me very afraid.

* Realizing I need a rugby team to cheer for, I have chosen the Crusaders because 1) the only full rugby match I've watched is a Crusaders game, in a bar full of Crusaders fans in Christchurch; 2) the Crusaders' colors are red and black, which are obviously the best team colors one can choose; and 3) some of their players are extremely cute, even when blood is spewing from their noses. I have subsequently learned that being a Crusaders fan will not earn you any friends in Dunedin (home of the Highlanders) -- it's something akin to marching down Milledge Avenue in Athens singing "Rocky Top" or making that obscene Florida gator gesture. Thus, I will likely keep this newfound Crusaders devotion to myself.

ADDENDUM: The Crusaders won the 2008 Super 14 championship. I didn't realize I'd picked a good team to cheer for.

Honeymoon. Over.

2008-06-03T17:39:00.004+12:00

I was in the backyard with the dogs this afternoon, watching them run and frolic and basking in the general loveliness of it all. Then Livy (the smart one, the one who does amusing tricks and is not deathly afraid of cameras) rolled in a big pile of poo. I saw her roll on her back and wiggle around, as she is known to do, but it did not cross my mind that we had a poo situation because she has never before been so vulgar as to roll in poo. But when she ran back to the porch from the top of the hill, it became clear we most definitely had a poo situation. A three-alarm poo situation. As if Livy and Mother Nature were conspiring against me, it promptly started to rain.

Instinctively I ran inside (leaving poo-ridden Livy outside) and grabbed 1) our cheapest bottle of shampoo and 2) a cell phone to call Chris because I had no idea if we have a hose. After being apprised of the situation, Chris helpfully responded, "How much money did we spend to bring them over here, again?"

You will be relieved to learn, my concerned readers, that I did find a hose. And that the water was cold -- miserably, freezing cold -- and thus Livy not only learned an important lesson but now smells like Sunsilk Moisture Therapy shampoo. I cannot be entirely sure, but I believe she is still giving me sulky sideways looks.

Otherwise, life is fine. I'm starting the job interview process in earnest tomorrow with a couple more leads next week, so hopefully something will pan out soon. We are set to take a very large trip at the end of the month (details to follow, eager readers!) so it would be nice to be able to start something when we get back, if not sooner. The suit is drycleaned, I got a haircut last week,* and my face is mostly cleared up from some inexplicable episode that left my skin looking like a 13-year-old boy's. (Not the fresh-faced, soccer-playing kind of 13-year-old. The kind that eats chips and nachos and plays Ninendo Wii in a dark room for 12 hours at a time.) So I'm all set to take the Dunedin professional world by storm. Sha-zam! Wish me luck, darling readers.

* "Bangs" does not mean the same thing over here as it does over there. You will be giggled at in the salon if you do not know this.

Animal Liberation

2008-06-02T16:07:00.007+12:00

It was a big weekend, loyal readers!!!

Marathon. Chris ran the SBS Christchurch marathon in 3:43, thereby completing his first sub-4 hour race AND smashing his previous best time by 20 minutes. Furthermore, he wasn't at all limpy when it was over. Not too shabby.

I am a terrible wife who didn't get any finish line pictures of Chris, mostly because I didn't expect him to finish so quickly and didn't seriously start looking for him until he had already crossed the line. Then it turned out the camera batteries were dead. Yes, I know. Terrible wife. So you'll have to use your vivid imaginations, loyal readers, to envision him looking sweaty and victorious. Chariots of Fire, kind of thing. (Addendum: go to this link, click on SBS Christchurch marathon, and type in our last name to see Chris's race photos. Apparently the 10k crowd didn't warrant any photos, or maybe it was just me. Hmph.)

I was considerably lamer but had fun in my 10k. Had previously planned to run the half marathon but back trouble and laziness got me off the training schedule a while back so I decided to keep things simple. (Here's to regrouping for the Dunedin half marathon in September ... ) We went to Christchurch with Chris's boss and his wife. Chris's boss is a running coach for a local track club so it was more than a little humbling meeting some of his runners and acquaintances who actually run these races to win. Way beyond my comprehension.

Dogs. The second objective for our Christchurch trip was to spring our furry freaks from quarantine. As you may know, loyal readers, I am not big on the whole "mushiness" thing, but this was truly a warm and fuzzy experience. They were just beaming joy the whole car ride home. You could tell they were both exhausted but Owen would NOT close his eyes ... he just stared at us the entire time.

Once we got home they sniffed out the house and enjoyed the backyard. I tried to get a picture of both of them but Owen still has this bizarre, crippling fear of cameras and ended up hiding under a bush until we managed to coax him out with some snacks. (I think we are resigned to taking the one decent photo we have of him [see "In Retrospect, Pet Fish Would Have Been a Good Idea"] and photoshopping it into all of our future family photos.)

Now I'm covered in dog hair and they've splashed drinking water all over the kitchen floor and all is right with the world. At times this has been an unbearably frazzling process, but the payoff today was huge.

Six n tha Sutty

2008-05-29T10:10:00.003+12:00

Last night Chris and I went to see "A Streetcar Named Desire" at the local theatre company here in town. I've loved that play since we read it in high school,* and I totally dug the Marlon Brando/Vivian Leigh movie version. ("Stellaaaaaa!") Excited as I was to see it live for the first time, I was anxious. Kiwi actors and fake U.S. southern accents would be involved. As you no doubt recognize, clever readers, this had the potential for disaster. Most American actors can't do a Southern accent without breaking into full-fledged Hee-Haw mode, for crying out loud.

As it turned out, all of the actors ended up using their regular Kiwi accents. This was a relief and obviously the best decision that the director could make given that 1) inevitably, it would have sounded ridiculous and 2) most of the Kiwi audience would not have understood them. Still, I found myself a little sad -- the play is set during the summer in New Orleans, for crying out loud. You lose the accent, you lose some of the heat. It's hard to explain. (Good play overall, by the way.)

As far as the Kiwi accent goes, it's very cute on most people. Very clipped. I have no trouble understanding it in person or on TV, but when I talk to people on the phone it all falls apart and I ask them to repeat EVERYTHING. It's embarrassing. Kiwis often use the word "wee" instead of "small," which I absolutely adore. (I'm told this is more of a South Island thing, though ...) They also say "Good on him" instead of "Good for him," which is also very fun.

As far as my accent goes, everyone just asks me where I'm from. Initially I thought this meant people didn't recognize I am American, but our Kiwi friends Claire and Fiona informed me that, no, they just don't want to assume I'm American because Canadians get all pissed off when they do this. (Seriously, Canada. Lighten up.)

I should probably acknowledge that my fake Kiwi accent is absolutely horrible, but I'm working on it. My shining accomplishment so far has been discussing the new Sarah Jessica Parker movie, "Six n tha Sutty" with Claire and Fiona, who agreed that I pronounced the title perfectly. (In the interest of full disclosure, each of them was probably on the third glass of wine by the time I broke out the fake accent. That may have influenced their judgment.)

Practice along with me at home! Take all of your "eh" sounds -- as in "yes" -- and change them to "ih" sounds. "Yis." Now take all of your "ih" sounds -- as in "fish" -- and change them to "uh" sounds. "Fush." That's it! You're doing great! "Yis, ah'd lahk some fush." Awesome!

You'll be bungee jumping and herding sheep in no time.

*In retrospect, I am absolutely astounded that Mrs. Peters somehow taught this play without any discussion of what actually happens between Stanley and Blanche -- no doubt adhering to the school district's fervent directive to shield our young minds from any thoughtful critical analysis of adult subjects we were already gossiping about, anyway. Still, mad props to Mrs. Peters for always making us read cool stuff! Best English class ever!

I struggle.

2008-05-25T17:27:00.006+12:00

Another weekend is almost to a close. After bragging on last week's weather it is now rainy (though still not too cold ... knock wood) and time to bring activities inside.

I got a hankering today to make some chocolate chip cookies, which as you can see turned into a Toll House fiasco. Lots of mess, lots of flat, misshapen, rock-hard cookies. (All of the chocolate marks on the plate are from the first batch, which I burned, and threw out.) More flour next time, I think.

Last night we had dinner with a Kiwi grad student in Chris's department. A lot of wine and a few Neil Diamond records were involved, so needless to say a good time was had by all. I had my first pavlova, which actually is very tasty with a delightful sweet crunchy shell. Who knew?

She and her roommate are also big American Idol fans, though unfortunately they are more of the Archuletta persuasion. I've already read on American news sites who won (I love you, David Cook, you hair-challenged, multi-necklace-wearing cheeseball! You'll Always Be MY Baby!) but since the show is delayed by several weeks here I had to keep quiet. It was tough.

I met with a super nice law school professor last week and she has bent over backwards to put me in touch with a few potential job contacts. Everything seems to move on a slower time frame here ... we shall see.

Otherwise, life is pretty quiet for now. We got some venison at the farmer's market yesterday so I'm cooking a venison stew -- proof, dear readers, that I am officially a Kiwi pioneer woman. It smells good, but it remains to be seen whether I am 0-2 in the kitchen today. Wish me luck.

Ever the good sport, Christopher washes down a cookie.

Nice Weekend

2008-05-21T10:55:00.000+12:00

On Saturday we went to a Mexican potluck with two other American couples and one Kiwi couple. The lack of good Mexican food appears to be a common complaint among Americans here, so we made our own and it was pretty durned good if I do say so myself. (I still miss you, Nuevo Laredo! And Aqua Linda! And Taqueria del Sol! And that Cuban/Peruvian place in Athens formerly known as Caliente Cab that keeps changing its name, which technically isn't Mexican but is still freakin' swimming in deliciousness! Never forget me. Sniff.)

Not to jinx ourselves, but for all of the apologizing people do about the weather around here, it was absolutely gorgeous all week. Blue sky, sunny, crisp. Sweater weather, but not coat weather. Considering this is the equivalent of mid-November, I'll take it.

Chris and I went for a very nice trail run, or I should say it was very nice until we came to a couple of mammoth hills he didn't warn me about. I would have shouted some four-letter words at him if I had any breath left at all.

We also decorated the car:

Drove to the St. Clair Esplanade and walked around:

Took a stroll on the beach:

Watched surfers:

Saturday night we discovered this little buddy in our backyard. For the uninitiated, he is a hedgehog. Chris named him Sonic, but I think he looks more like a Javier:

Some stuff you won't see in the U.S. (Part I of ??)

2008-05-20T14:35:00.003+12:00

1) Woodburners in middle-class homes. For some reason I have not quite grasped, nobody in New Zealand has central heating. I mean, nobody. It's not that winters aren't cold enough for it, they just don't have it. Furthermore, a lot of the houses seem to be poorly insulated, which means people put a lot of thought and needless energy (heh heh, pun) into warming their homes.

Instead of heavy-duty insulation and central heating, you tend to rely on heat pumps (which, I have to admit, work surprisingly well) and then make up the difference with wood burners, space heaters, and so on. For the most part these do the job, but I still don't get why nobody is putting in central heating, even in new construction. I know you pride yourselves on your pioneer spirit, Kiwi people, but I am here to tell you there is a better way! My current theory is that Kiwis don't employ better heating methods because everyone really seems to enjoy talking about heating, and if every room of the house was an even and consistent 72 degrees F there would be nothing to discuss. This topic will require more research.

2) Georgina Beyer. In 1999, NZ became the first country in the world to elect a transsexual (not to mention a former stripper and prostitute) to Parliament, where she served until resigning in 2007. I know the makeup of U.S. politicians is changing (see Obama, Barack) and maybe I'm not giving my countrymen enough credit, but I just can't imagine middle America voting for a transsexual candidate, much less a former sex worker. Maybe San Francisco. (As a side note, NZ was also the first country in the world to give women the right to vote. 1893 baby! Woo hoo, progressive politics!)

3) Unsupervised kids. Everywhere. I know there are small towns in the United States where kids are allowed to roam the streets without a parent. Coming from Atlanta, however, 1) you don't let your kids go anywhere by themselves; and 2) even if you did, there is nowhere for them to go without a car. Even in Athens, kids tend to be under lock and key, probably to keep them from wandering in to one of the town's fine drinking establishments that will serve anyone tall enough to peer over the counter.

So it is kind of amazing to see all of the packs of kids just hanging out and walking all over Dunedin after school. And not just the skanky-looking teenagers you see outside of convenience stores, either, but clean-cut little 9 and 10-year-olds. Everywhere. The funniest part is that they are all color-coded in their school uniforms, so one pack will walk by wearing frumpy, ill-fitting green blazers, another pack will walk by wearing frumpy, ill-fitting red blazers, and so on. They are truly adorable. My favorites are the really little boys in shorts, knee socks and blazers who look like mini-members of AC/DC. I was going to take a picture of some of them to show you what I'm talking about but realized it might be perceived as slightly creepy to take covert photographs of strange children on the street and then post them on the Internet. Just imagine tiny gangs of used car salesmen.

4) Naked people on TV. I guess you expect this sort of thing in, say, France, but it was a full-frontal shock to find it in New Zealand.

This is about all I can think of for now, eager readers, but I will add more observations as they come.

Sustenance

2008-05-16T00:29:00.000+12:00

As most of you know, food is an important priority in our household. Chris and I spend an absurd amount of time thinking about it, talking about it, and of course eating it. It's kind of a hobby. So you'll be glad to know we've been eating very well in Dunedin. Food prices are quite a bit more expensive than in the US -- I suspect because a lot of stuff is imported -- but let my tightening pants assure you, dear readers, that we are not going hungry.

NZ cuisine itself seems to have a heavy British influence and is pretty meat-and-veggie based. Lots of meat pies (lamb, beef, venison), roasts, stews, and so on. Pavlova is popular dessert and I see it in the grocery store but I've been hesitant to try it. Not such a big merangue person.

Grocery stores are essentially the same except I don't recognize most of the brand names. Dunedin has a fairly awesome little farmer's market every Saturday, where you can get lots of good produce, freshly baked breads, and local meats and cheeses. The pic above is a very tasteful artistic composite of a bunch of the goods purchased one week.

Some new foods I am currently digging:

1) Muesli with apples and plain yogurt for breakfast. Yes, I'm European like that. I've never been a big fan of plain yogurt -- kind of like putting sour cream on cereal -- but I got this in a cafe for breakfast one morning and it hits the spot so I've started making it at home. Stick-to-your-ribs, awesome.

2) This gooey Evansdale blue cheese from the farmer's market. It is stinking up our fridge and totally worth it. I do love a stinky cheese.

3) Mr. Ws Sour Worms! Okay, these aren't really any different or more special than the sour worms you get at any given convenience store in the U.S. But Chris and I have been putting away so many Mr. Ws that it's a wonder we have any stomach lining left at all.

4) Hob Nobs (see "Blame it on the Hob Nobs.")

5) Hot tea. I almost never drank hot tea in the US and now I'm having it every afternoon. Maybe because it's colder here, or because everyone has an accent, but suddenly there's just something so freakin' comforting and civilized about it.

6) All of the good ethnic food. Korean! Turkish! Japanese! Indian! I've also got my eye on a hole-in-the-wall Cambodian place that looks pretty awesome.

Chris is currently really digging these bacon-onion-mustard sandwiches from the farmer's market:

Although there is always a long line for these sandwiches, I am not yet convinced.

Wheels!

2008-05-15T04:16:00.000+12:00

Here is our cute little Honda Fit:

Steering wheel. Freaky, huh?

Chris is a pleasant driver.

When you come to visit, this is what it will be like to ride around in our car:

They're always after me lucky charms ...

2008-05-13T09:43:00.006+12:00

Here is a picture I took just outside of Dunedin after a very drizzly weekend. We actually saw the full arch, which was pretty spectacular, but I couldn't quite capture it from my vantage point in the rental car.

I keep forgetting to carry my camera around but I'm trying to be a better photoblogger since so many of my devoted readers have complained they have trouble reading a story without pictures. (I'm not naming names, but I'm looking at you, Frank.)
Your incessant demands for photos have been heard, and I'm working on it.
In the meantime, a quick pulse check:

1) I think we found a car. Actually, two we like. Deciding.

2) Still don't have a job. Honestly have not been looking very hard, but I am just about ready to get up off my rump. Really. (If any advertisers are interested in negotiating a generous sponsorship package for Kia Ora, Y'all, you know where to find me.)

3) Chris's boss had a very nice wine tasting party for us on Saturday. Everyone is super friendly and I got to meet a lot of people and drink a lot of good wine. Eventually I may make a friend, after all. Maybe even two.

4) Get a Skype account so we can talk for free. Seriously!

Blame it on the Hob Nobs

2008-05-07T12:36:00.000+12:00

I know, I know ... I've been neglectful of you, my darling readers. You have been shivering, wrapped in a tattered gray blanket, rocking back and forth in a fetal position, listening in vain for my footsteps from the dark hallway, wondering whether I have abandoned you. Fear not! I've simply been away from the computer a lot. Some might call that healthy. This does mean we have a lot to discuss, however, so put on your cozy pajama pants, pour yourself a cup of coffee (or tea, or bourbon) and gather 'round ...

1) Travels. We went to Christchurch this weekend to visit the doggies in jail. It was a joyous reunion, as you can tell from this photo. (I am not wearing baby blue shoes, by the way. They make you wear booties while in quarantine.) They arrived safely and seem to be doing okay, if they are not exactly enthralled with their current set-up. Poor little guys kept trying to follow us out. Ouch. I was feeling very sorry for them in their sterile-looking run with only their little doggie beds and then later that night on TV I saw a profile of this family of three kids in Angola who shared a dirty mattress on the floor. I decided I'd better get over myself. And quickly.

The rest of the trip was also fun, though rather soggy. As a result, we spent most of our free time holed up in various Christchurch pubs, waiting for the rain to pass. Here is an artsy photo composed by my better half to convey mood of the trip:

On the way back we stopped at the beach and I took this picture of a fur seal. No penguins, though.

2) Habitat. Dunedin is actually a lot prettier than I remembered, probably because it rained a lot the last time I was here. But damn, it is HILLY. Not so much hills as mini-mountains; it is hard to explain. I suspect that everyone around here must have thighs like tree trunks. I'm going to post more pictures soon, I promise.

The university is also prettier than I remembered, again, probably because of the weather. Posters all over campus notified that it was "Cannabis Awareness Week." It seems that most of the people who participate in Cannabis Awareness Week probably are already quite aware of cannabis, but it's good to see young people rallying for a cause.

3) Kiwi Style. It's hard to explain the differences in fashion. Everyone is definitely more casual and more outdoorsy-looking, but then again it's not hard to be more casual than the people who lived in my building in Atlanta. I might say the fashions are slightly dated, definitely less self-conscious. Leggings seem to be popular. People layer very effectively. A lot more dreadlocks and man-ponytails than you see in Georgia.

4) Entertainment. You get four NZ TV stations via antenna. These channels seem to feature just about all of the popular American network shows (Desperate Housewives, The Office, Ugly Betty, Oprah, etc.), some cable shows (The Daily Show, a lot of those crappy E! and VH1 reality shows), as well as a lot of British, Australian, and of course NZ programming. We watched this British show last night called "The Mighty Boosh." Hi-freakin'-larious! I suspect it is a favorite during Cannabis Awareness Week.

As some of my devoted readers may know, I have developed a rather unhealthy and shameful addiction to American Idol this season. If you had told me six months ago that watching some goatee-wearing, Goo Goo Doll-looking guy from Tulsa cover "Always Be My Baby," would make me squeal like a sixth grader, I would have poo-pooed you. But alas, here we are and there's not much to be done, so I'm thrilled to report that we do get American Idol here in NZ, though it is delayed by several weeks, so I actually re-watched Michael Johns getting kicked off this week. I know. I am ill. But David Cook rocks, baby! He's going to wipe the floor with that dopey little Donnie Osmond wannabe! For real!

Ahem.

We are debating whether to get satellite TV and currently are siding against it since just about anything we care to watch is on the four basics. I don't miss cable news at all. Yech.

5) Tastiness. If I weigh 300 lbs the next time you see me, devoted readers, you can blame it on the Hob Nobs. I've had them before and you can get them in the States, but they are these little chocolate-glazed oatmeal biscuits and they are fantastic. A good Hob Nobs binge will take all of the sting out of moving to a foreign country. This is the truth.

6) Transportation. We have been doing some car shopping. We are leaning toward some kind of station wagon/hatchback, as we need room for the doggies and gas prices make SUVs pretty much out of the question, although I do see them around. The dealers here are much more laid back than in the US. Going for a test drive, the dealers do not come with you, and no one asks to see a driver's license; they just ask you to write down your address. One dealer said something like, "it's got plenty of gas; just have it back before we close."

In the meantime, there is a bus stop right across the street from our house and the town is fairly walkable, but again -- those damned hills.

7) Communications. I got a cell phone. I have no idea what it would cost you to call it from the US -- probably a lot -- but let me know if you want it for emergencies and whatnot. In the meantime I've talked to some people via IM and Skype, so that is fun.

8) Domestic Affairs. Since Chris is working and I (temporarily, anyway) am not, I have been trying to play homemaker by cooking dinner for my husband every night. I say things like, "Dinner will be ready in about 15 minutes" and "Would you like some cobbler?" June Cleaver would be jealous. I had something of a cultural culinary mishap yesterday, however, when I bought tomato sauce for making enchiladas. Nobody told me, but the "tomato sauce" you buy in cans over here is just like freakin' ketchup, so the enchilada sauce was more like barbecue sauce, and at the end of the day they were only barely edible. Tomato puree is what I need to buy in the future. I think.

9) New People. On a non NZ-related note, I'd like to welcome the lovely and talented Miss Sofia Copp to the world. Although it may be some time before she is a devoted "Kia Ora, Y'all" reader, I'm sure her mother will read it to her aloud. Blogs are good for baby brain development, I'm pretty sure.

I've arrived

2008-05-01T23:57:00.000+12:00

Just a quick note to say I made it, devoted readers! I know you have been waiting with bated breath. I'm writing this in my bathrobe from our kitchen table in Dunedin. Woo hoo!

Flight from LA to Auckland was surprisingly great. I had an aisle seat and no one on the other side of me. From Auckland to Dunedin, I sat in front of some Kiwi rednecks, who are suprisingly exactly like Georgia rednecks with a different accent and different logos on their T-shirts. It is great to see Chris and he's done a good job with the house. Aside from some grocery shopping and some wandering around, it's been a very low-key first 48 hours.

I've got to go get cleaned up as we are going to a tea in Chris's department (Tea! As an event! I love it!) but I will report more soon, darling readers. I miss you already!

So long ...

2008-04-19T05:15:00.000+12:00

Before we begin, let's address a couple of housekeeping issues.

1) I must correct a mistake in the previous entry, "New Zealand: Now You Know! Part III." It turns out the time difference is currently eight hours (or, more specifically, 16 hours) between EDT and NZ time, not six as I originally reported. This is because the U.S. sprang forward in daylight savings time when NZ fell back an hour. But then in October NZ will spring forward and the U.S. will fall back, and it will be back to six hours (or, more specifically, 18 hours). Does that make any sense? I kinda don't think so.

2) Thanks for the comments. Especially the ones that praise me and talk about how great I am, but also the snarky ones (I'm looking at you, Elizabeth). I love these as they make me feel like I'm not just talking to myself. From now on, if you post as "anonymous," please also sign your name. It's more fun that way, and it lets me rest assured that you are not my axe murderer stalker.

Okay, now that's out of the way. Let's get to the brilliant prose.

It's my last week in Atlanta. I'm riding some insane waves of nostalgia, excitement, and denial, with the occasional nervous breakdown thrown in for good measure. My primary goal this week is to eat as much Mexican food as possible. (Chris tells me there is one Mexican restaurant in Dunedin. His exact words were, "You will not be impressed.")

I spent a fantastic week in Texas visiting my parents. Some good Mexican food was involved. A lot of people ask how my parents are handling this move, and I have to give them heaps of credit for being astoundingly and consistently supportive. Perhaps on occasion you have said to yourself, "Gee, I have the best mom/dad in the world." Perhaps you have sent a mother's day card to this effect, or maybe you've given your father a "#1 Dad" mug that he uses to hold pens on his desk. I am sorry to say that you have been misled, because on a completely objective basis it turns out that my parents are, in fact, the best in the world. (Yours are still good, though. You really should call them more often.) I already miss them like crazy.

Now I'm back in the ATL, feeling rather chubby from all of the Mexican food and overwhelmed with everything that has to be done this week. The big thing will be getting the dogs on the plane, which will almost certainly require sedatives. (For me, not the dogs.) I'm also trying to say goodbye to everybody, which is impossible, and I can't help feel that all of the lunches and dinners and happy hours in the world can't possibly do justice to the unbelievable friendships I've had in here in Georgia. I'm seriously going to miss you guys.

All this is to say that my nerves are pretty raw right now, and I'm sad and excited and in utter disbelief that this is my last week in my adopted home state. The thing that's getting me through is just being so ready to see Chris (best husband in the world, objectively speaking) and getting our new life started after so much talking, so much planning.

Barring any unforeseen events that I just have to share (let's hope not ... no news is good news, this week) I think this is my last post before I leave. I'll see you in New Zealand, devoted readers!

New Zealand: Now you know! Part III

2008-04-12T03:03:00.001+12:00

At long last, readers, we've reached the exciting conclusion (at least for the time being) of our informational series "Getting to Know New Zealand."

Q: Are the seasons opposite from those in North America?
A: Yes, NZ summer is roughly November-January, winter is roughly June-August, and so on. The school year for students at Chris's university runs from February-November.

Q: Weird! So does that mean you'll have two winters back-to-back?
A: Basically, yes. It sounds nicer to think I'll have a sliver of spring and a little dose of fall in between the two winters.

Q: What does "Kia Ora" mean?
A: From our friends at Wikipedia: Kia ora is a Māori language greeting which has entered New Zealand English. It means literally "be well/healthy" and may also be regarded in a more formal sense as a traditional greeting of "Good health." It is used for both "Hello" and "goodbye" and as a general exhortation or acknowledgement when listening and responding to a public speaker.

Q: What is the time difference over there?
A: Normally NZ is 18 hours ahead of EST (Georgia time). They observe daylight savings time on a slightly different schedule, though, so that fluctuates by an hour for a few weeks each year.

It is easiest for me to calculate by thinking that they are six hours behind, but one day ahead. For example, if it is Wednesday, 6 pm in Atlanta, it would be noon on Thursday in NZ. For pacific time, it is 3 hours behind, one day ahead (i.e. 3 pm Wednesday in Vancouver is noon Thursday in Dunedin).

Q: How will I be able to contact you?
A: I'm keeping the same email address, and I've recently gotten into Google instant messaging. Chris and I have talked almost every day at no cost through IM or by using Skype. I'll also get a cell phone, though I have no idea what it will cost to dial it from North America. Chris got a very reasonably priced international calling card in NZ, so that will help us make conventional phone calls to you guys. And you can always find me here, my darling readers.

Q: Is it true that the toilet flushes in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere?
A: I'm told this is true, and that it has something to do with the magnetic pull of the poles . . . or something. Unfortunately, when I was down there, none of the toilets I used seemed to swirl. They had more of just a giant "whoosh" of water that seemed to shoot straight down the bowl -- kind of like an airplane toilet -- so I can't say I observed this myself. (After a while, I started feeling kind of deranged, eagerly staring down the bowl of each new toilet, and I abandoned the experiment after a couple of days.)

A friend of mine was very disappointed with this story when I explained it to her. She cleverly pointed out that I should have filled up a sink and watched it drain to see if the water swirled in the opposite direction. You will be glad to know, dear readers, that I have added this to my list of things to do upon arrival.

Q: Who are those child molester-looking guys in the photo?
A: New Zealand's sensational musical/comedy duo "Flight of the Conchords." (individually, they are Bret Mackenzie and Jemaine Clement.) I adore them and have developed a rather unhealthy crush, though Chris does not seem threatened.

They won a Grammy this year, and they've now got a show on HBO, descriptively named "Flight of the Conchords." You can also rent it on DVD if you don't have HBO. Watch it. It's funny.

Agh.

2008-04-10T06:05:00.002+12:00

It's been a crazy week.

Friday marked my last day as an American attorney, at least for the foreseeable future. The folks on my team took me to lunch and then held a really nice party for me that night. (Thanks to Meredith for hosting and Ashley for organizing -- you guys are the best.) Some of you may be wondering exactly what I plan to do with myself, now. We will discuss this issue in another post, dear readers, probably when I am drunk and weepy.

Saturday through Monday I was in Memphis, visiting my wonderful friend Chris Allen (not to be confused with the other Chris, to whom I am married). We went to Graceland, Stax Records, walked around the Mississippi River front, ate oysters, ate barbecue, drank a lot of beer. A rather flawless Memphis weekend, if I dare say.

Monday morning I returned to Atlanta to find the proverbial feces hitting the proverbial fan. Okay, I'm being dramatic. Everything is fine. No one has lost a limb, or an eye, or even their sense of smell. It's just that with only two weeks to go before I leave for NZ, it seems as if all of the details are a little crazy. This is going to require bullet points.

I sold my car. This, in itself, is really great.* But because I was slack and sloppy and moved around a lot in my 20s and have no idea what I did with the title, I had to spend four soul-killing hours at the DMV's title office trying to get all of the paperwork together. I seriously aged about five years during that visit.

I've spent the last two days on the phone trying to correct a $500 overcharge by my vet clinic. (Issue is now resolved.)

I finally got my NZ permanent residency visa, but they issued it in my maiden name. Long story short, I think I should be able to get into NZ okay (cross your fingers) but I will need to resolve this upon arrival.

My back is all screwed up. This happens to me periodically, but I'm in a lot of pain and this is making my attitude rather sour. I also think it is some kind of cosmic retribution because I was so cocky about finishing the half marathon. Last week = best shape of my life. This week = hobbling around and smelling like Ben Gay.

I got a call from the vet clinic this morning that the brilliant lab workers in Kansas that were running the dogs' blood tests (Yes. The dogs' blood work has to go to freakin' KANSAS, or the NZ gov't won't accept it) actually LOST Livy's blood sample. Nevermind that both blood samples were sent in the same UPS package. So the poor little pumpkin and I are heading back to the vet this afternoon so she can have even more blood drawn.

Verizon Wireless is an agent of the devil. This is all I can manage to say about that incident.

I apologize, dear readers, for such a dark, whiny, self-involved post. Like I said, in the scheme of things, everything is rolling along -- just hitting a few speedbumps, ha ha. Next time: Bright and Sunny "Kia Ora, Y'all" posts will be back! Moving to New Zealand is a hoot!

* Devoted Atlanta readers, please note that I am now relying on you and the Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority to cart me around. Thank in advance.

New Zealand: Now you know! Part II

2008-04-03T12:46:00.000+13:00

Why, hello again, my loyal readers! Today we continue with the second segment of our educational series, "Getting to Know New Zealand."

Q: Do they speak English in New Zealand?

A: Yes, English is the predominant language. (I am shocked and appalled that I have had to answer this question on more than one occasion, but I am here to educate. Not to judge.) Right now I can't tell the difference between an NZ accent and an Australian accent, but I am assured I will learn in no time. The Maori language is also an official language of New Zealand.

Q: What is "Maori?"

A: The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. From what I understand they basically got screwed for years by the New Zealand government (hard to imagine, huh?) but in recent years there has been more of a push to preserve Maori culture. I saw a lot of Maori in Auckland but don't remember seeing any on the South Island.

Maybe you saw the move "Whale Rider" a couple of years ago? The family in that movie was Maori. (Sweet movie by the way. Rent it with the kids, or grandma. Fun for the whole family!) There is another movie about the Maori that got quite a bit of acclaim in the U.S. a few years ago called "Once We Were Warriors." I have not yet seen it but understand it is considerably less grandma-friendly. Depending on your grandma, of course.

Q: How many people are in New Zealand?

A: New Zealand has a little more than 4 million people. (By contrast, metro Atlanta has a little more than 5 million.) 3 million live on the North Island, so the South Island (where we will be) is much more rural and remote.

Q: How big is New Zealand?

A: I have zero sense of scope, but Google tells me it's about the size of Colorado. I'm guessing that includes both islands.

Q: Didn't they film the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy in New Zealand?

A. Yep.

Q: Did they film "Lord of the Rings" near your town?
A: Some of the filming was done on a few hours' drive from Dunedin, closer to the southwestern part of the South Island. I think some of it was filmed in the North Island, but I'm not sure of all the locations. They have "Lord of the Rings" tours, but even Chris and I aren't dorky enough to sign up for something like that. I fell asleep during the first movie and did not get around to seeing the second two.

Q: What is a kiwi?
A: A kiwi is a flightless bird native to New Zealand. People from New Zealand also call themselves "Kiwis" as a synonym for "New Zealander." The brown fuzzy fruit Americans call "kiwi" is, in fact, native to New Zealand. From what I understand they call it kiwifruit.

Q: I guess you'll get to see kangaroos, huh?

A: No, that's Australia. If there are kangaroos in New Zealand, I'm guessing they are in zoos. New Zealand is known more for sea animals than land mammals -- whales, seals, penguins, dolphins. There is a wild penguin colony just outside of our town.

Q: No way!

A: Seriously. Chris took this picture when he was at the beach north of Dunedin about a month ago:

Believe it or not, dear readers, there is still more ground to cover! Stay tuned for Part III!

(Thanks to the folks at Backpack New Zealand for use of the lovely map above.)

Take that, Coach Villott

2008-04-01T15:31:00.005+13:00

This may come as a surprise to you, devoted readers, but I have never been known for my athletic prowess. I have been described in a number of ways ("smart," "tall," and "weird," immediately come to mind). "Athletic" has never really shared a sentence with my name.

Growing up, running was a particular form of punishment. I was slow. I did not have a lot of endurance. I dreaded the annual mile run in PE class.

For the past couple of years I have watched Chris run marathon after marathon, dotted by a couple of half marathons and 10Ks. Proud as I was, I thought he was insane. Then about two years ago, I was on the sidelines while he and his mother ran the Peachtree Road Race, and I felt kind of ashamed. All of these people were running by, lots of them older than me, lots of them heavier than me, and they weren't scared of running. Perverse as it was, some of them seemed to be enjoying themselves. I figured if they could do it, I could do it, and I decided that I would run the Peachtree 10K the following year. Even as I was making that goal, 6.2 miles seemed completely unfathomable.

It took a long time to build up to three miles. A long time. My first 5K took forever, and I wanted to die at the end. But after that, building up to a 10K was not so bad. I ran the 2007 Peachtree, and had the time of my life. And I ran another 10K, and that was pretty fun, too.

So this gets us to last weekend, when I ran the ING Georgia Half Marathon. Me. Slow, uncoordinated, last-picked-in-gym-class, usually-carrying-an-extra-ten-to-twenty-pounds, me. My adorable mother came from Texas to watch, and she did a fantastic job as coach and cheerleader. With the exception of some extremely tired legs around miles 11-12, I felt pretty great through the whole thing. I am still not fast, but I ran the entire 13.1 miles and did not die.

I realize this isn't the kind of thing that generates Oprah-levels of inspiration, but it was pretty exciting. I'm planning to run another half marathon in June in New Zealand. (Chris is doing the full marathon. I still think he's insane.)

Good old days

2008-03-27T14:16:00.017+13:00

Before I get started, I'd like to thank my anonymous reader for the informative research on albatrosses, which you can find in the comments section of the previous post. It certainly advances the educational objectives we hold for our readers here at "Kia Ora, Y'all!" Although the post was not signed, I suspect it was Emily, and that she did not sign for fear of being called out again. Too bad for Emily.

Last weekend I went to Athens for a Russell Hall dorm reunion/joint 30th birthday party/bachelorette party with four devoted readers who also happen to be some of my oldest and closest friends.

First of all, is there any place where my heart feels more at home than Athens? No. I love that it is both beautiful and dingy and small town and worldly and home to some of the smartest, kindest and most interesting people I have ever known. I love the townies, who are so surly when they pour my coffee. I love that I can't walk a quarter block in any direction downtown without passing a fantastic restaurant. I love that you can pay less than $30 for two rounds of happy hour drinks for five people. (Including tip!) I even love the frat boys, and the fact that their shag haircuts, khaki shorts, and Oakleys don't seem to have changed since I was in undergrad ten years ago. As someone who moved around a lot growing up, I planted roots during my nine years there and will forever consider it my adopted hometown. I secretly hope that Chris and I retire there some day. (Possibly a bad sign for my career that I'm already planning retirement ...)

Second, is there anything more fun that hanging out with my best friends from freshman year? I highly doubt it. We drank like 18-year-olds (ahem, I mean 21-year-olds). We suffered hangovers like 30-year-olds. Thanks to a kindly RA who was willing to thwart Russell Hall policy, we made dorks of ourselves at our old dorm hall, which is even darker and more sparse than we remembered. (It is now a boys' hall. Hence, the sign above, which was not necessary when we were students.)

We laid in the sunshine on the North Campus quad and listened to this random guy play his guitar. As Chris will tell you, random guys with acoustic guitars tend make me very nervous. Nine out of 10 random guys who show up with acoustic guitars are extremely sensitive, and are very bad musicians, and are just trying to pick up girls. But this guy was actually legit and sounded fantastic. His name is Gabriel Kelly and you should check him out when he plays around Athens and Atlanta.

It was a perfect Athens weekend. I'm ready to get back soon.

Dunedin: Inquiring Minds Want to Know

2008-03-26T09:40:00.000+13:00

This week we respond to some questions from devoted reader (and "Kia Ora, Y'all!" co-founder) Emily. This site is nothing if it is not both educational and entertaining for you, eager readers, so get out those pesky comments/questions and ask away!

Emily writes:

I want to know more about your new town, please. What do people do there (i.e., is it really just a university town, is there any industry, etc.)? Is it considered a city? What's the closest big city? Is there a mall? A zoo? Any museums? Any interesting history?

Hmm. Not entirely sure about the industry question. I'm guessing the University of Otago is a major employer, obviously, but I'm not sure about other big employers. Dunedin is home to a large Cadbury factory, which you can visit when you come to visit me and get chocolate tastings. It is also home to Speights Brewery. (Incidentally, Chris reports that he prefers Emerson's, a Dunedin microbrewery.) I only know about Cadbury & Speights just because they have the tourist thing going on.

Is it considered a city? I guess, but keep in mind that New Zealand scale is just different. It's about 120,000 people, the second biggest population on the South Island and I think the fourth biggest overall. Christchurch, the second biggest city in NZ with about 350,000 people, is our closest "big" city. (Auckland is biggest with a little more than 1 million; Wellington, the capitol, is slightly smaller in population than Christchurch but larger than Dunedin. Both of these are on the North Island.)

I didn't see any Lenox-type indoor malls (am I wrong to feel a little relieved?) but there is a department store and a ton of women's clothing stores downtown. I'm not sure if most of them are locally owned or NZ chains I just didn't recognize.

No zoo that I know of, but you can take tours to see the wild penguins, sea lions, and albatrosses. (Is that you pluralize "albatross?") Dunedin is also home to the Otago Museum.

As far as history, Dunedin was settled by the Scots in the 1840s. I believe there was a gold rush of some kind, but I'm afraid I need to brush up on all of that. Lanarch Castle, pictured below, was built by some prominent businessman in the late 1800s and boasts that it is "New Zealand's Only Castle."

The train station is also supposed to be some unique example of historic architecture, but I know nothing about architecture and I'm too lazy to look it up right now. Maybe you can figure it out:

New Zealand: Now you know! Part I

2008-03-16T07:29:00.000+13:00

It's probably bad blogging form to do two FAQs back-t0-back, but I'm new at this, so bear with me. I get a lot of the same questions over and over when I tell people we are moving to New Zealand, so here is my "Getting to Know New Zealand" FAQ.

Q: Where is New Zealand?

A: What were you doing in 9th grade geography class? Passing notes to boys? Hmm? Yep, that's what I thought. You should be ashamed.

New Zealand is in the South Pacific, off the southeastern coast of Australia. It is made up of two islands, descriptively named "North Island" and "South Island."

Q: Where are you going to be living?

A: Dunedin. Southeastern corner of the South Island. Read about it from our trusty friends at Wikipedia, or see the Dunedin City home page.

Q: What is the weather like in New Zealand?

A: The weather seems to vary a lot by location, and even the same city can vary a lot over the course of the day. One of the things that struck us during our trip was how we could be completely bundled up and doused with rain in one part of the country, then we'd drive a few hours and find ourselves sweating in almost desert-like conditions. Layering is important.

Chris bought me one of those ironic hipster T-shirts that says "Sunny Dunedin," as our new hometown is known for being rather damp and overcast (think Scotland). On the plus side, Chris assures me the winters don't get much colder than Atlanta's. Goodbye, Hotlanta summers ...

Q: Is New Zealand part of Australia?

A: Your miserable, pathetic geography teacher. Her whole career really was a waste.

Q: How long does it take to get to New Zealand?

A: Flights from Los Angeles or San Francisco direct to the largest city, Auckland, are about 12-13 hours. The flight from Auckland to Dunedin is about another 2 hrs, I think.

Q: Oh my goodness, how do you stand that long flight?

A: It wasn't the best way to spend a day, I'll be honest. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and I rode over by myself, in coach, on a completely full flight. It works like this: watch a movie, eat dinner, drink a couple of glasses of red wine, eat a snack, sleep as long as you can, get up, brush your teeth, wash your face, snooze some more, eat breakfast, watch another movie, and poof! You're there.

Q: Do they speak English in New Zealand?

A: Sigh. This blog is going to need a Part II. Stay tuned, my eager readers!

In retrospect, pet fish would have been a good idea

2008-03-07T18:33:00.000+13:00

As you probably know, we are the adoring dog parents of two fuzzy freaks we call Livy and Owen. They pretty much dominate our lives with their incessant demands for food, belly scratches, more food, and potty time. Both of these guys got off to a pretty rough start in their lives, and the thought of handing them over to just any loser who answers a "Free to Good Home" ad made us a little nauseated, so we decided to take them with us to New Zealand.

What does shipping two 50 lb mutts to New Zealand entail, you may ask? I get a lot of questions about this, so here is my "Taking your dogs to New Zealand FAQ."

Q: What do you need to do to get them over there?
A: Lots and lots and lots of vet tests over a six month period. And vaccinations. Signed by 10 different vets from six different offices in four different colors of ink, notarized and sealed with the blood of each vet's firstborn child.

Q: Is it true you didn't leave for New Zealand when Chris did because the dogs weren't allowed to travel until April, and you decided to stay with them?
A: Basically, yes.

Q: Isn't that a little weird?
A: Next question, please.

Q: Do they ride on the plane with you?
A: They have to ride in the cargo hold of the plane in a travel crate.

Q: Isn't that going to emotionally scar them for the rest of their lives?
A: Aren't you about done with all of your questions?

Q: Will they have to be quarantined in New Zealand?
A: Yes, for 30 days. They get to be in an indoor/outdoor pen, just the two of them, in a very nice-looking facility, which you can see here. They are allowed treats and toys and their own bedding. They are allowed visits but unfortunately this place is about a 4-5 hour drive from Dunedin, so I'm not sure how well that will work.

Q: 30 days is a long time.
A: Yes, but it used to be six months. It is still six months for certain countries, like South Africa. By comparison, 30 days is a cakewalk.

Q: Is all of this expensive?
A: Yes. Oh, dear Lord, yes.

Overall, the decision to take them is both unbelievably stressful and incredibly comforting at the same time. And look at those fuzzy faces. Like you would just leave them behind?

Dunedin

2008-03-02T16:07:00.000+13:00

I thought my devoted readers may want to see a few pictures of our town to better appreciate our new Kiwi lifestyle. Although I was there in January 2007 as a tourist with NO CLUE I'd be moving there in a little more than a year, I got a really good vibe from the place. The atmosphere is very Athens-like in that it is a similar size and a college town, it's very young and creative, and there are lots of cool little shops and restaurants and bars. It is not very Athens-like, as you will see, in terms of geography. On the drive from the airport into the city, I thought, "This must be what Ireland is like," because of it's greenness and rolling hills and sheep. (In the interest of full disclosure, I have never been to Ireland, so this is just a guess.) I later learned that Dunedin was settled by the Scots and "Dunedin" is the Gaelic name for Edinburgh ... that works too, I guess.

I should add that while Chris took the first pictures seven pictures in the last couple of weeks, I stole the rest from the Web because the Dunedin pics I took during the visit last year turned out pretty crappy. If these are your pictures and you want to sue me, know that 1) I know a lot of really ferocious IP lawyers and 2) I am happy to give you credit. Or I can just take them down and borrow photos from someone else who's not so uptight. So let's be friends. Okay?

Okay, so this isn't actually a sign from Dunedin, but something Chris saw when he was visiting Oamaru, about an hour north of Dunedin. Obviously, I still had to include it.

This is the main road near our house, looking out of town

Main road on walk toward campus (I think?)

Little shopping village near our house. Note the roundabout ... these things terrify me, even when I'm driving on the right and know where I'm going, and they are EVERYWHERE in NZ. Kiwi pedestrians, here I come!!!

Coffee shop walking distance from our house. Remind me to tell you about NZ coffee later. It's really good.

Beach picture Chris took while he was on a run. I think it's about 3-4 miles out of town.

Another beach picture Chris took on his run. See what I mean about thinking this is Ireland?

A little known fact to most Yanks, but Dunedin is home to the steepest street in the world. I'm told there is some dispute with San Francisco over this claim, but of course I am going to side with my new hometown.

Impressively steep. You'll get a good glut workout, here.

Visitors center in the Octagon, which is Dunedin's town center (centre?). I can't find a good picture of the whole Octagon, which is pretty cool, but I'll post one when I find it.

Downtown Dunedin. You can see the train station in the left hand corner.

More downtown. The leather crowd, I guess.

Our NZ House

2008-02-29T18:42:00.000+13:00

Only one post, and I'm already getting demands from my loyal readership for house pictures. Well, ask and you shall receive, eager readers ....

As I may have told you, I was a bit concerned about the rental housing market in Dunedin. Looking at properties online, I found the market to be a little -- shall we say? -- rustic. I think it has something to do with the fact it's a college town with lots of student renters, but imagine the Brady Brady house, then imagine the Brady Bunch house after a bunch of frat boys and a colony of ferrets had lived there for 20 years. This is what I was seeing.

I asked Chris to find something that had 1) a good location 2) a dishwasher 3) a fenced back yard and 4) no paisley carpeting. A tall order, but of course my brilliant husband knows what he is doing. There is no furniture yet in these pictures, (Chris was expecting the truck with our stuff to arrive today, but last time I was IMing him he said the truck with our stuff BROKE DOWN on the way to the house) but soon it will be warm and cozy and furnished.

From the street

Backyard

Looking into living room from dining room

Kitchen looking into laundry room

Bedroom

Bathroom (with safety rail, for when I've been drinking). Why are there TWO scales in this bathroom? Is Chris trying to tell me something?

Our street, looking towards town

And yes, it is a three bedroom house so we've got room for you and and all of your layabout friends when you finally come to visit, like you promised.

This is my blog.

2008-02-25T12:51:00.001+13:00

My friend Emily told me I should start a blog to document our new life in New Zealand. It would be funny, she said. I pointed out that the World Wide Web is quite dangerous and some crazy axe murderer could find my blog, become infatuated with me (hey, it could happen), hunt me down, and hack me into a million little bits. Emily did not seem concerned. She is from New Jersey and rather intimidating for a real estate attorney, so here I am. Blogging. (Incidentally, I also just got a MySpace account, so I am officially one of those freaks who documents their whole lives online.)

Chris is already in New Zealand and taught his first class today. We have been able to talk on the phone or IM every day, and each time I talk to him he seems to be hanging out with people from his work. So maybe we will have friends, after all, and I won't just spend all of my free time in a dark room, eating chips and blogging.

Let's hope.