One Week Down

Hi, Friends! So to pick up where we left off... Sunday was extremely interesting. Brandon and I let ourselves sleep in since we'd solved the apartment issue the day before. So at around noon we were still puttering around our hostel room in our pajamas, wondering how to combine a couple eggs and rosemary, which we gathered while walking around the city, into an edible breakfast. I was surfing trademe.co.nz - that glorious website where anything and everything is constantly being auctioned off - and bid $31 for a desk, fully expecting to be out-bid. We also found a refrigerator that looked pretty good and was at the moment about $100. Our apartment being fridge-less, B and I were definitely interested, and within a few tense minutes of back-and-forth bidding we had bought ourselves a fridge.

Turns out, however, that the pick up point was about a 45 minute drive away near a place called Huia Point. We had recently made friends with a British guy named Ryan (a twenty-year-old shipbuilder from a part of England where they leave their keys in the ignition when they park) who had recently bought a very old van, and we asked him if he was interested in going for a drive down to Huia with us - we'd pay for gas. So the three of us crowded into the front of the van (it was one of those vans with no seats in back - only a metal, open bed designed for transporting stuff), and off we went. True to the directions, it only took about 45 minutes, but the last 30 of those were spent on this itsy bitsy road. Luckily, Ryan was used to driving on the left. I was having a silent conniption fit and spent a good amount of the drive with my eyes closed and my fingernails firmly dug into Brandon's arm. Of course, every time I looked over at Brandon he was absolutely grinning - I think he enjoyed the ride. It was definitely thrilling.

The guy we bought the fridge from was interesting. He smelled very strongly of body odor, and his house was FILLED with crap that he was selling off since he was moving to Australia for a little bit, which is something people here seem to do. We bought a radiator yesterday from a guy who was also going to Australia for a little one month "break." I ask you, what on earth do kiwis need a break from? I can tell you that none of them seem to be in much of a hurry or tizzy about anything. Anyway, with the refrigerator secured in the back of the van we started to head back. However, per the suggestion of the refrigerator guy we turned onto the small path that led to Huia point. It was getting dark, so we only stayed a few minutes, but that was one of the most beautiful spots I have ever seen. It looked out over a sort of scintillating expanse of water, which was cut into puzzle pieces by Tolkein-esque islands, all of which was so shockingly green and lush that it practically pulsed with life and natural activity. The natural beauty of New Zealand does have a fairly prehistoric vibe to it.

When Brandon and I finally got back to the hostel (after dropping the fridge off at the apartment, going back to the hostel with Ryan, and then driving our rental car back to our apartment), we discovered that we had, in fact, bought that desk I had bid on that morning. So, that was going to be what we did the next day.

Then, on Monday morning Brandon and I head up to the North Shore to pick up our desk. We didn't really want or need a desk, but we'd bought it fair and square, so we'd take it home and find a place for it. Similarly to the fridge guy, the desk guy (Raymond) had a garage full of stuff. As he was fiddling around with tools trying to figure out how to dismantle the desk to fit it into our car, Brandon and I spotted a bed standing on its side in the midst of the general disarray. Raymond said we could have it for $20, so we took it, even though, well, it was sort of gross. But it came with a base and a mattress, and for $20 we could use it for firewood. So then Raymond was calling his friend to see how much he would charge to take the desk and the bed to Point Chevalier when Brandon and I spotted a sofa bed. Raymond said we could have that for $150, so we ended up getting a bed, a desk, and a sofa bed for $200, plus $40 for the friend with the van.

As we were waiting for the friend to show up Raymond started to talk to us about how he came to New Zealand from China eight years ago to learn English. He warned us that staying in New Zealand "makes people lazy." Brandon and I had already noticed that there is a complete lack of competitive spirit amongst kiwis. The aggressive people we've met have all turned out to be imports. It's a very interesting culture here.

So, then Brandon and I had some furniture, but no bedding. We found a flyer about a bedding sale, which we followed to this factory. It's amazing how many corners of Auckland Brandon and I have been to in just a little over a week. We ended up buying some stuff up on the North Shore, but when we got home and started thinking about putting our bedding on our bed we also started to think very seriously about buying a new mattress. Anyway, we went back to the hostel for our last night in Parnell.

That morning of checkout was crazy. As we were packing up our stuff the non-English-speaking cleaning people started to just walk into our room and take the bedding off the bed, empty our trash, and so on. And it was only, like, 9 in the morning. Tuesday was spent mostly hunting for bedding and pondering what to do about our mattress of questionable origin and age. That night we slept on the sofa bed, which is extremely comfortable. We also bought an extra set of sheets, a comforter, and towels (<-- for all you friends and family who are coming to visit this year :) ... now you have no excuses).

Tuesday was also the day that we drove up to the North shore to pick up the radiator we bought on Trademe. We got to the meeting point (an empty-ish office) an hour early, but the guy who was selling it was just there hanging out. He was a soft-spoken man from Dunedin (pronounced dunEEdin, which is, apparently, Scottish for "Edinburgh"). Brandon found a fantastic little health-food store, which had a large selection of carob candies, near a cute French Bakery, which is where we had lunch. While at the French bakery I got a call from Les Mills gym. I had applied for a job as a Membership Consultant online the night before and they wanted me to come in for an interview on Thursday. I was ecstatic.

By-the-way, it was a really strange application for work at that gym. It involved a sort of personality/IQ test with questions like:

Which has more carbohydrates per kilo?
A) Butter
B) Steak
C) Sugar
D) Celery

and

Mary and John went on vacation and brought home a picture book, a bottle of gin for John's boss, and a new bathing suit. How many books do Mary and John read in a year?

A) 1
B) 5
C) 7
D) can't tell

I kid you not.

On Wednesday Brandon and I picked up our manual car from Grant. God that was an interesting day. We drove the five minutes to his house and went in to sign some papers. Pauline, his wife, made us some tea, which Brandon and I tried to finish quickly since we had to return our rental by 11Am. Grant went with us to the post office to turn those papers in, and he offered to take us to some used furniture places he knew of since we were in need of a mattress. Apparently he had nothing better to do. I liked Grant except for when he threw our banana peels out the window.

When we got back to the house I got in the driver's seat of the rental while Brandon went in the manual. He's really handling it all very well, and I'm incredibly impressed by how quickly he's getting used to driving stick (**Brandon's note: Jenny originally wanted me to write this post, so she wouldn't have to rip on my stick driving too badly. Well, it's bad. But I'm getting better, I think. It'll be fun once I get used to it. I hate uphill starts. It's really all a lot harder than it looks. But maybe that's just because I've been driving for seven years in an automatic... on the right side of the road**). Unfortunately, the first stop we made after dropping off our rental car was to the bank in Parnell, and we had to park in an uphill spot. Getting out of that was... tense (**As I said - bad**). But Brandon did a splendid job and I did my best to be supportive since I am absolutely useless about that crazy little car. I've been making Brandon explain to me how a stick shift works, because I assume I'm going to have to try to drive it at some point, and I had no idea that the transmission is so important. However, we're stalling less and less, and we've only had the car for a day, which can only be a good sign.

Yesterday we also decided once and for all to buy a new mattress, so we went back to that warehouse and bought one right from the manufacturer. It's lovely. It was also kind of crazy to be driving the stick-shift home with a mattress roped to the roof. I was terrified that the mattress would slide in front of the windshield at any moment, so I kept my arm wrapped over the top of the car, trying to hold the violently flapping mattress still. If you can, picture it. It's a pretty fantastic sight.

Brandon and I slept in this morning; we're still sleeping about ten hours a night. This moving-to-a-new-country business is definitely exhausting. The interview was at the gym in New Lynn, which was about a fifteen minute drive away. We got there early, so we walked across the street to the LynnMall, where the first thing we saw was a women's gym. We walked in, and now I have another interview for tomorrow.

The Les Mills interview went really well, and I've been offered the job, and I think I'll take it. Brandon and my only reservation about it is the flexibility of the schedule, since we'll want to take trips down to the South Island to visit the sounds and generally explore. However, since any job we got would probably have about the same flexibility we're thinking of leaving our jobs before our visas expire so we can go visit the south early next September. We can explore the North Island on weekends and days off.

So here's the job: I'm a Membership Consultant (aka "Gym Salesperson"), which means that I encourage people to join the gym, which should be easy for me since I think everyone should belong to a gym in the first place. I don't think I'd be very good at selling most things, but this should be okay. I'm getting a flat salary plus commission, and I'm really excited about all of it. I get a free membership, and, unless Brandon gets a free membership too, he'll be my first customer. I won't make a firm commitment until I've interviewed at the other place, but I really like Les Mills and the people there were really nice, and it's decent pay and decent hours. It's exactly what I was looking for. Once I make a decision Brandon and I are going to go to a Mexican restaurant we saw in Parnell: we've been jonesing for Taco Bell.

By-the-way, I just ate a delicious kiwifruit. Easily the best kiwi I've ever tasted. New Zealand is pretty cool.

So, there's never a dull moment here in Gigi and B land. We're still eating on the floor or couch because we don't have any chairs yet, but I have a good feeling about a set that we found on Trademe. The auction closes on Saturday, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

We love and miss you all!!

kisses and hugs,
Brandon and Jenny