Thursday, November 11, 2010

Here we are!

A birthday cappuccino heart

Hello from down under!

We are in Auckland now and have been here for three days. Auckland has been a bit of an adjustment, as we are switching from vacation mode to "live" mode. It's strange to be starting completely from square one, as we don't know much about the city, have no house, jobs, connections, car. But we have learned to ride the bus (at least one route), and have emailed about some houses and jobs. So things are looking up. But speaking of the bus, it's a lot safer to be on than off them. Today our bus driver managed to take out a "give way" (yield) sign. I honestly thought half the bus was falling off but when I looked out the window, the sign was toppling over. It was an awkward minute, and then everyone had a collective sigh and Andrew told him that we didn't see a thing, which kind of broke the ice.

Today we went to get a cell phone, and we must have really impressed the sales guy. We got to tell him that we are unemployed, have no real address and don't know one single person to be our "BestMate" (a person on the same cell network that you get free calling to). I started feeling a little desperate and thought about asking him to be our BestMate, but then he suggested putting a random number on. I've been thinking we should give them a call and meet up, since we are such good buds. Oh well, now everyone we meet is an opportunity for free calling.

We also managed to get a bank account, which is currently sitting at a grand total of $0. Don't worry, we do have money to transfer in. It's just funny to be such hobos! But I guess these were steps 1 and 2 in our de-hobo-ization (I'm sure that's a word in New Zealand).

Oh another few fun facts about Auckland. Today, on a walk with Andrew, while wearing flip-flops, I almost stepped on a .... (drumroll please) ... condom on the sidewalk. Wowza that would have been fun! So happy I almost had that opportunity. AND last night we both got to share in watching a guy ralph THREE times about ten feet away from us. Mostly into the drain, but not all. Fun times all around.

But honestly, I am starting to like Auckland a lot. The shopping looks amazing, if a tad bit pricey. The city is actually very beautiful and an interesting mix of older and newer. People have been really nice (excluding Ralph from above) and the weather has been nice. It is strange to see Christmas decorations going up, above the shorts and flip-flops in the store windows, but I guess that's the way it rolls on the other side of the world. Yesterday was a nice day, after stressing out in the morning about house/work. We went and saw the SkyTower and then went to a movie at a HUGE theatre.


First day in Auckland

Skytower





Thanks for checking in, hopefully we will get some Fiji posts up really soon! Here's one teaser photo that will keep you checking back for more:


Have a good night everyone!
- Andrew & Ger

3 comments:

Chelsey said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Hi Ger and Andrew,
What a treat to read your blog - I laughed out loud at your "best mate" dilemma!
Take good care!

Andrew + Geralis said...

Thanks for the comment! It's nice to know people are reading