Website

Molly put the pictures we have taken so far up on her yahoo account. You can get them by going to

http://photos.yahoo.com/mollyfoos

and going to the Wellington, New Zealand album.

Pictures! :)

Did some tramping (hiking) to the top of Mt. Victoria and got a great view!
Our weekend trip to the Martinbourgh vineyards were great! I found myself a rent-a-cat and she was just adorable!! Why do I always tend to find rent-a-pets?!
Mt. Victoria
me and mol having fun with shadow shapes! See the heart?!?! awww :)
Our new best friend! The kitchen at our flat!

Isn't our living room just adorable?!?!

Hiding with all the lilies at the botanical gardens

Livin' la vida local

Don't have too many new pictures for you guys but thought I'd throw in our flatmates! From the far side: Sarah (conner's GF who doesn't really live here but she's around a lot), Conner, Phill, and Brenden. Such a great group :) The other is of me and Molly on our deck! We are patiently waiting for it to warm up a bit so we can get some good use out of it (and the BBQ!).

Well, I'M EMPLOYED!! Always a good thing! I went through a temp agency and they found me a job pretty quickly. I'm working at a bank dealing with written enquires and credit card stuff. Basically just a lot of computer work! It's nothing too thrilling but it's cool being in an office autosphere surrounded by kiwi's! And they are paying me good money! So no complaints here! My office is on the 14th floor and overlooks the harbour--on a good day it's a BEAUTIFUL view! It's really layed back---so much so that yesterday (friday), we had a "company meeting" from 4-5 (my work day is from 8:30-5) and they served everyone wine, beer, champagne, and great food! Not to mention they were giving out free bottles of wine to people who could answer some questions. Some of my coworkers didn't come down to the meeting, so instead, they drank wine at their desks. So basically, they payed me to drink their wine and champagne and get tipsy while I was 'working'. Apparently, come friday, they perfer to have happy hour come to them! And it's compltely normal and acceptable. Such a foreign concept to me!!

We are really starting to get settled and are really just enjoying living like locals! We got our monthly train passes and actually love taking the train to work every morning! Molly found a water polo team that she'll be playing with twice a week and I am still in the process of finding a soccer team! But I found an indoor soccer place and I may try to join up soon. And our flatmate Phil playes some soccer as well so we've been talking about knocking around sometime. Our room is still a work in progress but it's really starting to feel like home. We've used some maps of NZ that we have and some pictures that we brought from home to decorate the walls. We are still waiting on some drawers so we aren't completely unpacked yet. But when our room is completely done, I'll send some pics of it and the house!

Until we make money enough to up and leave and travel around some more, I'll be here, soaking up the culture of this place, doing the best to live like a local :) Send me some email!!

Contact Info

Just a quikie to let everyone know that we have a phone number (a landline that will be cheaper to call if using a calling card) and addy.

934 4580 (when you use a calling card, I think you dial the county code 64 followed by the city code which is 4 but no promises :) ) You may have the pleasure of getting any one of my flatmates on the phone (Conner, Sarah, Phil, Brenden or Molly) but just ask for me! Please be extra careful of the time change if you call this number. You'll be waking up a houseful of people if you get it wrong! So, if in doubt, ring the mobile!!

If you feel like sending me some love letters :)
29a Monowai Road
Johnsonville, Wellington
New Zealand

(nope, no zip code needed!)

We plan to be here for the next few months but I'll keep you updated! I'll write more later but things are fabulous! Love the flat, love the flatmates, love the location, hate the freezing weather!! We are waiting patiently for summer!

Hope all is well :)

Off roadin' it!

We finally got some nice weather so mol and I decided to venture out and booked ourselves on the seal saffari! A group of us loaded into a 4 wheel drive and we were on our way. We made our way up some of the steepest hills EVER and just when I was sure we were going to start rolling backwards, our driver, Todd, mentioned that people bike up it regularly. That can't possibly be fun. Lucky for them there were little words of encouragement written on the pavement the whole way up. I think I'd need a little more then that to even consider trying to bike up these hills. Anyhoo---we got a great view of the city below and a breath of fresh air before Mr. Todd decided to scare the crap out of us!! Suddenly the nice paved path turned to a rocky dirt road and we had officially switched into 4 wheel drive. Fan-freakin-tastic! I think I was laughing to keep from crying!! Nah, it wasn't that bad but it was definitely my mom's worst nightmare. In fact, there was a woman sitting across from me that was playing the mom role quite well. Knuckles white from gripping the "oh shit" bar and a look of pure terror on her face. We took the rocky, steep excuse for a road all the way down to the black sand beaches. I was certain we were going to flip several times--but I took comfort in the fact that Mr. Todd was the spitting image of Mr. Incredible. Not to mention that he had a role in The Lord of the Rings (true story)--I knew that Mr. Incredible wouldn't possibly let the tires slip! We made it to a seal colony and got within feet of a few seals. So cute!! Now, it's finally move in time!! We're getting on the train to our new home in a few minutes!

I have 2 interviews tomorrow so cross your fingers for me!! :)






above are 2 little seals that we saw on our adventure! One just hanging out and one putting on a nice little show for us. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought we were watching a trained seal at a zoo. But don't be fooled--there are no gates around these guys!
If you look closely, you can see the snow capped mountains of the south island. Also-the black sand beaches that line the west coast of NZ.


Behind me is where the pacific ocean meets the tasman sea--we could clearly see where the two currents met by the color difference and the intense crashing of the waves. It was almost as if there was a giant reef when it was really just the crashing of the currents.



This is the harbour that our city is based around. We finally got to get a great look from above!

Movin' on up...to Johnsonville!

We found a flat!!! After searching for a few days, meeting lots of nice ppl and seeing some not so nice places, we found a place and flatmates that we just adore!!! It's in a beautiful house up on the hills in a little town called Johnsonville. It's a beautiful 20 minute train ride out of the city and the town itself is just adorable! The house is nice and modern (and clean) on the inside and has a great view of the city and harbour below. We'll be sharing the place with 3 guys--a 20 year old physics student named Conner (and his GF sarah who is there often), Phil,a 20 year old funeral director (yah!! I have my own little kevin abroad!), and a 25 year old marathon runner from England. And yes, the place is super clean! And not just for a house of guys---it's clean by our standards!! Rent is really afforable ($70 a week each---which works out to be about 50 US dollars) and they have everything we need. Internet, dishes, completely furnished room, washing machine, dryer, etc. So, we leave our hostel tomorrow and head to our new home! We can't wait! No luck on jobs yet but now that we have a place we can really focus on getting that done. You may think we did this backwards but Wellington is so accessible that nothing is really out of the way. I'm going to walk into a few vets offices and apply to a few temp agencies. The next 2 months we are focusing on making some money and just living like locals and really taking in the cultural of this place.

We had our first car experience yesterday and it was awesome!! Just being in the passenger side is so cool! We are still getting used to looking the correct way to see approaching cars and not being weired out when we see a little kid in what would be the drivers seat at home!

I'm really upset that the big thing of ketchup Kim got for me before I left didn't make the packing cut! I had to leave it behind due to a lack of room and I'm missing that heinz deleciousnes already! "Tomato sauce" is a poor, poor excuse for ketchup. But me and Molly have done a good job of whipping up some great meals! And more then one have been based on 'guesstimates' b/c apparently we left converting measurments back in the 2nd grade. I'm sure we'll improve in that area!

So, I totally saw Lauren Hill (no, not the famous one---a friend from Rice) in the grocery store the other day. If that doesn't prove that it's a small world, I don't know what does!! She was only in Wellington for a night but we chatted for a while and she showed us some great pictures. This country has SO MUCH waiting for us!!

We went to the zoo today---I have a new favorite animal (see above). I just want to squeeze his cute little face!!!!! muuuwwwaaahhh

Hope all is well back home!! I'd like to give a little shout out to my Rice girls who have won their first 2 conference USA games!! Keep it up guys :)

Spring Forward!

Hi all :)
Just a little head's up that our clocks have sprung forward! So, we are now ahead of you an additional hour--then, come your daylight savings time (when you fall back), you'll need to add yet ANOTHER hour. I think your fall back is at the end of October---so I'll be ahead of you east coast people 18 hours. But for now, I'm ahead 17 hours!

YEAH PHONE CARDS :)

I have a cell phone!!! Incoming calls and text messages are completely free so go get yourself an international phone card and call me up :)

Okay, thanks to Maria and the parentals, I think we have finally figured out this phone thing!!! Call using a calling card--the codes you will need to enter are 011 then 64 (i think this might be the country code then the city code...) then my number: 27 335 0824.

We are still figuring out how to use calling cards to call our on our cell phones. Once we do, I'll call the states! Until then, don't be afraid to call me :) Just remember, we are ahead 16 hours!!

Happy Friday all! God, how I love fridays!!! :) :) :)

Well in Windy Welly :)

Hi all!! Well, I have made it to the city I plan to live in for the next few months! Wellington, NZ! Better known around here as Welly, and, as we discovered yesterday, they don't call it the windy city for nothing!!! I swore I was going to be blown over! But it's gorgeous and the weather is beautiful despite a few gusts of wind! We hopped on a bus in Auckland and made the 11 hour treck cross country. The drive was amazingly beautiful and it was just a little taste of what this country has to offer! Rolling green hills for as far as you could see, snow covered mountains in the backdrop, volcanoes (some still active....YIKES!), heaps and heaps (that's right, I said heaps!) of sheep, and beautiful lakes, streams, and rivers! When the bus dropped us off, we were left to fend for ourselves and find our way to our hostel. We quickly discovered that the rolling hills that cover this place aren't quite as beautiful when you are trying to walk up them with loads of luggage in tow! It might have been the hardest we had to work for a bed--I found it hilariously challenging!! We spent all of yesterday searching for flats and will probably keep looking until the end of the week. We already looked at 2 places that weren't quite right for us but the people here seem AWESOME. Everyone was so friendly! I can't wait to find a place and settle in for a while! So, the agenda for the next few days is flat and job hunting and exploring our new city! It may sound pretty mundane but us, it's SO exciting!!! Hope this finds everyone well! I'll be in touch in a few days!

Auckland

Hello again!! I was a bit rushed and completely out of it yesderday so I just wanted to take a little more time to fill you in! Getting to Auckland was a bit of a scare at first, Kev, you almost won b/c we nearly missed our flight! Well, not really, but we were sure cutting it close. We got to the airport with plenty of time but when we got to the counter, the woman told us that we HAD to purchase tickets out of NZ otherwise they would not let us through customs. Apparrently there was a misunderstanding somewhere along the line and it got our hearts pumping fast! We had to buy tickets to Australia in order to get checked in---they are refundable so it's not too big of a deal but it was a pretty big "hiccup" (as Molly described it) at the start of our trip! We had to run to our gate--which was just a tad scary!! Then our luggage was the LAST to come out at baggage claim! Fabulous!
We spent all of yesterday walking around Auckland and trying desperately to keep our eyes open. When we were walking to use the internet yesterday, it took a bit longer to get here b/c apparently there was a graduation cermony going on--in the form of a parade!! All these graduates in their robes following men in kilts playing bag pipes, on a busy road that they didn't even bother to close down. When we saw how long the parade went back, we decided to just make a run for it--right through the middle of it! The city reminds us a lot of Australia--which is cool, but we are really anxious to get to Wellington and get to know "our" city! We have a few options for flats and will hopefully find jobs with ease--but time will tell I suppose. We hope to go down to Wellington tomorrow but how we are going to get there is still up in the air. There is talk of renting a camper and making the 10 hour drive ourselves and making stops along the way to sightsee. Can you please take a second to picture that?!?! Me and Molly driving a camper...on the wrong side of the road...most likely stick shift. We want to do it just to say we did---hilarious! Our orientation starts in a little bit and then it's off to explore some more! Can't wait until we are settled and have jobs--once we have the security of an income, we'll start traveling around and taking some fabulous pics for you guys to enjoy :)
All my love :)

Safe and Sound :)

I'm going to keep this short, just wanted to let everyone know that we got here safe and sound!! The flight flew by--I fell asleep and when I woke up, 9 hours had already gone by! Not to mention me and molly had a row to ourselves do we got to spread out a bit. Nice! Flying in was absolutely GORGEOUS!!! So much green...and then so much water...and then more green! haha. We really are in the middle of NOWHERE! We are exhausted and it is only 11:15am Tuesday morning here (16 hours ahead of you FL/NY peeps and 15 hours ahead of you Houston folk!)...we are going to explore so we can try to get our bodies on schedule ASAP! Although, adjusting to Australia's time change last summer took a good week+ so we shall see. I can't believe we're really HERE!!!!

Not...Quite...There!

I've had requests to update my blog so I'm givin' in! I obviously have nothing to report on New Zealand yet but the last few days have been great! I spent a great weekend with Molly and her fam-- Great food, wine (and when I say wine, I mean lots of wine!), a great game of "new zealand" jeopardy courtesy of the creative parentals, an introduction to field hockey, and endless laughs (mostly thanks to Abby...and her friend Kimmy)!!
We then waited in the airport for 4 hours for our flight going to LAX b/c the emergency slide was broken. Wonderful. But, when we finally got to LA, Julie and Jarrod (2 of our bestest buddies that we met in Australia) were waiting with open arms! We spent the next 2 days living the OC life and got the full tour---Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, food hotspots--not to mention delicious home cooked meals and margaritas!! Sucks to have to leave them again---Megs and MB, you were missed like whoa--but we decided that we are all crashing Jarrod's for Christmas. See you there for our Dippity Ditty!
We are now hanging at my friend Christel's who lives in West Hollywood--we'll be here until Sunday looking for famous ppl. She lives in walking distance to just about everything! :) We are currently sharing the apartment with George the cat--he has a sister somewhere but I'm convinced Molly threw her out the window. We spent most of the day looking for flats in Wellington and it seems there are some great deals. We are both getting really anxious--Sunday is only 2 days away! The next time I blog, it will be to tell you a little something about NZ...I promise!!

Tears Galore

Using Ashley to test out adding pics to this thing! Looks like it works! I'm leaving Florida on Thursday and things are starting to REALLY sink in. I said goodbye to my mom, brother and cat on Sunday and I took it a lot harder then I had expected. Saying goodbye for what we intend (my parents and friends are making it clear that if I happen to come home in 3 months, the trip isn't a 'failure'! Nice try guys--but I doubt that's gonna happen!) to be a year is really different then saying goodbye to go to school. I'm taking Ella (my sugar glider) to her new home today, and then saying more goodbye's to friends. As excited as I am to finally start this trip, the goodbye's are killing me. The stress is really starting to set in and as Keri, Maria, and Molly have already discovered--I'm a mess!! I can't make a decision to save my life and have been trying to fit too much into a day! And ironically enough, here I am typing in my blog! Writing is calming though and since I'm driving to pick up my cousin in a little bit, having what will prove to be my daily drink (for the next 3 days) of cocunut rum and pineapple juice isn't really the best "calming" option right now!! So writing is next in line! :) No one is allowed to cry in front of me for the next week---I'm a facuet and just can't handle it!! Love you all.

It's getting real!

Well, I just sold my car! Putting it up for sale was the first reality check, and now that it's sold, it's really starting to sink in that I'm leaving for a long time! The next few days are going to be pretty hectic. My last day of work is on the 9th and I have lots of packing to do (any tips on how to pack for a year are needed!) and little things to take care of before I leave. Not to mention getting in all my 'goodbyes' with friends and family. I know a lot of people don't know the actual date I'm leaving the country--so, the flight to New Zealand is Sept. 25th at 11pm (from LA). My trip starts on the 15th with me going to Philly to spend a weekend with Molly's family (and help her pack!) and then we are flying to LA to spend some time with friends before leaving for good. The days are starting to fly by and my emotions are so mixed. Scared to death, excited as all hell, nevous about going with Molly and so freakin excited to be going with Molly. All we can think about is how we're going to be feeling when we're going to the airport. GULP!