if we should meet on cuba street...

Oh hello there, have you been waiting long? Yes I guess you have, but hopefully this post will temporarily satiate any blog post withdrawal you may have experienced.

Wellington is still treating us very well and our social calender seems to be filling up by the day. The majority of Jamie's co-workers are in very similar situations (working visas, international partners, and coincidentally most of them are also 22) so they've all become fast friends and readily include me when Hotel Bristol doesn't claim my nights. We've been to some pub quizzes in town and there's bowling to come- its nice to have some new company though somehow we're not remotely tired of one another (at least I can say so for myself...). Sunday night Jamie and I went to a Ladyhawke concert- one of my favorite kiwi musicians whose album I listened to every day before leaving home. She put on a good show though seemed very nervous, which makes sense after reading that she suffers from asperger's syndrome. Strangely enough, she came into Hotel Bristol the previous week for drinks with her family. I was by far the most starstruck staff member. It seems that celebrity spottings are quite common in Wellington- I learned that during the filming of Lord of the Rings, the hobbits came into Bristol quite regularly and Elijah Wood, star of the trilogy, decided to pee in the bucket fountain - Wellington's iconic water sculpture. The highlight of my kiwi celeb sightings occurred yesterday when Ladyhawke came into Bristol again with her band and friends and *I* got to pour her beer. Of course the keg ran out while refilling her second pitcher but she was really lovely as I congratulated her on a good show the previous night and seemed genuinely happy to be back in Wellington.

Since we haven't left the city yet since moving in, I've proposed to Jamie the idea of taking a short jaunt to a scenic North Island town. I visited STA yesterday to find out about cheap rental cars and destination suggestions (and to see if they had any jobs going...). Looks like we'll be able to rent a car for under $40 a day and there are some nice drives up the East coast that we could do in 2-3 days time. The woman suggester Cape Palliser which has lovely lighthouses, a seal colony, and some nice walks along the coast. I don't think asking for a few days off will be a problem at Bristol, but it may prove more difficult at the Christmas shop, as they are understaffed and may lose another employee soon. Hopefully it works out.

There is no shortage of fresh air here, though it is the island's second largest city. I spent yesterday wandering around the waterfront, stopping to read in the patches of sunlight I found. I thought I had the whole day off and was happy to take advantage of the time off by doing nothing at all, but a call came at 5 pm- apparently the schedule had been changed so I hurried to work, leaving Jamie to cook lonely jumbalaya :( I do have a nice midweek break though, with wednesday and thursday off- hopefully some time to try out my new tennis raquet.

Looks like we will have some more familiar faces coming round in a few months, which I am thrilled about. My Nana has just finalized her plans to visit in January and will be doing quite the thorough tour with a three day stop in Wellington! Also in January, a friend of a friend who performed and stayed with us at Muhlenberg, will be touring NZ with his band.

Jamie's just purchased an ipod touch and its become the apartment puppy- its always doing something new and I think Jamie talks to it more than to me. It is pretty amazing, I have to admit and we're hoping the purchase will reduce our electricity bills since he hasn't been plugging in his laptop. My favorite application is "Google Earth," it starts off as a globe and you can zoom into basically anywhere in the world and see exactly what it looks like since google has taken millions of photos- we were able to see our Wellington apartment as well as the backyard of my house in North Andover. Technology is weird.

Okay, that's all you get for now, folks. Hope all is well!