I met my first American here yesterday, Zac has met 2 Americans at Massey. I had to buy a new umbrella because I didn't pack one so I ran into town to get one and she was the store manager. We asked where I was from and I said "the states" and she said "yeah but where" then I realized oh a fellow American. She was actually from Indy, but has been here 8 years. I ended up talking with her for about 45 minutes about differences and things we miss. People keep saying us what are things we miss - most are little things, but here are a few things!
Q-tips (thanks Kristin for sending us some!)
Ketchup (thanks Mom for sending us some!)
Screens on windows
TV - ESPN (Zac) and ALOT of shows for Cassie
cheap beer - Natty Light, Keystone, buying a 12 pack for $10 or less
Discount Stores - TjMax, Marshalls, Nordstroms Rack room
Shopping Online!!
American breakfast - doughnuts, pancakes, waffles
Mexican restaurants
Happy Hour at Kilroys - mini pitchers!
Pepperoni, bacon, sausage
Kroger - and Kroger brand, we are doubling our grocery bill from the states - yikes!
Cell phones - not tlaking or texting people whenever we want!
Big jars of jalapenos and taco sauce
Dryers - for clothes
Nice shampoo - they have it here but wow not cheap!
Obviously we miss our families, friends and of course Divi , but we love seeing them on Skype and don't feel like are are missing all our nieces and nephew grow!! We are doing our best not comparing everything and we do love it here; here are some of reason we love it here.
Cereal - it is so good - best ever!
Tea - we have taken the Kiwi and British approach by adding milk- delicious!
Trails - all the outdoor opportunities and bike lanes
The weather!!
People- everyone is super friendly
The food - so much variety and we are trying all kinds of great cuisine - the Cambodian restaurant was great the other day
The time is takes my straightener and iron to get hot - only like 5 seconds!!
No tipping at restaurants
Rugby- we are so amazed!
Those are just a few things that we wanted to share with you that we missed, but also things we love!!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Massey University
So I finally made it up to Massey the other day - it is about a 30 bike ride from our apartment, but the ride is along the river and very pretty. Massey is a very beautiful campus - a lot of trees and many trails.
This is the road into Massey - the university is built on the circle.
Throughout the campus there are so many trails. Here a few of them. It's really cool you can take a trail between buildings or to the parking lot.
They have a million rugby fields - you can't really see all of them in the picture.
These are some of the dorms - I thought they looked cool because seem like bungalows.
This is the center of campus. In front is the student center - there is a bank, coffee shops, a pharmacy and lot of other things. Everywhere on campus they have so many trees.
Here is Zac in his office. He shares it with 5 other people but only on person, Rachel is the only one who is there often. I am actually going to start playing in a soccer league with Zac's office mate Rachel.
Thanks Kristin here pictures you sent!!
This is the road into Massey - the university is built on the circle.
Throughout the campus there are so many trails. Here a few of them. It's really cool you can take a trail between buildings or to the parking lot.
They have a million rugby fields - you can't really see all of them in the picture.
These are some of the dorms - I thought they looked cool because seem like bungalows.
This is the center of campus. In front is the student center - there is a bank, coffee shops, a pharmacy and lot of other things. Everywhere on campus they have so many trees.
Here is Zac in his office. He shares it with 5 other people but only on person, Rachel is the only one who is there often. I am actually going to start playing in a soccer league with Zac's office mate Rachel.
Thanks Kristin here pictures you sent!!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Tramping
Today we went tramping (kiwi word for hiking) .. well we actually just walked on the trail, but we have some cool pictures to share. We are noticing that the pictures are not doing NZ justice because every where you look it is amazing and the pictures are capturing it the way it should.
This is actually the outside of our apartment building.
Our apartment is the top one on the left.
This is a view from the window.
And another view from the window - this is the downtown.
Below are pictures from the trail.
You can't see the windmills all that clearly in this picture but they are there. They use windmills to power all of this region - they are pretty cool!
The trail run along the river and it is the same trail Zac takes to Massey.
We wanted to see how deep the water in the river is and Zac got into it, not too deep, but really cold - he's a trooper!
This is actually the outside of our apartment building.
Our apartment is the top one on the left.
This is a view from the window.
And another view from the window - this is the downtown.
Below are pictures from the trail.
You can't see the windmills all that clearly in this picture but they are there. They use windmills to power all of this region - they are pretty cool!
The trail run along the river and it is the same trail Zac takes to Massey.
We wanted to see how deep the water in the river is and Zac got into it, not too deep, but really cold - he's a trooper!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Apartment
Since everyone has been asking to see pictures of the apartment here it is!! I am not sure if people want to see the apartment itself or the fact that apartments are the one thing we were extremely taken back by and we were so vocal about our surprise! As you can see we need to put up more pictures because the walls are bare, but that will come with time! Our address is below and it is written as you would address the envelope.
5/16 Freyberg St
Palmerston North 4414
New Zealand
The 5/16 means we live at 16 Freyberg st in flat number 5 ... in case anyone was wondering! More outside pictures to come, but today is raining so we couldn't take any.
So below is the first bedroom. It is actually the biggest, but it is right off the front door so we are using it as a closet and bike room so we don't have to trek the bikes to the back bedroom. I use the closet in this room. Also you can see our classy dresser, but this is actually the easiest and the cheapest way to get all our clothes organized. We are finding that furniture is pretty expensive, so this works while we are here!
This is the living room. We really need to put something on the walls here because we spend most of our time here. We only have a love seat and a chair, but since there are so many doors, I am not sure if we could have fit in a bigger couch.
This is the bathroom. It is pretty small, but works and by far the nicest and cleanest bathroom we saw.
This is the back bedroom, the room we sleep in. The room is not very big so we only have our queen bed and Zac uses the closet in this room for the things that need to be hung up. I wished that we had a different color duvet cover, but I am so glad I brought all our linens here. We found they are really expensive for the good sheets - and many (especially the people I have bought them for) know how I feel about Egyptian cotton sheets and nice linens!!
And here is the kitchen. All the kitchens we saw were small - also they don't come with fridges or microwaves, so we had to buy one. As you can tell the fridge is small -all fridges are smaller than the ones in the states, Kiwis go the grocery more frequently. At the back of the kitchen is a nice deck. We tend to eat mostly out here. we are on the 2nd floor and the desk is the best part of the apartment by far!
Oh yes and something else great are the laundry facilities. We have 4 washers and 1 dryer (if we want). The back common area is all clothes lines so right now we opt for that instead of the dryer. Also not to mention that dryer costs money.
5/16 Freyberg St
Palmerston North 4414
New Zealand
The 5/16 means we live at 16 Freyberg st in flat number 5 ... in case anyone was wondering! More outside pictures to come, but today is raining so we couldn't take any.
So below is the first bedroom. It is actually the biggest, but it is right off the front door so we are using it as a closet and bike room so we don't have to trek the bikes to the back bedroom. I use the closet in this room. Also you can see our classy dresser, but this is actually the easiest and the cheapest way to get all our clothes organized. We are finding that furniture is pretty expensive, so this works while we are here!
This is the living room. We really need to put something on the walls here because we spend most of our time here. We only have a love seat and a chair, but since there are so many doors, I am not sure if we could have fit in a bigger couch.
This is the bathroom. It is pretty small, but works and by far the nicest and cleanest bathroom we saw.
This is the back bedroom, the room we sleep in. The room is not very big so we only have our queen bed and Zac uses the closet in this room for the things that need to be hung up. I wished that we had a different color duvet cover, but I am so glad I brought all our linens here. We found they are really expensive for the good sheets - and many (especially the people I have bought them for) know how I feel about Egyptian cotton sheets and nice linens!!
And here is the kitchen. All the kitchens we saw were small - also they don't come with fridges or microwaves, so we had to buy one. As you can tell the fridge is small -all fridges are smaller than the ones in the states, Kiwis go the grocery more frequently. At the back of the kitchen is a nice deck. We tend to eat mostly out here. we are on the 2nd floor and the desk is the best part of the apartment by far!
Oh yes and something else great are the laundry facilities. We have 4 washers and 1 dryer (if we want). The back common area is all clothes lines so right now we opt for that instead of the dryer. Also not to mention that dryer costs money.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The beach
Yesterday we went to the beach it ended up taking us a little longer to get there than we originally thought, but we saw some of the beautiful countryside on the drive. Yesterday it was cloudy when we got to the beach, but since we got here everyday has been both cloudy and sunny and the weather changes quickly.
People had 4-wheelers and such to ride all the dunes.
Here is the Pacific!! I am not sure how these people are in the water because it was really cold.
This is the lifeguard stand.
There wasn't a parking lot you can drive on the entire beach.
These are all pictures of the country-side. These are the ranges that are near palmy. Hopefully you can see them I took these pictures while Zac was driving. He is getting extremely good at drive on the other side of the road - I still have not driven yet!
People had 4-wheelers and such to ride all the dunes. 
Here is the Pacific!! I am not sure how these people are in the water because it was really cold. 
This is the lifeguard stand. 
There wasn't a parking lot you can drive on the entire beach. 
These are all pictures of the country-side. These are the ranges that are near palmy. Hopefully you can see them I took these pictures while Zac was driving. He is getting extremely good at drive on the other side of the road - I still have not driven yet!
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