Celebrity Neighbor

I was informed yesterday that the street's claim to fame is former All Blacks captain Buck Shelford.  Now this really means nothing to me but apparently he's kind of a big deal in New Zealand, being a great Rugby captain and all.  We even passed him a few times in the car!  Libby also came into my room multiple times today asking if she could "look at herself" again.  Meaning she wanted to play with photo booth some more and now I have over 100 pictures of kids making distorted/funny faces!  Luckily they are easily deleted!  We also made a trip to the grocery store today, which actually was not too foreign after all.  Mostly different brands but pretty straight forward!  Will be much easier to adjust to than an Italian grocery store was. 

This morning there was an attempt at pancakes...all was going well until Libby wanted to take over, and in the process of argument Tessa managed to grab the jug of milk and pour some more into the batter mixture, apparently she thought there hadn't been enough added already!  More flour needed to be added after the first pancake was a bit like a watery crepe...by the end there was a least one edible pancake for everyone, but Reuben and Libby tried to devour them ALL after sample the REAL maple syrup I brought them.  They were instant fans! 

Settling In

So this morning I woke up just before 6:30am, possibly due to the fact that I was asleep before 9:30pm and partially because I'm not quite adjusted yet.  Right around 6:30 there was some screaming downstairs kids were awake!  Looks like I'll be on an early schedule, for at least half of the week!  Mondays through Wednesdays will be my days to take the kids to school and pick them up again.  And Tue./Wed. I will also be responsible for Tessa in the afternoon while Reuben and Libby are at school.  So it looks like I'll be learning two languages while here, Kiwi slang along with Tessa slang.  Tessa and I spent about 30 min playing with photo booth on my computer, she kept saying "mooore" and thought it was the funniest thing she could see herself in the computer!  Later I brought the computer downstairs and the other kids loved the effects, good thing to keep in mind for indoor days...I'm pretty sure they would stay entertained for hours!

Some family friends came over for dinner with their 2 boys, Reuben and Libby's age.  I was trying to explain Antonio's pizza, because we had pizza for dinner.  Sounds like there's nothing really like it over here, but now they're on a quest to find something comparable! 

We went into Takapuna today and visited a few phone stores and a bank, and when everyone asked how long I was visiting for and I said the year, they immediately said, oh working holiday?  Seems to be a common thing for people staying the a in NZ. 

Also today there were severe storm warnings! Like advising people to go out and make sure they have batteries and flashlights and water and things like that!  I wasn't too worried because we have these types of things all the time in the winter and for some other storms, but usually nothing happens.  But apparently they never have advisories like that so Julia was in a bit of a panic!  So far there are pretty strong winds and some rain and the swells are getting pretty high in the ocean, but it's just like a chilly rainy spring to me, nothing too crazy!  It's comforting though that everyone comments on how HORRIBLE the weather is and not a very nice welcome to the country, but it really isn't that bad at all, and there's even been some sun in between the wind and rain so I'm thinking the weather is usually pretty perfect!

Arrival Day!

My journey was long one, starting out in Hartford, flying down to Baltimore, changing planes, then flying out to LA.  I realized while in Baltimore that my plane also stopped in St. Louis, but only long enough to let people off and add more people, so we weren't allowed to get off for any reason.  Finally I arrived in LA around 5:30 (so 8:30pm east coast time).  Luckily, Arash picked me up and we did a quick tour of Hollywood and had dinner outside with the Hollywood sign in the background.  A MUCH more enjoyable way to spend 5 hours in LA. 

If you zoom way in you can see the Hollywood sign up on the hill in the background!

While checking in with Air New Zealand we tried convincing the woman that she wanted to upgrade me...unfortunately she was only willing to do this for $2000 more.  I was even unlucky enough to be assigned the middle seat of the middle row, but then the seat to my left was empty, so it worked out pretty well having some extra space!  So at midnight in LA (3am east coast time) we departed for Auckland.  By this point I was so tired I couldn't wait to get on the plane and try to sleep.  The 13 hour flight wasn't so bad in the end, the entertainment system worked perfectly and offered many different options!

I landed right around 8am Auckland time Thursday morning, so this is now 4pm on Wednesday for me.  Somehow I've managed to stay awake the whole day and will just have an early night.  Luckily the kids go to bed before 8!  Julia was waiting for me when I came through customs (very quick and painless) and we made the 30 min drive back to the house.  Unfortunately it was raining quite a bit so I wasn't able to appreciate all the nice views of the Auckland harbor bridge on our way home to Bayswater.  I was surprised and very excited to see that the house is right on the bay and has a great view from basically every room!  There is a beach in the backyard where they swim, kayak, windsurf and sail from.  Very excited for warmer spring weather and summer time now! 

As for meeting the kids, I was kind of eased into it.  Tessa was first, when she was picked up from day care around 11am.  She'll be 2 in October and is adorable!  I went along at 3pm to pick up Libby (5) and Reuben (7) from school (since I'll be making that trip Mon-Wed) and they weren't kidding when they said things get loud in the house around that time.  Everyone wants to do their own thing and everyone has something different to tell you but they all just talk at the same time.  They were excited for me to get here and enjoyed their knifty knitted hats I made for the family!  I am excited to experience a bit more of a full routine tomorrow as well as see some more of the surrounding area and learn the rules of the road, start my practice driving on the other side!

My new buddy Smudge already on my bed!