Everyone in my team at work got even more spoiled during the week too, with two more morning teas back to back on Thursday and Friday (one for my co-worker Ian's birthday and one to thank all of us for our hard work--again) haha...love it. Tons of yummy food and desserts. The rumor around AMP is that you will gain at least 5 kilos while working there, which is equivalent to 11 pounds. I believe this rumor is quite credible, and I am pretty certain that I have successfully gained back all the weight I lost while backpacking. I'm not completely convinced this is a good thing, but hey, I'll be backpacking again soon enough! I spent the rest of the week staying in every evening after work. I started to get a bit of a cold (again), so I devoured a ton of Vitamin C for a few days and went to sleep around 8:00 pm each night. I am very happy to report that my tactic seemed to work, as I felt completely fine by the end of the week.
I even managed to get a phone call in on Wedneday to my girl Kate back home, so that was really good. It has been really difficult to keep in touch with everyone back in The States because of the time difference--by the time I get off of work at 3:30 pm here for instance, it is 10:30 pm on the previous day for people in the central time zone in Florida. A couple of my friends back home work night shifts at the hospitals though, including Kate and Courtney, so they are usually still awake when everyone else is asleep. Makes keeping in touch a little bit easier =) Before talking to Kate on Wednesday though, I experienced the pleasure of watching my flatmate Emma drinking her infamous 'green smoothie,' which consisted of pure blended up lettuce, with an apple slice and water. Bleh! It might be healthy, but the smell was enough for me to never want to try it haha. I spent Thursday evening chatting with Dai at the flat, which involved in-depth conversations about religion and the paranormal. Good stuff. I hung out with Emma a bit at the flat too, plus did some ever-backdated blogging. Oh, blogging...so time-consuming! I'm glad I'm doing it though because my memory is shite (as all my friends know).
If I didn't have this blog to refer to later, I probably wouldn't remember half the stuff that I've experienced in New Zealand. Plus, just an FYI to all my readers, I know that I put wayyyyyy too much detail in every blog. I promise my goal is not to bore you to death; I simply do it because I personally want to remember every single little detail of my experience here. =) Understandable, right? Anyway, moving on to the weekend... My mid-July weekend was fantastic! On Saturday, Emma and I grabbed lunch at Mexicali down by the harbour, then went to an op shop (second-hand store) to try to find some "hillbilly" outfits for Bryce and Brian's upcoming hillbilly-themed birthday party. Luckily, even though Brian had already moved to Wellington, he was still coming back to Auckland for a few weekends up until mid-August when Bryce was scheduled to move down as well. So, the boys were doing a joint birthday party the following weekend since Bryce's birthday was on July 22nd and Brian's was on July 23rd.
Emma and I didn't find any outfits quite worthy enough while we were at the op shop; next stop was Look Sharp to check out the wigs! Look Sharp is this crazzzy store in central Auckland that literally has everything, and I do mean everything. After a short browse, we left with an idea of which wigs we would potentially go back and purchase for the party. That afternoon, I Skyped a bit with my Dad, then Emma and I were off again to go see a ROLLER DERBY GAME!! If you don't know, Roller Derby is an international contact sport that usually involves some seriously tough women on skates trying to score points by bypassing the opposing team's players. In the process, they knock each other down and don't hesitate on getting vicious. It is sooo much fun to watch though (as horrible as that may sound) haha. I've only ever been to one other Roller Derby game well over a year ago with Kate and my friends Jared and Chris, back when I was finishing school in Tallahassee, Florida. I loved it then, and I loved it the second time around too. Good times!!
I Skyped with Kate that night after the game, as she needed someone to talk to. Even though circumstances weren't the best for why we were talking so much, it was sooo nice to hear her voice and see her face after so long. I can't believe it was the first time we had Skyped during my entire time in New Zealand! It was so great though; we Skyped for hours until the wee hours of the morning her time, and laughed A LOT. =) At one point, I secretly put some gloves on while sitting in my room because my hands were really cold (if you know me well, you know that my hands are always freezing). Well, a few minutes later, Kate looked at me with a puzzled face and asked, "Ashhley...are you wearing gloves??" Hahaha...caught! I apparently need to learn how to talk without using hand gestures =). Sunday was another fabulous French Market day, but this time with beautiful, warm weather. You have to remember that it is the middle of winter here, so having a day like that was more than just rare. Every other day of winter in New Zealand consists of low temperatures with ever-present cloudiness and rain, with the addition of snow in the south island. Still, the crappy weather only lasts for about 3 months, then the rest of the 9 months of the year are gorgeous!
For some reason though, this particular winter Sunday brought clear skies and sunshine with it. So, after walking around the market, Emma and I just sat on the curb for a while and soaked up the sun in the spring-like weather while people-watching. Our sun-soaking was transferred back to the flat, where I put on a bathing suit and we both sat out on our balcony basking in the sun for a couple of hours. Talk about living the life! It was absolute perfection. After the sunshine subsided and the winter chill set back in, Emma and I put on some appropriate clothing and drove to the grocery store. She had been talking about these delicous chicken sandwiches she used to make, so we decided to give them a whirl for dinner. Breaded chicken breast fillets on fresh baguette bread, with capsicum (bell peppers), slices of fresh avacado, mayonaisse, and fresh lettuce. So simple, yet sooooo good!
I finished the Sunday with a long-awaited Skype date with Sontsa and Mia. As far as Sontsa knew, it was only to be a Skype session between the two of us, but Mia and I had pre-planned to surprise her with a 3-way Skype =). It was just as fun as I had expected haha. Oh my, I love those gals. Sontsa and I got to Skype with Mia's boyfriend Greg too, who we had also gotten close to while they were running the hostel in Napier when Sontsa and I stayed there. So, overall, a great ending to a really nice weekend. The only crazy, random event of the weekend was that Dai told Emma and I on Saturday that she would be leaving for Argentina the next day for a total of at least 3 weeks. She had gotten a call on Friday from one of her sisters back home, saying that her neice was in critical condition in a hospital in Argentina and the family wanted Dai there for support. So, Dai dropped everything and made the long journey back home to Argentina that Sunday. Very commendable.
Cheers,
Ash
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