Luckily, I knew I would be going to Wellington to visit. The next evening, Emma and I went to Neighborhood Brewbar in Ponsonby to meet Hemi and his friends for Hemi’s birthday. During the course of the evening, I met Anna, Alsbyth, Adrian, Adrian’s girlfriend, and James. Plus, a couple familiar faces (Lawrence and Nathan) were there as well who I had already met previously through Hemi. It was a good group =). We all stayed at the Brewbar for a couple of hours before walking down the road to have dinner at Cantons. Our Asian waitress had a cheeky sense of humor, which Lawrence, Nathan, and Hemi all played into—good times. It was a really nice dinner with laughs all around.
The next week was pretty chilled out—work was good (including receiving a surprise morning tea one day with lots of yummy snacks), had lunch with Jess another day, fed my newfound love for sushi once or twice, and had a much-adored Pizza Hut & Vanilla Coke night with Emma. A few of us from work went out for a Ponsonby Food Court dinner on Friday, which turned out to be a perfect way to start the weekend. Jess, Hamish, Hajra, Sian, Jen, her fiance Robin are a hilarious group to go out with, especially when it comes to food. Both Hamish and Hajra are Muslim and were therefore practicing Ramadan at this time. Since they hadn’t eaten all day (or weren’t supposed to have eaten all day), they were STARVING.
This resulted in both of them getting something like two entrees and one main each throughout the evening!! Jen’s fiance Robin got in on the “how much food can you eat” action too since he’s practically solid muscle (rugby player type) and can also eat a ridiculous amount of food. Robin thought he had ‘won’ the said competition until Hajra gladly pointed to her order number for the huge vegetarian pizza she just ordered haha. The best part of the night was when Hajra’s pizza finally came and she took a big bite, only to realize it had ANCHOVIES on it. Yes, anchovies. In other words, something that belongs nowhere near a pizza. Bleh!
Sian, who looks quite intimidating if you don’t know her, successfully took on the mission of getting a new non-anchovy vegetarian pizza for free. After a ridiculous amount of food court food, either Hamish or Hajra further suggested also going for gelato. Why not? =) So, we all drove down to a gelato place on Ponsonby Road and enjoyed some dessert. This also marked the first time Jess experienced one of my notorious memory loss moments. The entire week, she and I had excitedly been discussing going to a Roller Derby match that Saturday (which was the next day by this point). When she mentioned needing to do some homework “before tomorrow night,” I interestedly asked, “What are you doing tomorrow night?” We had even talked about it earlier that same day.
Jess just looked at me with a very confused, blank face, to which I responded, “I take it I should know the answer to that question.” Much laughter ensued once I realized my blunder but yeahhh…I seriously need to invest in some ginko! After Jess dropped me back off at the flat, I was supposed to go to a Rocky Horror Picture Show event that I had previously bought cheap tickets for. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up going because I couldn’t find anyone to go with me. Bummer. Instead, I chatted a bit with Daiana and her friends Luciana and Rina at the flat, then went to bed early. On Saturday (August 20th by this point), I did some blogging, Skyped with my Dad, and then it was time for ROLLER DERBY!
Jess, Emma, Mary and I all went to the game, which was Jess and Mary’s first Roller Derby experience. Such a blast! The players were extra aggressive during this match too. I seriously love watching that sport. Before we left the venue, Emma introduced us to one of her friends Kat who was really nice. Then, Mary, Jess, Emma and I went to Verona bar on K Road to get a couple of drinks and chill out. On Sunday, Emma surprised me by asking if I could drive in New Zealand. I told her I could, but that I hadn’t tried yet. Nonetheless, Emma trusted me, handed me the keys to her car, and let me drive to the grocery store. I was sooo excited! Seriously guys, I have missed driving so much. It felt really strange to drive on the left side of the road and be seated on the right side of the car, but I got the hang of it straight away =).
The rest of our Sunday morning was spent sunbathing on our balcony while reading the paper. During the afternoon, we met a couple of Emma’s friends Alex and Alicia at a shopping mall in Onehunga called Dress Smart so the girls could find outfits for their school’s upcoming ball (Emma and Alicia are both teachers). The weekend ended the same way it started—another dinner at Ponsonby Food Court =). This time, it was with Jess, Emma, Kat, Hemi and Lawrence. Jess and I got into a rather in-depth conversation about what made me come to New Zealand, life, traveling, etc. It made me realize even more how much more of a connection I have with the Kiwi lifestyle of ‘working to live’ as opposed to the American lifestyle of ‘living to work.’ To say the very least, I’m interested to see where life takes me after my New Zealand experience.
Cheers,
Ash
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