Thursday afternoon I took a bus to Queenstown where I met Kaleigh and Robyn that evening. After checking into our room at the hostel, we rented ski equipment and had a late dinner. I loved being back in Queenstown, but felt like it had changed a lot in a month and a half since I had last been there at the start of the ski season. Now, it is peak season and it was so crowded, the streets reminded me of Chatham in July!
On Friday morning we headed to Remarkables, a ski area about 20 min from Queenstown. Although the mountain only had 3 lifts, I still really enjoyed being back on the slopes, and this time with better snow conditions (although the flat light was really annoying!). I had a great time skiing with Kaleigh and Robyn, and our last run was the best. We hiked up a back part of the mountain, carrying our skis, to ski down a completely untouched area. By this point, however, the conditions were starting to get pretty bad, with a lot of snow coming down, making it really difficult to see where we were going, and this being New Zealand skiing, nothing was marked so that was a little scary. We decided to leave a little early because the conditions were getting a little slippery on the road, and we didn't have chains for the car. Also, Robyn left her camera in Wanaka, so we had a little detour to make before heading to Dunedin that night.
On Saturday I met up with Robyn and Kaleigh to walk around the main street in Dunedin, and then we took a tour of the Speights Brewery ("The Pride of the South"). Our tour guide was a great, funny old man, and he made the tour very enjoyable. Not only did the tour give me a greater appreciation for well crafted beer, but it also gave me a greater understanding of the pride that people here have in being from the south island. After tasting some delightful beer, we had dinner at a great thai place, and then played some pool at a sports bar.
I did not get the job at the tavern, which was really dissapointing. I am not giving up yet, and applied to three more places yesterday. I ran into a friend from Kiwi Experience yesterday on the street, and found out that she is living here as well. It was great to see a familiar face and find out that I know more people here. She informed me that her flatmate is looking to rent out another room in their place. Before seeing her, I was thinking about moving onto Wellington, but I may take her up on it. It would be nice to be able to stay here for a longer period of time.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Update
Yesterday was my last day at the ministry of health, and I cannot say I was sad at all to finish. While I learned some things that will help when I'm running my own office, it was not an experience I came to New Zealand to gain...I can file and scan in a similar enviroment from 9-5 in the States just as easily. Although, I must say I did think the standard tea breaks throughout the day were a nice Kiwi touch. After making chicken curry for my flatmates, Kat and I headed into town to go see a band that she knows play in a cafe/bar. We had a good time, but since I had to get up early for interview this morning, it was an early night.
This morning I met with one of the partners of the Mornington Tavern. (Mornington is the part of Dunedin that I live in). The interview went well, and its a place that I would love to work at, the people that work there are really nice, and the clientelle in that area are a little older than what you normally see downtown. They are going to call me on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning after they interview two other people...I have my fingers crossed! If that doesn't work out, I will take another temp job and continue to browse the help wanted section of the paper.
I am enjoying have a more settled life here in Dunedin. Today is beautiful, warm due to a norwester, and I love walking around this place. After my interview my flatmates and I went to the farmers market. It was really great to pick out local fresh food to eat for the week, and also I had a great crepe for breakfast!! Dunedin has everything I love about cities-great cafes, easy to walk around, and all that I love about country areas- great scenerary and access to outdoor activities. While I have not decided whether or not I'm going stay here after mid-Sept, when I have to move out of the flat, I am glad that I am here for a long period of time. I realized that this is the type of place that tourists can easily overlook, but its a great place to live in.
This morning I met with one of the partners of the Mornington Tavern. (Mornington is the part of Dunedin that I live in). The interview went well, and its a place that I would love to work at, the people that work there are really nice, and the clientelle in that area are a little older than what you normally see downtown. They are going to call me on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning after they interview two other people...I have my fingers crossed! If that doesn't work out, I will take another temp job and continue to browse the help wanted section of the paper.
I am enjoying have a more settled life here in Dunedin. Today is beautiful, warm due to a norwester, and I love walking around this place. After my interview my flatmates and I went to the farmers market. It was really great to pick out local fresh food to eat for the week, and also I had a great crepe for breakfast!! Dunedin has everything I love about cities-great cafes, easy to walk around, and all that I love about country areas- great scenerary and access to outdoor activities. While I have not decided whether or not I'm going stay here after mid-Sept, when I have to move out of the flat, I am glad that I am here for a long period of time. I realized that this is the type of place that tourists can easily overlook, but its a great place to live in.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Scanner Extraordinaire
My week's Routine
6:47 am: Wake Up
6:52 am: Force myself out of the warm bed
7:20 am: Walk to town Centre
7:50ish am: Arrive at Ministry of Health
8:00-10:30am: Remove staples, scan, stamp and pile health contracts
10:30-10:45 am: Drink tea with team members (oversee these agreements/contracts)
10:45-12:30: More scanning, or if scanning's finished, hole punching and filing.
12:30-1:00 pm: Lunch
1:00-3:30 pm: More scanning and/or filing
3:30-3:45: Tea with team members
3:$4-4:30: yup, more scanning and/or filing
4:30: "Is it raining?" yes = go to internet cafe, check mail and wait for the 510 bus (which usually arrives at 520) no = walk home
5:30-6:30: Wash dishes or cook dinner (depending who's turn it is)
6:30-9:30: Sudoku and tv
9:30: BED
As you can tell, my week has been less than pleasurable, and extremely mundane. While I did not gain any career skills, I did learn a lot about training my mind to bare the boredom that it faced. I must say that I gained a massive amount of respect for people that work on assembly lines. Thankfully, I was allowed to listen to my ipod while doing these mundane tasks, but even that got boring after a while (although Dane Cook's 3 cds kept me quite content for a long time!). The people that I work with are all very nice, and I was offered a full time position there where I would not be scanning all the time, but its still along the same lines of data entry, so I am not pursuing it. I have an interview with a tavern on saturday morning, and I do not have my hopes up, but I do have my fingers crossed that something comes of that, because I did not come to New Zealand to have to pry myself out of my bed before sunrise every morning!
While it's certainly not the filing that gets me out of bed in the morning, the walk to work is very helpful motivation. The views are magnificent. For half of it the sun is just starting to come up, so the city lights are all on over the harbor and the hills, and because my walk there is mostly downhill, its great! The first two days I was not able to walk home because of the rain, which thankfully held off on both days until the afternoon because there is no bus in the morning that would get me to work by 8. The walk home yesterday, while not enjoyable due to its mostly uphill nature and my exhausted feet, was good for me b/c it kept me warm for an extended period of time in the flat!
After I find out about this tavern job, I will either be starting that or onto the next temp assignment that comes my way. I get the impression that most of the temp jobs are for various government agencies that are rather behind on their filing...so I may or may not be facing a few more weeks of the fun I experienced this week. Either way, I'm looking foward to a change, and to meet some more people, hopefully this time people I have more in common with and are in my age range!
6:47 am: Wake Up
6:52 am: Force myself out of the warm bed
7:20 am: Walk to town Centre
7:50ish am: Arrive at Ministry of Health
8:00-10:30am: Remove staples, scan, stamp and pile health contracts
10:30-10:45 am: Drink tea with team members (oversee these agreements/contracts)
10:45-12:30: More scanning, or if scanning's finished, hole punching and filing.
12:30-1:00 pm: Lunch
1:00-3:30 pm: More scanning and/or filing
3:30-3:45: Tea with team members
3:$4-4:30: yup, more scanning and/or filing
4:30: "Is it raining?" yes = go to internet cafe, check mail and wait for the 510 bus (which usually arrives at 520) no = walk home
5:30-6:30: Wash dishes or cook dinner (depending who's turn it is)
6:30-9:30: Sudoku and tv
9:30: BED
As you can tell, my week has been less than pleasurable, and extremely mundane. While I did not gain any career skills, I did learn a lot about training my mind to bare the boredom that it faced. I must say that I gained a massive amount of respect for people that work on assembly lines. Thankfully, I was allowed to listen to my ipod while doing these mundane tasks, but even that got boring after a while (although Dane Cook's 3 cds kept me quite content for a long time!). The people that I work with are all very nice, and I was offered a full time position there where I would not be scanning all the time, but its still along the same lines of data entry, so I am not pursuing it. I have an interview with a tavern on saturday morning, and I do not have my hopes up, but I do have my fingers crossed that something comes of that, because I did not come to New Zealand to have to pry myself out of my bed before sunrise every morning!
While it's certainly not the filing that gets me out of bed in the morning, the walk to work is very helpful motivation. The views are magnificent. For half of it the sun is just starting to come up, so the city lights are all on over the harbor and the hills, and because my walk there is mostly downhill, its great! The first two days I was not able to walk home because of the rain, which thankfully held off on both days until the afternoon because there is no bus in the morning that would get me to work by 8. The walk home yesterday, while not enjoyable due to its mostly uphill nature and my exhausted feet, was good for me b/c it kept me warm for an extended period of time in the flat!
After I find out about this tavern job, I will either be starting that or onto the next temp assignment that comes my way. I get the impression that most of the temp jobs are for various government agencies that are rather behind on their filing...so I may or may not be facing a few more weeks of the fun I experienced this week. Either way, I'm looking foward to a change, and to meet some more people, hopefully this time people I have more in common with and are in my age range!
Friday, August 3, 2007
A Week in Review
Well I have been in Dunedin for about a week now, and the best word to describe this week = COLD. While Monday's rainstorm was a fluke (they got a months worth of rainfall in 8 hours), the temperature has hoovered around 7-9 (Celsius). The silver lining in all this is that I am not tempted to stay in my flat (my flat has no heat, no insulation) for any longer than necessary, and I am walking back and forth to town because going up and down the hills makes me hot! Besides the lack of heat, my flat has been working out really well, and I'm really happy to have that sorted while I look for work. I have 3 flatmates, one has been away on business for the week, and the other is in the hospital (she has something like epilepsy and had a major seizure). So, basically this past week it has just been Sarah and I hanging out in the evening, cooking dinner and watching TV (with a hot water bottle and a large duvet of course).
This past week I have spent looking for jobs (see below) and exploring Dunedin. I joined the library, which has been a great place to go spend a couple of hours reading and keeping warm. There are a number of great cafes here as well that I love trying out. I also met up with a friend of a friend, Rachel, who goes to the university here, which was great because it was nice to make more connections than my flatmates in this town.
The Job Search:
The gourmet food store and cafe job did not work out because they needed someone who could work through Christmas Eve. I was extremely frustrated after that, because I realized that any retail store would be the same way, and I didn't feel comfortable misleading the managers. After writing a number of cover letters to send off to the positions for cafes and taverns advertised in the Otago Daily Times, I realized that it would probably be a smart decision for me to just try out a temp agency. At first, I resisted this because I have worked in offices for the past two summers, and know that is what I will be doing when I get back to the states. But, once I came to my senses, I figured that a temp agency is actually probably the best option since I can leave pretty much when my schedule dictates, all of my skills are already geared toward office work, and I would be able to get some valuable experience working and meeting people in the corporate environment here in Dunedin. Therefore, before sending off those cover letters, I walked over to the temp agency (also advertised in the paper) filled out a number of forms, and then took an hour and a half word processsing, excel, data entre and typing test. I then had an interview with one of the placement ladies, who informed me that there was nothing they had yet, but that something would surely come about soon. Lone behold, at 3:30 on Friday she called me to ask if I wanted to start a job on Monday temping for a week at the Ministry of Health. I of course agreed right away. She cautioned that it would be rather mundane, scanning things mostly, but said its a good place to work because there are a lot of people that work there. It's also in a good location for me to walk and/or take the bus too.
Today, I woke up and decided to bake something while doing my laundry to keep me occupied and warm. After I made an interesting scone type thing (not exactly sure why it didnt come out right...I'll keep working at it), I walked into town to check my email and buy some shoes that are appropriate and comfortable for work. Besides the weather, I am really getting to like this place. While the buildings are not as beautiful as Edinburgh, there are a number of similiarties between the two cities that I appreciate. I am looking foward to meeting more people, hopefully through work, and learning new things about this town as I try out temp work!
This past week I have spent looking for jobs (see below) and exploring Dunedin. I joined the library, which has been a great place to go spend a couple of hours reading and keeping warm. There are a number of great cafes here as well that I love trying out. I also met up with a friend of a friend, Rachel, who goes to the university here, which was great because it was nice to make more connections than my flatmates in this town.
The Job Search:
The gourmet food store and cafe job did not work out because they needed someone who could work through Christmas Eve. I was extremely frustrated after that, because I realized that any retail store would be the same way, and I didn't feel comfortable misleading the managers. After writing a number of cover letters to send off to the positions for cafes and taverns advertised in the Otago Daily Times, I realized that it would probably be a smart decision for me to just try out a temp agency. At first, I resisted this because I have worked in offices for the past two summers, and know that is what I will be doing when I get back to the states. But, once I came to my senses, I figured that a temp agency is actually probably the best option since I can leave pretty much when my schedule dictates, all of my skills are already geared toward office work, and I would be able to get some valuable experience working and meeting people in the corporate environment here in Dunedin. Therefore, before sending off those cover letters, I walked over to the temp agency (also advertised in the paper) filled out a number of forms, and then took an hour and a half word processsing, excel, data entre and typing test. I then had an interview with one of the placement ladies, who informed me that there was nothing they had yet, but that something would surely come about soon. Lone behold, at 3:30 on Friday she called me to ask if I wanted to start a job on Monday temping for a week at the Ministry of Health. I of course agreed right away. She cautioned that it would be rather mundane, scanning things mostly, but said its a good place to work because there are a lot of people that work there. It's also in a good location for me to walk and/or take the bus too.
Today, I woke up and decided to bake something while doing my laundry to keep me occupied and warm. After I made an interesting scone type thing (not exactly sure why it didnt come out right...I'll keep working at it), I walked into town to check my email and buy some shoes that are appropriate and comfortable for work. Besides the weather, I am really getting to like this place. While the buildings are not as beautiful as Edinburgh, there are a number of similiarties between the two cities that I appreciate. I am looking foward to meeting more people, hopefully through work, and learning new things about this town as I try out temp work!
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