Summer Lovin'

Hey All...!

I have traversed to the other side of the world and I've lived to tell of the tale. Let me fill you in on travel here and a couple days of fun. :) Keep in mind, I'm verbose, wordy, chatty, whatever you call it. Skim, skip or peruse as you see fit. I will strive to relay information properly.

The flight to Philly was bumpy, bumpy, bumpy and even though I never get motion sickness, I did purchase some Dramamine once I arrived there. Of course, travel karma states that once prepared, the flight will be smooth - and everything to LA was just ducky. I remember that leg being longer than I thought, but it was manageable... until I reminded myself that I had another, GULP, 14 hours + to go.

Now, I have prepared for every contingency - thought about illness, dehydration, how many pairs of underwear to bring, what type of camera strap is best, etc... but, I didn't think about my eyes. I had put in my contact lenses on Saturday morning and had no back-up lenses in my carryon and my super-hot glasses were in my checked bag. So, here I am, half blind without one contact lens (that was just too argumentative to stay in) and prepping for a longer than long flight to Auckland. When Chris called me at LAX just to touch base one last time, I warned him that he may be greeting the semi-blind at the Arrival Gate.

After watching too many movies and sleeping all odd hours, I woke to the most gorgeous Pacific sunrise I've ever seen. Vivid hues of electric tangerine, radiant goldenrod, and piercing azul blue were stretched across every window of the plane. I can't tell you how affirming this was in the midst of my long, boring, and mostly sightless flight. :) Then, I find that TSA thinks I'm a heathen with contraban in my carefully packed bag. Just knowing someone's greasy little fingers was in my stuff kinda freaks me. At least the didn't take anything - although the did unwrap a giftwrapped package which made me cranky.

Chris picked me up soon after with flowers in hand (!!!) and we checked into our cutie-cute little place for the next few days in Ponsonby, a hip, arty, suburb of Auckland. Auckland, by the way, is about the size of Cambridge, MA... and about the fun of Somerville on the Ponsonby side... more serious in city center. We went to Bliss Cafe and had the most lovely cappuccino of my life. How could I have been anything less than in love? A cute cafe and a cute boy! Chris' hair is super long and curly now!

We spent day one doing less than a lot... intermittently sleeping, drinking Champagne, catching up on the last couple weeks, and having a dinner out.

Day 2 yielded more productivity. I was up at the early dawn breaking and we stepped to the street in search of sustinance and adventure. Here is a picture of our GORGEOUS mexican breakfast and BLT. I know it's summertime here and that means produce will be better (as it is at home) but everything here is exceptional. The reddest tomatoes with such an intense sweetness... the bright orange hued yolks of the farm fresh eggs (I've seriously never seen yolks so intensely colored)... I'm a food girl - expect more food pictures. :)

We walked to the city center and Chris took me to the Sky tower, which stands 328m (you do the math) and is taller than the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney tower in Australia, and the Donauturm tower in Vienna - which I gather were rather impressive, but unknown to this gauche American. You can, for a hefty fee, throw yourself off this building (see picture... EEK!) and I think they commend you if you complete this feat without wetting yourself. Call us thrifty, but we decided we'd rather die a less mainstream death... and passed on the opportunity. Once at the top, however, they had plexi glass bit of floor where you could immerse yourself in the terror. Boo Yeah!

We went to Albert Park where they had the most AMAZING trees and took a bit of a nap in the sun. Being on vacation is fun, no? We decided we needed a street snack of pork filled Korean dumplings (although this Korean girl has never had such a thing before) and stopped in for a couple Belgian beers. This one, Kwak, has a special glass and wooden handle that read "A Votre Sante" or "To Your Health". Yes, I think Beligian beer with 8%APV is really quite health conscious.

We had an interesting chat with the bartender, a lovely woman from Argentina, about tipping customs. So, an FYI, servers and bartenders here make about $12/hr - which is about $8.50 USD. It's not the money making venture that it can be at home, and most of the servers have other jobs to keep up with rent - which they pay weekly (about $200 NZ per week). At the bar where we were, they enjoy a foreign clientele, and hence, make tips. A good week for them is about $200 extra. It kind of keeps things in perspective, no?

Chris and I enjoyed a simple meal of cheese, fruit, fresh baguette, hummus and jam back at our abode and watched an odd program about westerners mingling into African tribal culture. Truly odd... but as someone who does not own a television and doesn't really watch it at other's houses either, it was enjoyable. We're keeping in perspective that the next week will be filled with camping and hiking so the luxury linens, convenient shopping, and hot showers are not lost on us!

This afternoon we're off to do some laundry and hike up Mount Eden - which is a former volcano in the center city. Our hosts, Chrissy and Reg, tell us that the view from there are far better than the sky tower and also free... which is how we're rolling these days. :) I made Chris and I this beautiful breakfast at home this morning... eggs with onions, tomatoes, peppers and a bit of garlic and chive cheese... croissant with jam, orange juice, apples... coffee in copious amounts. Aren't we cute and domestic? See my cute gerber daiseys from Chris?

I think it also proper to mention that Auckland is kind of stuck in the 80s. Fashion wise it's such a trip and there are entire stores devoted to the sale of brightly colored shag carpet. No, I'm serious! The architecture is very 1970s and it's rare to see a residential building that is two stories high, complete with tin roofs and shingle-y siding.

Kim - I have picture proof that Chris' Cookies were enjoyed with NZ sparkling wine.

Cat - I've been drinking some interesting wine and writing it down in my journal.
Matt - No Maoris yet, but I'll try to bring one home for you.

Trish and Gary - Chris is alive and well, I can guarantee it!

Dad - You must start using your passport!

AP & AL - Can't wait to hear what you're thinking of the crazy, new chapter of my life.

Local time here is +18 hours... so I'm signing off at 2:20 on Thursday. (It's Thanksgiving here already - or is it... when you're in another country that doesn't celebrate!)

Love to you all - Janice

T'was the Morning Of...

So, there's a thing about excitement... you can't stop it coming on and when your body tells you "get up", you rise.  It doesn't matter that you went to bed at 4:30 after a late night drive, and it's now only 8am.  The odd thing is, I get that way when I know I'm going to bake something, too.  My body gets giddy with anticipation and sheer exhaustion will not keep me in bed.

I left Boston just after midnight last night after a lovely send off thanks to Joe and Kim.  Cake, ice cream cake, cookies, balloons... so thoughtful of them!  Who doesn't love cake?

My pack is down to 32lbs.  Not too shabby for a clothes horse of a girl who likes options and footwear.  I'm as ready as I'll ever be - and I'm also reminding myself that yes, in addition to a plethora of sheep, Kiwis, too, need things like deodorant, aloe, and band-aids.

Now Chris is a funny one... yep.  We spoke a couple nights ago to reconfirm times and everything.  He proudly announced that yes, he would be back in Auckland the night before and sleeping in a bed in the all male dorm.  Now with the flight times, international date line and details - I technically arrive on Tuesday morning at 6:30am.  He was also thinking that I'd be arriving on Monday morning.  So, Chris' idea was to pick me up a day early after weeks of being apart and take me to an all-male dorm.  I'm thinking that's less than ideal, no?  Since then he has rebooked and now has the right date.  While I'm all about hilarity and mishaps - messing with my arrival after 23 hours in transit is decidedly not funny in this context.

I'm off... jumping in my plane this morning and ready as I'll ever be.  The next post will be New Zealand and beyond!

Taking to the Open Skies

Y'all, I've done it. I'm going a bit mad, leaving normalcy behind, and taking to the open skies to head to New Zealand in a mere 48 hours. I'll spend two months romping about the most gorgeous country in the world... the land of hobbits and fjords... home of amazing accents, glaciers, and (I'm told) bland food. At this point, I have two nights of work, everything already packed into a bag and I'm beyond attempting to contain myself.

I blame it all on this man:












Yes, sure... I know what you're thinking. But Janice, you look so happy together, you are such beautifully attractive people, you pose like supermodels. These things are all true, I agree, but in the spirit of properly relaying events, let us leave these facts aside.

I met Christopher on the 7th of September and it has been a whirlwind ever since. He had the nerve of being all wonderful and then dropping the bomb on me that - SURPRISE - he was planning a three month trip to New Zealand and wouldn't be back stateside until mid January. Just my luck... the most strikingly compatible person I had ever met was running away from me - and then he asked and I thought... I can work this out!

Now, I love my job... every day has its ebb and flow and sure, there are moments when I feel a bit tested, but I love it. I'm proud to serve at No. 9 Park right in downtown Boston for one of the coolest women chefs ever, Barbara Lynch. After getting myself all worked up, I had a meeting with my manager and asked her what she thought - citing I wouldn't go if it would mean a negative association with my name and she said I should go... that they would still be here when I got back and she would fit me in as best she could. So there you go, proof again that you never get what you want unless you put it out there in the world and give people the opportunity to say "yes".

So Chris left on November 4th and has been tramping (isn't that a funny word?) around the northern peninsula of the North Island for almost three weeks - well, it will be three weeks until the time that we are happily reunited. I'm so in love that it's annoying and even being without him for a few weeks has felt like lifetimes, but that's the immaturity talking I suppose.

Highlights of the trip include camping in the fjords, kayaking, skydiving over the glaciers, seeing active volcanoes, plenty of hiking, the Rhythm and Vines rock festival for the new year, my first winery tour, and a plethora of other shenanigans, I'm sure. This is the first post of many - with more pictures than past trips... my trusty NikonD80 has a huge-o memory card and I have a fancy new strap that sports photographers use for ease of taking shots on-the-fly.

I'll be away for all three major holidays, but happy to be away, in love, and returning to a fantastic job and my wonderful family and friends. Check in often to live vicariously through the wannabe Kiwi named Janice.