My first reaction to NZ was, "wow all the buildings are really short". Similarly, the Thornton Tomasetti office is two stories. No more 18th floor for me. I do sit on the second floor though, so I can see mountains ("hills" - but I'll get to that later) in both directions. The office is quite small, probably 15 people total. A bunch of people from the office went fishing last weekend and so this Friday we had a fish fry for lunch! Everything in NZ is fried, so in addition to the fish we fried wedges, broccoli, and bananas. It was a great first Friday lunch!
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| My morning walk to work |
That Friday afternoon, the weather was beautiful and some coworkers and I went to an outdoor bar for happy hour. By the time I got home it was 5 am NY time and I was ready for bed. It was great to hang out with the people outside the office, try a few kiwi beers, and have a good laugh. Fun fact: a lot of kiwi beers are "hand poured" which means that they come out kind of like a guiness - no carbonation and about 55 degrees (not cold). I had an IPA which was really strange as a not cold, smooth beer, but apparently is quite common here. I hope you're all as interested on kiwi beer as I am ;) .
Saturday morning, a coworker, Sarah, and I decided to go for a run. She asked me if I wanted to do hills or flats, and I said, let's try the hills. My mistake.. That was a mountain! We walked up most of it, had some spectacular views, saw probably 100 sheep, and ran back down. Sarah is going to move in with a friend for a couple months, so offered to hand off her apartment to me! It's a massive two bedroom apartment (so mom you can stay in your very own room!). I'm so excited to get out of the motel.
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| I didn't have my camera on Saturday, but I did this route again, and took this picture the second time. "Excuse me, Pardon me" |
With no plans for the rest of the day, I got in my car, memorized my directions because I don't have GPS, and drove out to Akaroa. It's about an hour away, on the peninsula off Christchurch. The roads are extremely windy, but I made it, and the views along the way were breathtaking, despite the overcast skies. I think I'm starting to like NZ :)
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| View of the Bay in Akaroa, NZ |
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| 180 degrees from the last photo I really liked the orange on the mountain, but a shopkeeper told me its a terrible weed in NZ and they are required by law to spray it or it will spread like crazy ad not die for 20 years. |
Thank you guys so much for sending love the past few days -- I really appreciated it even though I was bad at responding. The culture shock from NY to Christchurch was pretty extreme, and I definitely questioned my willingness to accept this job a few times. Someone in the office told me that every person in Christchurch is picked for our ability to adapt to adverse circumstances, and work well under a deadline. I tried to keep that in mind when I was feeling blue.
I think this trip is going to fly by, and I'll be glad I did it, but I'm definitely still adjusting. Luckily, the scenery helps with that :)
Miss you all and love you all! Wish you could be here with me!
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