Happy Holidays from Down Under

It’s a nearly daily occurrence that I log on to Instagram and see someone in a bathing suit, or at most, a tank top. Based on my current can’t-feel-my-fingers-or-toes-status, I get instantly cold for them and wonder why on earth they don’t look freezing. In fact they look quite happy and relaxed in their limited attire. That’s when I remember, it’s not winter in the northern hemisphere.

It’s finally winter in New Zealand, and while it’s much more mild than I’m used to, you have to keep in mind that I haven’t experienced winter since the ORIGINAL polar vortex in January 2014. It’s been 18 months since I’ve been this cold (with the exception of the second night of the Routeburn). 

But really... I can't feel my hands

Since you now understand my daily confusion on the weather, you might understand why every holiday this year has felt just a little bit… different. Since I've been in the country for NINE MONTHS, I’ve been here for pretty much all of the major holidays. I haven’t talked much about them, so I thought I’d do a brief recap.

It all started with…..

Halloween

Halloween was the end of my 3^rd week in New Zealand. Also the night I met Cam. I think the first thing I said to him was “Why don’t you celebrate Halloween here?” How very cultured of you, Erin. New Zealand does celebrate Halloween, he told me, but without all the fan-fare of the American celebration. I did miss the fun of dressing up for Halloween thing, but since I still assumed I’d be home in two months, I didn’t think much more about it. Additionally, spring/fall weather is essentially the same in both hemispheres, so I wasn’t too put off.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving wasn’t a major shock either though. Since my family’s tradition is to celebrate Thanksgiving in Florida, I merely substituted Pelican Bay for Manly Beach in Sydney, when I was visiting my friend Charlie. I was in absolute heaven and remember thinking on my last morning in Sydney, “It’s December 1^st and I’m kayaking in the Sydney Harbour. Life is good.” I got to see my mom that day , have her visit New Zealand for two weeks, and then it would only be a week before I was home for good. And because of all that, I wasn’t terribly homesick for that one either.

Thanksgiving Day on the Beach in Sydney

Count on Sydney to make you forget it's Thanksgiving in America

Christmas  

I did get to spend Christmas in the States with my family, but the build up to Christmas, that whole “holiday season” feeling was completely different in New Zealand. I was longing for snow, those snowflake lights by Columbus circle, wearing a hat, gloves, and a scarf while browsing the Columbus circle tents with my sisters. But in New Zealand none of that was part of the deal. One thing I had never considered, was that when there's dayling until most people are getting ready for bed, there’s no need for Christmas lights. They're just not part of the holiday culture here. I didn’t realize what a big part of the holiday season Christmas lights could be, but without them, listening to Christmas music felt very out of place.

Can't complain about the temperature though
TTNZ Girls at the TT Christmas Party

Luckily I wasn’t the only person who missed mid-winter Christmas..

Fast forward six months, and it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas (everrrrrywhere you go..). The temperatures are dropping and people are starting to moan of a long winter ahead – must be Christmas, right? Well it’s June, so I couldn’t be more wrong. Luckily I work almost exclusively with Americans, so my workmates and I did what all good Americans, living deep in the southern hemisphere would do – throw a half Christmas party.

Christmas tree complete with presents, lights, ornaments AND snow! Well done, Kiki

James is still Scrooge - even in June

Just like our first Christmas party (in December) we had a white elephant gift exchange, and we all enjoyed some mulled cider and a fine Christmas feast. Kiki, one of the hosts, got a Christmas tree with decorated lights and made beautiful paper snowflakes. Kiki and I even got dressed up for the occasion! It was the perfect time of year to celebrate Christmas, until I turned on facebook to see photos of friends in bikinis (always confusing).

Just two girls celebrating a mid winter Christmas. Everything's normal here.

4^th of July – And that brings us to our most recent holiday. Possibly the last major holiday I’ll spend abroad. 

The Fourth of July really hit home for me. I knew going in to this season (summer/winter – it’s all very confusing) that I was going to get really sad once people started going to beach houses on the shore and having barbeques with their families and friends.

Missing this guy and his love of the grill and the Pittsburgh Pirates

The Fourth of July is probably THE weekend of the year, where I should’ve stayed off facebook, but I also wanted to see what everyone was doing. I wanted to see my parents’ quiet weekend with Sophie puppy, my oldest sister’s weekend in Charleston with her friends, and my other sisters weekend at the beach with her boyfriend. It all sounded like so much fun and I wanted, if only through social media, to be a part of it.

Luckily, a workmate gave me the kick in the butt that I needed to survive my first Fourth of July away from home. He nudged me towards the idea that I was the one, who needed to take initiative and do something, and “hey you know what? there are free barbeque stations in Hagley Park”. Well I looked it up and my workmate was right- there are free bbq stations, first come first serve (very convenient because no one else wants to barbeque in the middle of winter). Kiki said she would bring an assortment of outdoor games, and I remembered that someone had received a bocce ball set during the half-Christmas gift exchange, so I asked them to bring that. Cam agreed to barbeque and before I knew it, I had organized a Fourth of July party.

This makes me happy. Thank you, Cam!

4th of July in the Park!

And the verdict is... he loves his hotdog with HEINZ ketchup and YELLOW mustard.

The day of the Fourth ended up being really fun! About 10 people showed up to the barbeque station- Cam made a beautiful American feast, Leo brought KFC covered in buffalo wing sauce so that we could have buffalo wings, and Domingo, our resident office Hondoran, brought rice and beans (which ended up being eated on Doritos due to lack of cutlery and because America). We all ate, played games, and enjoyed being in the company of other Americans on such a big holiday. It was really special to me to have such a successful American holiday all the way over here.

So, while the feeling hasn’t always been what I’m used to for each holiday, the holidays here have been a success. Though the weather tried its best to confuse me, the people around me have made this (three-quarters-of-a)-year incredibly special to me. Big thanks to everyone near and far who have kept me sane for the last nine months :)

November Project Christchurch?

I've never considered myself a super runner, and until I left New York, and as a result, November Project, I didn't realize how much it had been influencing my life.

Just waking up the sun with some burpees on the East River

For anyone who doesn't know about November Project, it's a free fitness group in 16 cities in the US/Canada that (official as of today) has 3,934 members! I joined November Project in May after hearing about it from a friend and since then these people have become some of my most fun, fit, and close friends. I've never joined a running group before, so I guess you could say I don't really know, but November Project is so much more than a running group. For starters you don't run from point A to point B. You run loops around a central point, and everyone is at a different part of the course at all times so you are never alone (or last). Sometimes I run different laps with different friends, or talk to someone I've never met before because we're running next to each other, and some mornings I just go hard and challenge myself to run the most laps that I can.They also have a Positivity Award, and every week they tell the most amazing story about a different person at November Project who is making everyone around them a better person.

Not the positivity award, but I got Pin the Badger (on loan) for my birthday from Coach John. November Project is really good at celebrating birthdays

There are a lot of photos taken, and a lot of hugs given, and I have more energy on Wednesdays because I woke up at 5:45 am and ran around with these crazy people, than any other day when I sleep until 7:30. Lastly and possibly most importantly, the tribe (that's what they call the group in each city) drinks. And the tribe never has a bad time. These people know how to celebrate a race, support each other at charity events, and enjoy a few margaritas on a Friday night.

Some of my favorite NP friends celebrating our Bronx 10 Miler

I was really finding my stride is this group of amazing people when I got my 6 days notice of leaving New York City (Just for two months... but still). Having such an amazing group of people in New York, made leaving that much harder. When I first got to Christchurch and talked to a few of my best friends (who haven't joined November Project yet), they both asked 1. Do they have NP there? 2. Is there anything similar you can join? They get me. But unfortunately there is not.

The most homesick I've been so far was last Wednesday when I woke up to a message saying I had missed an awesome bridge workout. Bridge days at November Project are my FAVORITE and all the sunrise photos on instagram were breaking my heart.

I mean, how can you NOT be homesick for this sunrise? Amazing photo by Emily Faherty

I was excited to run the Fidelity Life Corportate Challenge with my coworkers this week, but also nervous that it wouldn't be as much of a celebration as my other races have been recently. I shouldn't have underestimated it, because I had a really good time, and am feeling so much better about Christchurch as a result.

The race was on Wednesday, but due to some pretty extreme weather, we didn't think the race was going to happen...
Tuesday night, when I was leaving work, I heard thunder in the distance, and a few minutes in to my drive it started hailing. Over the next couple minutes, as I drove about a quarter of a mile, the hail got heavier and heavier and about an inch of ice accumulated on the roads. It honestly looked like a blizzard had just hit. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced, so of course I looked it up on the internet when I got home. There were no news stories! Apparently, this happens with some frequency, and New Zealand doesn't have the sensationalized/frenzied media culture that the US does, so there was literally nothing on the internet about it. What remote island am I living on?!

Literally awful.

And that road was clear 5 minutes ago.

On Wednesday, race day, it POURED off and on all day. I'm talking some serious rain. No one wanted to be the one to bail and let anyone else down, so we all put on our TT shirts and went to the race. It started pouring as the rain began, but we ran hard. I PRed and had a ton of fun.

The group from the office who walked/ran the Corporate Challenge! 

I wore my TT shirt for the race because there wasn't bag check and I had to wear it for the photo, but immediately after changed in to my grassroots gear. Upon seeing my grassroots gear, my coworker Jen reacted, "OH November Project is your running group?!?! That's so awesome!! It's their birthday tomorrow or something, right?" Why yes it is. Happy 3rd Birthday NP! The amount of joy Jen's comment brought me is almost embarrassing. Having someone here, on the other side of the world, understand exactly what I missed about home brought me so much relief. And of course I was even happier to hear her say "We should start NP Christchurch!"

Drenched from the rain, but had to take a photo in my #grassrootsgear

After the race we all went to a cafe called C1. They only serve sliders, but they are delivered to you via a network of tubes that go around the restaurant and end up at your table. I have no idea how it works, but it was really fun, and, surprisingly, the food was good! I love most food and enjoy being an adventurous eater, but the food in this country has been pretty bad. (Except the tim tams- the tim tams are good. And apparently the chocolate milk.) I even had a great Kiwi beer, brewed in Nelson where I was last weekend. Overall, the night was really fun -- running, eating, drinking, and laughing. It felt like that little part of home that I so missed, had come to help me out in Christchurch.

This morning when I woke up to messages about my friends PRs at November Project, I was so much happier to hear about it than the week before. And so thrilled to hear #3014 was met!

This weekend I'm going to be missing the race that I organized in honor of my big, Miriam Frankl. I am so blessed to have family and friends who are going to go to Chicago in my absence, meet Miriam's parents, and remember one person who has influenced my life in so many ways. I could go on and on about my big, but for those who are reading, thank you for the support and for the donations to the scholarship fund, and to those running this weekend, I owe you a big hug next time I see you. Just know I'm thinking of you and wish I could be there. Give Miriam's family and friends a big hug from me.

So to November Project, I miss you and I cannot wait to see all of your beautiful faces December 31st for bridge day (this is my #verbal). To the runners in Chicago, race hard and have fun, I wish I were there, and to my coworkers and new running friends, thanks for making me a whole lot less homesick this week.