While I have many updates I have been uber busy! The dodgeball tournament was a great success even though my team only made it to the quarter finals. Out of about 30 teams I consider that a success for a bunch of silly people dressed in Chef uniforms.
The mountain has recently gotten dumped on last week and is looking much better. Trails that were littered with rocks last week have become pristine white trails. The mountain does get busy on weekends and those are the days I happen to work. Today was a long day, I was in at 6:45 am and out at 6 pm. I expect tomorrow to be about the same.
On an awesomely positive note one of my best friends, Treat, will be visiting me in late August and I hope to get a week to two weeks off so that Treat and I can examine the finer culture of Kiwi drinking and life as a whole. Given the opportunity, we may even hit up Australia.
On my next post I promise to post pictures of the happenings around my work and personal life as both have been pretty exciting. For those of you on skype, I will do better to get on and have some time to chat. I still haven't gotten any postcards out but hopefully I will soon.
I hope everyone is doing well back in the States (or wherever else you might be if you are reading this) and hope to talk to many of you soon!
Kevin
Friday, July 30, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
How's that for irony?
Welp...I believe I last left you all mentioned the fact that I had a sore throat for 2(ish) weeks and I had no other symptoms. Interestingly, the night I wrote that and went to sleep I ended up getting the chills and cold sweats as I tried to fall asleep. I hardly slept, waking up every 15-20 minutes with a pounding headache, continued chills/sweats, and nausea when I finally got up for work. So...for the next... 6 days (on the 5th day I finally went to the Doctor on the mountain) I was out of work until - TODAY! Turns out I had tonsillitis. Ain't that a bitch. Penicillin and anti-fever drugs (their names escape me) help me with a quick turnaround and to jump back in it.
Interestingly, I still haven't gotten paid due to some form not getting filled out by yours truly (though I was told I filled everything out). Instead, I got an advance on my pay in the amount of almost my entire paycheck so I could afford some things.
On an awesomely positive note there is a Mountain Dodgeball tournament among staff. The Kitchen will be competing and I can't wait to play. It's in two days. I plan on being as Neo-esque as possible. Were meeting before the tournament to watch Dodgeball. We've decided it's our training. Oh, and we're wearing our chef's jackets as a uniform. Wicked!
I'm exhausted - doing nothing for a week and then jumping right back into work makes you tired.
I'm healthy again, I have money, and life is fun! I'll fill you in on more later!
Interestingly, I still haven't gotten paid due to some form not getting filled out by yours truly (though I was told I filled everything out). Instead, I got an advance on my pay in the amount of almost my entire paycheck so I could afford some things.
On an awesomely positive note there is a Mountain Dodgeball tournament among staff. The Kitchen will be competing and I can't wait to play. It's in two days. I plan on being as Neo-esque as possible. Were meeting before the tournament to watch Dodgeball. We've decided it's our training. Oh, and we're wearing our chef's jackets as a uniform. Wicked!
I'm exhausted - doing nothing for a week and then jumping right back into work makes you tired.
I'm healthy again, I have money, and life is fun! I'll fill you in on more later!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
NZ has been taking my breath away...
More specifically it's been taking my voice away. For the last two weeks I've been battling a sore throat that made me have no voice for about two days last week and today it reared it's ugly head again today. I believe it's the incredibly dry air and me not doing a good enough job hydrating myself so I've been working on doing that today (I think i'm approaching 2 gallons as I write) and adding a little brown sugar to some really hot water to soothe the throat. I'm not sick, but it is a MAJOR annoyance.
Work has kicked off in fantastic fashion as for the last week and a half I've gotten the breakfast shift! Meaning I start work at 6:45 every morning, so I have to get picked up at 6:15 outside of my apartment complex, so I have to get up between 5:30 and 5:45. It also leaves me no time to make breakfast as the communal kitchen opens at 6:00 and that doesn't really leave me much time to make anything. I tried to combat that by making muffins to eat in the morning. I made one pack of muffins (6 jumbo) and in less than 24 hours I had eaten all of them. Instead I just munch and nibble on breakfast items at work.
School holidays (aka - summer break for us, except they get them in the winter here) have started and that means we get slammed at work. Well....that's true and not so true... Last Friday kicked off school holidays and we were quite busy. I barely got a second to step off the grill during work and I didn't take one of my ten minute breaks that I was entitled to because we were so slammed. Friday was busy but it was a cakewalk compared to Saturday. Saturday was ridiculous. I cooked nonstop from 6:45 in the morning to 2:30 which is when the kitchen closes except for small items like fries or salads. I literally stayed on the grill during that time, no breaks, didn't even go to the bathroom during that time. I just stood over the grill and cooked open chicken sandwiches, burgers, steak sandwiches, steak and eggs and everything else that was made on a grill. Since then...work has been slack a little. I still went in at 6:45 Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday but it was so slow on Monday and Tuesday that I was sent home at 10 and noon, respectively. Kind of a joke in my mind considering we are supposed to be busy but the one caveat is that the mountain was closed both days. Today was my day off. I either wanted to go to the store or go snowboarding. Neither happened.
The mountain wasn't closed but I didn't go boarding because only the beginner slope was open and from what I here, it was packed and the lift lines were ridiculous. I didn't go to the store because no one I knew went to the store today. I've been asking around for someone to take me to the store for the last 4 days and haven't made it yet. I ate my last bit of spaghetti tonight for dinner. I have some spiral pasta left, about a kilo of frozen vegetables, and one serving of pasta sauce left that I made about a week and a half ago. I also have half a loaf of bread, half a jar of peanut butter and about 3/4 of a jar of jelly. There is a tiny gas station that is also like a mini supermarket but the prices are insane. I bought food for my first week from there and then went to the store the next week and was astounded at the price gouging. One packet of budget spaghetti (.5 kilos) cost 80 cents at the super-market. It costs 1.60 at the gas station. It's similar for all the other food items. Tomorrow I'm going to the store thanks to a cool Brit couple named Sam and Louise that I've been hanging out with.
Non-work related things have been exciting. The world cup has been prominent in every day life and most of us are predicting a Netherlands/Germany final. With the Dutch win this morning that might actually happen. The bars are quite upbeat during the right time of the week. One bar (called the Ho) hosted all the RAL (Ruapehu Alpine Lifts, the company for which I work) staff that sort of kicked off the season that was great fun. What's better is they have a free pool table and you get a card that tells them you are staff and you get cheaper drinks. What's shit is most of the drinks are Vodka mixers. Whatevs.
Another bar(Schnapp's) hosts bands every Thursday and the first one was fantastic. Named Spider Pig, the rock cover band threw a pretty good party at the bar and I spent most of the night playing pool and trying to speak over the band (Hint, this was the beginning of my lost voice). A good time was had by all.
My apartment complex also threw a shindig that they called the Winter Olympics. When people make jokes about how New Zealand is behind the rest of the world, this is part of what they mean... But, it was a great deal of fun. A lot of people from RAL showed up as well as many people from the apartment complex (most of them were RAL anyways). I met the rest of the Americans that night as we all teamed up to try to beat the rest of the world in challenges ranging from a dice game where you had to eat a bar of chocolate with a fork and a knife wearing mittens after rolling a 6, wall-sits where one person from each team had to wall-sit, the flour cake game where candies were hidden in a 'cake' made of flour and you weren't allowed to use your hands to get them out. After a few hours of intense competition (and other games that I cant all remember) the USA took second behind the 'Dutch' team. Naturally I was very disappointed we took second but I was a bit more livid when I found out the 'Dutch' team was made up of, 1 Dutch girl (whom I now work with ironically), 1 Brit, 1 Scot, 1 AMERICAN (I was very unpleased finding that out), 1 German, and 2 others that I cant remember. Ironically, there already was the "United Nations" team but there was also a British team and an American team. I still give Joyce (the dutch girl I work with) shit about it occasionally.
I've also made good friends with most of the staff of the complex where I work and have partied with them a bit as well. Everyone I've met here has been awesome and at some point I'll have to bring my camera out and take pictures with everyone to share with you all. I am having a fantastic time, minus the sore throat and voice loss. Working or not, I have had a great time so far in NZ. I know that as the season picks up the parties will do the same. I hope my throat can keep up. I leave you with a picture of the 5:30 am sky down in New Zealand. Unfortunately, I didn't think to capture a major southern hemisphere constellation but that will come later... If you think I haven't covered something let me know and I'll do my best to fill you in on other stuff that I have left out...
Also, I finally bought some post cards so some of you might be getting some postcards soon. Well see how long the NZ post takes.
Love and miss you all
Work has kicked off in fantastic fashion as for the last week and a half I've gotten the breakfast shift! Meaning I start work at 6:45 every morning, so I have to get picked up at 6:15 outside of my apartment complex, so I have to get up between 5:30 and 5:45. It also leaves me no time to make breakfast as the communal kitchen opens at 6:00 and that doesn't really leave me much time to make anything. I tried to combat that by making muffins to eat in the morning. I made one pack of muffins (6 jumbo) and in less than 24 hours I had eaten all of them. Instead I just munch and nibble on breakfast items at work.
School holidays (aka - summer break for us, except they get them in the winter here) have started and that means we get slammed at work. Well....that's true and not so true... Last Friday kicked off school holidays and we were quite busy. I barely got a second to step off the grill during work and I didn't take one of my ten minute breaks that I was entitled to because we were so slammed. Friday was busy but it was a cakewalk compared to Saturday. Saturday was ridiculous. I cooked nonstop from 6:45 in the morning to 2:30 which is when the kitchen closes except for small items like fries or salads. I literally stayed on the grill during that time, no breaks, didn't even go to the bathroom during that time. I just stood over the grill and cooked open chicken sandwiches, burgers, steak sandwiches, steak and eggs and everything else that was made on a grill. Since then...work has been slack a little. I still went in at 6:45 Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday but it was so slow on Monday and Tuesday that I was sent home at 10 and noon, respectively. Kind of a joke in my mind considering we are supposed to be busy but the one caveat is that the mountain was closed both days. Today was my day off. I either wanted to go to the store or go snowboarding. Neither happened.
The mountain wasn't closed but I didn't go boarding because only the beginner slope was open and from what I here, it was packed and the lift lines were ridiculous. I didn't go to the store because no one I knew went to the store today. I've been asking around for someone to take me to the store for the last 4 days and haven't made it yet. I ate my last bit of spaghetti tonight for dinner. I have some spiral pasta left, about a kilo of frozen vegetables, and one serving of pasta sauce left that I made about a week and a half ago. I also have half a loaf of bread, half a jar of peanut butter and about 3/4 of a jar of jelly. There is a tiny gas station that is also like a mini supermarket but the prices are insane. I bought food for my first week from there and then went to the store the next week and was astounded at the price gouging. One packet of budget spaghetti (.5 kilos) cost 80 cents at the super-market. It costs 1.60 at the gas station. It's similar for all the other food items. Tomorrow I'm going to the store thanks to a cool Brit couple named Sam and Louise that I've been hanging out with.
Non-work related things have been exciting. The world cup has been prominent in every day life and most of us are predicting a Netherlands/Germany final. With the Dutch win this morning that might actually happen. The bars are quite upbeat during the right time of the week. One bar (called the Ho) hosted all the RAL (Ruapehu Alpine Lifts, the company for which I work) staff that sort of kicked off the season that was great fun. What's better is they have a free pool table and you get a card that tells them you are staff and you get cheaper drinks. What's shit is most of the drinks are Vodka mixers. Whatevs.
Another bar(Schnapp's) hosts bands every Thursday and the first one was fantastic. Named Spider Pig, the rock cover band threw a pretty good party at the bar and I spent most of the night playing pool and trying to speak over the band (Hint, this was the beginning of my lost voice). A good time was had by all.
My apartment complex also threw a shindig that they called the Winter Olympics. When people make jokes about how New Zealand is behind the rest of the world, this is part of what they mean... But, it was a great deal of fun. A lot of people from RAL showed up as well as many people from the apartment complex (most of them were RAL anyways). I met the rest of the Americans that night as we all teamed up to try to beat the rest of the world in challenges ranging from a dice game where you had to eat a bar of chocolate with a fork and a knife wearing mittens after rolling a 6, wall-sits where one person from each team had to wall-sit, the flour cake game where candies were hidden in a 'cake' made of flour and you weren't allowed to use your hands to get them out. After a few hours of intense competition (and other games that I cant all remember) the USA took second behind the 'Dutch' team. Naturally I was very disappointed we took second but I was a bit more livid when I found out the 'Dutch' team was made up of, 1 Dutch girl (whom I now work with ironically), 1 Brit, 1 Scot, 1 AMERICAN (I was very unpleased finding that out), 1 German, and 2 others that I cant remember. Ironically, there already was the "United Nations" team but there was also a British team and an American team. I still give Joyce (the dutch girl I work with) shit about it occasionally.
I've also made good friends with most of the staff of the complex where I work and have partied with them a bit as well. Everyone I've met here has been awesome and at some point I'll have to bring my camera out and take pictures with everyone to share with you all. I am having a fantastic time, minus the sore throat and voice loss. Working or not, I have had a great time so far in NZ. I know that as the season picks up the parties will do the same. I hope my throat can keep up. I leave you with a picture of the 5:30 am sky down in New Zealand. Unfortunately, I didn't think to capture a major southern hemisphere constellation but that will come later... If you think I haven't covered something let me know and I'll do my best to fill you in on other stuff that I have left out...
Also, I finally bought some post cards so some of you might be getting some postcards soon. Well see how long the NZ post takes.
Love and miss you all
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