Our second host stayed closer to the city area. Martha was a lady in her 50s i think, and self employed. In fact, she has a really interesting business - Funeral Services.
Her house is a simple 2 storey house, with the living and bathroom at the bottom, and bedrooms upstairs. And she has a huge black Great Dane, and 2 cats. More animal fur on my clothes..
Actually Martha had prepared our bed on the living room sofa, which folds out to a queen size bed. But K and I decided to take her spare room instead, even though it has a super single bed only, cause it was much warmer! Plus, i didn't want her big dog jumping on me when if I am sleeping in the living room!
I had much better sleep in my second home. For some reason, the room was much warmer even without a heater.
Yesterday, K and I went to Martha's office in Auckland city. She had another bird in her office. She showed us around her office. There was an underground room where she put some very nicely done coffins, and some church benches for small scale funeral services. It was very interesting for me to see all these..
We parked our car outside her office, and while she left to run some errands, K and I explored Auckland city. We went to the War Memorial Museum (which was another interesting expeience), then to University of Auckland campus and then to Queens Street where we meet up with Anne for coffee. Before coffee, I popped into an ASB branch office, and managed to put my name into K's bank account to make it a joint account. Apparently, this branch accepted credit cards as my 2nd identification. Stupid.
During my coffee conversation with Anne, we bitched to each other about how much we disliked Auckland. She hated the city life, and the lack of diversity cause there were so many Asians here, especially Chinese people. She didn't feel like she was in Auckland. I bitched about how things were not going too well for me, how boring this place was, how expensive food was (a normal food court meal is at least NZ$8-9), and the bloody cold weather. = P
After coffee, Anne headed back to campus, while K and I drove back home. On the way back, we stopped by the supermarket and bought some groceries at this place called "Pak N Save". Apparently, the things here are the cheapest among all supermarkets. And they don't provide plastic bags. If you want bags you have to pay 10 cents each, and pack your stuff into the bags on your own. Cashier won't do the packing for you. Of course, we didn't know. So we ended up with all kinds of loose grocery items in the car.. haha.. Dinner was maggi noodles for the past 2 nights.. food here is really expensive. Don't know how we are going to survive if we don't find a job soon.. hai..
Today, we slept late. Woke up around 11am. Martha had left for work so it was just her pets and us. We made breakfast - cereal and apple juice, used the net for a while, then headed out to settle some more administrative stuff. We went to the Inland Revenue office, applied for our IRD number (based on my credit card) cause the first time we tried at the post office and they didn't allow me to apply cause i only had my passport. We still need to wait 2 weeks before we get the stupid number.
After the IRD thing was done, we went to this sushi bar and packed some sushi for lunch by the beach. But the rain had to come. So we parked our car by the beach and ate inside the car instead. We had a few pigeons for company as they sat on the front of our car and watched us eat through the wind screens.. it was nice.. So far the nicest things i have done since i landed in Auckland.. The past few days has just been too many administrative things! Don't feel like i am on holiday at all!!
After we finished lunch, the rain stopped so we stepped out and took a walk around.. There was a rainbow at the horizon, and this humongous bird by the rocks, which i took pictures of, of course!
K and I headed back around 530pm and went to the supermarket again, this time to buy dinner (cause i refuse to eat maggi noodles again), and sun screen. Still can't believe i forgot to bring my sun screen. The sun here is really horrible.. so strong!!
I have just finished eating my dinner : Microwavable packed fish with mashed potatoes..
Martha just came back.. will continue blogging tomorrow.. Hopefully it will be a fine day tomorrow!! = )
Her house is a simple 2 storey house, with the living and bathroom at the bottom, and bedrooms upstairs. And she has a huge black Great Dane, and 2 cats. More animal fur on my clothes..
Actually Martha had prepared our bed on the living room sofa, which folds out to a queen size bed. But K and I decided to take her spare room instead, even though it has a super single bed only, cause it was much warmer! Plus, i didn't want her big dog jumping on me when if I am sleeping in the living room!
I had much better sleep in my second home. For some reason, the room was much warmer even without a heater.
Yesterday, K and I went to Martha's office in Auckland city. She had another bird in her office. She showed us around her office. There was an underground room where she put some very nicely done coffins, and some church benches for small scale funeral services. It was very interesting for me to see all these..
We parked our car outside her office, and while she left to run some errands, K and I explored Auckland city. We went to the War Memorial Museum (which was another interesting expeience), then to University of Auckland campus and then to Queens Street where we meet up with Anne for coffee. Before coffee, I popped into an ASB branch office, and managed to put my name into K's bank account to make it a joint account. Apparently, this branch accepted credit cards as my 2nd identification. Stupid.
During my coffee conversation with Anne, we bitched to each other about how much we disliked Auckland. She hated the city life, and the lack of diversity cause there were so many Asians here, especially Chinese people. She didn't feel like she was in Auckland. I bitched about how things were not going too well for me, how boring this place was, how expensive food was (a normal food court meal is at least NZ$8-9), and the bloody cold weather. = P
After coffee, Anne headed back to campus, while K and I drove back home. On the way back, we stopped by the supermarket and bought some groceries at this place called "Pak N Save". Apparently, the things here are the cheapest among all supermarkets. And they don't provide plastic bags. If you want bags you have to pay 10 cents each, and pack your stuff into the bags on your own. Cashier won't do the packing for you. Of course, we didn't know. So we ended up with all kinds of loose grocery items in the car.. haha.. Dinner was maggi noodles for the past 2 nights.. food here is really expensive. Don't know how we are going to survive if we don't find a job soon.. hai..
Today, we slept late. Woke up around 11am. Martha had left for work so it was just her pets and us. We made breakfast - cereal and apple juice, used the net for a while, then headed out to settle some more administrative stuff. We went to the Inland Revenue office, applied for our IRD number (based on my credit card) cause the first time we tried at the post office and they didn't allow me to apply cause i only had my passport. We still need to wait 2 weeks before we get the stupid number.
After the IRD thing was done, we went to this sushi bar and packed some sushi for lunch by the beach. But the rain had to come. So we parked our car by the beach and ate inside the car instead. We had a few pigeons for company as they sat on the front of our car and watched us eat through the wind screens.. it was nice.. So far the nicest things i have done since i landed in Auckland.. The past few days has just been too many administrative things! Don't feel like i am on holiday at all!!
After we finished lunch, the rain stopped so we stepped out and took a walk around.. There was a rainbow at the horizon, and this humongous bird by the rocks, which i took pictures of, of course!
K and I headed back around 530pm and went to the supermarket again, this time to buy dinner (cause i refuse to eat maggi noodles again), and sun screen. Still can't believe i forgot to bring my sun screen. The sun here is really horrible.. so strong!!
I have just finished eating my dinner : Microwavable packed fish with mashed potatoes..
Martha just came back.. will continue blogging tomorrow.. Hopefully it will be a fine day tomorrow!! = )
Posts
May 6, 2009 at 2:59 AM
don't be so upset.. the beauty of moving to another country is to experience their life there. All the good and all the bad. Life has been a little hectic for both of you. I'm sure when your friends go over, you will feel so much better and start having fun!