People are sooo friendly here!

So I went to my first NZ party on friday night. The hostess is a woman in my department who I hadn't meet yet but greeted me with a big hug (I got another when saying goodbye)! My officemate, Rebecca, picked me up and when we arrived at like 9:10 the party was loud and going strong! The problem being that it was too loud to make conversation with people you don't know, especially when those people have accents! But I did get to meet and chat with quite a few folks in the department.

I spent saturday morning calling the states about my student loan payment. Ya know, I talk to these people before I left and everything was supposedly in order and I had until May to send proof that I'm enrolled at a school...then I leave and they start sending bills to my mom's. Thankfully I'm on top of things 'cause I had already mailed my proof of enrollment form to them, but it's takes a minute to get there from NZ. Then I went shopping...stopped by the farmer's market, went to an outdoor store and got water resistant gloves, a hat, a dry bag and a pair of pink wool socks (I find myself doing laundry 'cause I'm out of my wool socks and these were pink and girlie and cute!). Then I finally got a cell phone - Robynne had left me her SIM card so I didn't need to pay for that at least - and now it'll be easier for me to have a social life. Then I wandered into several wool clothing shops...I was drooling over all the beautiful wool sweaters, shawls, t-shirts, dresses, gloves, scarves...too expensive for me at the moment but I'll definitely splurge on something at some point. I made friends with one of the boutique owners - we chatted for awhile. I had mentioned I where I was going fishing and she said "so you'll be fishing for cod" and then proceeded to tell me how to cook it and where to find mussels and how to make seafood chowder and which seafood restaurants to go to. I'll be going back to have coffee with her - she's great!

On sunday, fishing was canceled yet again due to the wind! Damnit! but what do ya do? So I went back to bed and then spent the late morning calling back home. Best of all, I started working on my first manuscript for publishing - I got the hardest part done! But of course, lots more to do. I worked until I got my first text on my new phone from Rebecca inviting me to dinner...she picked me up and we had wine and she cooked mexican and we chatted the night away!