Casey's Spot: You're jealous. Just admit it!

Here we go! Another Marathon blog from your favorite world traveler! So its been another few exciting days. Saturday morning and afternoon was spent mostly talking to Dad, Duffi & Brian, Kristin, and my Grandparents. I felt sort of anti-social in the flat because all my flatmates were home, but it was nice to spend a couple hours talking to family.

So Jim called me (Oh yea, I have a cell phone now! Don't you wish you had the number?!?) and asked if I wanted to attend a swim meet at WRAC. The swim meets are not what I thought. At ELMO, the coaches spend 4+ hours running around taking times, babysitting kids so they don't miss races, changing the schedule, and being harassed by 60+ children (and parents) wanting times and critique. At NZ swim meets, the parents play team manager and the coaches get to sit there, enjoying organized sanity, and watch the kids swim! The meet ran so smoothly. IT WAS GREAT!

*The Wellington Regional Aquatics Centre (WRAC), a.k.a My Home for the next 10+ weeks*

After the meet Jim and I headed over to the mall in Wellington to grab a prime rib dinner at this place called "The Hogs Breath" and we happened to catch the All Blacks rugby match against the South African Springboks. I finally got to see "the Haka," a traditional Maori dance that the All Blacks do to basically say "We respect you as our opponents. Now we are going to kick your butt". It is a beautiful thing to see and worth a trip over to youtube.com to check out a few videos.
Next, we headed over to the "Gold Lounge," the theater I mentioned in the previous post. WHY CAN'T WE GET THESE IN THE STATES?!?! We ended up seeing Ocean's Thirteen in the biggest, most comfortable chairs I've ever sat my bum in. My feet couldn't even touch the floor. Before the movie we ordered cocoa and Oreo cheesecake to be delivered to our seats after the previews were over, and sure enough, they were there at the end of the previews (Side note: It was really hard not to nod off because it was so relaxing.)

*At the Gold Lounge (Looks comfy, doesn't it?)*

Sunday was spent as a "pseudo-family" day with Jim offering to take me to brunch, show me some sights, and help me run errands. So he picked me up around 10:30 and we headed straight over to the other side of the Wellington Harbor to a little town called Eastbourne. It was such a cute town. We had brunch at the "Colbort" and it had an amazing view. We then walked around the little town, which reminds me of Carmel. It has little wooden piers every 200 yards or so and there were about 100 sailboats off the coastline.

* The view from our brunch table in Eastbourne*

*HI! (You can see the city behind me)*

*A view from the drive from Eastbourne back to Wellington* (Hey Dad, I got ALOT of boats in this picture. I win!)

After a few errands (WEE! An electric blanket and a corner unit for all my stuff!!), we headed to the OTHER side of Wellington, up a mountain (on a very narrow road, think Road to Hana), to see an Air Turbine. Kiwi's are very proud of this dutch invention. It was too windy and cold to read the information on why they only have one and why they are testing it (I can tell them it works in Palm Springs!). The view was spectacular!! You could see all of Wellington on one side and the Cook Straight on the other.
*The Wellington Air Turbine and the view* (I'm so proud of this shot! It almost matches up perfectly. Welcome to Wellington!) "Hurry up, Casey!! Take your picture!!" "BUT IT'S SO COOL!"

Jim then dropped me back at my house were Haydn and I proceed to make a HUGE pot of soup (enough to get through the week). It was alot of fun, cutting vegetables and bonding. I got to hear his life story (marriage, divorce, cancer, back surgery) and we then watched Dodgeball when Frazer and Katrin came home. It was a typical, relaxing evening at home.
Tomorrow....I start work *gasp*! Just kidding. Jim is going to drive me around for another week so I get use to the road and get my barrings with where I'm going (but I'm actually telling him..."Ummm, Jim....Colchester Road was back there."). I work from 1-3 at WRAC then 5-7 at Raumati. My schedule will get more and more packed as a few weeks go on. Eventually, I'll be working 9am-3pm MTWF at WRAC, 5-8 at Raumati, and 9am-12pm Saturday and Sunday at WRAC.

*13a Kingsbridge Place, Newlands, Wellington, New Zealand* (My House. My room is the long window on the the left side. I get great sun pretty much all day long. Please note: the clothes hanging on the line in the backyard. They don't use dryers here. EEK!)