Can you feel it??

SPRING IS COMING!! But of course you can't feel it because it's becoming Autumn back in the States. SO HAHA!! Y'all laughed at me..."Haha, Casey. You're going to the land of Winter"...well, look who gets to laugh now! It was stunningly beautiful yesterday. Everyone was excited because you can feel that the weather is turning. It was a whole 18 degrees Celsius. I was excited for that...thinking to myself "YA! That's gotta be at least 70! It feels like 70!" I made my drive to Raumati with all the windows rolled down and in a tank top and jeans and then I layed on the beach to read. When I got home and I typed "18" into my trusty temperature converter, it only resulted in being 64 degrees Fahrenheit. I was slightly disappointed but then I realized I'm becoming acclimated to the temp.

Laying on the beach in front of the pool....awwww....so nice!

Just a kiwi kid playin' in the surf at Raumati Beach.

Yesterday also resulted in my first New Zealand "going to the Doctor" experience. Tuesday night my eye was itching like crazy and I knew I was getting an eye infection, which happens alot when you work with kids as much as I do. Wednesday morning I called the closest Medical Centre to the pool, which happens to be a 5 minute walk, and scheduled an appointment on my lunch break. So at 11am I walked over and the Doctor took me right away (no wait) and looked at my eye and said I was right about it being infected and prescribed me some drops. I payed my $50 and walked over to the pharmacy and the drops were filled right away for $10 and I was back at the pool by 11:45. This would have NEVER happened back home. It was really easy and completely painless (except for my itchy, red, swollen eye...that does kinda hurt).

Sunday night, Katrin invited me to join her and her school friends to a steak dinner to celebrate her birthday. We went to this a restaurant called "Lone Star" in the city and it was FANTASTIC! I had the Sirloin (medium) with mash potatoes and a apple pie for desert. Meat is DEFINITELY better here. Fresh, grass-fed animal........mmmm, can't beat it!

After dinner, Frazer took a detour up to Mount Victoria (a mountain in the middle of the city) and I took this shot of the east side of Wellington Harbor. You can see the inter-island ferry in the bottom right-hand corner. It was really cool to see the city at night.

Finally, last night Seka and I met up to see "Hairspray". It was cute but the original with Ricki Lake is so much better. Work is also pretty easy this week. We basically get to play with the kids because it is the last week of term. No one here knows "Marco! Polo!" so I've been teaching about every class how to play it (and the other instructors) and I also taught them "Rainbow" which my cousins and I use to play in my grandparents pool. ("Red! Purple! RAINBOW!!....GOT YOU!")

So that's about it. Congrats to Aly and Rob on their big move to Texas and being proud owners of their own home and business. I know it will work out perfectly!