Another Trip to Civilization

Here in the boonies, bad weather days are used to make trips to civilization. As most of the mountain was closed for wednesday due to bad weather, we decided against going skiing. Instead, we were going to drive to a nearby city to get Jon some contact solution. Turns out that my friend Leo beat us to the idea. He had gotten off of work at 10 am (because of the bad weather) and had come to The Park to ask Josh, our friend and supervisor at work, for a ride to Taupo. Those two somehow managed to find out where Jon and I live and came knocking at our door. They needed to fill a carload of people to make the trip cheaper. So we drove with them instead of using our own car. Interestingly enough, Amy ended up coming with us. Somehow I always end up hanging out with the same people.

Taupo gets a little boring after a while. We just ended up getting groceries and hanging around most of the time. There is a movie theater in town, so we took advantage of that and watched "The Hangover" which was actually pretty good. And that's saying something coming from me, since I tend to hate the movies that everyone else likes. I'm really glad we didn't end up watching Bruno. That would have been a huge waste of money.

Jon and I bought bindings off of Trade Me last night. If these bindings are useable, then we'll attach them to his janky board. Maybe that will suffice to make riding the little thing easier.

You can tell by my writing that I am getting bored right now. I will probably go out drinking tonight. The big event of the week is that a DJ is coming to the pub tonight. Apparently everyone has been getting sick of the music they play at the pub, so people were very excited to go experience the music. I hope to infiltrate the masses and do some hanging out. Jon has to work. I will be alone. Except for my friends from Rentals. Which is a good portion of the people living in National Park, so I really won't be alone. But still.

Yeah, sorry for the lack of news. Bad weather means life kind of stands still when you're in the middle of nowhere.

Jalissa

The Tuesday Island

So, now that holidays are over, my schedule is getting a lot more normal. I have mondays and wednesdays off, which leaves a single day of work in between. I call it my island of work. Today was such a day. It was incredibly slow today, to the point that our supervisor was struggling to find things for us to do so we could look busy. Longest day of my life. And I didn't even go for a ski break because I thought I might make up some hours from all the ski breaks I have been taking lately.

So there is not much to tell.

Yesterday was the day Jon and I went to the mountain together. The weather was perfect. It was sunny and warm. What sucks is that it turns out that the board we bought off of the internet is way smaller and more broken than we expected. The bindings have probably been put together out of whatever was available. Every part is different from the next, and nothing matches. It's pretty ridiculous. The top of the board is coming off of the bottom in some parts, which is the kind of damage that takes days (and money) to fix. Not to mention that the bindings are so small that it is too hard to get your boots into them without an extraordinary struggle.

This stuff actually is helping us both understand the details of why boards are usually built the way they are. Knowing what's wrong is a really good way to learn about the equipment that we are investing in. The problem is that it took us an actual monetary investment to learn these lessons. So we were pretty bummed yesterday. We are either going to have to buy a whole new set of stuff and try to sell this janky board, or we'll at least have to buy new bindings and get the board fixed up. As staff, I do get a 50% discount in the workshop. The guy there said a full tune would cost us $26. That seems like a reasonable price to pay for a real wax, sharpening the edges, and gluing the parts of the board back together. This would mean that Jon would have a relatively short board, but according to the internet, it is still within the range of sizes that a person of his height would have. The plus side would be that we could ditch it after he has trashed it for a season of beginner riding. We could just carry the bindings home with us.

So despite amazing weather, the riding was not that great. I'll rent Jon some stuff from rentals until we get this board fixed up. In the meantime, he's getting really good. We're getting some speed going down some of these runs, and despite some gnarly falls, he is fearless. What I really want, though, is to find some people that we can ride together with. We are still searching for the right combination of people to do this with. It's hard to have fun when you are skiing with people of different skill levels. Especially if those people aren't necessarily invested in hanging out with you. It's hard to convince people to go out with you if that means they have to sacrifice their ski time to wait for you. In the end, I got a snowboard and started riding with Jon because that put us on a more even level in terms of riding skill.

We are going skiing again tomorrow, but it looks like the weather is going to suck. We'll see how that goes...

Jalissa

One Sunny Weekend

Friends, the most remarkable thing happened on Mount Ruapehu this weekend. We had sun. Several consecutive days of it. There were even shadows. It was beautiful. I went on a ski break during my work today. Unfortunately, the snow that was on the slopes was no good (remember the days of rain on the mountain), so I skiied on ice the whole time, but nontheless, this was a completely different experience from the days of zero visibility. The mountain is beautiful. I will have to make a serious effort to take some pictures of it tomorrow.

So far, I have not been on too many ride breaks. Today I went with Amy and a girl named Carla. Carla is the slacker at Rentals. She has nothing good to say, and she brings the rest of the group down most of the time. She is also a typical girl. As an example, lets take today's ride break. The moment I got off, I bolted out the door and got ready as quickly as possible. I wanted to use as much of my free time as possible to explore the mountain. So, I stood there waiting for Carla. Ok, I tolerated that. She was probably just not used to speed-dressing and speed-ski-fitting. (By the way, I am now a certified salomon ski technician. Which means that I know how to adjust bindings. But it sounds cool and I have a certificate!) Then, it turns out that Carla neglected to mention that she basically doesn't know how to snowboard. So I do a turn, wait for Carla, do a turn, wait for Carla. At this point I was irritated because I had made it clear that I was a good skiier and that I wanted to use every second of my ski break to actually SKI. I thought she might have realized that she might be a burden if she was going to snake down the hill. Next thing I know, she sits down in the middle of the slope and takes the bindings off of her snowboard. Long story short, the binding wouldn't go back on the board, and riding down the hill was no longer an option. I was not about to help this girl at this point, since I was wasting precious women minutes. (You crewbies will appreciate that one.) Being the angel she is, Amy was very patient with Carla, helped her try to put the bindings back on the board, and eventually even walked her back up the hill so they could take the lift down to rentals to fix the board. I ended up taking off down the mountain and skiing on my own for the rest of the break. Lame. I'm no fan of skiing alone, and I don't think I will ever be. But it was better than waiting all the time.

Now that I think of it, I think I had such little patience with Carla because I have been spoiled with the attitude that comes along with being on a rowing team. I was used to girls who understand when they can and cannot contribute, who go out of their way to do the work that needs to get done, and who try hard even when they think they can't do things. None of these things were the case with Carla, and I don't think they will ever be.

So, in the future, I will be making sure to take ride breaks with other people. I have previously taken a ride break with a Korean guy named Leo. He's a hoot. You can tell that he is quite The Shit in Korea. The guy has an aura of confidence that cannot be shaken. Plus, he tells hilarious stories of his womanizing ways, and his unshakeable good looks. What makes these stories so funny is that he tells them in complete honesty, without any attempts to humble himself. Example: "Before I had my girlfriend, two girls liked me. A Korean one and a Japanese one. The Japanese girl was very cute. But I chose the Korean one because she was more beautiful. Girls like me. I am very confident and good looking." Man, I just can't stop laughing when he says stuff like that. Anyways, Leo is a decent skiier. Still, he doesn't really ski with his feet parallel, so he is still much slower than I would like to ride. Once, when the weather was really foggy but I had a ski break with Leo, we took out snowboards instead. We are equally bad at that, so we had a good time.

Speaking of snowboarding, I am going to the mountain with Jon tomorrow. We both have the day off, so we are taking advantage of his (and my) season pass. We just received the snowboard we bought for him in the mail today. I hope the thing will be ok for him. I am always afraid of the permanence of buying ski equipment. What if you spent hundreds of dollars on a piece of crap? How do you know it will perform its duty? (For example, I took out a pair of skis today that had absolutely no edge. For you non-skiiers, that means I was unable to make proper turns and just ended up sliding down the mountain at breakneck speeds.) In our case, its ok, since we really didn't spend too much money on the board. As soon as Jon gets better, he will probably outgrow it anyways. Maybe we can pimp the thing out a little before we sell it again. It really looks janky. And I mean JANKY. The bindings look like they were made of spare parts. And they probably were. But in some ways, I enjoy the idea that Jon's board has character. Not like the rest of those kids who buy a slick new board without bindings for $600 on sale, and spend about that much for boots and bindings as well.

Tomorrow, Jon and I will meet up with Taz (who is both a Rental Attendant and a Housekeeper at the Park) and her boyfriend Josh (who is a cook or kitchen aid on the mountain and at the Park) and probably Leo, to go skiing with them. We will see how things go. I might just end up taking out a snowboard if there are enough of us who will be stuck on beginner slopes tomorrow. Who knows, I might get good at boarding!

Good night y'all!
Jalissa

Did you see penguins fly into a window last night?

Apparently, most of the patrons of "the Park" has.

This incident happened last night. Last night was my first shift for "Night Audit/Porter". Basically, I transform into this night manager that looks after the park and patrols the circumference of the hotel until 2AM. The job is legit--I get paid, I get free drinks, play computer games all night, and have random drunk citizens entertain me for hours on end. Until, of course, a penguin shaped rock gets tossed into a window.

Let me explain. After the shift, I went straight to bed. Why? Because I had work at 9am. Duh. Surely, after such a quite night, or so I thought, there would be no police cars in front of the park in the morning right? Wrong! During my shift, I somehow managed to miss this maniac try to get into the park because he got kicked out of the bars. Good thing he was only trying to get into his own room. Anyhow, this enraged drunkard decided that it was a good idea to chuck a rock that closely resembles that cute, cuddly, flight-less bird into a window. Somehow I missed that last night. But no worries, I am not in trouble--at least not now. Now, as I zombied my way towards the reception office this morning(closely resembling an animal myself--a five-fingered sloth) Malcom, the kiwi manager, asked me "aiy Jon, havya seen en penguin flie into a wendow laast niaght?...go have-a looky there mate" and there it was. Bam. A broken window and a fucking penguin.

The other night, Alissa, myself, and the rest of the park had some free dinner and "heaps" of drinks from the owner. The restaurant was a very modern-conectpual artified room, with remarks painted on the walls such as "save me save me from myself" and "when they've found me, i was dead for a month" or something along those lines.

The place was called the projection room, and had a large projection screen outside that exhibited some disturbing scenes.
The dinner itself was a fusion asian food and some goolaush (spelling?). The asian fusion wasn't that very good, but it seemed very very very expensive.

I know, I know, we haven't put up any pictures yet, but they should be on their way.

dunno, what to expect tonight,

bye,
Jalissa
oh btw, i have a snowboard coming my way now for $130 + shipping yay!

It's Been A Month!

So we've officially been in New Zealand for 4 weeks. In the meantime we are quite settled here. We have our steady jobs, our home, and our car. Wow. It's crazy how far you can come in 4 weeks.

Speaking of our car, We were out driving it the other day, and we took a look in the trunk. It is full of things that the previous owner just couldn't take back to germany. Man, it was like opening a treasure chest! We found some of his camping clothes (for some reason this guy liked wearing green things. Maybe he hunted animals while camping), a pillow, complete with pillowcase, a sleeping bag, a length of rope, a large towel, a tent, and all sort of other fun stuff! He also left us with stuff like windex, an alarm clock, and sandwich bags. Seriously, when you're living on a budget, these things get very exciting. We left most of the stuff in the trunk. I hope to get excited again the next time I open it! Our car is doing well. It seems to be a little unhappy that we keep starting and stalling it, though. It now needs to have the accelleration pumped before it will let us turn it on. Grumpy little bugger. In terms of gas money, it costs about $1 per km, so we pretty much pay 30 bucks just to get to the closest town. In other words, we should be saving up if we plan to travel with our car after the snow season ends.

Today, the owner of the Park is taking out all of his staff to dinner. I get to come along for the ride. (I love the perks of Jon's workplace!) I'm excited to finally meet the actual owner of the place. We've met everyone else so far. Plus, he must be pretty cool if he's taking his entire staff out to dinner with him. Oh, who am I kidding, he probably lives next door.

I have been laying in bed for way too many hours a day lately. Even when I have work, I tend to feel like just crawling into bed and sleeping after I get home. Today I did not have work. (Mondays and wednesdays are my off days... I think) Since the weather is pretty miserable right now, I had no desire to go anywhere, and I spent all day in bed. It was awesome. I can breathe through my nose, and that's all I ask. Swallowing still hurts though. Hopefully this will go away soon.

Speaking of work, it has come to my attention that my last few entries made it sound like Jon was being worked to the bone. I think I made that sound a little more extreme than it really is. He is working about 40 hours a week, just like me. It's just that his hours are a little more randomly scheduled. And he is getting paid for every hour that he works past 32. So there is definitely incentive for him to do the work.

Oooh. I also looked into the whole idea of working at a ski resort in Canada. It would work! They are looking for applicants right now. The cool thing in Canada would be that there are ski resorts as close as 30 minutes from Vancouver, BC. And several of them are hosting events for the Olympics. The process of applying for work is the exact same as what we went through for working in NZ. We would need to get a Visa, and a "social insurance number." We've done all those things before, so I can't imagine there being too many difficulties that we have not already hurdled. This time, though, I would look for a job on the mountain that is closer to what a mechanic does. Or, there is this one job where I would basically have to ski around carrying stuff and blocking off places that people can't ski in. I wouldn't be averse to that either. Jon could find some real work in the city, and that way we could both get what we want and still live in the same place. Plus, we could take a car with us across the border. Then we wouldn't have to buy one. Not that we would be far from the rest of the world if we lived in Vancouver. Not like National Park...

Ok, I'm getting ahead of myself. I am still at the beginning of my journeys in New Zealand.


....GAH, excited!

Jalissa

P.S. Shout out to Chelsea, who thinks that turkeys are far away. Whatever that means. Dude, there were turkeys just hanging out at Lake Natoma, remember? (just kidding Chelsea. You too get props for going to another country!)

We're STILL SICK!

I suspect this to be the swine flu.

Everyone at work is sick (from what I hear) and half the people at the "park" are sick.

I feel like I am slowly recovering, but Alissa is still a bit sniffly.

Anyhow, yesterday, I finally got the hang of driving a stick (excitement!)

Unfortunately, our gear shift lever is still a bit broken.

I know that Lissy has told you all about the flu pandemic that is sweeping the whole landscape of national park, but I 've decided to be redundant. Anyhow, the last couple of days were pretty interesting. First off, we went to the town of Taumaranui to go shopping. We took the park van and also kidnapped Amy along with us. We did our business of changing ownership of the car, eating lunch, and grocery shopping. For lunch, we ended up eating some fish and chips which were delicious, but without any tomato sauce so it was a bit bland.

BTW, tomato sauce = ketchup - vinegar and high fructose corn syrup + real sugar and real tomatoes. So it's quite yummy. Sunday night was a huge party. The theme was "garbage ball". Therefore, people created costumes using garbage bags. This became quite a kodak moment filled with creative costumes: people with garbage top hats, garbage pants (ironed together), garbage dresses, garbage bling, garbage ties and shoes, and the occasional garbage underpants. I worked that night so it wasn't too fun. Anyhow, I can't believe I am still sick and so is Lissy. But on the bright side, I just bought a snowbaord with bindings for $130 off of an eBay knock off so I should be getting more and more snow time. There is a party tonight, but I don't think we will be going to that either--alissa is sick and as aforementioned, my symptoms are substitutive to the ones I had yesterday to the sinus headaces I have today.

I feel this week will be awesome though!
c yall soon,
Jalissa
ps. shout out to Julia, who is going to a far-away land labeled as Ghana. I hope you make it out alive. And please, we can do without such novel overseas gifts as malaria, yellow fever, billharzia, and/or civil corruption or guerilla warfare, thanks.

Sick and In Bed

Today I called in sick to work. Some nasty bug has been making its way through the masses, and no one has been spared. Two weeks ago we were still laughing about who got sick and who didn't. At this point, everyone has had it. I've been a little sick for a week now, but it was mostly congestion. Then, just as I thought I was on the road to health, I got hit HARD. Yesterday my mucous was bloody, so I knew the battlefield (my throat) was getting destroyed. My throat feels incredibly sore today, and not being able to breathe through my nose isn't making things much better. My mouth is dry and my nose is runny. The skin on both is cracking. Ugh. Jon looks like he is getting better at this point, although he wasn't feeling too great all day yesterday.

I can't help but wonder if this is not the swine flu that we are all getting. Seriously, no one got out of getting sick. And that's what they say about the swine flu, right? That what makes it so dangerous is that humans don't have the immune system to avoid getting it. But once you have it, it's just the regular flu. So for all I know, I am now under the influence of the dreaded disease. I must admit, that makes being sick a little bit more exciting.

For now, I will lie in bed and hope that rest will make me better. I can use the time to explore my options for the future. I was talking to some Rentals people yesterday, and they gave me the impression that all of them have some kind of plan for the future. Considering that most of the people working here literally have NO money saved up, I was a bit surprised. (Those of us who came from far away places have tended to be 25 or older, so I just figured they had been working long enough to save some money. But so far, everyone I talked to literally has to save up if they want to be able to afford anything more than this week's rent. How do they live like that?)

So, about my future. It is pretty clear that leaving New Zealand should be the way to go. I hear that fruit picking is extremely lucrative, but that won't be happening until after spring is over, which is a long time to wait around here with nothing cool to do. Plus, there are some other good options. For example, how cool would it be to work at the Olympics in Canada? It would be another foreign country, there would be snow again, which is awesome, and we would be smack dab in the middle of extreme athletic performance! Plus, mom or the fam (or anyone from the US) could come visit me at minimal cost.

Speaking of which, did I mention that Jon Stenstrom came to visit me here in National Park? It just so happened that the bus he was taking through the country was making a stop at my house. But they had had a long night before they got to National Park, so we just talked and went into the hot tub. Then Jon and I went to bed. We had to work early in the morning... ew, I disgust myself. Just for that statement, I am going to do something irresponsible today.

ANYWAYS, back to the future. (I crack myself up!) So, applying for another snow job would actually appeal to me. I've had a good experience with it so far. I do not think Jon wants another blue collar job, so he will be seeking a real job or a place that will pay to further his education. I will probably be applying to some real jobs as well. Maybe. I don't think I'm ready for anything steady just yet. This travelling lifestyle is getting to me. But I did find out that being a ski instructor is actually a shitty job. I was going to get trained to be one, until I found out that they rarely get a full day's worth of lessons scheduled to them. Often, I see ski instructors chilling in the staff room. Basically, they get a couple of hours worth of lessons, and in between, they have to sit around with nothing to do. Plus, the pay is little better than mine, a.k.a. minimum wage. And they have to deal with miserable kids all day. I think my job is better. The one thing I WOULD like to do, is deal with the machinery at a ski resort. Maybe drive a CAT (the snow flattener thingy) or work on lifts that have broken down. I'm sure there are lots of cool things to learn about mechanical things on a ski resort. I could learn a lot that way. I'm sure the pay wouldn't be great, but it would be one way to gain experience in something closer to my field.

Ok guys, Jon just came in and told me he got sent home for being sick. I think a nap is in order for both of us...

Jalissa

It's Payday

Hey all!
Do not worry. The earthquake/tsunami actually hit the south island. We too heard about the fiasco on the radio, but did not experience it ourselves.

On another note, it looks like the management at "The Park" where we live, and where Jon works, wants him to start doing more work in the kitchen and at the bar. (This is not including the night-manager work he has already started doing.) I think that will be a nice change for him, since those will both be jobs involving customers and creativity. Not bad. Plus, that's two more things you can put on a resume in case of need. He's getting a lot of experience from this job. We are starting to like Jason (the guy who originally told us to go find work for Jon elsewhere) a lot more. He has gone from absolute douche to quite a nice guy. A nice metamorphosis to undergo.

Not much happened today. Work was uneventful. I am going to start asking for more ski breaks. I heard the snow today was just awesome. Even the sun came out for a little bit!

But today is payday, so there are lots of parties happening. I will be going to the one being hosted by some guys from Rentals. This is the first time i am going to let myself be seen to them in a socializing setting, so I'm a bit nervous. Man, first impressions scare me. Maybe because they are so important in shaping your relationships with people... Jon will be coming with me of course, but I have a feeling he won't be staying long because he is feeling a bit sick.

Off to have a good time! You guys should comment on our posts and let us know how you're doing. I haven't heard from people in a long time!

Jalissa

Happy Valley

It's been a few days since the last update... let me fill you in.

Jon has now attempted to fix the car's shifting thingy using super glue. We haven't checked the status of that procedure in a while. It's been a really busy week for both of us, what with the swarms of visitors coming to Ruapehu for skiing during the holidays. The holidays will be over after this week, so we will actually have some spare time in the near future. On the one day off that I was supposed to have, it turned out the mountain was closed due to high winds. That meant that everyone else was getting paid for 2 hours of work they were not doing (and I was not), AND I couldn't go skiing. So I ended up joining the many others in a Van to Taupo. Jon had to work so he couldn't come. Amy and I stuck together, though. We had a great time since Amy got excited over every little store we encountered. As it turns out, anything you could buy here (and by "here" I mean "anywhere in the middle of the North Island of NZ") is incredibly expensive. I thought I would buy a set of long underwear, since I am lacking in that department, but after I saw that the cheapest ones would cost me about $60 for a top, I figured I could probably make do with the clothes that I own. So that was a good day.

For the first time ever, Jon and I had a day off together yesterday. For some reason, there is never a dull moment when we go on adventures together. We figured, this would be a great opportunity to introduce Jon to the mountain, and get him started so that he would be able to go skiing on his own if I was not available to go with him. We got up at 8, took our time getting ready, and got on the 9:30 bus to the top of the mountain. The weather was pretty nice, not blue skies, but definitely a decent snow day. Of course, a day of good weather during the holidays means MASSIVE crowds on the mountain. I was glad I wasn't working.

We got Jon a season pass for $200!!!!!!!!!!! (mostly because I said he was my fiancee...) Julia, note the lack of accent on that e. Does it bug you?
Anyways, that price was about half as much as we were expecting. One day on the mountain costs $83, so this season pass will pay for itself by the third use. Pretty sweet, eh? We had previously bought Jon some snowboard boots for $30. Some guy who was only passing through town had put up an ad in the rockclimbing gym next door, selling his stuff. It was definitely good timing. So all we needed was a board. I am officially allowed to take out anything I want to use from rentals without charge and without question because I work there. So I got my skis and boots, and when I asked our supervisor, he turned a blind eye and let me get Jon a board for free as well. What a cool guy.

Ok, so far it looks like all is well. We happily take our gear to the slopes and start the first run. The beginner's area is called Happy Valley. This is the most deceptive euphemism. Happy Valley is crammed full of people who have never seen snow before, who came unprepared to the harsh winter conditions of a mountain, and who cannot control the movements they make with limbs that are attached to foreign objects. Crammed is an understatement. There is a person sitting standing or stumbling about every five feet. The line to get on the lift took so long it was actually more fun for us to walk back up the hill after we had finished going down it.

Jon and I were happily making our way through the crowds, when all of a sudden, visibility was massively reduced by fog. It all went downhill after that. The fog became wetter and wetter, and soon we were skiing in the rain, our goggles fogging up so badly we couldn't see through them anymore, not that we could see without them either. Despite bad weather, we were determined to have a good time, and after having some lunch, we went out again for some last runs. We then got on the 3:00pm bus that would take us back to National Park. It is there we got the bad news. The bus was delayed because of accidents that had been caused by customers. 3 accidents had to be cleared before the bus was going anywhere. We were told to seek shelter in one of the staff lounges (mind you, we are taking staff buses to and from the mountain). So, Jon and I head to the Rentals Building, where we loiter for a long long time. Had we been smarter, and stayed in the cafeteria, we might have made it down the mountain as customers, but we were lumped in with the rentals crew because that is where we were staying, and so when weather conditions caused cars to continually crash going down the mountain road, we were forced to wait. They wanted the customers to get off the mountain first, since they would be more likely to panic.

In the end, after numerous false alarms, we were finally allowed to get on a bus. Outside, it was beautiful. It was snowing in massive amounts, and 5 inches of powder were on the parking lot cement. Jon and I had to stand on the bus that inched its way through the treacherous conditions. Somewhere in the middle we switched buses because chains we no longer needed. We got home by 9:30 pm. What a day.

Today at work, I learned that all that beautiful snow had turned to slush. Ten cm of snow had vanished overnight due to warm conditions. After all that misery, there wasn't even any powder to enjoy. Worst storm ever.

Things Are Off to a Good Start...

See that picture? That is the shifting mechanism of our car.
Yeah, we broke the car.

I was teaching Jon his first lesson in manual cars, we were happily bumping and stalling along (ok, a little frustratedly). When all of a sudden, the darn thing just popped off! It looks like a good whack with a hammer will be able to reapply the shifting stick to its rubber base, so don't worry. We didn't buy a faulty car. The whole thing just came as a bit of a surprise.

So after the test drive, we went out with our friend Amy.
This is a picture of Jon and Amy sitting at a table in a restaurant/bar called "Basekamp." We had pizza with lamb, minty yogurt sauce, potatoes and pumpkin pieces. It was pretty good, actually.


I'm so proud that I am actually uploading pictures now. Here's one from July first. Canada Day. Most of those people in this picture are the people Jon works with. They are what we call the Woofers, or people that work at "The Park" for free accommodation. Three of these people were European travelers just passing by for some good skiing. We are wearing those hats because they came with the bottles of Canada Dry that we consumed that night.

Ok guys, ta ta for now.
Jalissa

NO WAY!!!!!

Um, Jon and I own a CAR now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We just bought it for $1200. There are cheaper cars out there, but most of them fail their inspection tests and can costs hundreds of dollars to fix. This car is in excellent condition, and it will be newly registered as of tomorrow. WOOT! Now we won't have to beg people for rides anymore! Getting a ride has proven to be the most painful experience here. No one has a car. But now we do!!

And we are also poor. Until Jon or I get our first paycheck. Which will be soon. But until then, I will either bring bag lunches to work, or go hungry. And no more going out.

Anyways, as this is the first time I have ever owned a car, I am very excited.

Did I mention that they drive on the wrong side of the road here? Oh, and the car's a manual.

I will be teaching Jon to drive stickshift tomorrow. On the wrong side of the road. OMG.

Just had to mention this bit of news. *flails arms around excitedly*

Ok, have a good night!
Jalissa

Nice people.

So.
I woke up at 5am to work today.

Nothing exciting lately due to school holidays. I just met some pretty kool peeps.

The new Chef is from Netherlands-- he is a boarder, caffeine and burner addict, and is really kool.

The bar manager is Dan--an aussie from Fresno and grew up in Reedly (my place of birth)! He doesn't like how the kiwi's choice of drinkerage is smirnoth ice.

Today, we went to Ohakune to get our IRD's. Problem: we don't have a car yet!
So we got in a little difficulty and arguments over this topic, but at the end, the general manager (who I initially thought was a jerk) rented his van to us!

Ohakune is a cute little snow town and is also the carrot capital of the world.
Everyone there was really nice and sooo helpful.
We got our IRD"s applications in and now we're just lounging around till dinner time.

We promise to post up pictures soon!

love you all,
Jalissa

And the Working Craze Begins

Hi all. Alissa here. I just feel like I haven't written anything for a while, so I'll give you a little update on my new lifestyle.

I work from before the lifts open until after they close. That's actually not too bad. The usual work day is 8 hours long. Usually there is a rush to rent skis in the morning, and a rush to return them right as all the lifts close. We have all learned that efficiency is key, since slow work means a daunting line of customers waiting to be helped. No one likes angry customers...

Around one pm, there tends to be absolutely nothing for the rental staff to do, so to get around paying us, they send us out skiing! I went on my very first ski break yesterday. Absolutely amazing. Getting out of work to go play in the snow (for free!!!) in the middle of the day is such a great thing. More people should have this work schedule. Then, at the end of two hours, it's a relief to get out of the cold and into the warm rental shop. It totally rejuvenates you. Sadly, the mountain is not entirely open yet. The ski patrol staff is working hard to get snow packed and to block off hazardous areas, so hopefully the rest of the mountain will open soon.

Oh by the way, the strangest phenomenon happens here. People (mostly foreigners from countries like china) have started to rent skis at any part of the day. Literally, at 2 pm, two hours before the lifts close, people are paying good money to ski just the last part of the day. I remember when I was a kid, that kind of mentality wasn't going to fly. We got up at the crack of dawn to beat the rush and get our gear faster then everybody else, and we left only after the lift stopped taking people up the mountain, so that we got the most out of our money. Didn't we mom?

Anyways, rentals is probably the coolest place to work, not only because of the awesome setup, but because of the attitude. For some reason there is just an awesome mix of people, who really infect everyone with their positive attitudes. We can often be found dancing and singing to somebody's iPod being broadcast by speakers. I think the customers quite enjoy watching the performances. But we also work hard when things need to get done. I'm surprised with the type of people that work at rentals, since I was originally of the opinion that these people don't have very high standards for their employees. Nope, they just know how to pick 'em I guess.

I will hopefully get used to working actual 8 hour days again. Getting up early sucks. But other than that, I think Jon and I will definitely make ourselves a little niche over here in NZ.

Goodbye all.
Jalissa

4th of July!

Happy Independence day everyone!

Well, I(Jon) only have about 30min of break so gotta make this one short.

Today, I (Jalissa) woke up at 5:25am to work. Right now is 4:00pm.

We cleaned, transformed into Paul Bunyan once again, and then went to the recycling center (its gross).

Also, we got two new general staffers: two czech republican girls. I guess they were shooed off yesterday, but my boss called them in part timers (they never have their things together).

Anyhow, I got the Overnight Manager job as confirmed, and been promoted once again to Assistant Shift Manager at the Bar and Assistant Chef.

I have to work till late tonight and I am already exhausted...I don't get to see Alissa often and prob. wont see each other as much I'd like to :( . I already miss her lots.

I guess them kiwis celebrate Canada Day, but not a single person has heard of or cares about the 4th of July (American) here at all!

g2g, c yall laterz,
-jalissa

My second day off work, but not really

Hi all,

A brief on last night--I had work from morning till evening and was assigned additional work for pay. During this time, I've met an Aussie named Dan. I've found out that he grew up in Fresno and raised in Reedly! (we pretty much bonded over this fact!). I've also found out that he was the bar manager, so he hooked us up with free booze over the night.

That night, I was called in by the general manager (he wanted to "chi-chat" with me). I've suddenly remembered that this guy was still wishy-washy about me staying. Knowing this, I thought he was going to tell me to leave; thus, I did what any normal blue collar worker would do at that particular incident--I shit my self, figuratively. To my astonishment, he, however, has given me the option of being promoted from a "general staff/house-keeper/bartender/kitchen hand/Paul fucking Bunyan" to Overnight Manager. That's pretty sick, and I hear the pay is great! We will see though, because there is another girl who is more qualified than me (she's a paramedic).

The park had a party last night, and I've ended with some racial profiling from a drunk dude. That's ok though, I can't cause a commotion so I backed away, but I feel sorry for the guy. Why you ask? He was uglier than the potential offspring between Kelly Osborne and Marilyn Manson. Surely, you can imagine what this hick, redneck might have looked like; and surely, he will have a lesser chance of procreating than the endangered Giant Pandas with out any reproductive gentilia.

Then we went to sleep.

Alissa is working right now with the left over lunches I've found in the other rooms the other day. I started the day with some muay thai and workouts. I was soon summoned. TO WORK AGAIN ON MY OFF DAY! It's pretty chill though, Im getting paid.

Also, two nights agao, we've decided to go to the bars. Why? Because it was CANADA DAY! what's canada day? it's like our independence day, but basically, they didn't work for it (haha just kidding). We have a friend, Taz, who is Canadian so she got all excited about it. At the pub, we've met some German and Dutch people who wanted to play kings cup with us. We've also did this with Candian Clubs, which are whiskeys in ginger ale. We've also got some gnarly hats with it.

Well, that's about it. I have a meeting tonight and meeting tomorrow. Looks like I (jon) will be working 60-70 hours of week now.

bye, yall.
Jalissa

First Day of Work

So I had my first day of work today! These next two weeks will be busy for me, as it is New Zealand's school vacation time. The slopes will be packed, and I will get scheduled to work 6 days a week until they go back to school. That's ok with me. I do get paid after all. Plus, I have a season pass that I can use in the middle of the day, when no one is renting or returning their gear. I think my job will be really chill. The people kept reiterating that we should remember that we're all here to have fun. Everyone here knows they are employing a bunch of rowdy kids, as they use the phrases "beer money" and "more time on the slopes" as incentives for everything. I quite enjoy it. A hard day's work entails retrieving boots and skis of the right sizes and chatting up customers and other staff members. I also now really value the fact that I am working indoors, as I had a chance to see the ski lift operators shivering in the brisk winds today. Oh, did I mention the SWEET free gear?


Other perks include 50% off the food in the cafeteria, 10 free ski lessons, 10 days of rentals for 90% off, 50 % off a season pass for family members ( I am going to get Jon one of these!), sweet deals on mountain gear of all types, and other perks I am forgetting. All in all, I am happy to be working there. Poor Jon got a taste of my misery today, as it was his first day OFF work on my fisrt day of work. He had to stay home alone (like I had to for the last few days...) Hopefully we will be able to maneuver our schedules to accomodate our off days a bit. I do want to travel some more!

Talkto you soon!
Jalissa