Saturday in Hastings

Hello all!


Things are great in New Zealand. I haven't written much because I am staying in my first hostel/backpacker, and there is no wifi. When I write on the blog or send emails I walk to McDonalds & sit outside and use their free wifi. It is slow, but effective. 


The hostel is so great. The first night I was skeptical, but I am having so much fun. I have met people from Germany, Hong Kong, the Cheque Republic, Chile, and the U.S. so far. There have been SO MANY GERMANS. They are everywhere! 


My closest friends have become two travelers from Hong Kong, and also 2 girls from Germany. Everyone likes to cook, so we take turns finding recipes, making cakes, scones, and other things. Tonight we are going to try and master making sushi somehow. We rent movies and watch them on weekends. Monday through Wednesday there is a place where the older movies are $1. Almost everyone I have met has been so open and so nice. We all get along great, and the past few nights we have been laughing harder than I have laughed in a month. 


They are all hilarious, and between sometimes our accents getting in the way and having no idea what someone is saying, we just laugh all the time. For example, Jacob from Hong Kong, was trying to tell me the places in the U.S. he wants to visit. He tried to tell me "Seattle" for so long that he finally had to write it down for me to understand. Then a guy from Chile arrived last night and asked Jacob if he wanted to go out to the bars and clubs, but Jacob said no because we were all hanging out talking and watching Harry Potter. Jacob comes in and tells us the guy from Chile asked him to go to the "cup." We were like, "Oh cool. Does he have tickets for the world cup?" And Jacob kept saying, "No, not the world cup, the cup...the cup." And we were all like, "the cup?" Finally we figured out he was saying CLUB! 


Anyway, Jacob and I got seasonal work. We are tree trimming in an apple orchard for probably the next 3 weeks at least. But we are getting paid, and it is beautiful. However we do stand up ALL day, and it is really tiring. Since we do the same thing for hours it gets boring, and mentally keeping yourself on the ball is difficult. However, we are working with others from Germany and the Cheque Republic who are very interesting. (I posted some pictures of us working). 


The locals who work at the farm smoke like I have never seen before. I mean, there is rarely a time when they are NOT smoking, but I guess that is up to them. 


There are about 6 or 7 of us who are staying at the hostel for the next month...the people I have become friends with. Others come and go. It is quite interesting :)


I will try and post more pictures later!