a difficult decision.

i mentioned in my last blog that bryan's job here will end in about a month, creating massive complications for our work permits here. after familiarizing ourselves again with the immigration nz website, it looks like it would be a long shot (not to mention a long and expensive process) for us to gain new zealand residency or any sort of work permit, and so we've decided that it's time to move again, most likely back to the states. we've just purchased tickets with air asia (reportedly worse than jetstar...uh-oh!) to london in july and plan to spend about two weeks in europe, mainly in germany to visit our friends ann-kristin and josh in berlin and hopefully duck down south to rheinland-pfalz to show bryan where we lived when my dad was stationed there with the army.

we really love christchurch, and it's difficult to imagine leaving, especially so abruptly. with much of downtown being closed to the public or demolished as a result of the earthquake, it feels like we'll be leaving without a proper goodbye...without one last chicken soho sandwich from the new york deli on new regent st, without catching one last movie at the tiny arts centre cinema, without a final visit to the central library where i've spent so many hours in the past year. i suppose that just justifies a follow-up trip in a year or so to check out the rebuild, huh? :)

i'll leave you with a glimpse just outside our flat of the gorgeous autumn weather...and also a little reminder of home. strange to imagine that we might be back in springfield, virginia by the northern fall.

-rachel

happy easter!

happy easter, everyone! it's been a long 40 days of lent, and i'm thrilled to be able to partake in all manner of sweets again :) my aunt and uncle sent us three amazing boxes of american food last month, some of which we have managed to save until now, including the package of easter oreos that will go down so well with a tall glass of chocolate milk and the velveeta that we're going to make into a spicy cheese dip this afternoon. yum!

long weekends are only appreciated when you actually have a job to take a break from, and so this is one of the first holidays that's felt like a true holiday for me in new zealand. the company that i work for makes, among other things, chemo drugs for cancer patients, so the hospitals have been stocking up before the weekend and i've had plenty of late nights at work over the last two weeks. everyone here is grumbling about anzac day (memorial day for war veterans) falling on easter weekend and robbing us of another holiday, but in general it seems to me that this country takes every opportunity for a day off.

the disappointing bit about this easter for us is the knowledge that it's probably our last easter in new zealand. bryan found out a few weeks ago that the church would not be able to keep him on staff beyond the end of may, as the earthquakes have meant a drop-off in attendance, a pricey rebuild of our main building and renovation of the small youth hall that we're meeting in, and the loss of car parking revenue from neighboring businesses. so with our visa being tied to this job and our chances of getting residency looking pretty slim, we probably won't be able to stay here beyond the end of our current visa in august :( we're more than a little disappointed, as we'd been planning to stay for at least another two years and had been so thrilled that i'd finally found full-time work just a few weeks earlier. we'll give more updates as we figure out what we're doing and how much time we have left in our lovely city.

-rachel