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