weekly update

so i'm still jobless. fantastic. as of tomorrow, i am requiring myself to apply for at least two jobs per day, as in my discouragement i have avoided further rejection by failing to submit anything at all. bryan had his orientation at subway last week, his official training beginning on tuesday, and is less than enthusiastic about the job for the following reasons:

1) his manager is difficult to understand and, according to frequenters of this particular franchise, is crazy.

2) the orientation, though only an hour and a half long, was unpaid

3) no free subs - just half off (still not bad)

4) minimum wage. minimum wage in new zealand is actually a decent NZ$12.50/hr (~US$9/hr), and there's dicussion about raising it even more in the coming months. very livable, unlike minimum wage in the US.

while remaining unemployed, we've continued to volunteer at the church, this week tackling the priming and painting of 8 support poles that are placed rather inconveniently for a church service (directly in front of center stage and in the middle of the audience) and had been painted a prominent navy blue. they are now a lovely shade of white that blends in with the walls instead of standing in contrast to them. we were hoping that this project would be a quiet, behind-the-scenes kind of job, but were asked most embarrassingly to stand in the middle of church this morning in recognition for our efforts and were subsequently engaged in plenty of strange conversations with people going on and on about the painting job, probably not knowing what else to talk to us about but wanting to welcome the newcomers. thanks for that, pastor terry...

today also marks the close of the two-week buskers festival, when about 50 street performers of various disciplines (juggling, acrobatics, fire performances, statue acts, music, clowning...) are invited to show off their stuff for massive crowds all around the city. the best ones that i saw were the american duo "the flash", who specialized in feats of balance and strength and kept the audience laughing, and "the oddlings", a couple from the netherlands who perform as a storeowner and his mannequin and demonstrate some impressive acrobatics considering that one of them is limited to the flexibility of a barbie doll. the australians with the late-night fire-show, "flame oz", were also pretty cool, though victoria square was packed when we arrived so i had a hard time seeing all that much over the crowd. (sarah ekelund, if you're reading this, i tried to get video footage of the fantastic didjeridoo player for you, but we were just too far away for it to work out. know that we thought about you guys, though.)

gosh, i really wish i had something interesting to tell you all about. we did spot a cross-dresser on the free shuttle bus that we take down to the supermarker, a man wearing the ugly kind of hibiscus-printed sundress that you buy outside of a florida souvenir shop on the rack marked "ALL ITEMS $8!!!!!". if you're going to dress as a woman, at least do so in style. the uncomfortable thing was that he appeared to be in a relationship with the bus driver, so he lingered awkwardly at the front of the bus to chat with him, forcing everyone to push past him to board. then we came home and watched transamerica :)

oh, and i met the cutest girl at church tonight, a 9-year-old named caitlin who commented multiple times that she "really liked my accent". she sort of sat with us during service, dashing off every few minutes to tell on her older brother and switching rows to try to avoid him. after service they, along with two other kids, showed off the most terrible card tricks in the history of the world. i don't think we'll be seeing them at the buskers festival any time soon.

we also wanted to remind you all to make your plans now to come visit us in christchurch, as the next 5 (or so) months will go by quickly. come now and you can even sleep on the fold-out couch for no additional charge ($45 hosting fee still applies). walking distance to town, free internet, picturesque riverside setting. what are you waiting for?

-rachel

pictures:

1) our walk into town along the avon river
2) "the flash" performing in cathedral square

3) the barbadoes street cemetery, just a block from our apartment, houses all kinds of interesting dilapidated tombstones, mostly from the late 1800s. the grave in the foreground is of a sailor who died at sea, hence the nautical theme on the tombstone.