acmnp

Stumbled upon the website for A Christian Ministry in the National Parks (the name's a bit of a clunker) today and found myself applying for a staff position for this summer/fall. ACMNP is an organization that sends people to U.S. national parks to serve as ministers for park employees, organizing church services and community events. What's cool about it is that though it's a volunteer position, the organization connects you with paid jobs in the park so that you can support yourself and get connected with other park staff. I spent my evening at church making lists of the places we'd most like to work - Bryce Canyon (Utah), Zion (Utah), and Acadia (Maine) are currently at the top. Cool, huh?

-Rachel

picture: bryce canyon

proof that being cheap isn't always cheaper.

disclaimer: those of you who value oral hygiene may wish to skip this one.

i'll be honest - i've never been very keen on flossing, so dental floss was one item that didn't make it into our packs when we left for new zealand. much too cumbersome. but a week or two ago i decided to make good on some new year's resolutions and, being too cheap to spend $6 on dental floss, chose instead to use the thread that was stored in our repair kit. it was a bit dusty from our months in the wilderness, so i gave it a good rinse and used it anyway. bad idea.

earlier this week i began experiencing a pain on the left side of my mouth which escalated until i could no longer sleep through the night. though i'm usually the last person to voluntarily visit the dentist, i scheduled an appointment for the first slot available as we were running out of the ice and pain reliever that i had been relying on. at 4 am as i lay awake with a lukewarm icepack on my face i realized that i was actually looking forward to my visit to the clinic as it potentially meant some relief and the ability to chew my food instead of slurping it through the small opening that my jaw now permitted.

it took the dentist no more than 5 minutes to evaluate my condition, write me a prescription, and usher me towards the credit card machine. i have, as suspected, an infected wisdom tooth that will eventually need removing. fantastic.

saved:
$6 dental floss

spent:
$40 dental evaluation
$29 antibiotics and painkillers
$70 x-rays
$? extraction of tooth
$6 dental floss

proof that being cheap isn't always cheaper.

-rachel

movies. and typing tests.

it should come as no surprise for most of you that bryan and i are actively engaging in oscar season, even from afar. as usual, we eagerly scanned the internet on nomination day to see how our best picture guesses compared to the actual list and have been dutifully (oh, what a chore!) keeping up our tuesday movie date, trying to see as many highly-nominated movies as possible before the event. we do, of course, have a color-coded listing of all the nominees, ranked by number and quality of nominations and containing detailed notes on the theatrical and DVD release dates for new zealand wherever possible. we've been waiting for some recent releases to become available on fatso (a netflix equivalent), but when bryan excitedly threw open the bedroom door this morning to tell me that we'd soon be getting "up" and "inglourious basterds", i just heard him yelling the titles and thought he was telling me to get out of bed already with the unexpected use of a rather rude expletive.

this year we've been pleased to find most of the animated shorts available on youtube, and recommend both french roast and the lady and the reaper for your viewing pleasure. among the feature-length films there are a couple of movies that seem to appeal especially strongly to an american audience and so aren't available here, notably "the hurt locker" (tied with avatar for most nominations), "the blind side" (surprise best picture nominee), and "a serious man" (another coen effort with a minnesota connection); i suppose this just gives us more to look forward to on our return. saw "precious" this week, which we both enjoyed despite a number of scenes that are physically uncomfortable to watch.

in other news, i've discovered that i have a typing speed of around 105 wpm, as measured by typingtest.com for my application with a temp agency. i tested myself on two different websites, five times each, so i think i can be fairly confident with the results, which allow me to check the highest box in the "typing speed" category on my application - and we know i can use all the help i can get. from the "no, thanks" emails littering my inbox, it looks like i won't be a salad maker or a fish shop assistant or a receptionist for an autoglass company. i'm starting to appreciate the way that these rejection emails are worded...my favorite so far is the one from apex car rentals, which regrets to advise me that my application was not successful, as "a large number of applications were received and the overall standard was very high". what i appreciate is the subtle insinuation that my low quality might get me a job at some other time, but my wily trickery won't work now that the company is hearing from so many other applicants. i also like the one that informs me that they have shortlisted others with "more appropriate experience than yourself", as if i got caught trying to sneak in my inappropriate experience. thanks for that.

-rachel

and the unemployment continues.

i forced myself to leave the apartment today to distribute copies of my resume around town, having finally gotten a power cord for the printer which has been sitting, misleadingly, on the desk since we moved in. i headed down to the south city mall, which can barely be accurately called a mall (especially compared to the mall of america), where i got used to hearing "not hiring" from gum-chewing 16-year-olds. part of the frustration with this failed job search is not even being considered for jobs that i'd formerly considered to be "beneath me". even burger king isn't hiring. this is quite an exercise in humility.

bryan's job at subway is barely a step up from unemployment. his manager is the king of all cheapskates: neither orientation nor his training day were paid, the employees don't get paid if they have to stay later than 10 pm to finish cleaning, and the expectation is that after one day of training, new employees will have mastered their new job to perfection. apparently no one has ever heard positive feedback from the manager, but all have been subjected to his scathing reprimands. sounds like fun. it's good that bryan's working there and not me, though it seems like even his calm personality may be threatened by this job.

on the upside, we're both becoming skilled painters, having just completed our third painting project at the church. it's incredibly satisfying to remove the painter's tape and roll up the tarps to reveal a clean new look. yesterday i was even able to exercise some administrative skills in helping the youth pastor with a Publisher project that had been frustrating him. i've been pretty cautious about involving myself with youth ministry projects at the church, as the youth pastor just started working at the church the week that we arrived and i want to give him some space. bryan and i will probably end up working with the family ministry that the senior pastor wants to start in the next month or two, which is closer to what we want to do long-term anyway. bryan even wrote his senior project on family ministry, which just means involving families with young kids in the church in a way that makes them feel welcome and not burdensome.

on monday we've been invited to the pastor's house to watch the superbowl, though it starts at noon here, and have promised to bring a classic american football snack. any suggestions? we were thinking about a classic layered dip, but haven't seen fritos or refried beans here, and these seem to be staples. we were then asked if we'd like to stay for tea afterwards, leading us to envision cucumber sandwiches and petits fours before realizing that we were really being invited to dinner. it should be an altogether enjoyable superbowl party, at which i may be (for once) among the most knowledgeable football minds, though i'm guessing we'll miss the commericals that make a lackluster game so much more watchable...

sorry no pictures this week...as you can tell, we've been really boring :)

-rachel

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.

employment...slowly but surely

good news - we're now partially employed! bryan starts his new, ultra-glamorous part-time job at subway on thursday, allowing us to breathe a sigh of relief since all we've been getting lately are rejection letters. our flatmate jin had been trying to talk us into heading to china instead, where we could stay with her family and teach english to the neighbors' kids. the offer was tempting but didn't offer any help for the financial strain, so we're glad to find employment that doesn't involve any more dramatic relocations.

i'd been second-guessing our decision to stay in christchurch lately, partially because of the difficulty in finding jobs but also wondering if we were settling for an experience that parallels the one we would have had at home. certainly this year abroad has not been the kind of cultural experience that we would have gained from a year in india or mongolia or algeria, but when i think back to our original conversation about this trip last october, i remember that we weren't really aiming for a third-world country experience anyway. just being out of the country - anywhere out of the country - has given us the chance to re-evaluate our identities as americans (and as minnesotans). these identities were only reinforced by the vikings-saints game yesterday, which we watched at the holy grail sports bar in the company of a dozen or so other americans and the odd american football-appreciating kiwi. i'm not much of a football fan under normal circumstances, but being so far from home and seeing my local team on the big screen brought out the sports enthusiast in me. our pastor's two high school sons follow the sport a bit and have promised to have us over for the superbowl next month, though i'm wondering if the offer still stands if the game is aired live, which would make it lunchtime on a monday.

this season of unemployment hasn't been nearly as boring as we expected, as we've had no trouble filling our daytime hours with movies (it is, after all, oscar season), trips to the library (it was more difficult to get a library card than a visa), and cleaning out those storage closets at church. we've instituted a tuesday morning movie date complete with donuts and chocolate milk that we pick up from the bakery on the way, though i'm guessing we'll have to find another time for this new tradition once we get into a work routine. this weekend we even went rock climbing at the ymca with our landlord and his girlfriend, our bad technique resulting in some aching forearms and shoulders in the morning. our landlord does judo and somehow roped bryan into a martial arts/wrestling match on the thick mats in the bouldering room against his will; hopefully bryan earned his respect enough to result in the promised fixing of the phone line and dishwasher.

anyway, better go - someone's cooking lamb steak downstairs and i'm starting to feel queasy. i don't think this kiwi pilgrimage will result in an addition to the accepted meats groups after all.

-rachel

p.s. - i just realized i can post videos on here, so here's a little panorama from the routeburn track for your viewing pleasure. you may want to mute your computer, as all you'll hear are wind sounds. it also may be the world's most boring video...sorry :)

the misadventures of bryan and rachel

we've spent the last three days volunteering at the church, as otherwise we'd just be sitting around waiting for calls about the resumes we've strewn around christchurch. it's turned out to be a great way to meet people, as the pastors' kids and other interns are in and out during the day as well. and while we work, we talk, and when we talk, we find funny little kiwi words and phrases to add to our vocabulary, like these:

musos - musicians, band ("the musos are meeting for practice tonight")
togs - swimsuit ("you could go for a swim if you've got your togs")
bonnet - car hood ("do we really need to keep this bonnet in the storage shed?")
sweet as - awesome ("that song is sweet as!")
jandals - flip flops - bryan's especially fond of this term; we saw a shirt in a store in nelson that read "you can't handle the jandal" and was especially hard to pass up.

yesterday when we left the church at 3 (their closing time - fantastic, eh?) we headed downtown to retrieve a flash drive left in a computer at the library and to pick up some much-needed toiletries at the warehouse, the wal-mart equivalent. somehow, because we are truly awesome, we managed (in three separate incidents) within the course of an hour to spill three products. i set off the trend with a tester perfume bottle that i set back on the shelf unevenly, watching in horror as it tipped off the edge and shattered glass and smelly water at the entrance to the store as other shoppers snuck around the new hazard. a friendly salesperson rushed over and assured me that they'd clean it up as i offered an embarrassed apology and tiptoed out the side door, vowing never to return to that store again. not a half hour later, in the warehouse, having collected more items for purchase than we'd planned on, a bottle of conditioner slipped off of the pile that bryan was holding in his arms like a baby and leaked oozy hair product down the aisle in some forgotten corner of the store. and then, as we were just about to check out, i noticed a large green puddle on the top of my left shoe and traced it back to the dish soap nestled in the crook of my left arm, which had somehow cracked along the cap in a way that i still can't attribute to anything that i might have done. no wonder we can't find jobs in this town - christchurch hates us because we keep trashing its stores.

-rachel