Kiwi-corns

 We made it! And have lived here about two weeks.  Our AirBnB for these first weeks was in an area called Five Mile and it's a very convenient place for "real" people. It's next to grocery stores, hardware store, NZ Target aka the Warehouse although they also have a store called Target here, a Bed Bath and Beyond (not the US one), etc.  More importantly, my new office is in Five Mile so it's nice to have convenience while the culture shock sets in.  Things that are kind of surprising so far: -How diverse a community QT is. There are SO MANY Filipinos here and it's genuinely surprising to hear my native tongue spoken literally everywhere. I didn't realize I kind of missed that.   My office is pretty diverse too. I work alongside so many Brits, people from Ireland, Russia and South Africa and Kiwis. It's a good mix and I really enjoy the variety of backgrounds. Everyone seems extremely well-traveled.   -How prevalent the NFL is here. We saw a store ...

 We had to drive from Auckland to Queenstown in our new RAV 4, Princess Pete with Miss Ruby in tow.  Things I 've learned: There are really no ugly parts of New Zealand. This country is achingly beautiful.  My new favorite thing is motel milk. Every time you go specifically to a motel, you get a little container of milk...for your tea. I don't even like milk in my tea but it seemed rude to say no.  Driving on the left is going to be an adjustment. We have a lane sensor on and once we got into the windy roads while I was driving it was constantly beeping.  Most of New Zealand's main thoroughfares are two lane highways. It's kind of hilarious. Everyone is also quite generous in letting people pass because of this fact.  I also really love casual sushi. We stop at about any little town and go to a sushi shop and most of the time you get a tray and pick and choose what sushi you want from glass cabinets. It's infinitely better than Colorado sushi but maybe beca...

  A picture of busting this beautiful lady out of quarantine! She did not stop doing hyper-ventilating for hours. 

We went on some NZ budget website and found out the most re-sellable car was a Toyota Rav4. Independent studies also showed the hybrid version got about 40ish miles to the gallon which was amazing given the fuel prices were like $3/Liter. I believe that's almost $12/ gallon!  Anyways, we went to the Auckland Toyota, and some dude named Ringo sold us a car. It's name is Princess Pete and she/he's originally from Japan. The name is in honor of our dear friend, Pete, who has staunchly defended his champagne-colored Rav4 for years.  Also driving on the left for the first time is a real trip .

 We really need to admit to ourselves we're just not city people.  Auckland was a breath of fresh air though. At the very least it was lush and an absolute paradise for Asian food. The city is absolutely littered with tiny closet restaurants carrying every single kind. Like what's Korean Toast? I probably want it. We genuinely ate our way through lots of ramen while running our various errands (which, again, took like no time). We also met some old friends aka the smartest Kiwis in all of New Zealand (ahem we know not one but two Fulbright Scholars who studied at CU) who were kind enough to take some poor wayward Americans on a nice hike.  Pictured: City stuff like the Weta Workshop (cool but not worth what they're charging) and our hike. 

We spent 6 days in California which was entirely too many. But... we did get to go to Disneyland and at least ride everything twice (which was surprising). We rode in the Millennium Falcon 3 times because that was the coolest.  Always go on a weekday, kids!  Also we have a new droid friend, P3N15. The rest of it was honestly just okay.  Other activities included: Trying to find whales at Newport Beach and running into a bunch of dolphins instead Eating really good ramen in an office (Sean pictured outside of it on his phone like a sulky teen) Going to Universal Studios and finding out it was mostly insta-fodder (picture of Bowser's library)

 As a U.S Drivers License holder you can just sign up for a license conversion to get your NZ license. It literally took 15 minutes. I asked about our motorcycle permits too. "Yeah sure, we can add that in there." They also asked Sean if he wanted to be approved for a commercial license he obtained when he was 19 working at the AVA rafting company which was surely expired. 

 It was a relief to get out of L.A but we got into another bout of big-city life landing in Auckland.  We might've made a mistake with our six massive check-in bags. It was quite the feat rolling them into two trolleys and just hoping they could all fit in a Prius (seriously the most popular Uber car). I do remember when we inevitably had one fall off a cart, a couple swooped in to help. We thanked them and had to apologize for being super jet-lagged an uncoordinated and also mentioned it was our first day in our brand new country. It was something out of a movie. The woman was super delighted and said something to the extent of "Welcome to New Zealand, Aotearoa, the Land of the Long White Cloud. You're going to love it here!" It was super confidence boosting since this decision still sometimes feels like a leap of faith.  When we finally got an Uber, it was a Toyota Camry driven by a nice man named Mohammed possibly. He was absolutely delightful. When we mentioned we...

I've worked at CDOT for almost 10 years.  Before that I worked for Golder for like a year and a half. Hilariously WSP bought them so it's all very circular. I had a coworker from my group recently go back to his old company but this doesn't feel like that kind of boomerang.  I came into CDOT a little lost and forlorn. I had tried to work at an engineering firm and felt like I had zero guidance from the get go. I immediately got shipped our for field work and when I insisted that I couldn't bear to be gone for 6 weeks at a time- especially since they never told me that was what I had signed up for- I was at the office where I felt like I was grasping at straws for what I was actually supposed to do. It was very bad for someone who was timid and shy and didn't know that asking questions was okay. I eventually got let go.  I started CDOT hoping not to be such a big fuck-up. I think my time there taught me how much you potential you can unlock if you actually get mentor...

Fun Fact. The Outback Saloon is where we held our post kickball antics, our unofficial engagement party, and our wedding after party so it made a lot of  sense to hold our going away party here too.  It was good to have one last Might Mighty Unicorn throwdown. From 2 PM to whenever, there was drinking. There were no empty pitchers, fried snacks aplenty and lots of great karaoke tributes.  Big shout out to Anne and Jess for "I Will Remember You" and "Bye, Bye, Bye" Then there's Good Riddance, the official millennial slideshow song. There's nothing more devastating than "time grabbing you by the wrist, direct(ing) you where to go." It absolutely wrecked us.  Thank you Matt W. for letting us take over your bar countless times over the years. You're the best. 

You know it was a super good night when your husband wakes up and says "Oh no." You should always start drinking at 2 PM.  Our last morning in Colorado was pretty cozy. We woke up to Denver friends camped on the living room couches- one with a really cool monster truck tattoo glommed on to his face, and our roomie Steveo making good coffee. We all sat in the living room recounting all the exciting things that happened the night before like ditching bikes at the bars, ordering XL Cosmos pizzas and watching Mystery Science Theater on the couch while already blacked out.  We're all over 30 so evening like this don't happen as often. As Sean has explained to too many doctors, "controlled binge drinking" is an option and a great lifestyle choice. We eventually had to grab our Chrysler Pacifica from the Avis and start packing up. We had a brilliant plan of having 6 bags to check in. We had two 90L REI duffels, one 120 L duffel, two backpacking packs and a hockey b...