Tag: daily life

TIL

I feel like I’ve discovered something quirky or just slightly off around every corner here. Something just not quite…right. It’s like when you see someone you think you know, and you’re all OMG HIIIII and waving and making a fool of yourself, and everyone is staring at you because, no…that’s not at all who you thought it was. Anyhoo, just some of the random things that have made me scratch my head or look twice:

  • Everyone loves my American accent. They all want to talk American politics (which you all know I *super* love…), American economy, American beliefs, American EVERYTHING. It’s hard to explain to people that America is made up of a bunch of very different states–in their mind it’s one huge hive mind, and we all thing and talk and behave the same way–just like the movies! Today I got “How do Americans feel about Russians?”, “Who do you *really* think shot JFK?”, “Does every American really own a gun?”, and “Why are all your political figures such cartoonish caricatures?”
  • There are CCTVs *everywhere* here. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were even in the bathrooms. Dash cams aren’t a thing here yet, but not to worry, big brother is watching you just about everywhere else. Each bus has 4 cameras inside, as well as 2 outside. Public parks have one every hundred feet or so. Shops, restaurants, streets, taxis, you name it.
  • Remember when the iPhone 3G came out, and how excited everyone was because it was such a game changer? The world is in your hands! Blazing fast 3G speeds ZOMG!!! Yea, well all laugh about how 2000s that was, but NZ literally just got 4G in 2014. I asked about LTE at the major carrier and just got a blank stare. I haven’t had the pleasure of buying home internet yet, but I do know that there is a data cap. Yep, you read that right–a data cap on your home connection. The apartment I’m moving into currently has ADSL, but the roommates are open to installing fibre (with the proper British spelling, of course), so at least there’s that.
  • So not only is the internet slow and spotty, but it is *expensive*. Just like everything else here! I’ve already commented on the extreme sticker shock I’ve experienced so far, but every day I see a price on something that just blows my mind. Today it was an $8 box of cereal. Nothing special, just plain ol’ boring breakfast cereal.
  • Sushi can be stupidly cheap here though! Needless to say I’ve survived mostly on a fast food sushi chain that does a $5 special every day. I also supplement that with Korean pancakes that are $4 and oh-so-tasty. I’ve got to hunt out the cheap food in the area I just moved to though–it’s one of the pricier suburbs around. But my new coworkers gave me the heads up on a place that does cheap-ish sushi on Mondays/Fridays for lunch, so looking forward to that!
  • Everyone here is just SO. DANG. FRIENDLY. I can’t count the number of times people have seen me look confused/lost and offered to help. And people offer rides all the time, which saves me so much time! A 10-15 minute car trip can be upwards of 45-60 on the bus, so friendly people with cars are lifesavers. Another thing that still constantly surprises me is that each and every person says “thank you” to the bus driver as they get on, and again as they get off. It’s the little things that just make you think–ok, maybe people aren’t so bad after all.
  • Speaking of the buses…that is a learning curve in and of itself. How did people ever get anywhere without smartphones? Even when google is telling me exactly when and where to get on the bus, I’ve still managed to be standing at the wrong stop. And buses aren’t an exact science–if there’s no one signaling for a ride at a particular stop, the driver doesn’t stop. Which means the bus could skip several stops and be several minutes ahead. Or a pack of tourists could hold up a bus at a single stop for 5 minutes trying to buy tickets. So it’s honestly like a crapshoot every time I wait for a bus. But I can load up a card with money instead of having to have exact change, which is really really handy.
  • You also have to plan your day a little bit more when you’re using public transportation. I’ve had to learn the hard way twice now not to buy more than I can comfortably carry for an hour at worst. I made the mistake of grocery shopping downtown, then walking home because it was faster than the bus. At minute 30, I was hating the apples in my bag that felt like lead balloons. I was even hating the bread, even though it weighed almost nothing. I took the train out to a suburb to shop for a duvet and some pillows because stuff is cheaper outside of the city. Well the train wasn’t running very often by the time I was finished, so I had to take the bus back. I was carrying a shoulder bag, a giant bag with 2 pillows in it, a large sack with a duvet, and 2 small carrier bags. I just prayed the whole time that no one tried to sit by me!
  • I thought about Ubering the other day to an early morning appointment, because I didn’t want to get up the extra 45 min ahead of time to ensure I’d make it even if the buses were running behind. It was also a rainy dreary day, so I didn’t want to stand at the bus stop and get drenched. Turns out, most of the city had that same idea, because Uber was in 2x primetime. Talking with a few others, Uber goes into prime time every time it starts raining, which is *often* this time of year.
  • Oh, and the weather. Texas may have all 4 seasons in 1 week, but Auckland has all 4 seasons in 1 day. Just this morning I left the apartment, singing a song because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! The sunshine was marvelous! I had the whole day ahead of me! And then I felt a cold wind…which I’ve learned now is nature whispering in your ear…”I hope you brought an umbrella”. I had just barely gotten mine open, when it started to hail! Of course it stopped the minute I got under a covered awning, and there was Mr. Sunshine back in full force!
  • It’s the tail end of winter here, which means it’s around 48-54 degrees at any given minute on any day. Which doesn’t seem *that* cold…until you realize that there is no central heating here. Trying to sleep in a 50 degree room is not something I particularly enjoy doing! So I invested in one of those old time hot water bottles that I had never seen in real life before. You’ve seen them in old movies/cartoons–you fill them up with super hot water, and put them under the covers with you to stay warm! Or put them on your head/stomach/whatever hurts. So that’s my primary source of heat these days…

All in all, it’s hard to say that some of these things are Auckland-specific. I would have had the same problems adjusting to riding the bus or an increased cost of living if I had moved to NYC. But at least Kiwis are extremely good natured and friendly, so none of these things have been huge issues!

Hello world!

Hello world, indeed! I’ve been in Auckland for a week now, and what a week it’s been! I know everyone’s waiting to hear about all the great adventures and loads of traveling I’ve been doing, but I’ve actually spent all week doing the mundane chores required to start over in a new place. Even with the tons of preparation I did before I left the US, things here haven’t gone quite as quickly as I’d hoped! So settle in for a long story (or just come back later for the next post, which should hopefully be infinitely more interesting!)…

The flight over wasn’t bad at all. I flew Virgin from Love Field to LAX, and the staff was really nice and helpful. I had called both Air New Zealand and Virgin before I left, to see how many bags I could check and how much it would cost, but for some reason neither airline could give me an answer, even as to how many I could check. So I showed up to the airport just praying that I could even bring the bags I had. I packed everything into 2 larger sized rollers (65lb each), and I had a carryon sized roller (35lb) and a backpack (25lb). So altogether I had a really impressive amount of luggage! I also bought a ticket to Virgin’s lounge at LAX, and as anyone who’s ever spent more than 5 minutes at LAX knows, it was worth its weight in gold. The Virgin planes were really nice, very new, and the staff was spot on. The lounge was great–free open bar and snacks, great wifi, lots of seating, and it was right on the runway so you could watch all the planes taxi and land.

The Air New Zealand flight was good! We took off around midnight Dallas time, and landed at 6am NZ time, so it really felt like I just fell asleep on a normal night and woke up in a new place. The flight crew were SO nice and very helpful and polite, and they genuinely seemed to enjoy their jobs. It was a refreshing change from US domestic airline employees =p

I took a shuttle from the airport to the airbnb I’m staying at, which was great because I didn’t have to drag all my luggage from a bus stop or anything–they just dropped me off at the front door. My host met me and helped me get everything up 2 flights of stairs, bless her heart! There was another person renting the place, so the room wasn’t ready yet–I figured I’d spend a couple of hours getting the few chores done that I needed, and I’d be all set!

I had set up a bank account here before I left, and they had already ordered a debit card and had it sent to the branch across the street. So I moseyed over to pick it up, only to be told that I had to have an appointment, and they didn’t have any for another week. Ugh…well, no problem, I’ll just go apply for a tax ID number in the meantime–I already have the form filled out and all the required documentation! I walked all the way across town, but the girl wouldn’t take my application because I didn’t have a permanent phone and address in NZ. So that’s 2 strikes–this wasn’t nearly as easy as I planned! So I walked into downtown and bought a sim card so I could have a phone here. Refilled out all the paperwork, and submitted the application–success! Now the only thing I really had left to do was find an apartment…what a piece of cake!

And by piece of cake, I mean the hardest thing I’ve had to do in a long time. And keep in mind, I had just sold everything I owned and basically shut down my identity in the US in under 2 weeks. That paled in comparison to finding an apartment here! Auckland has a huge population of students and immigrants, and they’re all in need of apartment-style housing. And unfortunately, lots are willing to live with 4-5 people in a studio apartment, which means they drive the prices of rentals way, way up. So the places I looked at that were within my budget were just disgusting and/or scary. Additionally, every single unit here is managed by an independent realtor. So you can’t just find a building you want to live in, and then inquire about units for rent. You have to somehow hear through the grapevine that a place is for rent, and relentlessly pester the realtor who listed it until they finally respond to you, or you luckily hear that there is a showing. Then you and 20 of your closest student friends all show up to see the same cramped dirty place in a sketchy part of town. That has been my full time job for the past week–from 9-5 I just walked from showing to showing. There were actually a couple that I would have considered, but they were *way* more than I wanted to pay. I have a serious case of sticker shock from the short time I’ve spent here. Just a random sampling of the cost of some things:

  • 250sqft studio apartment, where 4 guys currently lived: $1650 + utilites
  • 400sqft apartment that was clean and in an ok area: $2100 + utilities
  • 1 parking space for a car: $240-$300
  • 1 10oz mini bottle of Diet Coke: $4.50
  • Bagel with salmon and cream cheese: $18.50
  • Half dozen eggs: $6
  • One single ear of corn: $3.99
  • Peaches: $4/lb
  • Baby carrots: $4/package

So I decided that having roommates *maybe* wasn’t so bad after all. I found a listing that I just fell in love with in the first search I did, so I emailed and prayed! I went to see the apartment–it’s a 3 bedroom place rented by a very nice guy. He had 2 female roommates who were both moving, so both of his rooms were for rent. One of the rooms is separate and has an ensuite bathroom, so it’s almost like having your own apartment and just sharing the kitchen and living room with 2 other people. I had really good conversation with the guy and one of his existing roommates, and then I left to go wander around the area and see how close it was to work. I just had to go to the end of the street, down a couple of sets of stairs and around the corner, and there was my office! So I was even more in love with the place. He informed me that he’d already rented out the other room, and that he had a couple of people interested in the room I wanted, so the two of them were going to meet us all again and make a final decision. In the meantime, I kept up my full time job of looking for apartments, and actually applied for an apartment across the street from there. It was twice the price and pretty dated, but at least it was clean and close to work. Well the realtor on that place chose me out of all the applicants, and tried to pressure me into renting the place. I asked for 1 day to decide (so I could wait to see if the 3 bedroom place would choose me), but she didn’t want to wait. She told me my “application was no good to her” and that I was “being difficult and making everyone’s lives difficult”. So I took a big gamble and told her to withdraw my application from that expensive place. And that gamble thankfully paid off, as I am moving in to the 3 bedroom place next week!!! My roommates are both close to 30 I think, one grew up in NZ and the other in the UK. So I’m looking forward to getting to know them both in our super cute little apartment! I spent the last couple of days shopping for a bed and basic stuff that I need to start an apartment, but I think I’m mostly set now! I can’t describe how relieved I am to have found a place to live, and such an awesome perfect place on top of that!

The airbnb I’ve been staying at is AWESOME. I’ve been staying with a couple around my age–she used to DJ, and now is in recruiting for digital talent. She’s smart, super hilarious, snarky, and loves some good trashy TV! She’s spent so much time with me every night on the buying/selling site here looking for apartments and roommates and furniture, and she’s full of suggestions on where to get the best deals, where to eat the best food, fun places to see, etc. And her place is amazing. It’s a 3 story apartment, and I have a bedroom and bathroom on the 2nd story. Everything is freshly remodeled and super modern and really clean–I couldn’t have asked for a better place to spend my first week! She even let me extend my stay by a few days because I hadn’t found an apartment yet.

I start my job on Monday, but I can’t move in to my new place until the following Sunday. So today I’m moving my million pounds of luggage over to another airbnb closer to my work. It’s a 4 story apartment with a rooftop view! I was wondering how in the world I was gonna get on a bus across town with almost 200lb of luggage, but airbnb and the kindness of people saved the day again. The airbnb host said he’d come pick me up in his car and help me get everything over to his place! So once I get there, I’ll have to find all the work clothes that have been vacuum sealed away in suitcases for the past month, and see if I can manage to de-wrinkle them in time for work on Monday!

Two of the wonderful ladies from my new job met me for lunch today, so I will have some familiar faces when I show up to work on Monday. One of them is from Texas, she came to NZ 20 years ago for 6 months and has never gone back. Everyone here thinks she has the *strongest* Texas accent, but to me she sounds like a kiwi! I’ve noticed that everyone here loves my accent. Random cashiers or sales people or just people on the street will keep me talking for ages, because they love listening to the American accent. That’s a first!

SO! There’s the entire looooong story of my first (uneventful) week in Auckland. I’ll be posting some (hopefully) more interesting things once I get settled in to the new place!