Update: November 19 2008

An update from November 19, 2008:

Well, I'm a bit more settled in here now and my boyfriend and I are exploring our new home together. The weather is warming up with Spring, although we still get schizophrenic weather changes daily! 2 weeks ago we had snow and 40 degree temp - in the house! I have yet to hear a good explanation as to why Kiwi homes are so poorly made and not insulated, I don't care what anyone says, shivering in wool clothes under 5 wool blankets is not an adventure and does not build character!

We have explored the Otago peninsula we live on and caught sight of the royal albatross colony, the birds have a 9ft wingspan!! They look like pterodactyls flying among the seagulls! No penguins yet, we have to time it right since they leave for the ocean at sunrise and only return at sunset, which is 9:30 these days. So many flowers are in bloom right now, they smell so good and attract the most enormous bumble bees I've ever seen! We also recently visited the Otago Museum which is a wonderful natural history museum filled with specimens and collections. There is even an ancient Mediterranean collection! It is a great place to learn about Maori and New Zealand history, and about the crazy plants and animals that are here, although many endemic species are on the brink of extinction. Even after leaving the Cal Academy of Sciences in SF, I am very impressed by the museum!

We have discovered some great restaurants and new foods in the grocery stores, like roasted chickpeas, feijeoa juice, passionfruit jam, fig & kiwi ice cream, crispy coconut cookies, and venison! I've also been sampling the many NZ white wines, although I must admit that I'm still partial to reds. The wine aisle is very overwhelming and I have no idea where to begin sometimes. The whites are very green and herbaceous (that's the Kiwi description). I do enjoy the many Rieslings though....

We haven't decided what we will do for Christmas yet, most Kiwis head to the beaches for a 2-3 week holiday, so maybe we will venture out too. I started driving our teeny-tiny car last week and have to remind myself to stay to the left, especially on the roundabouts. It can be kind of scary sometimes! We did find a very nice bike for me so I will be able to ride into town, although drivers are very unaware and unfriendly to bicyclists, so I'll stick to the sidewalks.

Now that my thesis is done, I've been able to focus on looking for work. Keep your fingers crossed!

My boyfriend has made a small group of friends here and we have dinners, movie nights, and outdoor adventures with them. It is really interesting how Dunedin is such an international city. Last weekend we went to a dinner party with an Italian, 3 French, 1 Hungarian and a Malaysian! It's so fun to learn about other cultures, hear new languages, and share what each of us miss from our homes.

We miss NPR, cheap fruits and veggies, predictable weather, a variety of cheeses, unlimited Internet access, fresh herbs, pounds, ounces, Fahrenheits and miles, and the general silliness of American life. Although New Zealand has enough of its own idiosyncrasies that we are learning to live by. Some of these include: not keeping eggs refrigerated, calling shopping carts "trundlers," pronouncing the letter z as "zed," giving the weather forecast for the entire country on the radio, "tramping" instead of hiking, adding an "r" at the end of a word that ends with a vowel, discussing heat pumps and coal burning stoves at dinner parties, calling bell peppers "capsicums," sleeping with a hot water bottle, enjoying the coffee, tea, milk and sugar that NZ employers legally have to supply to their employees, and being prepared for all types of weather everyday.