Earth, Wind, and ..... Water

Hello again dear friends!!! We are back to civilization and are getting some much needed rest. I will catch you up on the happenings, but as usual will start with some observations about Kiwi culture:

• WHERE ARE ALL THE BLACK PEOPLE?????I am serious! I am not saying that I have only seen white people since we have come here, but there are literally no black people here. It feels strange. I keep forgetting to blog about this, but it keeps freaking me out over and over again. 
• What is up with timed showers in every campground? You roughly have between 5 and 7 minutes of light/hot water/water in general/heat etc. This is controlled by a button. At the less evil campgrounds the button is inside your shower cabin. (Only you know what kind of a wasteful asshole you are ever time you press the button again). At the more evil campgrounds the button is outside the cabin door, so that everyone in the bathroom knows what you wasteful maggot you are. At the most evil campground I have been to there is a light-switch in the shower/bathroom area that has to be pressed every 7 minutes or else the room becomes pitch black. The light-switch is located across the room from the showers, right by the door. This means that if you take longer than 7 minutes to walk in, get to the shower cabin, strip down, shower, get dressed again and walk out, you have to get out of the warm shower, with soap in your eyes and walk stark naked across the room, hit the light switch, perhaps flash an impressionable youth milling by the bathroom your naughty bits, and walk your naked ass back to the privacy of your stall. (JOY!!!)

Ok, now for the adventures:
First on our list was Taupo and it was pretty damn awesome. I wanted to take it easy so we went on a 14k hike by the Huka Waterfall. The waterfall and the rapids made me think of Scope and York Peppermint Patty commercials. That is how blue the water was! I am not exaggerating, it is really really really blue. What made the hike really worth while was the Dam at the Aratiatia Power Plant. The gates open 4 times a day and water rushes out making for a spectacular and beautiful spectacle.

The next adventure we had was going to the Waitamo Caves to go tubing and look at the beautiful glow-worms. If you are ever in NZ I really recommend that you do this. (but you can't be claustrophobic or afraid of the dark). While searching for a way to describe the experience I found this blog. The funny part is that the facts of what this woman is saying are the same, but every time she reacts negatively to something, we liked it. It's fun to float on a tube in total darkness looking up at what looks like the night sky, it's fun to fall backwards into the water, she was just not as adventurous as we are I guess, but she is very amusing! Also, she exaggerates A LOT. No water was rushing, the falls were not really that high up, no one felt like a prisoner.

When we came back I took a shower at the campground. As the water was alternating between burning my skin (every time someone flushed) and chilling me (every time someone else turns on their shower, or washes their hands) I started thinking about how little is actually needed for happiness. It wasn't the "holier than thou" kind of thinking where I decide to come back, give away all of my possessions, and live in a cardboard box for the rest of my life. It was the kind of philosophizing where I fully accept that when I come back to the US, I will still want a granite counter top, and a new tablet, and some cool toys from REI, but realize that these are not the things that will truly make me happy by ownership, or sad by lack of ownership.I am thinking about how a life with the type of shower that I am currently taking can be happy and all of the other stuff is superfluous. Right at that moment the light and water both turn off in my stall. Of course, I have shampoo in my eyes and I have to blindly grope along the stall to press the button that is luckily on the inside of the cabin. At that moment I decide that even though life is good, a couple of luxuries would indeed make me a little happier :)

The day of the Tongariro trip I got up nervous and excited. It was to be my first multi-day trip and I was a little scared. We got to a relatively late start, but made it to the info center by early afternoon. The nice guides told us that they were expecting 90kph winds at the top of the Red Crater (the highest point of our walk) the next day - which is when we would be crossing it. they said, that if the winds keep up, the track will be too dangerous and they will refund out money for the remainder of the huts. alternatively, we could hope that the forecast is incorrect and start on out track with the understanding that we might have to turn back. As we are adventurers of the highest sort, we decided to try our luck and go anyway.

I managed to get hurt 2 hours into our trip. It had rained earlier in he day and the track was muddy. I was trying to walk on the steep edge several feet above the muddy track, but a slipped into the mud. I grabbed on to a bush to stop myself from sliding down and hit my mouth on the branch. It looked fine from the outside, but the inside part of my lower lip was completely bloody for several days. It's as Mike always says: "It's all fun and games until Kathy gets hurt". Once I got stupid hiking injury off of my to do list we made it to the first campsite without incident. The ranger there was worried about our tent getting broken by the gale so he told us we could move into the hut and sleep on the floor if the wind gets too crazy in the night. He also warned us about the wind for the next day. Mike and I kept our spirits up and had a cozy cold night of sleep (which was not windy at all).

The next day was our trial by wind. Thankfully the gale got downgraded from 90kph to a mere 70. It was no longer unsafe to go, but the rangers said that it would not be pleasant. We decided that we will try going up, and if it gets too bad we will turn back and figure out options at the bottom. The first 2 hours were fine, it even looked like the clouds were getting blown off as we were walking, so we had high hopes of success. We also ran into a couple of day hikers that had made the crossing, so we knew it was possible. As we got higher up the wind did pick up quite a bit. At a certain height, we had what we call "visibility-good" where you can't see more than 20 feet in front of you. After stopping for lunch at an area that was covered from the wind Mike and I made our final ascent. It felt like we were on Mars! we were walking on lava rock, with the wind howling around us and a whiteout everywhere. If it wasn't so cold, I would say that it looked like a BM whiteout. Several times we could not see the next trail marker and Mike would run a recon mission. This was the day that we had to go up about 700 meters from 1200 to 1886, so it was a pretty tough climb. Finally we started going down which was a blessing :)

I smelled the sulphur of the Emerald Lakes way before we could see anything. We could barely make out a different color in the fog, but suddenly there was a strong gust of wind, and just for a second the clouds got blown off to reveal this:

Mike didn't even have time to take a camera out. It was an amazing piece of luck!. This happened every time we got near a lake. As we continued our descent to a point that was covered from the wind, the clouds started to clear again, and we were treated to some spectacular views of the valley below us. Our descent was through old volcanic runoff so there were a lot of loose rocks. A beautiful view made it a much easier hike. 

It was almost 7pm when we made it to our campsite for the night. We estimate that the day's hiking took us almost 7 hours if you don't take out the 30 minutes we took for lunch. We ate like beasts, drank some hot chocolate and then bedded down for the night. Prior to going to bed we got treated to a beautiful sunset over the Ngauruhoe Mountain. It looked like the sun was balancing on the tip of the mountain in a sea of pink clouds. Between that sunset and the Emerald Lakes, our day of adventure was incredible. 

While sitting in the hut and making hot cocoa, I struck up a conversation with an older gentleman. We got to talking, and it turns out that he and his wife moved to Auckland from Tehran about 30 years ago. I asked him about it, since that time frame coincided with the change in the regime and he said that they left shortly after he and his 13 year old brother were arrested. His father had to make a choice of which one of them he would try and save. Since the man was the oldest son, and his wife was pregnant, his father went to find him. The prisons could not accommodate the number of prisoners, so the man was held at a local school. His father heard about it, and went to the school to look for him. The guards were not being helpful so that the father asked if he could go in and have a drink of water from a water fountain on the inside and was granted his request. By some miracle, the man was being held right by the water fountain so his father was able to find him. they had a connection who pulled some strings and got him released. Shortly after, he and his wife left for NZ. I did not ask about what happened to his 13 year old brother. 

Unfortunately, this was the night that we did not get too much sleep because the wind was howling and almost broke our tent. We were cold and awake most of the night. Everyone left the hut by 7 am, so Mike and I got in there to make breakfast and get warm. We must have stayed there for several hours and it was glorious. We only had a 3 hour hike on this day, which was great because I was exhausted. Once we got to our last campsite all I could do was eat and sleep. 

Our last day of the hike was great. As we were done with most of the food, we repacked and Mike took a bunch of things out of my backpack. I felt as though I was flying. We stopped 3 hours in and had a very nice lunch, dropped our bags and went on a side trip to the the upper and lower Tama Lakes. After 4 days of hiking with heavy backpacks, we practically ran uphill! This was the break that we needed and we came back to our packs, finished off our food and walked back to Whakapapa village. 

That is pronounced Faak-a-papa, and let me tell you that we could not stop joking about it. 

• "We have 5 hours to Whakapapa"
• "We are going to Whakapapa"
• "How long to Whakapapa?"
• "Is there a Whakamama?"
• etc

We came back to out car tired, dirty, hungry, and happy. We even went out to eat, which we only do on very special occasions. We were able to walk to the car just fine, but after the 40 minute ride back to our town, we hobbled around like invalids. We went into the restaurant and saw a very built guy sitting and having dinner. At some point later he got up, and hobbled toward the exit. "Tongariro?" I said giving him a "brothers in arms" smile. He smiled, nodded, and hobbled out :)

The only other adventure I have to tell you about is our surfing. We signed up for a surfing lesson and I think we both fell in love. Mike got up on the surfboard almost immediately, I think he was made for surfing. I got up a total of 3 times, and my last time even managed to stay on the board and cruise for about 3 seconds. It was so much fun!!! Mike and I are both "goofy" which means we have the opposite of a normal stance on a board. How fitting for us! I think we will have to make some time for surfing in between all of our hiking. We might even get surfboards in OZ to practice. It's awesome. Another fun language story. When Kiwis say 'deck' it sounds like 'dick'. Our instructor started out by naming the different parts of the surfboard. there are the rails, the bottom, the front, the back and the deck. Mike was convinced that the top of the surfboard is called a male sexual organ for most of the day. I miss you guys!

Happy 2014 Everyone

Happy New Year's to all of my cabin fevered friends battling record cold weather and tons of snow! I miss you all. So that you don't hate me too much for the weather we are having, I will disclose to you that I just got stung by a wasp in my armpit, so there is still some suffering on this side of the world :) Misery loves company, right?

I will start with more Kiwi-isms again, so get your pencils ready!

• Kumara - Sweet Potato, so you would order Kumara fries here instead of sweet potato fries. Also, they love to put Kumara into Hummus.
• Capsicum - Bell Pepper
• Courgette - Zucchini

A word on Hummus in NZ, Unless you bought it at a farmer's market, it will be horrible.

This week has been an eye opening experience for me in regards to money and how I have been thinking about it, or rather not thinking about it in the default world. In the States, if I want something at a grocery store I buy it, if I want to go out for dinner even though I have food at home, I go. If I want to have 3 drinks at a bar, I don't give it another thought. All of that has changed here. I hav become much more aware of brand names, in season produce, sales, specials and how expensive some of our habits are.

It seems to me now, that Mike and I have been burning through money in the States for stupid reasons. It's not as though we weren't saving, we were, but we could have done much more. It might also be that everything is more expensive here. The spending we are going to really cut out is the alcohol. I'm not talking about having drinks in a bar - that can't happen outside of special occasions, I'm talking about buying alcohol in a store. Here, Jack Daniel's whiskey (1.75 L) is $89 on sale, the same bottle at Binny's is $39.

Very quickly, it seems that we are becming a different type of shopper, a smarter type of shopper. We never throw out our food anymore, because we only buy what we need. I could not figure out how to to that at home. We would end up throwing out leftovers, and spoiled veggies all the time. Here, we don't even have a refrigerator until we stop at a camping spot, and we don't have that problem. It's amazing what a little shift in perspective can do for you.

I know that it's not as simple in the States, because I have an unlimited amount of time to spend on shopping and food prep here, but it's still a chore and it does detract from the other things we are doing. I am really hoping this change in attitude will stick. It would allow us to save at a much greater rate, or do more expensive fun things periodically. I know, that as the parents are reading this, a lone fat tear of joy is slowly gliding down their cheek.

Now on with the actual happenings in the last week or so. We spent New Year's in Auckland. There was a party that Olichka and Steve were invited to and they were kind enough to bring us along. The party started off as a pool party at noon, so by the time we got there (around 7) we had a lot of catching up to do. The party was full of characters, and this time I had no problem socializing (I think because most people were around my age). Here is a list of characters that I had met:

1. A man I will call "Blond Sklya" - This guy really looked like Sklya and every time I looked at him I was surprised he was blond, and not Russian. He spent all night walking around in very short and tight shorts, and nothing else :). His hair was straight and even cut in the same style as Sklya, it was uncanny, but the resemblance ended there. He came over, and told Mike and I a really long story about buying a $10,000 dollar watch, assuming it was waterproof and destroying it in less than a year
2. A girl with the last name Maloney - She was really drunk and kept speaking in a fake Irish accent. She is Kiwi, but told us that everyone assumes she is from Ireland, and she has decided to just go with it. She was totally hilarious, I hope I run into her again. Picture the heaviest Irish accent that you can. Now try to imagine someone completely plastered, but so commited to the performance that they continue to speak in this accent all night long. "Helloo, me name is Maaalooooney, I'm from ire-laand." It was amazing!
3. A 19 YO kid who was completely and utterly wasted and looked like he just stumbled around from place to place. "Blond Sklya" told me a story about why he was there, something about his dad, but I forgot what it was.
4. An Australian couple who is travelling through - The girl in particular was very interested in us taking the year off and travelling. She said that she and her man travelled through Cali for a little while, and also Mexico. She told me about all of the places I should go, but I promptly forgot them. Her hair was the most peroxide blond that I have ever seen, and she was very very tan. I assume that she fit in to most of the Cali look without a problem.

I have to say that the fireworks display in Auckland was very tame. It had nothing on even the suburban 4th of July displays that I have seen in Chicago. A little disappointing, but in the grand scheme of things, the party was very fun. The view from the deck was of the Auckland Skyline along with the marina. It was worth the hangover of the following morning!

We left for Rotorua on Jan 2nd and it was basically a road day where not much has happened. Something I feel like I still needed after the party :) Rotorua is awesome! One of the days we were here, we went to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, and that name does not lie! Check it out: here. It was like visiting another planet! So far, I think it's my favorite place in NZ. 

We have also been training for our multi-day hikes and hiking with and without packs. I am going to brag and say that we hiked, not walked, 25 kilometers in 5 hours and 20 minutes. (15.6 miles of a hike up and down hills) We did not have packs, and we did stop for an hour to have lunch, but that distance is waaaaay more than we are expecting to hike on any day of the multi-day hikes, so I'm pretty happy - although very sore.

We are now done with Rotorua and will just drive until the mood strikes us to stop. We booked a 4 day hike Jan 12-15th s we will definitely be off the grid on those days. More soon, I promise :)

The SCUBA debacle

It's that time again my friends, my ramblings continue... We are back in Auckland again after another adventure, this time with Olichka and Steve. We took advantage of their holiday schedule and went away to Coramandel together for a couple of days. It was very beautiful and relaxing there. We only went on one hike (to Cathedral Cove which was gorgeous) We also tried SCUBA  diving - which was a little less exciting for me.

I will pause here to bring yet another installment of Kiwi culture shock:

1. They love to shorten words and say things like "avo" or "uni", to denote "avocado" or "university"

2. They are super friendly and social. I keep thinking that when people stop me on the street they want to sell me something, but they are just that friendly

3. There are two types of home ownership here: freehold and lease hold. Freehold is much like the US ownership, but lease hold means that you own the house, but not the land. This is due to Maori owning some of the NZ land. Lease hold ownership means that you pay rent and have a contract that is only valid for x years. There was a recent lawsuit because 2.1 million dollar home build on lease hold land had their lease go up from 8300 a year to over 70,000.  

4. Pavlova - A Kiwi dessert. Mike and I were very surprised that a Kiwi dessert has a Russian name. This is what Wikipedia had to say: Pavlova is a meringue-based dessert named after the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova.[2] It is a meringue dessert with a crisp crust and soft, light inside.[1] The name is pronounced /pævˈloʊvə/ or /pɑːvˈloʊvə/, unlike the name of the dancer, which was /ˈpɑːvləvə/.[3][4][5]

The dessert is believed to have been created in honour of the dancer either during or after one of her tours to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s. The nationality of its creator has been a source of argument between the two nations for many years, but formal research indicates New Zealand as the source.[1]

The dessert is a popular dish and an important part of the national cuisine of both countries, and with its simple recipe, is frequently served during celebratory and holiday meals. It is a dessert most identified with the summer time, but is eaten all year round in many Australian and New Zealand homes.

Now back  to our regularily scheduled program:

I was a little anxious to try SCUBA, but assumed that it would be OK. Steve got Olichka the discover dive as an X-Mas present and Mike and I scheduled ours at the same time. Everything started out OK. I wanted to get into the water first so that I could adjust to everything without feeling stressed, but ended up getting in dead last. 

All was going well until I tried breathing through the SCUBA mouthpiece. I started hyperventilating and freaking out a little bit. The instructor came over and tried to help me. Shockingly, what helped is for him to basically flip me on to my stomach and have me look at the bottom of the ocean. It took a little while, but I finally calmed down and relaxed a little bit. I thought that now that I managed to regain control over myself I wouldn't have anymore issues - WRONG!

The instructor started lowering us down to the bottom. I was told that I would have to clear my ears every meter that I went down. The first one was difficult, but I managed to clear. We went down some more, and I felt a familiar (from flying) pain. I tried clearing, really really tried, but I could not. I started signaling the instructor that I wanted to come up. We went up a little where it didn't hurt, and tried going down again. I again tried to clear but couldn't. I started freaking out and hyperventilating again. I signaled to the instructor that I wanted to go up, but he kept signaling that I was OK. I argued with him for what must have been seconds, but felt waaaaay longer, and finally got him to bring me all the way up 

Once I broke through the water I ripped the air flow tube out of my mouth and tasted the fresh salty air. The instructor was right there wanting me to try again. I asked him to give me a second to calm down ,but he didn't give me as much time as I wanted, and we started trying again. Once again I was able to clear on the first meter. I saw Mike who looked concerned as I hit the second clearing. I tried super hard to clear my ears again, and again I could not, and again an underwater argument of sign language ensued with the instructor. I came up for air and this time Mike surfaced with me. I felt better immediately when I saw him. The instructor suggested that we try again, but I was having none of it, I was done. 

I was close to tears at this point. Mike swam up to me to check on me and I told him that I was OK, and he should continue with the SCUBA. I would feel worse if I took the experience away from him as well. There was some snorkeling gear in the boat so I did that, feeling slightly like a failure and trying no to dwell on that fact. Later on Mike asked one of the SCUBA folks if there are some people that are just unable to clear their ears and can never SCUBA and the guy said yes, which made me feel better. I don't know if I'm upset because I gave up so fast, or because I feel physically limited in this other way. In either case, it was kind of a fail. 

The next morning we were woken up by a torrential downpour, which wasn't so bad considering the fact that we were leaving anyway, but it did make packing up quite an adventure :). We drove back to Aukland and dried out all o our amping gear. We will stay until New Years.

Our current worry is the pace of our spending. It is really really fast. Food an gas are really pricy. Also, our campsite at Coramandel was $60 a night for the two of us, double what we are paying for the Auckland digs. It's looking more and more likely that we will either WWOOF or try to find some short term telecommuting work from the US. I don't know which one we will do quite yet. 

To   end this on a positive and personally successful note , I went for a short run this morning. I don't remember the last time I could say that. I'm also really looking forward to exploring the south island in a couple of weeks. I will keep you guys appraised of our movements and will write again soon.

Also, Mike has been doing some night photography and its incredible! Hopefully he will upload some of the best pics so that you guys can see it. I'm really impressed by how much he has improved since he started doing this. OK, the end :)

Week 2ish - more thoughts about the transition

Not quite sure whats wrong with me today. It seems that every time I'm in Auckland I start feeling restless and trapped for some reason. The last week has been great. Mike and I have done a lot of outdoorsy things and I felt happy and relaxed. 

It would be very hard to not feel blissful when you are constantly surrounded by beauty. NZ is so beautiful that it's not even fair. Imagine all possible shades of green as you rest your eyes on lush rolling hills. Periodically you catch the sand of beaches and the clear blue slowly getting darker as you gaze farther into the ocean. The sky is a light blue with maybe some little clouds drifting by. Its ridiculous! Now imagine the reds, oranges, yellows and purples of the sunset and a sky filled with stars at night. Completely unbelievable.

The farm we stayed at was incredible. There were people coming and going at all times and the atmosphere was alive with young energy. It was contagious. There was always something going on, and not just one something ,several somethings all at once. One of the days we were there we took a tandem kayak to an island and explored the deserted houses on it. On our way back to The Farm, it was low tide and the landscape changed entirely. we had spots where either one or both of us had to get out and carry the kayak over mud. It was a great adventure and i couldn't really lift my arms the next day, so overall great success.

 I must admit that in a way being surrounded by kids that were in their late teens and early 20s made me feel a little old and socially awkward. I wanted to join in to the fun, but felt that they wouldn't want me to. Of course Mike did not feel any of this. He is perfectly at home and at ease with everyone. I even resent him a little for this. (honesty is hard :)) I will need to figure out how to deal with the social awkwardness aspect on my own, because I have a feeling that when we go to volunteer on farms, our fellow volunteers will all be younger and I will just have to get over myself. I don't know why I pictured it any other way in my head.

The funny part is that it's not like I just sat in the corner the whole entire time. I spoke with several people and found out a bit about them and why they were there. I really think that it's just  mental thing for me. Mike said that I probably spoke with more people and for  a longer period of time than he did. I think I just need outside interaction more than he does. 

 Physically I'm making great strides. I can feel my body get stronger every time we go to do something. Yesterday we went on a 2.5 hour hike with 20lb backpacks in preparation for multi-day hikes. I think I did pretty well and now I'm feeling the burn. 

I noticed some strange body issues happening when we got here. For some reason I have a feeling that I weigh 300 lbs and look like a big horrible rolly-polly blob. Every time I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror I'm surprised that I don't look like that. My theory is that this is happening because I'm doing a lot of physically challenging things and feel really out of shape and sweaty all the time. I think as I get stronger my mental image will get closer to my physical one. At least I hope it does. 

In any case, in reality my clothes are fitting looser and I'm able to do tougher things now than I did when we first came here, so we'll see how all of this shakes out. I am hoping I will look AND FEEL like a golden goddess by the end of this trip (fingers crossed). 

I have been told by several people that it sounds like I'm not having a good time so far. That is simply not the case, I'm just trying to document the bad with the good. I know that once this trip is over my memory will gloss over everything but the highlights. I'm in a good mood 90% of the time. It's a big transition for me, and I want to make sure that I'm honest about how it makes me feel.That is all. I love you and miss you guys. 

PS - send me cheap easy recipes. We are cooking all the time an need ideas

Week One - We have arrived!

So here we go….

I had two goals for this trip:

1.        To get in the best shape of my life
2.        To write about my experiences.

I have been working on item 1 this whole week, and now it’s time to start on number 2. What I really want to do is document how I feel throughout this adventure. It’s not enough to document what I did, I want to have a truly honest account of what it felt like to take a year off and some of it I will want to gloss over, but I’m going to try really hard not to.

One thing that I expected was to somehow feel different once my feet hit NZ soil. I know it was a silly thing to have expected, but there it is. This was nothing compared to the panic that I felt on day 3. I started feeling completely restless and anxious and not sure if I had just made the worst mistake of my life. Mike and I talked it through and it basically comes down to this: I am very goal oriented and as my dad says – “ a soldier needs to be kept busy” What I’m trying to say is that now that I suddenly have all of this free time on my hands I’m not quite sure what to do with it. Mike warned me that this would happen, and I did set goals (as seen above) but on day three we were still in Auckland, and in a hotel, and everything felt very temporary and I haven’t been doing very many active things. I have noticed that every day now, I’m restless until I exercise. I seem to crave it. I’m not really sure why this is. In the default world, I am not a huge fan of physical activity. I do things because I have to, not because I like it, but out here, in a place I don’t have to sit at a desk for 8 hours a day, I can’t function properly without giving my body healthy dose of punishment. I still haven’t figured out why this is.

I am not sure if I will need to keep my mind more occupied, that remains to be seen, for now the body occupation is getting it done for me. I plan to do more writing (the blog, maybe some short stories) and hopefully the challenge of that will be enough.

In terms of the body, things are much better, if better means that I have a great opportunity for improvement. I had assumed that the fact that I can walk 6-8 miles a day would prepare me for the type of hiking that I would be doing here, but I was very very mistaken. What both Mike and I have discovered is that hiking in NZ is quite a change from walking around flat Chicago, or flat Burning Man.  Our original plan was to go on a 3-4 day hike right off the bat, but after going on a day hike with Olichka, we both realized that we would have to work up to carrying backpacks.

Since we left Auckland on Monday our days have the following components: sleep, hike 2-4 hours (feels like uphill both ways) buy groceries, drive to campsite, eat dinner repeat. We also do pushups first thing in the morning. Mike wants to add P90X to our morning routine, but so far we are having problems setting that up. Guess who has two thumbs and is not really upset about skipping p90X in the mornings!!! That’s right, this gal!!!

The other thing that I wasn't expecting was how much I was going to miss all of my friends. I think about them all the time. Before I left, Olya gave me a little necklace with a fox on it (to remember the foxes) and I find myself playing with it all the time. I think she knew what she was doing when she gave me that little fox. As I start falling more and more in love with NZ, that necklace is a constant reminder of the family and friends that I have in the states. It’s my tie to everyone.

Mike also noticed that I think and talk about work a lot still. I don’t think that I do, but I’m sure he notices it more than I do. I do need to find a post card for them. They asked for one and I need to find a good one. I also find myself wondering if my position has been filled yet. When will I be able to let go?

Hiking in New Zealand is amazing. I feel like I’m really doing something good for myself. The hikes are hard for me and at the end of a really steep uphill sometimes I feel like I want to die, but I love it. It’s so green here. It seems like colors got magnified. The weather is unbelievable too. The other thing that I love is the sheep. They are everywhere. You can hear, see and smell them on every hike. Outside of Auckland everything smells like childhood at the dacha: flowers, grass, and farm animals. I have flashbacks of going to the nearby village with my grandma to buy milk so fresh; it’s still warm from the cow.

Weird observations about NZ so far:

•        Sheep are everywhere
•          Conservation parks look like prisons (they have hard core gates to keep out all rodents since they eat bird eggs and are very destructive to the indigenous nature
•          Butter is very yellow – Olichka explained this: cows here eat grass, not corn and grass has beta carotene in it, so the butter looks different
•          They don’t just drive on the left, all of the escalators are inverted too and they walk on the wrong part of a walkway. I spend my time trying not to bump into people too much

I also wanted to thank the Fishlins and the Balbekova/Bayliss household for their amazing hospitality. You guys are amazing. Olichka and Steve get a double shout out for picking us up at the airport at 6am on a workday J

It's all happening

As the craziness of Thanksgivukkah has finally come to an end, I am now sitting down to write our last pre-trip post. I keep oscillating between being really happy, tired, and scared out of my mind. Sometimes this happens within a span of 5 minutes. Just to fill you guys in on what has been going on so far here goes:

The grandparents took the news WAYYYYYY better than anyone could have predicted (except Mike and myself that is) They were very excited that we are going on a trip and once we promised to Skype they seemed to calm down. One of my grandma's even asked if we were bound to stay only in Australia and New Zealand, or if we could go anywhere else if we got bored. I told her that the world is our oyster and she seemed happy. Once they shock wore off, they did express some worry to my parents, but overall, I think they are happy. I have made peace with my parents I think. I spend a lovely Black Friday with my mom not shopping and went for a very nice long walk with my dad on Saturday. They are still not happy that I'm leaving, but I feel like we are leaving things on a positive note.

Mike and I are also done with work. As of November 22 we are unemployed. I haven't been in this position since I was 14. I may have freaked out a bit over that weekend and scored a wonderful hangover as a result. I couldn't completely not work on Monday, so I spent a couple of hours, re-certifying myself in all things Epic before my access got revoked. I am now good through the end of 2015.

Mike is taking it all in stride I think. We have not really had a chance to really hang out in over a month. I miss him a lot. Thanksgiving is always very hard for me because we never spend it together, and this year it was especially difficult. I still have not seen him, as he had to sleep over at his parents to do some things for them before we get out of town.

I originally thought that the 2 weeks we had between quitting our jobs and getting out of the country would be spent with us being tourists in our own city and enjoying all that Chicago had to offer, but between the renters, and the motorcycle, and the random errands, and Thanksgiving apart, I don't think that this will happen at all. I'm hoping maybe we will do that when we come back, but maybe its impossible to staycation for people like us.

I will miss living with the Shaffies a lot. Before we moved in, I was worried that we would all get on each other's nerves and get really sick of each other. I can't really speak for them, but to me it was a very pleasant surprise that it feels so natural. Once I got used to living with 2 kids everything just fit. I can't really describe what its like to live with 2 kids, if you don't have any of your own. They are so fun, and cute and at the same time you feel exhausted sometimes. Overall I am enjoying having this peek at family life.

I have a feeling of impatience now that is growing every day. I have waited for this time for 3.5 years, and I really want to start on the adventure. I am keeping my expectations non-existent. As long as there is change, I will be happy. I want to not know what I'm doing tomorrow. I want to be open to everything and have no responsibilities to anyone but Mike. I can't imagine a life with no obligations, where you wake up every morning and ask yourself - what do I want to do today? I want a day where Mike wakes me up with the words - "arise sir, great things await" and I believe him.

It's getting better :)

So it's Monday, and I feel a whole lot better about everything. First of all, we are finally completely out of the house AND the garage. We no longer live in Niles, we are homeless vagabonds. I feel like our travels have already started :) In the last two weeks I have really seen why Mike's playa name is "strong like bull" and I think mine should be "weak like butterfly wing", but I'm going to pretend like I bring other things to the table.

I'm also excited to report, that we have visas to Australia and bought tickets to NZ. We are flying to SF on 12/7 using our wonderful Southwest miles, and then flying to NZ on the 12/9. We were supposed to Skype with Olichka over the weekend, but that didn't pan out too well due to the whole belated moving issue. She did send us an awesome email that I found a little intimidating, but I will study tonight and tomorrow. The one thing that I did get out of it last night, is that she is as excited to see us as we are to see her - so that's always good.

I'm actually looking forward to breaking the news of my departure to the grandparents this coming weekend. I think that my parents night be underestimating them, and I hope that I'm proven right. Also, I really hate lying, and this will finally free me up, to not pretend that I don't want to buy a new car, for no reason at all, and I LOVE carpooling. Also, when they ask me "what's new" I will actually be able to tell them instead of saying nothing, and wanting the conversation to end.

One thing that I didn't count on so far, was how upset both Mike's and my parents are about us going. I can understand that they will miss us, we will miss them too, but they seem worried. When I ask them about it they can't really give me any concrete reason. The closest I got, was my mom telling me that she's worried, because she knows that Mike and I do crazy things, and that we will do those things away from anyone who can help us if anything goes wrong. Mike's mom, can't tell me exactly what is bothering her, just that she doesn't want us to go.

I know it's selfish, but I really wish that they could share my excitement. Now, every time I come over to any of the parents houses it feels like they are about to head to a funeral. I understand that this is not what they signed up for when they took Mike and I to the US as kids, but we are choosing opportunities that would not be available to us if we still lived in the former USSR, so in a way we are doing when they wanted us to. They all say that we will understand when we have kids.

That's all for now :)

Stress Week - Everything is Happening!!!!

A little background: Mike and I had a three year plan to take some time and travel in Australia (OZ) and New Zealand (NZ). We bought our house, saved up, and paid enough of it off to get rid of the PMI and drop our monthly payments down. The next two years were spent saving. We also got married and got a significant portion of our trip from the wedding gifts, so in a way all of our friends and family have contributed to this amazing adventure. Unfortunately our house also flooded twice which required very costly repairs so we did hit some monetary road blocks as well. Our checklist for going was:

1. Save up at least $30,000 to spend on this trip (done)
2. Find a new renter for Kathy's Condo (done)
3. Find a temporary home for Kathy's cat while we travel(done)
4. Rent out our house (hopefully furnished and with no garage) (done)* had to give up the garage though

And so the adventure is officially beginning.

This week has been absolutely insane. I have been anxious for a couple of months now, because the final piece - the renting out of the house - was not going well. We had a close call with a crazy renter, but she backed out at the last second, which may have been a good thing. This past Saturday we finally got renters to sign the lease for a year rental on the house. We have managed to rent the house out furnished, but they did want a garage, so Mike has been taking time off and packing/sorting everything out.

There were moral dilemmas along the way. For example - should we or shouldn't we tell our future renters that we are only willing to rent our house out for a year? On one hand, if we tell it will be harder to rent it out, on the other hand, the lease does say a year, so it's not like we're really lying.... We opted for a clear conscience and a longer wait time for the renting - which I'm really happy about. The couple who is renting our house seems great. They are both nurses who recently moved here from VA. They work in a hospital right next to our house, and they are looking to buy, so they are interested in only renting for a year. Fingers crossed this will be an easy experience for all involved.

Our parents are not taking the news well. I went over to their house on Monday for our weekly dinner and they looked like they were at a wake. I also had the opportunity to see Mike's parents that day, and they looked no better. They are worried about our careers, our money, our futures, and of course us being away in a foreign country without them there. I understand where they are coming from, but I do wish that they could share our joy rather than having us share their apprehensions.

The other cause for anxiety: our new tenants want to move in November 1! That gave Mike and I one real weekend to pack. Mike is also running around trying to fix all of the things in the house that we have been letting go of, while we were living in it. To be honest this is causing some stress for us, as the completion of some of these projects, or rather the lack of completion has been the source of some big fights in the past. The move is merely throwing oil on the fire. In the meantime, I go to work, come home, and pack. It took me 4 nights to pack up the kitchen, but hopefully the rest of the house won't be so bad. I am hoping to get the bathroom and the spare bedroom under control today, so I will only have our bedroom to worry about on Saturday while Mike is moving the immense amount of stuff from the garage to the storage space. I think I will be completely happy once we are out of the house and bumming it up in the Shafrans' spare bedroom.

On top of that, there are all sorts of logistical issues that I'm trying to handle. Visas are a lot more complicated when you don't know when exactly you are leaving a particular country. For some reason, even though I'm usually very good about these things, I could not figure anything out from the OZ and NZ websites and ended up calling the OZ embassy and emailing the NZ one. Long story short - it will be less hassle to just buy plane tickets out of NZ before we arrive so that we get the automatic 3 month visitor visa granted to tourists. I love that you can apply for OZ visas online, and don't actually have to send them anything via mail. They are a god send. Go OZ!!!!

One final piece of exciting news is that both Mike and I have put in our notices at work. We are both working though Nov 22, 2013 and then we are out of there. Once the word was out at work people started coming up to me and these are the three things that they generally say  in the order that they say them:

1. Wow, I can't believe you are doing this!
2. I wish that I could have done something like this!
3. If you were ever going to do this, now is the time!

People have been very sweet in general and I am touched by some of the emails and comments that I have gotten. It will be very strange to leave this place after working there for nine years. I think it will be really good for me to try something so completely outside of my comfort zone. 

The plan for this weekend is packing, packing and even more packing. I am really stressed out about how it will go, but I think we will be OK. It will be such a relief to just be able to rest after work rather than pack and run around. I guess you have to have a final stress marathon before leaving it all behind and not doing the day to day grind. I will just focus on what I am looking forward to:

1. Not worrying about the house
2. Living with one of my best friends for about a month
3. Spending some time with family and friends before our trip
4. Being tourists in Chicago during the holiday season. There will be lights on Michigan starting Thanksgiving week
5. Last, but not least - going on the adventure of a lifetime

*I am also trying to set up my blog to stream to FB and Google+ every time I post something new. I think it will make it easier to stay in touch with everyone. I'm currently using Blogger which can be set up to feed into Google+ automatically. I am trying to use RSS graffiti to post new blog posts to FB. I will let you know how it goes.

Madrid

Mike and I both really liked Madrid. It is a wonderful European city. What it lacks in the charm of narrow streets, it gains in fountains, parks and statues. I was exhausted on our first day in Madrid. The sunburn was really starting to get the best of me, but the city beckoned.

We started off the day by going to the Mercado de San Miguel which was quite a sight. It's a covered market with all sorts of vendors selling tapas, alcohol, coffee and dessert. The variety of tapas is overwhelming and everything is done fresh since the Mercado is packed and the food is eaten almost as soon as it's made. Mike and I walked around a little to get the lay of the land, and then tried a little bit of everything with some sangria and coffee to polish it off. I tried to save room for dessert, but that did not happen when all was said and done.

Having satisfied our hunger we walked around the old city and ended up in the Parque de Buen Retiro - which means the Park of Pleasant Retreat - and they are not lying. The park is 350 acres and the largest park in central Madrid.We saw couples and groups of friends reading and having picnics in the shade of great old trees to beat the heat. There are paths for walking, biking and rollerblading as well as a cross between a lake and a pond where people rent boats and row around. We strolled through most of the park having the most pleasant of days.

The park houses a couple of smaller buildings - like the Palacio de Crystal which housed a weird art exhibition that I couldn't really understand. There are also a lot of street performers playing guitar and accordion. Mike - who apparently really likes accordion even took some videos of the musicians. We ended up walking into the Gardens of Buen Retiro and saw wild peacocks in their mating dance. I felt bad for a male peacock that was peacock-blocked by tourists feeding the females. Mike and I even saw the mating dance - but alas, the male will have to try again at a different time.

On our way out of the park we also walked into another Palace - Palacio de Valezquez which had a modern art exhibition that made me think of Burning Man. I will try to put up some pictures and videos a little later. We also walked bast an old no longer used zoo that was a little depressing. Apparently this is really is a one stop shop kind of a park. We dined in the Plaza de Santa Ana and went to bed relatively early - by our usual travelling standards.

Our final day in Madrid we had lunch at the oldest restaurant in the world (seriously) - Sobrino de Botin. I recommend doing this - even though it's a very touristy thing to do. I agree with other reviews that it's not a tourist trap and the food is of very good quality. Mike ordered suckling pig and I had Clams Botin. We also split the dessert - Tarta Botin which was delicious and very rich. I also recommend the sangria - it was the first time throughout my whole visit in Spain and Portugal that I didn't think there was too much sugar added. I liked the sangria so much that I ended up getting a little drunk and going back to the hotel to relax and sober up a little.

Once I sobered up we walked the the Palacio Real - and walked in the Gardens a little and then went on to Parque de Oste to look at the Temple of Debod:

The Temple of Debod^[2] (Spanish: Templo de Debod) is an ancient Egyptian temple which was rebuilt in Madrid, Spain.

The temple was built originally 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) south of Aswan^[3] in southern Egypt very close to the first cataract of the Nileand to the great religious center dedicated to the goddess Isis, in Philae. In the early 2nd century BC, Adikhalamani (Tabriqo), the Kushite king of Meroë, started its construction by building a small single room chapel dedicated to the god Amun.^[3] It was built and decorated on a similar design to the later Meroitic chapel on which the Temple of Dakka is based.^[3] Later, during the reigns ofPtolemy VI, Ptolemy VIII and Ptolemy XII of the Ptolemaic dynasty, it was extended on all four sides to form a small temple, 12 by 15 metres (39 ft × 49 ft), which was dedicated to Isis of Philae. The Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius completed its decorations.^[4]

From the quay there is a long processional way leading to the stone-built enclosure wall, through three stone pylon gateways and finally to the temple itself.^[3] The pronaos, which had four columns with composite capitals collapsed in 1868, and is now lost.^[3]Behind it lay the original sanctuary of Amun, the offering table room and a later sanctuary with several side-rooms and stairs to the roof.^[3]

In 1960, due to the construction of the Great Dam of Aswan and the consequent threat posed to several monuments and archeological sites, UNESCO made an international call to save this rich historical legacy. As a sign of gratitude for the help provided by Spain in saving the temples of Abu Simbel, the Egyptian state donated the temple of Debod to Spain in 1968.

The temple was rebuilt in one of Madrid's parks, the Parque del Oeste, near the Royal Palace of Madrid, and opened to the public in 1972.^[5] The reassembled gateways appear to have been placed in a different order than when originally erected. Compared to a photo of the original site, the gateway topped by a serpent flanked sun appears not to have been the closest gateway to the temple proper.^[6] It constitutes one of the few works of ancient Egyptian architecture which can be seen outside Egypt and the only one of its kind in Spain.

The park was not nearly as pleasant as the Buen Retire Park, but we still did a little laying and reading and people-watching. There was a big group doing capoeira that Mike took a video of as well. The rain and cooler weather prevented us from staying too long so we walked back to the old city and had our last Spain dinner - which was very pleasant. After dinner we strolled through the city saying good-bye. We walked the Gran Via and the calle de Alcalla admiring the building and discussing how beautiful and under-appreciated the city of Madrid is. It was a bittersweet evening, but a fitting one as the last day of our honeymoon. In the morning we flew back to our lives and started the process of working to travel all over again :)

Granada

Our day in Granada was very very pleasant. I was completely and totally burned so I put on a breezy dress and we went to explore Alhambra. As usual we started our journey around the hottest time of the day after having a bit of lunch and walked up the hill to let it settle for a bit.

Alhambra in huge. They actually sell separate tickets for separate parts, because you don't really have time to explore everything with an audio tour in one 6 hr. general ticket session. We only had one day so we just tried to do as much as we could. When you get up to the main entrance there is a huge line to get tickets and the ticket window says cash only. Mike got in line and told me to go find out the lay of the land. What I found was that a little hidden and off to the side you have credit card machines where you can buy tickets with absolutely no line for an extra fee of 1.30 euros per ticket. I came back and told him in Russian for minimizing the stampede to the ticket machines. Great success :)

We started our visit by exploring the Palacio de Carlos V. which was started in 1527 and completed in 1957. The Spaniards sure know how to take their time building things :). Now I know where the waiters get their speed from. Mike thinks that all of the stone that went into making the columns was sanded down, but it feels great to the touch. Once we were done exploring it, we went down to the Mezzanine floor and went through a museum where there were artifacts from the time of Alhambra. Here is a blurb on the Palacio from the Alhambra website:

The origin of Charles V Palace (Palacio de Carlos V) was the need for a place that would include all the comforts of the time for the Emperor and his family, as the palaces, which were their summer residence, did not cover their needs. 

The Emperor ordered the construction of the palace next to the Alhambra in order to enjoy its wonders. The architect in charge of the works was Pedro Machuca, an experienced architect in love with the Renaissance. The works started in 1527 and were totally finished in 1957. The construction went through several stages, the lack of financing resources, revolts that stopped the works, etc. The building was sometimes neglected to such an extent that the ceilings collapsed. 

The palace is square and its main façade is 63 meters wide and 17 meters high. Its circular patio is unique and it is the most important building of Renaissance style in Spain. Only the southern and western façades are completely decorated. The northern and southern sides are not because they are connected to the palaces of the Alhambra.

Once we were done we went to the Generalife gardens which were amazingly pleasant to walk around in. On our little walk we saw the most PIMP cat in the world, he was taking a nap on a bench in the sun in the Generalife Gardens in Alhambra - and I thought my life is pretty nice :) I have included a picture for your general enjoyment. We were just finishing our pleasant stroll when my alarm rang meaning that we had to make our way back to the Nasarid Palaces. The way that the General Ticket for Alhambra works is that there is you can walk anywhere you want, but you have a specific time that you have to be at the Nasarid Palaces which is the biggest Alhambra attraction.

The Palaces were very beautiful with an insane amount of intricate detail. It is still inhabited - at least by a bat that I found sleeping in a nook of the Myrtles. I wished that we had a guide, but we didn't get one for Alhambra. I kind of regret that decision now. Mike and I discussed whether or not the Nasarid Palaces were a little much. I think that they are beautiful, but I do see what he is saying. There is no place for your eyes to rest - it's a little overstimulating. I understand the need for fountains and water in palaces of this style, as it's the only place where your eye can rest on something calm and non busy. While taking pictures we met a couple who just came from Madrid and gave us a food recommendation for El Mercado de San Miguel which turned out amazing, but I will get to that later.

Once we got out of the Nasarid Palaces we tried to sneak in a visit to Alcazaba - but the park was closing and all we got was a chance for Mike to run up and take in the view. On our way out we heard beautiful classical guitar music coming from the theater of Generalife. We asked some of the people who worked at Alhambra what that was and they stated that a guitarist was practicing for a July 23 show. I later looked it up, and the show is called Duende. I'm not really sure what it entails but it looks like music and dancing and flamenco. After a lot of work I found out that the guitarist we heard is probably Luis Mariano - a Granada local. I would not mind finding out more, but for some reason it's unreasonable difficult to find any info on it online. We polished our day at Granada off with a nice dinner (I had an ox burger) while listening to a street guitarist. It wasn't quite as good as what we happened to hear in Granada, but beggars can't be choosers I guess. Mike went walking after I went to bed and met another Madrid native who gave him other Madrid site recommendations along with food and alcohol - so we were all set for the last city of our journey

The next morning we bought a couple of souvenirs and headed towards Madrid. Our plan was to stop by Toledo and have a little dinner. About an hour away from Granada Mike found a small town and proceeded to instruct me in the art of driving stick - insert joke here. I started off in the small town, but then Mike had me go off towards the hills on windy roads. I was completely exhausted after about an hour of total stress - but I can say that I have driven stick now. YAY!!!!

After another hour or so on the road we saw a ruined castle and decided that we need to see it up close. It was a little bit of a hike to get up there, but we are adventurers and this is what we do. The ruined castle is home to many pigeons who we successfully disturbed. I think the whole side trip took us no more than 30 minutes and soon we were on our way again towards Toledo.

The town looked beautiful and old, but we didn't really have a chance to walk around in it. We stopped by several different bars for beers and tapas and settled on a restaurant for a nice meal. I have to say that at this point of the trip I was pretty tired and was really looking forward to going to bed in Madrid. On the way out of Toledo my navigation skills got us to incredibly narrow streets and we ended up scraping our car - which woke me up quite a bit, but we managed to get to Madrid and into bed without any further incident.