A Bit of a Roller Coaster

So my first 24 hours at the cafe have been a bit of a roller coaster - both in energy levels and otherwise. From the communications I had with the hosts before arriving this place seemed like it would be fantastic. Work 20-25 hrs/week, eat food from the cafe, stay in decent accommodations, live near the beach, make a few extra bucks here and there. Then, when I arrived yesterday, they gave a 10 page packet to read through of "do's" and "don'ts" which was pretty intimidating. It didn't feel like it was going to be much like it was described as all - especially when it came to food. It seemed like almost everything was off limits except eggs and rice. I was thinking to myself - I don't know if I want to do this. I thought this would be a good time in my travels to get some healthy tasty food in exchange for work. Then today - after much clarification - I finally figured out what the real rules are: I can eat anything I want as long as I prepare it myself. I cannot eat the pre-prepared food (what's prepared from the customers) but I can make that same food for myself and eat it. Now it all makes sense! This doesn't seem so bad after all. In the book of rules it said that if we want to eat any of the baked good we need to pay full price for them but than today I learned we can bake ourselves using the raw ingredients and eat that for free. Yesterday/this morning I really was not feeling this whole rice, potato, eggs diet but now I'm feeling much better. I can make all the tasty food they serve here, and whatever tasty concoctions my mind (the internet) can come up with as long as I put in the work to prepare it. Not so bad after all.

As for NZ - today is like a perfect day. It's warm - maybe high 70's - but there's a nice breeze. Everything is so green and lush here. And the birds make different noises here (obviously they are different birds but they make noises I've never heard before, some of them don't even sound like birds). I'm starting to get to know the there other WWOOFers that are currently here - Nick from Colorado, Lasma from Latvia, and Patricia from Alberta - and they are both very nice. There is another American, Phoebe, coming tomorrow and then a fourth girl arriving next week. I think this will be a great place. I haven't left the cafe grounds yet but I have Tuesday and Wednesday off and will try to get into town one day and to the beach the other. Tomorrow being Sunday not much will be open in town and on Monday I work 9:30 - 4:30 so by the time I'm off and walk the 30 minutes into town all the stores will be closed. (Apparently most stores, not including cafes/restaurants, are closed by 5). The place I am staying is all vegetarian and Nick would like to get a burger one day soon so I'll probably accompany him on that trip into town for some meat.

That's about it for now.

Oh wait, one last thing. They don't serve decaf coffee here and I don't drink caffeine. Instead, they made me a dandelion latte today. It's made from the ground up dandelion root. It doesn't taste a lot like coffee but it's not super different. It will definitely take a bit of getting used to but I think it is something I could like drinking. They also make smoothies and juices here. (Cristina - if you still want my juicer just call/stop by my parents house, you are welcome to have it while I'm gone!) I get one coffee or smoothie or juice each day for free.

Okay not that's really all I have for today.

Here's a few photos from my bus ride here yesterday. I know they aren't that exciting as I was like falling asleep while I was taking them but here they are none the less:

Now that I've posted these I realize it doesn't look that lush/green in these photos... It really is though. I'll take more and post in the next few days so you can really see what it's like here.

And one last thing, I'm never done... Here's a link to the final video from my trip, while I'm on the bus from Thames to Coromandel Town where I'm staying.

Best!