A bunch of random thoughts...

Okay, so here is just a bunch of random things put together.

I reached out to a company that will buy any car, any condition, about buying my car when I leave the county. They told me they could offer me about $1000 for it. Not too bad, right? Granted the car makes it through the road trip I think I will definitely take that route. I won't have any stress about getting rid of it and I can get at least a little bit of money before my departure. Done deal!

Tomorrow for lunch I am going out with a customer from work, Alan, to talk about how politics works here in NZ, politics in America, all sorts of interesting political things. I can't wait! I miss being in school, having interesting discussions like this. I think this will be fun!

I have noticed recently when people ask me where I am from I no longer respond with "I am from Minneapolis," I have started saying "I grew up in Minneapolis." I have just started saying this recently, in the last month or so maybe, but it is so weird to see how I am beginning to distance myself from MN. I guess this "traveling" life that I am living now is really starting too feel just so real to me, this is my real life, being here in Auckland right now is my real life and MN is starting to feel like a more and more distant place with each passing day. Crazy!

With that, I have been away from home for so long that I am really starting to miss out on important things. My best friend from high school, Allyson, just got married on Saturday. I can't believe I missed it! I have seen one photo so far and it was so beautiful. See for yourself:

Obviously, Allyson, the beautiful bride, is in the middle. To here immediate right is Cristina, another friend from high school, and to here immediate left is Caroline, again from Edina. On the far left of the photo is Ally's cousin Caitlin and on the far right of the photo is her sister, Korbyn. Ladies, it look so wonderful, I'm sure you all had a fabulous time!

More randomness, this coming Thursday evening we are having a big going away dinner for me since I am done at Ortolana next week. Although next week would have been a much more appropriate time to have this dinner, one of my good friends from work, Julie, is going to Bali on Saturday with her family and bf and bf's family so we needed to do it before she leaves.  (I will see her again before I leave NZ but not before my road trip with the parental unit). Anyways, big dinner, drinks, fun on Thursday night! The photos should be fabulous! Get excited!

Tonight, as we were packing down the restaurant, we had just a fabulous time. It was Jason (NZ), Roma (France), Edy (NZ), Sergi (Spain), Kevin (NZ), Ezra (US), Ito (Indonesia), Elizabeth (Australia), and I and we just had such a great time. Laughing, singing, cracking jokes. I have never had a job where I've had so much fun doing all the shitty work. I am really going to miss these times when I am gone. What a fun job this has been and boy how I will miss it! 

And that's all the randomness for right now. One shout out to my parents - please send me your flight info so I can plan for your arrival better!

Okay, I'm off to bed now folks. 

Best!

NZ meet MN.

This post was supposed to go up three days ago but apparently didn't. Here it is now:

So one of the girls I lived with in the coromandel last summer, Alanna, is currently staying with my parents in Minneapolis. Here's a few photos of then down at the rose gardens on Lake Harriet:

Alanna and my mother.

Alanna and my father. 

It's so weird that she's in MN with my parents and I'm here in NZ. It's really cool though that my life from all corners of the globe is starting to come together. Hopefully this is just the first of many people I can send to MN from all reaches of the earth. If you're around Edina and would like to meet Alanna feel free to stop by. She's already met some of my extended family, neighbors, etc. She's completely replaced me as parent's daughter. I'm not sure they're even coming to NZ anymore now that they have a complete family back in MN now. Haha, just kidding!

Anyways, now I'm really off to work. 

Best! 

Saying Goodbye

Every night at work I have many customer come in that I have come to know over my last 7 months working at Ortolana, and every night recently I have slowly started to saying goodbye to them. Many of them I will likely see again, either here in NZ while I'm traveling with my parents or abroad, in their hometowns around the Asia/Pacific region and the world. It is great to know that I have made all of these connections but it is really starting to sink in that I am going away and may not be coming back. And it is really quite sad. Many of my customers are truly great people that I will miss seeing - the same way I still feel about many of my guests from the St. Paul Hotel. My co-workers are desperately trying to find someone for me to fall in love with in the next two weeks and who will keep me here in NZ. I am not holding out hope but I am open to the idea. ;) With many of my better customers I am arranging times to see them again before I leave NZ, while I am traveling with my parents - parents, get ready, this trip will accomplish 2 things, seeing NZ and visiting all my customers! Yesterday Chris and Raewyn came in, two of my customers from the Northland who we will likely spend a night with shortly after my parents arrive. Today, Nigel and Vicki (the dairy farmers I stayed with a few months ago) came to town for the third and final Justin Timberlake concert this week. They stopped in to say hi, which was so wonderful, and we will be stopping there to visit them on our way south out of Auckland. Another customer, Jeremy, has offered to take me and my parents for a tour of Christchurch when we are there - he spend 3 days/week in Auckland (and usually eats with us at Ortolana almost every day he is here) but lives in Christchurch. I am just so happy to have met so many wonderful people and to know that I will be seeing so many of them even after my time at Ortolana is over. Couldn't be happier - or more sad to leave. 

Anyways, that's enough for tonight.

Best!

Two weeks from today and I'm done!

Two weeks from today will be my last shift at ortolana. How crazy! I can't believe it'll be over so soon. I didn't think I'd be here this long, couldn't imagine it, but now it's happened, and now it's almost over. Crazy, crazy! Now that the job is coming to an end almost nothing bothers me at work anymore, at least in relation to co-worker drama and stuff. Everything pretty much just rolls off my back now. Maybe I can bring this attitude to my next job as well. I still do a great job with my customers, but don't hither getting caught up in any disagreements or drama situations. It's actually quite nice :) 

I have recently asked my co-workers if they're all just going to forget about me once I leave. They said they won't but I don't believe them. Pretty soon I'll just be that old co-worked named Amanda or Abigail or something from Canada. Haha, well I hope not. I know at least some of them will remember me. I'm going to try to leave some legacy, hopefully I'll come up with something soon. 

In other news, dropped my passport off just now at the American consulate to get extra pages added. I'm running out of totally blank pages and many places in Asia put an adhesive visa into your passport so I need extra space. I'm thinking this passport in currently traveling on will end up being the coolest one of my life. Hopefully not, hopefully my traveling will even get more frequent and more exciting as I get older but I'm not counting on it. Anyways, off to work now. Chat soon!

Photos!!!!!

In no particular order here are some photos from the last few weeks of adventures around Auckland:

From OCTOBER 2, 2014:

Ben (NZ), Elizabeth(Aussie), and I at Bethel's Beach. This is the first of many "family photos to come". We now consider ourselves a family since we will likely be spending X-mas together this year, away from our families, and will be all we have for the holidays. So here's the beginning of many great family memories to come :)

That jet black sand of Bethel's Beach! Amazing isn't it?!? Oh, and those are mine and Ben's feet. Guess whose are which!

You can't see too well, but in this photo here I am showing ben a metaphor for my heart. In my right hand are broken shell pieces (how my heart will look if ben doesn't come to Asia with Elizabeth and I) and in my left hand is a nice full shell (how my heart will be whole if he does). He felt quite guilty after I showed him this - obviously it worked!

Me running in the Tazman Sea on the beach at Hamilton's Gap, the black sand beach. So beautiful, this photo doesn't begin to capture it.

Ben and Elizabeth on the beach at Hamilton's Gap.

Elizabeth at Hamilton's Gap.

Family photo at Manukau Heads Lighthouse.

Elizabeth and I at Manukau Heads Lighthouse. We weren't actually allowed to be where we are standing in this photo, but oh well. Life is short, YOLO!

From some date back in SEPTEMBER, 2014:

Me and Elizabeth at Bethel's Beach.

And again.

Elizabeth and I maneuvering the sand dunes at Bethel's Beach.

From OCTOBER 9, 2014:

Elizabeth and I visiting Stu and his wild pigs on the 309 Road in Coromandel. 

Ben with a 2 week old wild pig.

Family photo at Cathedral Cove.

Photos will my friends

The above photo is from Jonathan's last night in Auckland before his one month trip back to visit family and friends in France, where he's from. The people in the photo all work at my company, either at my restaurant or others near by. From bottom left and going clockwise they are: Marijke (Holland), Perry (New Zealand), Elizabeth (Australia), unknown, Guillaume (France), Coralie (France - Guillaume's girlfriend), Ali (Australia), Jonathan (France), Sarah (New Zealand), me.

This photo here is from Evie and Mark's going away party. Evie is now working on a Super Yacht in Spain, on it's way to the Carribean for the winter. Mark is now teaching English in Beijing.  In the same fashion as the other photo I will start in the bottom left corner and go clockwise. Once again, I work will all of these people. Edy (New Zealand), Perry (NZ), Jen (Scotland), Ana (Peru - I'm going to Samoa with Ana), Sarah (NZ), me, Mark (UK), Evie (UK - Ireland), Julie (France/Morocco), Roma (France).

This photo was taken at Muriwai a beach in West Auckland. This was on Evie's last full day in Auckland. The people in the photo are, L to R, Sarah (NZ), Ana (Peru - my Samoa travel partner) Evie (UK), me, Elizabeth (Australia - my Asia travel partner).

Me and Evie

This is to show you that I still look mostly the same.

I will try to get some photos out of Ben (NZ) soon from our adventures these last few weeks and then I'll get even more recent photos up here for you to see.

I got a new battery for my camera today as well and it looks like we're back in action with that. More fun to come!

Best!

Most Beautiful Beach - Black Sand

Today I was out exploring with Elizabeth and Ben and we stumbled upon one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life. It was this amazing, and almost completely deserted, beach on the west coast of the North Island, about 1.5 hours from Auckland, with jet black sand. Many people will say the Western Beaches (by which they mean a few popular beached in West Auckland) have black sand but really it is just sand with some black pieces. The sand at the beach we were at today was jet black, all of it, every last grain. It was AMAZING! I have never been a black sand beach before, and I will definitely be going back to this one, parents get ready! It was so stunningly beautiful. I have no pictures, again (tried to charge my camera today and it didn't work. I think it's broken. I'll be getting a new one VERY soon!), but will try to get some from Ben and post them here. Anyways, it's late and I have more fun plans for tomorrow so time to hit the hay.

Best!