Almost Out of Here!

Well today is my last day of work and I'm sooooooo happy about that! I am definitely going to miss my work buddies, but I have to admit that I'm not going to miss the job very much. I haven't worked as much this week (which I'm okay with too!) and have just hung out at the hostel each night. I did go on Thursday and get a haircut at the sketchiest place I've ever had my hair cut...which ended up being great! All the gals working were Asian and almost everyone coming in was Asian and they didn't speak a lot of English. But I have to admit, the gal that cut my hair did a great job!

I'm trying to upload the Christmas pictures now so that you all can see them...I may have to figure out another site that doesn't take too long.

NZ Christmas

Off to work!

-Lisa

A Fabulous Christmas

Okay so my Christmas definitely kicked ass! It wasn't the traditional one I'm used too but it was fun none the less! Christmas eve was sooooo nice that I wore shorts and a tank top and got sunburned! When I load all the pictures up (later today or tomorrow) you'll see how red I was--I'm sure the wine didn't exactly help. There were about 11 of us that ate dinner on Christmas Eve together. Everyone brought something. We started with some appetizers and salads that Carol (new addition to the long-timers from Scotland) made. She made so much that we could have just ate those! Ed and Andrea bought us those Cracker things so we all got a little trinket, joke and paper crown that we wore throughout dinner. Beate (and I helped her) made the meat which is called something that sounds like "Roe-lah-den". It was these really thin slabs of beef without much fat that she put salt, pepper, paprika and mustard on and then stuffed them with cooked cabbage and bacon and a little cheese. Then she rolled them up like a mini-burrito and secured them with a toothpick. Then she browned them in a pan and the put them all in a big pot on low heat with sauce for a few hours to make them tender! It was amazing! We all had 2 each and there were leftovers! Then I made mashed potatoes and gravy and Gill made about 3 different veggie dishes: steamed carrots, cauliflower in a creamy cheese sauce and then 2 pans of roasted veggies with squash, pumpkin, turnips, etc. We didn't even dent the wine and beer that Bernie brought and we finished with a Blackforest cherry cake that Dennis made (which is native to the area in Germany where Beate's from)! Everything was fantastic and we had a ton of leftovers!

We ate about 8:00pm and then right after 10, Andrea, Dennis, Beate and I walked downtown to go to the midnight mass. We went to St. Patrick's which ended up being completely packed! I've never seen so many people in a church before! So we ended up leaving to try a different church where there might be some room. We heard the bells ringing from St. Matthew's (which I think was Presbyterian) and we ran inside. This place was packed too, but they were so welcoming that they let us and a bunch of other people sit on the floor! The service was quick with a couple of readings, a short little message and then a bunch of carols. We sang a Maori hymn (which I thought was cool) and then a bunch of traditional carols, but with different melodies than I knew! I mean I've been singing "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "It Campe Upon a Midnight Clear" since I was a kid and most of the words were the same but the tune was completely different! Crazy!

We took a cab back to the hostel and stayed up for awhile longer since Beate wanted to call her family and I made the casserole for Breakfast the next morning. We woke up on Christmas morning and exchanged gifts (between the roomates). Beate got me a fabulous purse since I need one for going out and also a necklace with matching earrings! Dennis said he had something downtown for us. We ate breakfast with fruit and "bubbles" (as they call sparkling wine here) and talked to our families. Then we took off at about noon because we didn't want to spend all of Christmas day in the backpacker. It was kind of rainy but warm and so Dennis treated us to a movie! But this wasn't just any movie experience. We sat in the Gold class which means we got to go hang out in a lounge first and order drinks and food for then or for during the movie. We each had a glass of wine and then ordered some bread and dips for during the movie. We walked into the theatre which was small and we each got to sit in a big comfy recliner chair! It was heaven! We saw "Enchanted" which ended up being really cute and funny and the three of us even took pictures of the chairs that I'll post later!

We caught the bus--which was free because of Xmas--back to the hostel and warmed up and then spent the rest of the night eating leftovers, on the phone and watching "The Holiday". I had a fabulous time with my "family" of friends here in NZ and I hope all of you had a wonderful time too! I have less than a week until I leave for the South Island so it's going to be busy with New Year's Eve and a couple days of work left! I'll try and post pictures as soon as I can!

-Lisa

Trying to get into the Holiday Spirit!

Last week I made fudge and snickerdoodles (not exactly Christmas-y but very easy!) which everyone loved! One person had heard of snickerdoodles before and none of the others had! They all loved them and Bernie pretty much ate 1/3 of them the night I made them. Beate made some chocolate no-bake cookies and then Andrea's (Ed's girlfriend that is now working at the restaurant with me) mom sent her some in the mail.

Thursday was SUPER busy at work! Everyone finished or finishes up work this week and then takes some time off so they all wanted to go out for drinks or dinner. Yesterday during lunch was busy but then at night it slowed down...I think a lot of people go out of town for Christmas. All of us staff members were given a bottle of Australian bubbles (Champagne-like wine) for Christmas! That will be perfect on Christmas morning...if we can wait that long to drink it.

The plans for Christmas are as follows: Christmas Eve we are having a big dinner with about 11 of us "long-timers". I think I'm making mashed potatoes or some sort of potato dish, Beate's making the meat which is a stuffed beef roll-like thing that sounds amazing! Everyone's bringing something so it should be fun! Then Beate and I are going to the midnight mass (which is at 11pm...go figure) at St. Patricks church downtown. It's a super old church that Beate found and it's Catholic, so that will be a first for me. That night Beate's staying up late so she can call her family in the morning of Christmas Eve. They celebrate that day and it's her Grandpa's birthday that day too. Then on Christmas morning I'm going to make us breakfast/brunch and we'll open presents in the morning and then hopefully if the weather is nice, we'll go to the beach! Diana's having a bbq at the hostel but Beate doesn't want to spend Christmas with her boss and I don't blame her.

Well, off to work! Happy Holidays everyone!

-Lisa

Franklin Road Pictures

Alright, I don't have enough time to write another post so I'm just going to put up the links to latest photos:

Franklin Road

The next three photos are from dinner last night. Beate and I went to a German restaurant and it was sooooooo good! We had Jagerschnitzel with potato salad and Ziegoinerschnitzel with fries and then what's called "Hot Love" for dessert. Hot love is ice cream with hot raspberry sauce! We finished off with some schnapps to settle our stomachs!

German Restaurant

Off to work!
-Lisa

Quick Update

So there has been nothing but non stop functions at work, all week! Ugh! Thursday night's function booked the whole venue out for only 50 to 60 people. It was easy until the end. They had to burn up $8,000 or they would just have to pay that amount anyway. At 11 they were maybe at $5,500 so they stayed forever and all of them had too much to drink and well it just seemed like it was never going to end. Finally the new GM sent me home at almost 1 (and I guess they didn't leave until almost 1:30).

Friday was great though. The lunch function was easy to handle and they had leftover mud cake and pavlova that we got to eat! Then that night there was another Christmas party for an optical company here in NZ. Their theme was "Black & Bling"! Ha, all of them dressed up! They were so much fun too and they even had a comedian perform! One of the gals befriended me early on and when I was serving a platter of mussels she asked, "Do they have any garlic on them?" I said, "Yeah probably." She said, "What if I meet someone tonight?" I laughed and told her, "Well then lets hope he's as drunk as you are." She then proceeded to say, "I brought my toothbrush and toothpaste in my handbag in case!" HA! Classic!

Beate and I went out Friday night and just had a few glasses of wine so that was fun. Yesterday totally sucked because I had a headache and it just went so slow. I also messed up a bunch of the orders for the function (somehow), but it ended up going smoothly. I'm sooooo glad I just have today and then another couple of days off! I desperately need them! Hope everyone's doing well!

-Lisa

Oh My God, Do You Know Who That Is?!!

Saturday was pretty crazy at work because we had a Christmas party function that booked out the entire venue. It was packed full of people dressed up at something that started with the letter J. We were extremely disappointed when we didn't see Jesus in attendance. I ended up working about 11 hours that day since it was so busy!

Sunday I got to work and was absolutely exhausted (as I always am on Sundays). It was really busy during lunch time and I came around the corner towards the bar after setting up a table with cutlery (silverware) and I just stopped abruptly and my mouth totally flew open. Standing at the bar with some guy buying drinks was Kate Bosworth! For those that don't know she starred in "Blue Crush" and "Superman Returns" (but she had brown hair in that one). I seriously freaked out! I grabbed Roshan as he walked by and was like, "Do you know who that is?!!!" And I took aside Aggie and Hardi and asked them too! They were like, I thought she looked familiar. OMG! She looked exactly like how you would think she looked with like a Bohemian outfit of boots, messenger bag and all. Luckily she wasn't in my section, otherwise I would have made a total fool of myself. So on their way out, I just said "Thanks for coming in guys! (as I always say)" and the guy was like, "The food was great!" She looked right at me too because I'm sure she heard that American accent and thought, "Oh shit, she knows who I am." But it was great because the people here are good about leaving celebrities alone, and not one person even looked twice at her when she walked through the restaurant. I don't think anyone knew who she was, except for me!

So yesterday I had the day off and just took it easy. I didn't do a whole lot which was fabulous. But last night was pretty sweet: Beate and I came around the corner into the front area to go upstairs and as we looked outside we saw a bunch of old cars! So we hurried and grabbed my camera and a jacket and went out on Franklin Road to find a bunch of old American cars parked in the center! They decorated the cars with lights and streamers and other Christmas-y stuff! I was like, No way! I mean I see old cars at home in the summer time because I live in the U.S., but these were all imported from the U.S. and all though it's summer here, it's also Christmas...so all in all it was a very unreal experience! I took a bunch of pictures so I'll have to post them soon!

Today I have the day off too and I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do...maybe I'll rent a Christmas movie to get in the spirit!

-Lisa

Functions

Well, Tuesday I spent the day on Waiheke with a friend of my mom's--Joyce--and her husband Jon. We had a fabulous time walking around the shops and wine tasting! The weather was extremely nice and warm! It was probably in the 80s! I got back late that night and have been working since.

Last night I closed. I haven't closed in weeks so I was totally fine with it. But before I go into that I have to tell you that Beate and I rented "Knocked Up" which I've already seen but I told her she had to see it since it's ridiculously funny. The two of us and Dennis watched it and we laughed the whole time. Then I headed off to work (in the rain) at 5. I was in charge of a booking of about 20 people, and another booking of 5 and then just whoever sat at the other two tables. Well, I had met this American girl earlier from Chicago and we swapped stories about college choices (she almost went to ASU) and whatever else. She had been sitting with a bunch of people in my section for the better part of the day just drinking wine and finishing lunch. Well at about 7:30 I was telling my big table about the specials and I watched her lean over the end of the table and throw up on the ground. I was so lucky that nobody else in my section (other than her friends) saw that! So of course I finished telling the specials and went and told the managers and asked if Paul could clean it up while I got the order for my other table. Of course he was like, "Can you do it?" Come on! Of course I can, I've never had a problem with other people being sick but he wasn't doing anything! Anyway, I had to clean up the area...fun times. But...I still made $41 in tips last night, so all is good. We have a new General Manager starting on Monday because a bunch of changes happened within the company and our GM is moving to a downtown pub. I'm not sure if I like her yet...she never smiles.

Other than that, I have my two German roommates teaching me some German words and phrases (why not?). All of them are of great importance, for example: "I want a cheese sandwich" and "F-off wanker" and "lazy". So that's been fun. I can only pronounce them, so I have no clue how to spell them in German or I would for your benefit.

All right, so another long day of functions at work today. Tomorrow we have the whole venue booked out. Tonight's also a farewell party night for Daniella so that should be fun. I hope you're all getting into the holiday spirit!

-Lisa

It's December!

Wow, so I totally can't believe it's December already! I've been here for 3 months, but it feels like forever! We finally bought the train tickets and are leaving for Wellington on January 2nd. I'm super excited and totally ready to get out of Auckland for awhile!

There have been a lot of people in the backpackers lately; a lot of people travel during the holiday time around here. But there was one particular guy that I have to tell you about! He was definitely a character to say the least. He looked like he stepped right out of Bavaria or Leavenworth, WA. He was young and German and had braids, the hat, the long flared pants, the white loose shirt, a vest and even a fur-covered suitcase/bag thing! He offered Beate and I some tea out of a horn-type thing that looked like you could yodel through it! Beate said that he was in the traditional dress of Carpenters (in Germany) and once they finish their apprenticeship, they usually take a year and travel around Germany practicing carpentry. Well this guy had been travelling for 6 years!!! Can you imagine that? He also was looking to buy a horse to travel around New Zealand on! Ha! How about that?

We had functions at work on both Friday and Saturday. One had a jukebox/karaoke machine and the other had a DJ. The great thing about the one on Saturday night is that they had a ton of food left over so I got to take some home! Woohoo! I'm even more of a sucker for free food now than when I was in college.

The other news is that on Franklin Road (Where I'm staying), it's known all over NZ that all of the houses are decorated with lights in December. All of the houses literally get a letter in the mail saying they have to put up lights and which times the lights have to be on! Tons of people drive or walk up and down the street! It's really cool! You can also see the sky tower lit up in green and red from Franklin Road. I'll have to take some pictures for all of you to see.

But, speaking of pictures I'm going to put the links to all the photo albums I just put up:

Taka's Birthday

NZ Thanksgiving

42 Below Party

23rd Bday

I hope that's enough pictures for awhile!

-Lisa