Christmas in the Foreign

Dec 27, 2014 | The Great Journey, Thoughts

As this blog’s concept is reflective, I will write about my unusual Christmas in retrospective…

On christmas eve the barbeque for everyone in the hostel took place and in the evening we went to a house party. The flat (seemingly, I thought) was made out of people who once lived at the hostel and it was a quieter one. As we guests talked with each other, you could witness the ceremonial ‘Christmas Dinner’ from the side. At that moment I wished to be back in the familiar place, as what happened there looked so much like family.
The celebrative hugs at 12 o’clock felt very welcome then…

On christmas morning I could witness the mutual giving of presents with my roommates and along the tree a christmassy mood came up. The 3 Lindor chocolates went down nicely on us three.
Then we baked some cookies which came out especially delicious. 🙂

Any other christmas party I ever attended was different to the general drinking at the hostel, which dominated all festivity. I consciously withdrew myself from the loss of cognitive and motoric consciousness.
Nevertheless some interesting talks took place and after the secret santa presents were given to each other I held one of those fantastic espresso makers. It already gave some nice cups of coffee to me and I am grateful for that. 😉

Then today was the day we submitted to some kind of tradition. We went to the Wellington Waterfront with some people and…

Thanks Andras for the picture!. 🙂

Match!

Dec 21, 2014 | The Great Journey, Updates

You find this headline on almost every other Au Pair blog.
It means a crucial step: Host Family and Au Pair have come together.

We met on Saturday. On a playground in Wellington. They all came. Mother, father, the 3 kids. I got along well with the parents right away, quickly bonded with the little ones and soon got warm with them.
We talked much with the parents, played with the kids and it was wonderful.

On this day I would decide over my place to stay and thus over a full year of my life. That had me going nervous beforehand, but after talking with the current Au Pair there was no reason against the family and the gettogether wasn’t bad at all…

They have two girls aged 5 and 10 and a boy who is almost 8 years old. The youngest was a little more reserved, but the older two were rather engaging and wanted to know many things. They are well used to get new Au Pairs, you could tell…

Did I mention the New Zealanders are sporty? As all kids came with their scooters. And in the skate park they showed tremendous skill with those, especially the boy…

The family lives in a suburb of Wellington, about 10 minutes away from the city centre. Wellington is a beautiful place and by far not the worst point to go travel the North Island. Besides, I have contacted a little amateur stage and might indulge in my most loved hobby even here.

That’s what my plan looks like now: First wait for my bag staying at the hostel. Then buy a car in the South Island and complete my 3 months of work in order to extend the (already issued) Working Holiday Visa and to generally paint the South Island. From April I can come to the family and work and live there for a year and see the North Island in its details.

So it happened. I have a family.

But that’s only one in many accomplishments of the past days…
For example, I did my own laundry for the first time of my life. (insert cliche applause here) Even nothing changed color or shrinked (I didn’t try on everything though). 🙂

My roommates changed into real native english speakers now (her canadian, him english) and we get along perfectly. They are responsible for following fitment that lives with us:

Yes, he IS beautiful! 🙂

My first christmas far from home I will so spent in the hostel with international flair, sunshine and a barbeque on christmas eve..
And it was a great honour to serve my lovely roommates with the 3rd self cooked meal. (still counting yet :P)

Waldis Pasta, as we call it at home, are the bomb! (when I look at it, the hunger for it arises once more)

One day I felt the winds of liberty paired with a craving for shrimps. So I went and fried together some utterly delicious (I always measure by the familiar cuisine at home) Garlic-Lime-Shrimp-Pasta. That is fun, tastes well, you are fed AND you are satisfied with yourself and the world around. Win-win-win-win! 😀

Up the Hill we go!

Dec 16, 2014 | Photos, The Great Journey, Trips, Updates

The university is just a few hundred meters away from here. So half an hour should suffice.
What I didn’t take into my calculation, that it is a few hundred meters beeline and without the elevation…

Soon I quickly climbed upwards stairs and paths and the sweat started going the opposite direction. After repeatedly asking for the way and some more meters on the university grounds I finally arrived at the music school. The concert had just begun, but I wasn’t the only one who didn’t make it. After waiting for the first intermission we slipped into the concert room and found ourselves amongst an audience just about twice as many as the cellists in front of us.

It was wonderful. The cello is quite a fine instrument… After some classical pieces anyone bringing a cello had the chance to join and play Christmas songs together. Anyone would sing along, but I haven’t had as many english Christmases yet as to know the words …
It was a small fraction of home again. A little journey to all Christmas parties of the past. Music is more than just noise.

This time I took my camera as I knew there would be much to see. In fact, I wished for less than I actually got to see. I went to the (inner-)town belt in order to climb up Mount Victoria.

Yeah, it was even steeper as it looks. 🙂

Some times I went on about how quickly you can get ‘into the mountains’ in the areas of the Black Forest. But back then I haven’t been in Wellington. As Wellington doesn’t only offer hills closeby, it even offers great views after just some little steps.

First I went off the beach promenade direction upwards. The small wormed alleyway was leading its way along some houses. Haven’t I told somebody sometime that I love those overgrown, quirky houses? There are many of them. No ancient buildings as you see in Germany, but never seeming less comfortable.

It smelled wonderfully of some kind of blossoms…

Then this phenomenon appeared for the first time. Up the stairs, up the stairs, but then you see nothing. A few steps later the picture gets complete: It is going downhill after. It’s a nice effect to end a stairclimb like that with the sun shining right at you.

A few meters further I left the street and went into the bush.

Then again, this phenomenon. This time I didn’t get a street to see, but a meadow with some posh people enjoying the late afternoon. From here you could see a dazzling panorama of Wellington already.

I wanted to go even further up. After listening to a bird that first uttered hollow noises, then whistled and screeched (interesting combination) my way led through strangely familiar scenery.

Without thinking long I remembered the fact that the first scenes of The Lord of the Rings were shot here. And it looked exactly like it. Fascinating. It would have been too much to look out for Hobbits though…

Another clearance, another meadow, again a stunning panorama.

Then, after a few more stony steeps this phenomenon appeared once more. Only this time it wasn’t the next summit I saw, but a car. It was the parking lot of the Mount Victoria Lookout.

And there I stood. On top.

A panorama with extra sun and a glimpse of Wellington.

My camera is so able!

Right now I am sitting in Miramar (it is basically next to the Wellington Airport) and just process a special experience.
I got in contact with a family from one of the Wellington Suburbs that is looking for an Au Pair. The mom works only 200m from my hostel, so we met there and had an interview. This one was quite different from the one back then on Skype, and that was just like I hoped it would be.

Now hopes are high for me taking care of a household and 3 kids from April next year…
But we will see what the current Au Pair has to say. Yet it all sounds very nice.

In Miramar they have a neat cinema which holds a restaurant as neat. My stomach holds the breakfast special, there is music fitting the style of the cinema, the cute baby smiles at me over its mom’s shoulders and the room vibrates slightly due to the bass of the movie above.

Outside there is gistening sunshine and it is a good day!

Wirmeschel Paflotzki

Dec 11, 2014 | Photos, The Great Journey, Updates

A term from the old days at home.

It can be translated to sailors’ pasta, but what’s beyond is near magic. The recipe I’m talking about is a basic combination of mince, onion, pasta and some well-aimed dashes out of the spice shaker. It holds an undisputed place on our menu at home. It seems mum once cooked 30 tons of it and just takes out some when needed: It always tastes as delicious as ever! 😉

And this dish has the honor to be my very first, (proud children’s look), very self cooked meal.

In the morning I went to the scenic waterfront in order to skype my parents. That way I got firm hold of the cooking instructions as well.

Then off to the shops, got it all and off to the stove. (Attention, Insider Joke upcoming. Those are necessary to lighten up at least one person’s day.)
I just quickly realised one thing (thick accent): “Oh no they left off the 10W40!”
So back to the supermarket to get the sunflower oil. 🙂

Some more or less magical moments later I combined pasta and meat and onion and..found myself in front of a huge heaping of Wirmeschel Paflotzki.

I took a spoon for testing and suddenly felt so close to the familiar cuisine. That was just it. It was a success!

That’s what yummy looks like. 🙂

But what to do with a family sized portion of pasta? Easy: You invite your roommates Sylvie and Pietro! And it tastes soo good to all of us!
The leftovers I fried in the evening and thus for one day I wasn’t only fed but a little bit at home as well.

Italian Pietro and French Sylvie, my witnesses.

Photos of Wellington

Dec 9, 2014 | Photos, The Great Journey

I took my camera and went out into the sun. The last days I walked the streets for some times, partly to buy things, partly to find points of interest, partly to get to know Wellington.

But until now I haven’t had my camera with my nor did I have such beautiful sunshine at hand. 🙂

Why don’t you just come along:

Wellington has more of small shops than bigger ones

There’s always room for trees and green areas. Well, Wellington is not AS big as there wouldn’t fit any of that…

The “Beehive” is the government buildung. It might be true to its meaning. 😉

You can walk freely on the governemnt grounds. Everything is nice and groomed, a pleasure to the eyes.

As I said. 😀

Shopping here is a little different from home. At least at the smaller supermarket I went to yet… You put your stuff into the basket, proceed to the checkout area and wait in a distance until on of the counters is vacant. Then you put your basket on top of the counter, the lovely madam scans everything after uttering ‘Hi, how are you?’ (I still don’t know what to answer to that, really) she packs it all into bags for you. One word about the selection: There is toast for 1 Dollar!! (and backpackers buy it)

Mt. Victoria in the background

The national museum ‘Te Papa’ is huge.

Especially on the waterfront you see many runners. Everyone is running in Wellington, astounding.

View of the sea, the city behind the back.

Why don’t we standardize those symbols?

As I walked on the pavement today (“today”, “yesterday” and “tomorrow” has a broken meaning anyway, I think :D), with sunscreen factor 70 just to mention it, I encountered an odd picture which I can only describe here as I didn’t carry my camera.
A section of the way was being fenced off by the workers using a handheld STOP sign. So you stop. Then a small digger left the building and when everything was safe again, the sign was turned and GO. I was told that they even use this technique to replace mobile traffic lights on roadworks. That is how the Kiwis are, but I will surely see all of this myself one day…

A different version of our “Weserspucker”…

The green is outstandingly intense and pure, no matter what plant you look at.

The national museum ‘Te Papa’ might just be the coolest attraction around. It is free, you can walk in and out as you please and there is looots to see. You can learn anything about New Zealand here. And there is free WiFi. 🙂 In general there is free WiFi all around the city…

Inspiring words inside Te Papa.

The city as seen from the looking terrace on top of the museum.

Those who like to build scaffolding will like this picture. 😉

At the hostel I sleep in a three-people-bedroom (single bed above double bed) and the lovely Taiwanese girl (who shared her first cooking with me (which was really nice (I hope Google will translate this correctly to Chinese))) turned into a french-italian backpacker couple. Loving people, full of advice and experience and providing the cutest accent mixture ever! 😀 😀

It must be Christmas.

Cuba Street is on of the most beautiful streets for shopping here. Very traditional and
nice to look at as a whole. Many buskers throughout the day complete the mood.

The famous sculpture on Cuba Street. It’s something. 🙂

And you can speak English for the whole day. Even some Germans I met at the hostel spoke only English with me. And all the cinemas show movies in their purest original language. That’s how I pictured it! 😀