Family and Flatmates

Well hello again, everyone!

I want to sincerely apologize to all of those who did not recieve the link to this site, as I have very few e-mail contacts. In light of this fact, I wanted to ask you all to forward this blog site onto anyone who hasn't seen it yet :) Thanks in advance!

Well, on to the update! We arrive at the airport in Wellington at 8:00 am on Tuesday, July 11. It was very excititing to see a familiar face at the other end. Hendrine and Doug were there waiting eagerly (well as eager as you can look at 8am) for us to arrive. They then kidnapped us for the day and kept us awake until late evening. This helped us to adjust to kiwi time, as we would gladly have slept all day given the chance! We have spent quite a few evenings with my kiwi cousins, and we are SO grateful to have them here. Hendrine has been such a blessing to us, she has become my mom away from home. So, it was then time to go home and meet our new flatmates (or roommates as you might call it) . Chris and Debs gladly opened there home to us, and they have been simply wonderful. Mike is another resident in our humble abode, he is a Master's student from America. Along with the two-legged flatmates, we also share our house with two four-legged friends. Tigger (the kitty cat) has become very good friends with paul (refer to the picture of tigger head-butting paul), and chooses to show it in a very strange manner.

Our flatmates (Chris, Debs and Mike) have invited us out for dinner twice already since we have been here, and we are really enjoying have such fun and hospitable housemates.

Since we got here, we have endured quite a bit of shock. First we realized that it is quite cold in this city as it is commonly referred to as the "windy city". To make matters worse, kiwi's (New Zealanders) do not believe in central heating. Paul and I have grown very fond of our electric blanket, and we seem to spend many evenings by the fire with our flatmates. The Kiwi's like to make fun of us 'soft' Canadians who can't take the cold weather! :) It is quite amusing. Well, I wanted to post a few pictures of our very tastefully decorated flat (thanks to Debs) and to show you all where we are living for the next year.

We are really enjoying ourselves thus far, and in sum we are REALLY happy with the fact that we have family here and that our flatmates are so great. We'll post an update soon about school/work and all the boring stuff!!

Yolanda