The last three months in a nutshell

My friend Laura recently chided me for not sending out much of a life update lately, and I have 12 days of holiday with nothing planned, so I really have no excuses. Here goes:

Anne is coming in a little over a week for a six-month stay on a working holiday visa. She's still following up on a number of job leads, and shouldn't have trouble with this once she's in the country as summertime is usually a tight job market. I'll have more to post once she's arrived here and is settled in.
We are going to Melbourne at the beginning of March; it will be my first trip out of the country. We'll be there for four days/four nights and I ought to be able to easily fill the time. At this point, it looks like it will be Anne and myself, and 2-3 coworkers including my fellow American co-worker Yee (the one who tragically chose to go to Michigan for her schooling). I am also planning for my first trip back to the States in the fall - I have a pile of friends who have all succumbed to the wedding trend (for shame!). I hope to swing through Seattle for a day or two on my way out (or back, I suppose); more on this as it develops. Garth and my parents will be happy to hear that I am slowly progressing on my master's report over my break; I am going through a bit of a literature review at present and hope to have an approved subject within the month, if I am lucky.

And of course, Orli is up to her normal trouble-making. She hurt her tricep running behind me at the park two weeks ago but recovered quickly - I didn't have to give her the bacon-flavoured anti-inflammatories the vet prescribed (ah, religious dilemma resolved by laziness!). She has got her traditional ear infection back, no doubt from too much time spent chasing driftwood into the waves at the beach. The two of us have discovered trail running in the Port Hills, which are a series of parks just south of the city that form part of the rim of an extinct volcanic crater that collapsed and filled with sea-water. There are some awesome views up in the hills and the running trails go on forever. Orli, however, is being the prissy princess she always was deep down inside. Halfway up the hill on the main trail, there is a water fountain, in the middle of nowhere. Because it's in the middle of nowhere, there is a spout out the bottom with a catch basin to store water that drains out of the water fountain, right at Orli's level. What does she do when we stop for a drink? Right up to the "human level" for sips out of the fountain, naturally. She won't lower herself to drink out of the second class water in the catch basin; what kind of daughter have I raised?!? Next time I'm jogging with my camera, I'll get a picture.

I've also discovered dragon-boating, which is like crew except there are 20 paddlers and your boat is supposed to look like a dragon (or something like that). The caller in front also pounds a drum, so it might be a bit closer to those M&M commercials where they are rowing in the old Greek ship with the evil taskmaster and his whip. Except in this case, the evil taskmaster is my boss and she doesn't have a whip (that I know of). The company sponsors a team against another dozen companies and schools; our first regatta is in February. There are 300m sprints and a 2km slog at the races, so it ought to be interesting. I have only been to one practice and, boy, were my arms and back sore afterwards!

That's all I've got for now, but never fear, I shall post any breaking news as soon as I am able!

Christmas in Summer

The big Christmas tree in Cathedral Square was being erected by crane this morning as I walked in after dropping my car off for no doubt expensive repairs (hehehe...I said "erected"). Let me consult the calendar. Let's see, two weeks before Christmas starts. If any civic tree in the US were put up two weeks before Christmas, it would have been preceded by lawsuits from Christian pro bono legal outfits because we all know that not putting up any Christmas decorations in October is tantamount to a sin!

A Rant

I have seen waaay too many Santa Clauses on the beach or in t-shirts and it's only the beginning of November. What is wrong with this place?!?

Auckland (Half) Marathon

My buddy from Penn State Nate, and I went up to Auckland early Sunday morning so that I could run the Auckland Half Marathon yesterday morning, which I did, satisfactorily, but not stellarly. I love this running around in "exotic" places stuff! Now that I have fully conquered NZ, I shall have to move on to Oz or some small Pacific marathon, maybe?
I ran the course in 1:49 when I did the Christchurch Half in 1:43 in June; the chief difference is the biggest climb in Christchurch was the curb ramp to the sidewalk whereas this morning was all up and downs. I also got to run across the Auckland Harbour Bridge - they closed a lane for us. That was cool because the bridge normally carries the motorway across to the northern suburbs and if you try to walk it, you are really inviting some kind of high speed interaction with a half ton of steel. The weather started out ominously - when I got to the ferry terminal at 5am (ugh!), it was threatening to rain. But the rain never showed and the threat kept temperatures at the perfect level for the rest of the run. And then the sun came out as soon as we crossed the Harbour Bridge (16 km in) and remained nice and sunny all through the finish line and the post-race celebration. And what a celebration it was! The Company social club put up a tent and grills and coolers, so for twice as long as the race lasted, I was sitting with coworkers and friends drinking and chowing down on some fine grilled dead animals. What a way to end a race!

New(ish) poll: CERN Super-collider and you

Apparently, the Kiwis are a bit of a nervous lot. A poll conducted here last month said more than a quarter of New Zealanders were "moderately to very concerned" that the new European super-collider at CERN would create a mini-black hole that would suck in the planet. As if France wasn't bad enough...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4703183a11.html

The government is really pushing disaster preparedness of late, running adverts for people to put together disaster kits at home. What would such a kit need in the event of a black hole, I wonder? I will consult with the leading rocket scientists back in Los Alamos and get back to you, my astute readers...

The Sixth Sense

I am proud to announce that, after a long delay (approximately nine years after the rest of the Western Hemisphere), I have watched "The Sixth Sense." However, some evil schmuck told me what the twist was a while ago, and it kinda ruined the moment, I must say.

Creature Comforts of Home

On Saturday night, my friend Kendall hosted a BBQ at her house, down the block from mine. Kendall provided salads ("you don't win friends with salad!") and nibbles; we provided the meat and beer. I brought along some Monteith's Doppelbock and threw a pint glass into the freezer to properly enjoy it. The day had been stunningly beautiful - a high in the 70s under clear skies, which was a nice break from winter. Just setting the scene here...

Now, my friend Andrew has been raving lately about these burgers = Angel Bay (available at New World), and I had bought some to try out at the BBQ. I decided to go out in style, so I got all the best ingredients - fresh lettuce and tomato (tuh-mah-toe), the best Tasty cheese (for a country that allegedly produces 35% of the world's dairy products, we certainly don't have a good selection of cheese from which to choose!), bakery buns, and my secret ingredient - a can of Hatch green chile smuggled in by Terry Goldman. Four thick patties went on the grill to sizzle in greasy goodness, while I cut up the fixins. The buns went on for a toasting too, while the cheese melted on the burgers - this was a new concept to the Kiwis in the room. Finally, the burgers were assembled, with the appropriate topping of green chile inserted between the cheese and lettuce and tomato. All together, each fresh-off-the-grill burger was about 5 inches of culinary perfection; oh, if only I had a picture to cherish the memory! I managed to get through two burgers and one frosty glass of doppelbock before throwing in the towel - and if I had kicked the bucket too, I would have died a happy man.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, hopefully, your mouth has started watering by now, so you too can understand how the occasional comforts of home really make the difference, even in faraway lands that have a completely different definition of a comfort of home...

Dude, where's my bank?

So the guv'ment came and repossessed my bank yesterday; isn't that an odd turn on the standard line? Now, I am no money man, but I had no idea things were this bad back in the ol' US of A - that something you read about in the news would actually directly impact me. My primary savings and checking accounts are at WaMu and my good friend Agra works for WaMu corporate. My accounts are no where near the FDIC limit so I am pretty safe, but I am not sure I can say the same for Agra, who will need to change her business cards to Chase, at the very least!

That's not to say that everything is peachy Down Under - we have been in a technical recession for at least 6 months, I believe, and a pile of finance companies, from petty to major, here have failed. There is also no FDIC in New Zealand, so if your bank goes under, you have no recourse. In addition, there is really little oversight of business here so some pretty shifty stuff goes on and if a financial institution goes under, the management can walk away without much consequence. Housing prices have peaked and started going down too, and the engineering market is a little quieter than any of us would like.

However, in spite of all this, I have managed to steer clear of any messy situations here, until WaMu went and got itself stuck in a sub-prime mess. Well, that too will pass, but it does drive home the seriousness of the economic situation in the States. The economists I follow here seem to think we'll be getting out of our current economic slump within the year (or sooner) and Oz is still going gangbusters across the Tasman Sea (I've had two calls from recruiters this week alone, if anyone is looking for an international job!). But it does not seem to be the case in the US, where I think we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.

Due to a number of issues that I have come across in the last six months (which I shall detail in a later posting), I am now leaning towards re-emigrating back to the States at my earliest opportunity - 1.5 years from now - instead of waiting longer for my citizenship. Of course, a lot can change in 1.5 years (and I hope the US economy does!) so this is by no means any kind of final decision, but it does mean I am watching all the US economic news very closely.

Suckers!

Today marks an important anniversary - 6 months since I first landed in Christchurch. No deportation, no jail time, no enraged mobs of locals with torches and pitchforks. I believe this is the longest a Binder has ever inhabited any South Pacific island starting with the letter 'N'.

To celebrate my accomplishment, the New Zealand government saw fit to award me with a driver license - that's right, I am now legitimate. No more trouble from bar bouncers! And in the spirit of celebration, no comments from the peanut gallery on the photo either!

Just a heads-up: daylight savings time begins on Sunday (that's Saturday for you kids) which means I will be one hour even more in the future than you (i.e. 20 hours ahead of Seattle, 17 hours ahead of the East Coast).

In which Shane visits The Big City

I’ve been up in Auckland since Monday morning on business – I am here to meet-n-greet all the key players on my team in the company HQ here. So, this is going to sound pretty negative on Auckland, but keep in mind that I am here on business and don’t really have time to explore the town (kinda like my experiences in Vancouver!). Suffice it to say that Auckland has underwhelmed me. I would describe it thus: it’s a city about a third Seattle’s size with similar weather (I have a minor issue with that) and geography (lots of old volcanic hills and waterways about), and all of the character of central Vancouver (and anyone who knows my thoughts on Vancouver knows that is not meant as a compliment) without the modernity or proximity to Whistler that Vancouver has. The architecture is a little dated, I think, without the gleaming new condo skyscrapers of Seattle and Vancouver, although there are a few iconic structures – the Ferry Building, Sky Tower, and Britomart come to mind. Walking around on Monday and Tuesday night, the city was sadly very quiet; not many people about in the CBD after 8pm. Even at lunch hour, there wasn’t quite the hustle I found in Seattle. The food has been a bit uninspiring, although I cannot weigh in on the local microbrews as I have yet to try any.

Now, there was a positive note to my visit here – last night I went out to the suburb of Newmarket for my first foray outside the CBD to find the Adidas store for their weekly run. Newmarket seems like a nice area, maybe along the lines of Cherry Creek in Denver (I can’t think of a similar area in Seattle). Lots of spendy boutique shops and entertainment, you know the type. So I was a block from the store when the runners got past me – I know, shocking that I would be late, eh? I followed them around on neighbourhood streets around Newmarket and Mount Eden, but I haven’t a clue where we went. There were a lot of runners – probably 30-40 I would hazard – although I didn’t get a chance to chat anyone up since I missed the beginning and was rather breathless along the run on account of the hills and length (12k) and my poor shape. Still, it was the high point of my trip.

On an unrelated note, did anyone watch CNN this morning (sorry, have to have something on when I am getting ready in the morning!)? Granted, it was CNN Europe, but they spent a good 6-8 minutes talking about the new format of Facebook and the controversy that it has caused – looking at some poor cub reporter’s new Facebook page and interviewing some Facebook users who don’t like the changes. Talk about 8 minutes of my life that I will never get back!

Shane's lame excuses for not posting lately

Sorry, guys and girls, I have been just getting killed at work for the last couple weeks, and then there was Anne's visit last weekend, and then DNC '08 (said sarcastically only because I wish I could have been there to experience it in person!), and it just keeps on coming.

I promise to sit down some time this week and start posting again, putting down the latest and greatest news from down under, my thoughts on Sarah Palin and men who dance around in ballet tights, Orli's impending release from doggie prison and the dangers of your everyday prostitutes, the usual Shane drivel.

Orli has left the building

Orli touched down at the Christchurch airport Thursday morning and was taken to the quarantine kennels outside of town. I went to visit her that afternoon and she is doing fine; that was one of the best half hours I have had since getting down here! She was very happy to see me (although when has she not been happy to see anyone?), running around in circles and jumping and play-fighting and doing a quite happy whine. She looks to be in good shape and has a healthy appetite, as usual, and her typical high energy. Apparently, her crate was clean when it arrived off the plane, but she has been "doing her business" out at the kennel - what a trooper! The first visit by the MAF vet was yesterday and I was told I would get a call if anything was wrong; I heard nothing. I took a pile of pictures while I was out at the kennel, but due to some technical difficulties, they never made it on to my memory card. Sorry!

Blogging live from the scene

Well, at least someone is live on the scene - one Jose Fernandez has Orli in Los Angeles. She leaves tomorrow morning for Christchurch, where she will arrive at 10.20 Thursday morning.
More on this story as it develops...

Orligate, day 7

According to Plan, Orli was supposed to arrive here last Thursday. For the sake of those of you out in Reader Land who are not in New Zealand, I'll let you know that she did not arrive. The whole thing has turned into a bit of a mess. You see, Orli has to have all of her shots and tests in line before the US authorities will let her leave the country. Well, one of her blood samples got "lost" at the lab and one test, not even a crutial one, was left undone on her departure day. The lab also only does this test once a week; don't ask me why! Now, the how process is on a very rigourous schedule and if you arrive early or late by as little as a day, the NZ Biosecurity folks get very angry. This time, though, they were nice enough to grant us a 7-day extension, perhaps because they are used to the incompetence somewhere in the procedure.

So my parents, the shippers, Orli's vet, and I have been waiting nervously all week for the redone test results to arrive, hopefully in time before the 7-day extension expired. Lo and behold, the test results came in on Saturday, and Orli is leaving Baltimore today, arriving in Christchurch on Thursday. All is good, right? Well, for me, yes! But a direct quote from an eyewitness on the scene of her departure:
Orli should have been placed on the 7:15 flight out of BWI. Shane – not heard her whine like that before. She knows what’s going on…
I feel bad for what she will have to be going through over the next three days! But after that, she gets to frolic through idyllic New Zealand meadows, chasing sheep and making fun of the Ozzies!

The End is near (and for once, it's a good thing)

For those of you who have not seen me lately, there is a bit of a bounce in my step, a glint in my eyes, a Milk-bone in my pocket (regardless of whether or not I am happy to see you). Why is this the case? Well, the grand dame herself, Orli, arrives here in Christchurch next Friday, 1-August, after an absence of more than five months. In that time, she has been lazing about with her grandparents and Aunt Hana, going on walks, runs, and romps through the stormwater detention basin next to their home in the endless DC suburbs. All this while, she has been going through tests and getting vaccinations to prove that she is not a menace to New Zealand society.

She is scheduled to land at Christchurch International Airport Friday morning on the 8am flight out of Auckland. She will be transported by veterinary personnel straight from the flight to a secure quarantine facility about 40 km west of the city, where she will remain for 30 days while she continues to show that she does not represent any kind of threat to national security. I intend to foil this transaction. Well, okay, I am not going to risk deportation or anything but I will be at the airport trying everything I can to get down to see her - I did mention it has been more than five months since I saw her last, right? I will post up the results of whatever I can achieve at the airport as soon as the police let me out of jail Saturday morning...

This week's little bit of New Zealand trivia: In my (limited) experience here, apathy reigns supreme - Kiwis don't really seem to care about much of anything. A couple examples:
There is a national election for parliament and the prime minister coming up in November. However, the only election that seems remotely newsworthy is the one on the other side of the Pacific. No one discusses politics here or the latest political screw-ups in Wellington (and trust me, there are plenty). This is a far cry from the frothing-at-the-mouth politics I am used to in the States - just ask anyone about Obama or McCain and they have something to say!
Another example: there is a national retirement scheme here called KiwiSaver, where you invest part of your salary, your employer kicks in some and the government adds some too. You can pick between a good 50 different companies and mutual funds in which to invest. I started asking around to see how people invested theirs, and have universally found that people just leave their money in whatever fund the government chose for them. Can you imagine what the hordes of self-investors that waltz around with the Wall St Journal or their Blackberries tuned to MSNBC would do if their investing was defined by some bureaucrat in DC?!?!
Finally, I am looking for a good doctor. I guess it takes up to 3 months to get in with a doctor and I am covering my bases in case I do something unusually stupid while skiing this winter (or maybe get tear gassed charging the airport tarmac next Friday!). Asking around again at work, I find that no one really has anything to say about doctors - good or bad - other than just to look one up in the phone book. I suppose maybe they're all the same, but I find that awfully hard to believe. It does make it tough for me to strike up an argument if no one is willing to take a stand on anything!

The Canterbury Young Professionals

In true Shane form, I have sought out fellow fun-makers and joined up with two professional groups - the Canterbury Young Professionals (well, at least we are mostly young!) and Engenerate (ASCE YMF, but for all engineers here). Well, I actually was dragged out by coworkers to both organisations, but I wasn't kicking or screaming. Anything that may involve socialising with other young people, and could eventually result in shenanigans and tomfoolery, earns top marks in my book, and these two groups fit this to a tee! Just to give you a sense of the potential, here is a shot from the CYP 80s party that occurred shortly after my arrival - I am one side of a limbo rope, attempting and not really pulling off Marty McFly:


Tomorrow night is the CYP birthday bash - $10 gets you $2 drinks all night long (I presume) and in a country that doesn't believe in happy hours or cheap beer, that is a good deal. So I will be spending my Friday evening hobnobbing with Christchurch's best lawyers, accountants, marketers, consultants and even the occasional buttermilk production engineer. Well, "best" might be a slight exaggeration but I will take what I can get!

A Gentle Push for Skype

Since I do have the internet back, I am going to take advantage of this opportunity to make a quick plug for Skype - sometimes I do actually want to see your smiling (or if the Hawkeyes lost again, perhaps frowning) faces instead of just text on the screen.

So...http://www.skype.com/download/
There it is. Just press the 'download' button.

Interesting New Zealand Fact: according to one of the annoying public service ads, half of all house fires are started under the influence. So if you are throwing back a couple beers, don't turn on the stove - go get takeaway. Or else move to another country where they have managed to figure out how to avoid this serious problem.

Happy Fourth of July, America!

Well, I am back in the 20th century; the internet has finally made it to Chez Binder, so I can continue with my blogging adventures.

While you were all enjoying your boating, hot dogs, fireworks, democratic market-driven freedom, and ice cream in beautiful weather, we Kiwis were slogging through sub-zero temps, sleet, snow, slush, rain, and gale-force winds. Well, it felt like a gale, at least, and was quite treacherous walking across Christchurch's main square between the wind and the slippery footing. The Christchurch American Club was supposed to have a Fourth of July celebration on Saturday, complete with bonfires, hot dogs, real pickles, real ketchup, s'mores (these four are remarkably hard to come by!), and of course fireworks (left over from Guy Fawkes Day) but the shindig has been postponed until next weekend on account of the very unfriendly weather. (I am working on getting a photo to put in here to show you how un-summery it was). Well, no one said it would be easy going where the seasons are upside-down. The bright side? Skiing, or so I am told - I will report as soon as I am able to get out on the slopes.

Minor Housekeeping

First, I have been granted permanent residence in principle. Haha! Suckers! The New Zealand government thinks I am fit to stay in the country indefinitely! Well, I have pulled the wool over their eyes! Just need to have them charge me the last little fee and stamp my passport, and I am golden. Now, none of you need to go call Immigration NZ and tell them about the real Shane, okay?

Second, I have successfully managed to ditch my horrendous flatmates. On Saturday, I am moving to a new flash flat, 2-bed, 1-bath, 3-years old, all stainless appliances, a nice courtyard in the back for Orli and only a couple blocks from the city/bars/cafes/park/etc. My new address, as of that point, will be 3/211 Peterborough Street with the same city and zip. It also means you will have a nicer place to stay, should you decide to visit.

Oh, yes, and Happy Birthday to both Brooke and Zev!

What I miss (and don't miss) from the States

I am going to put together a list of things that are not present, for better or worse, here in New Zealand but were back in the Old Country. In order to give equal treatment, there will be equal numbers of items on each list. This will be a living list; changing as I experience more of Kiwi life. The aim is to allow you, my esteemed reader, a window into my life and how it is different on this side of the big puddle.

Things I do miss:

• Freeways
• Happy hours
• Craigslist
• Sprint and other "low-cost" cell carriers (never thought I would say that!)
• Central heating, insulation, double-glazed windows, and other early-20th-century housing inventions
• Epicenter and decent gym equipment
• Taxes (also never thought I would say that! Roughly 28% vs. 15% income tax, 12% vs. 9% sales tax)
• American football

Things I don't miss:

• Panhandling
• Airport security (and U.S. airlines in general)
• Customer service call centres
• George W. Bush (yes, obvious, I know)
• Huge SUVs (although there was a Hummer H2 parked outside my office one morning)
• Biking over Capitol Hill to get anywhere
• Tipping!
• American sports stars

The Wild Blue Yonder

I have finally joined that elite cadre - the 'business travelers' - you know, the group that are always mentioned in newspaper articles on high airfares, as in "in spite of the latest rise in airfares, the category that airlines prize most of all, business travelers, will continue to pay for last-minute flights" or something like that.

Well, actually, I joined this group last week when the company paid for me to go down to Queenstown for a site visit and an evidence hearing for new development. Today, I flew up to and back from Wellington for a presentation with the national transport agency with my boss, the 'squared' part of Shane Squared, We arrived at the airport about 25 minutes before departure, which was scheduled for 8:10am (rush hour for the business travelers). We walked over to the dispensers in front of the ticket counter, and a quick entry of my name resulted in two movie theater-style tickets being printed out. Shane has a membership with the Air New Zealand club and got us in for the remaining 10 minutes before we had to be on board. There was a full breakfast bar and a barista serving up custom coffee orders, all complimentary. Then, through a quick security check and on to the plane, and we were off. Two important things to note:
1. The only ID proof I provided was the ability to spell my first and last name correctly into the ticket dispenser.
2. Just to repeat, we walked into the terminal, without tickets, 25 minutes prior to departure, and still had time for coffee and a quick bite.

The same process was repeated at the end of the day (the evening rush hour!) with two exceptions: first, there was enough time at the airport for both of us to get a full (again, complimentary) dinner at the Air NZ club, and second, the airline served (complimentary) beer and wine on the 30-minute flight, as it was their "rush hour."

I think I can get used to this...

Beca pulls out a victory

We actually finally won a game of indoor soccer tonight - 3 to 2! I didn't have the heart to gloat in front of the team that managed to lose to the only scoreless team (of which I am aware) but it sure felt good!

Random observation of the night: New Zealand seems to have an unusually high number of left-handed people. I would think this leads to a lower average life expectancy, but in 2007, the year for which my 30-second search turned up the easiest data, Kiwis lived almost a full year longer than us Yanks. It must be the affection for sheep...

Real Food...At Last!!

Hooray! Leah Goldman's dad, Terry, arrived today in Christchurch for a conference at the University of Canterbury on neutrino physics. He brought with him three packages of corn tortillas, six cans of hot canned green chile (!), and Velveeta (trust me, I need it!). I cannot wait to dig into this stuff - enchiladas and chile con queso, here we come!

Funny British Term of the Week - a dog's breakfast (a variant of "a dog's dinner") = means "all screwed up" or FUBAR

Company Bus Bar Crawl

The Social Club at work put together a bus bar crawl on Friday; apparently, such tours are standard issue Kiwi culture. At some point, I will actually put in a full narration here on what transpired (I hope!) but for now, you will have to use your imagination and a couple pictures to help: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=96wc4fh.2radmfjh&x=0&y=-w56sz4&localeid=en_US

Shane explains Weet-bix, Marmite, and other so-called Kiwi "cuisine"

Canterbury Crusaders 18, Durbin Sharks 10

On Friday night, I finally got a proper introduction to one of the Kiwi national sports: rugby. Christchurch is home to the national champions of the Super 14 rugby league (Super 14 would be the equivalent of Major League Baseball; there is a NZ national team and provincial teams that might be akin to the minor leagues), which is spread across NZ, Australia and South Africa. Friday night, the Canterbury Crusaders (10-0-1) played the Durbin (S.A.) Sharks (7-1-3) here at home. The Company sent me along with my boss, Shane No. 1, and 6 clients, to the game for the evening.

The night was forecast rather ominously: a major system of rain and cold yuckiness was moving in, and unfortunately, the corporate seats, while on the VIP level, were just outside the roof covering. We were all treated to a nice buffet dinner and open bar tab where the red wine and beer flowed, before the game (and rain/hail/sleet) started. We shuffled out into the cold at the start of the game, and stayed out there until half-time when the weather got to be too much. I think I might have been the only one paying attention to the game, maybe with the exception of the CCC guys, who were a bit more into the game. Apparently, it was a slow, low-scoring game that was considered a bit boring, but I had no clue how the whole thing worked and tried to follow as best I could. It wasn't until the second half, when we snuck out into some VIP seats under cover, that someone explained the concept of "offsides" which justified all the back-row guys just standing around. I realize this may seem pretty self-evident to those who know the game, but it isn't present in American football (what other kind is there?) - once the ball is in play, you can go where-ever you want. Anyway, back to the game - it was apparently boring. I can explain rugby to other clueless Yanks now, though, I think, as I am no longer a rugby virgin. There were no stunning plays or big controversies, but just like your other first times, it went by pretty quickly and I think I missed a lot of the fun of a more "typical" rugby match. The field was very sloppy and the ball changed possession quite a bit, and there did seem to be one final kick that some considered controversial, but the minor details were a bit lost on me. The night was quite good in other respects - I met up with a bunch of key clients and in the same pop, discovered a fellow golden retriever lover, a pile of skiers, and a project manager who is also a single bachelor looking to live it up down on SOL Square - we ended up staying out until about 3am the next morning in what I think may be the first of many long nights out in The Lanes.

I will have to head back down for another game in better weather, over in the cheap seats with the "fun" crowd to gauge how much of a Crusaders fan I want to become, but given the impossibility of getting any Nittany Lion or Broncos games down here, they seem like a reasonable alternative. Season tix are maybe NZ$300 a pop?

This week, in Living Strange in New Zealand: TV in New Zealand is covered with public service ad campaigns; they're on all the time. There's the gambling addiction campaign, the anti-speeding campaign, a shockingly graphic anti-drinking campaign, the sustainable living campaign, the better parenting campaign, etc. But now, the fine folks at TVNZ have hit on a fine campaign against one of the biggest scourges of modern society: unpaid parking tickets. That's right, someone is spending our hard-earned tax money (and trust me, they have a lot of my hard-earned money!) on a series of slick ads in the Mastercard style to encourage people to pay their delinquent fines. Talk about a nanny state!

Good things are a'happening

1. My stuff arrived in Christchurch's port - Lyttelton - yesterday and is now going through customs. It should be in my possession by early next week at the latest. I won't have my bike for this weekend's bike ride, but I cannot complain - it took less than 6 weeks to get here.

2. I got the first portion of my permanent residency application in today. This is key because my medical certificate expired (theoretically) today, and if I can get Them to use my certificate, it saves me a lot of time and money, not to mention blood - we all know that is in my best interest. Now, I just need Penn State to send me my transcript and I will be ready to go. I don't plan on staying here forever, but there are definite tax benefits to residency and I get to partake in the socialized national health insurance. Plus, in a couple years, I could get dual citizenship - how cool is that?!?!

3. I have made arrangements for Orli to get here finally. She will be leaving Baltimore on July 28th, so you will have to get any visits to my folks to see her in before the end of July. I cannot wait until she gets here!

Quite an amazing turn of events

Okay, so not really that amazing in the Grand Scheme of Things, but I am still pretty pleased. I have been playing on the company coed soccer team for three weeks now, and tonight, for some reason that I still haven't grasped, Coach (that's Sean - he's a Manc) put me in as keeper. Yup, the silly Yank became a keeper for a team full of Pommies and Kiwis. NZ, Australia and the UK are better at soccer than America and I like to think that I embody that pretty well. In spite of all this, Sean threw me in as goaltender and I was probably 5-1 on saves to goals; not bad as far as I am concerned. Plus, we scored 3 to their 4 goals (although the final score was 3 to 6 since they got more points for goals scored by girls). Still, a satisfying night - maybe I do have a future as a pro ball player after all!

Never fear, pics from this last weekend's adventure are on their way!

Oh, and today's Phrase of the Week: Whinging Pommie...I love it! (you have to look it up to get the definition, and then use it!)

Pesach in Christchurch

I am sitting on my bed right now (my flatmates have decided to adopt a cat they found outside - brilliant!) letting a stomach full of matzah ball soup digest. Not quite my grandma's recipe, but quite decent all the same!


I did two seders this year - the first night at the Chabad House and the second night at the local synagogue. Now, a warning: for those of you unlucky enough not to be Jewish, you might not get all this. So, back to the story. The first night, of course, has all the local families doing their own seders, so I, without a family (insert dramatic sigh here) went to the local Chabad house, not without quite a bit of trepidation. You see, Chabadniks can be the Jewish equivalent of those college kids who join the campus police department to give out parking tickets because they really feel, deep down inside, that parking scofflaws are the scum of the earth. Okay, it's a stretch. In any case, I had little to fear, because the Chabad in Christchurch serves more as a community centre (as there is nothing of that sort here) so they tone down the proselytizing. The seder was mobbed - they spent a good half hour at the beginning rearranging the room so the 80-100 people present could all have a seat. I'd say the room was probably 2/3rds full of Israelis, who are culturally Jewish but not so much religiously. The whole thing was quite chaotic, with that many people and so little room. The Chabadniks tried to do the service a bit in English, but the Haggadahs were all Hebrew and with so many native Hebrew speakers in the room, it was almost hopeless. I had an Israeli family on side of me - the son and daughter-in-law had moved up to the Northland above Auckland a couple years back and the mother and father were in town visiting. On my left was Karen, who was on a working holiday from Chile and spoke as much Hebrew as I (none) and on my right some other Israelis that didn't introduce themselves. It was a good night in spite of the chaos, and I ended up staying there until 1am, helping clean up at the end. Would I go back? Well, not unless I have no choice, but I didn't so it did the trick. It was nice to see so much Judaism at once in Christchurch - even if the bulk of it was imported from Israel on tourist visas and not particularly religious - because this city really is homogenously white and Anglican.

That's all I have time for now. Part two will be later...

Finally, a cell phone!

It seems that last night and today, the stars lined up for me. Last night, my new flatmate Nick invited me along with two of his mates for pub trivia at one of the local bars. Well, all of my practice in the smoky dens of Denver and Seattle proved quite handy - the trivia here seemed quite easy in comparison. We smoked the competition and coasted into first place, and are now in the running for some national competition with a $5,000 prize. Not bad for a Sunday night.
My Vodafone cell phone arrived at work shortly after I did, so now I can stay connected with the rest of the world after I leave work at night. It also makes for a handy repository for phone numbers from girls, or, erm, guys (that is a different story) that I meet along the way.
After work, I stopped by ol' Johnson's Grocery to stock up on my Passover supplies - two boxes of cardboard-like matzah, a container of matzah meal, and one matzah ball soup mix all the way from Jerusalem. Something tells me I will be going on the Passover Diet this year.
When done, I ran over to the local indoor sports arena. You see, Beca sponsors a bunch of athletic teams and there are two indoor soccer (trans. "football" for you Kiwis) playing at the moment. They needed some more firepower, and although I have not played since 4th grade, I figured it couldn't hurt to try again. It was a blast and I think I managed to avoid making a fool of myself enough to be invited back, although only time will tell.

Oh, I guess I forgot the important part - if you want my New Zealand cell phone, it is (+64) 021-105-8171. Don't you be going around and writing this on the stalls of mens' loos in disreputable bars, now...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I have always figured that a measure of how well-integrated you are in whatever locale you call “home” was how often you ran into people you knew under unexpected circumstances – the supermarket, the bus, your jail cell, the local Starbucks or the other local Starbucks, etc. Well, it has already started for me – I was walking home this evening from work and, lo and behold, in front of Christchurch Casino (yes, there is only one here – we don’t have any Indian reservations!) I ran into an older couple I have met several times at the synagogue. Assimilation has begun!
So, I guess it is high time I put down some observations I have had over the last two weeks on average Kiwi life, if you can ever call anything around me “average”…

• Dogs don’t seem to be such a big deal here. Maybe it is a function of where I have been (downtown, mostly), but I have seen very few dogs, being walked around, or playing in the park or at the beach or going for jogs, or drinking at the bar (good lord, I miss the White Horse!). There have been a handful of gorgeous goldens about, but not too many other big dogs either. When you figure there are parts of Belltown (and Denver, no doubt!) with more dogs than kids, this is a pretty big change.
• Cost-wise, just about everything is more expensive here. Everyone says that this is because retailers have to ship everything across the big globe to get it down here, but I don’t buy it. It’s a bad excuse, especially when concerning food – either the food is more expensive because it is shipped in from abroad (a lot of manufactured food) or it is more expensive because New Zealand exports all of it abroad (like lamb and cheese, for example). On the flip side, everything financial is simpler here – sales tax might be a stunning 12.5% but it is wrapped up into all prices – the price you see is the price you pay. Everyone pays with EFTPOS, which is essentially just like using your debit card, as much as or more so than cash. And it’s not like the imaginary world of Visa commercials – you actually run into stores that are cash and EFTPOS only – every store has a card reader and a keyboard for your PIN. Car insurance is a simple add-on when you buy your car (no complicated processes to go through!) and you don’t have to bother figuring out a tip when dining out! So nice, it almost makes paying $15 for a Jaeger bomb worthwhile.
• When getting food, at least at fast-food places, I have found the portions to be more expensive (see last point) and smaller too. There is a burrito place next to my building that could be compared to Chipotle or Qdoba, at least in the sense that they are all businesses that give out “food” in exchange for currency. I will go on a rant about the state of Mexican “food” at another time. The burritos are made in the same open assembly manner, with your choice of meat, beans, salsa, toppings, etc. But the burrito comes out maybe 2/3rds the size of a Chipotle burrito, and the accompanying Coke is 325ml. This does seem healthier (although there are definite problems with obesity down here too) and I guess I will get used to it, but I miss that satisfying so-full-I-am-almost-sick feeling I get when I finish a burrito as big as my head.
• New Zealand promotes itself as this über-environmental country, but that is only half-true. Everyone bikes into work here – the city is nice and flat and it is municipal policy that all new roads and intersections must have bike lanes, so riding around is pretty easy. In fact, one of my coworkers was recently promoted to Associate at work, which meant he could get a company car or the equivalent raise. He said the company sometimes has to force cars on people because no one was taking them – everyone bikes instead. It is also really nice to see how cognizant everyone is of carbon-dioxide emissions here – a lot of major companies advertise their carbon-neutral states and it is a stated company policy at work to minimize our carbon footprint – can you imagine my old employer doing that? Only if it impacted the bottom line!
• We watched a movie at work last week called “Snail” – it was 20 minutes of in-depth recap on a coal strip mine on the west side of the country; they were planning an expansion and discovered some rare snails in their way. Under the terms of the mine permit, they had to save this rare snail and actually try to encourage its recovery, so there is this 10-year-plus effort, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, to go through by hand every inch of the mine expansion, collect all snails and their eggs, and relocate them to a preserve with predator control. I wonder what predators snails have? I think the more important question would be: what is not a threat to snails? And I am not limiting that question to animate objects either. Anyway, back to the snails: not only did they relocate all of the snails, they also built a huge, state-of-the-art snail research and reproductive facility with huge refrigeration units and special worm cultivation (these are carnivorous snails; did I mention that?) to attempt to get the snails on the road to species recovery. Somehow, I have trouble seeing Big Oil doing that back in the States.
• On the flip side, I am told they just started recycling in a large scale maybe 5 or 10 years ago. What?!?! I remember recycling in the wilds of New Mexico when I was in middle or high school! And as winter approaches, I am told to expect a cloud of smog to periodically envelope the Canterbury plains from all the wood- and coal-burning heat sources in the city and the surrounding suburbs. More a scene you’d expect to find in a third-world country, or Albuquerque at least. Well, at the very least, New Zealand is well on its way to cleaning up.
• I have been told repeatedly that, as an American with my sexy foreign accent (funny, I thought everyone here had the weird accent), I get some kind of huge advantage with the ladies. Well, gents, I hate to disappoint you, but I have yet to use any of these alleged “dating super-powers” (a Kiwi descriptor, not mine), so I cannot validate this. In fact, I have not yet met any Americans dating Kiwis (or Americans who weren’t tourists or students), so I really have no thoughts on this yet.
• New Zealand has high taxes and universal health care, so it seems like quite the socialist state; you know, a nanny government. Well, this manifests itself in many odd ways. On TV, it seems that a good 10-20% of the commercials are warning against bad behaviour - smoking, not recycling, and the most popular of all - bad driving. Kiwis are not the greatest of drivers, but I imagine they cannot hold a candle to the stellar Miami motorists or the dog-eat-dog world of driving in Midtown Manhattan. But if you watch just 15 minutes of TV here, you'd think there was mass carnage on the roads daily.
• Kiwis seem to have some unnatural infatuation with Jack Johnson, although since I like his music, I cannot object.

Well, that is all I have for now. Sorry, I haven’t made it on to the front page of the local paper, The Press, but I will be sure to let you, my no-doubt adoring fans, know when that happens.

Important Time Announcement

Since we are upside-down over here in the Southern Hemisphere, Time works a little differently here. We are in the middle of fall right now, which means that Daylight Savings Time just ended today. This means that Christchurch is now 19 hours ahead of Seattle and 16 hours ahead of the East Coast. We are also 18 hours ahead of Denver and 17 hours ahead of Dubuque, if you are not doing math really well at this late hour. So, in conclusion, if for some crazy reason you are planning on calling me 1st thing in the morning, remember that it is now 0th thing in the morning.

In which Shane runs a race...

Today, on the urging of one of my new coworkers, I signed up (last-minute, as usual, 15 minutes before the starting gun) for the City2Surf - a leisurely 12-k race along the Avon River from the city centre towards the coast. So did about 14,000 other people. It was quite the mob scene, a la the St. Patrick's Day Dash along the Alaska Viaduct, but without the stunning views of the Olympics or the cold rain. The race ended at the Queen Elizabeth II (QEII) sports park east of town (see right photo) and was really quite nice, I must say.

At the end, instead of the standard post-race free food and drink, there were about four dozen tents set up by individual companies for their runners. It seems there are so many runners that most compnaies just get all their employees corporate jerseys and then set up nice tents with BBQs and drink coolers and chairs at the end. Pretty sweet deal, eh? Beca did not do this for the City2Surf but they have done it in the past and I get the impression that, if we had been a bit better organized, it would have been possible for me to be lounging around afterwards with my fellow sweaty, smelly coworkers. How cheerful for a Sunday!

A few more pictures of note here. First on the left, what I gather to be a pretty common sight here in New Zealand - the complementary sunscreen. Thanks to all those CFCs that Americans like to produce, there is no ozone here and you end up getting skin cancer over the course of a week if you are not careful. Glad such facilities are about, as I have an albino's tolerance for sunburn...

Then, I snapped this photo on the right from the QEII, looking south to the Port Hills. These are right on Christchurch's south edge, and are a popular spot for hiking and biking, or so I am told. They also catch on fire regularly, so they must be pretty dry. They stretch out towards the Banks Peninsula, so there is another bay to the south of them, somewhere, and Christchurch's main port of Lyttleton, where my worldly goods will arrive in two months!

Finally, there was the clothes bag claim - they just set all of the bags (it was a lot but not quite 14,000) out on the grass by bib number and you went up to find yours. Compared to the chaos that usually occurs at the St. Pat's Dash, this was very orderly and quick. Of course, if they were to set everyone's bags at the St. Pat's Dash just out to be sorted by us runners, all of SoDo's rougher element would be there to grab the cell phones and wallets for themselves! And the entertainment was provided by a live band - three gals of some advanced age and behive haircuts doing golden oldies. Not even a discernable NZ accent when they were singing!

I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore. And, dammit, Toto took the wrong tornado…

I have made it to the land of Middle Earth, along with all of my belongings that could fit in four bags just under the airline weight limit. Well, I broke one bottle of wine in flight and wasn't able to sneak any of my friends into carryon luggage, so I had to leave them back in Seattle. Overall, pretty satisfactory, though.

So, what do I think of Christchurch, three days into my adventure? Well, it has not been the ideal circumstances under which to explore the city – today is Easter and Good Friday and the Monday following are both public holidays along with today. Most everything is closed and people are off doing – well, I am not sure what they are doing but whatever it is, it does not involve me! I still have had a chance to wander around the city center (centre?) a bit and also soak up everyday Kiwi culture through the TV and newspaper. Just a simple walk through the local dairy (think convenience store, not large milk-producing factory) or their version of Wal-mart (The Warehouse) is an insightful trip.

I am constantly reminded that Christchurch is a smaller city than Seattle or Denver – the downtown is much smaller, there are not as many restaurants or bars, the shops are smaller, there are not as many buses. This is going to take some getting used to, I think, but I have a lot of time! I am not yet constantly reminded just how far away the U.S. and all of my friends and family are, but I am sure that will be readily apparent in the future. I do know this – I really miss all of you! For all of this, I have not yet had a chance to get out an meet many genuine Kiwis – the Easter holiday is keeping the streets quieter than usual, I think, and I have been staying in my room more so than usual, to finish combating the wee flu I picked up before I left.

I spoke with my parents yesterday, and my brother's girlfriend, who was down visiting. After the usual small talk, I had to enquire about Orli. She, of course, is doing great – playing with their dog all the time and going for rides and walks and generally having a grand old time! I had them put me on speakerphone, and when I called for her and whistled, she got very excited and made a beeline for the front door. So sad! Well, I am glad she is in good hands, but the sooner she is here, the better as far as I am concerned!

So, how is everyone doing back in the States? Talk to me!

How to get in touch with me

New Zealand might be down on the other side of the world but there are a number of ways to get in touch with me that do not involve carrier pigeons or pony riders.

My hotel (for a week and a half) is:
Fino Casementi All-Suites Hotel – Room 403
87-89 Kilmore Street
Christchurch 8144
Phone: (country code 64) 3-372-5403

Work, which will start on Wednesday, is:
Beca Group
P.O. Box 13-960
Christchurch 8141
Phone: (country code 64) 3-366-3521

I have Vonage hooked up but the internet costs a lot per minute here so I will be using it sparingly until I can find somewhere else that is cheaper. Sadly, there is a Starbucks right on Cathedral Square, but they might have cheaper wireless, so I will give it a shot. The Vonage service is on my old cell number – 206.437.0009 – so keep that number in your cell phones!
As always, I still have access to my Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail accounts but I am not checking them nearly as often at the moment.

Finally, I am registered on Skype as shane.binder, but I am not on it much as I have little internet connectivity. At some point, I will put up a posting discussing Skype and Vonage in more detail, as soon as I get my internet situation more stable.

Latest Dispatches from the Front

Somehow, despite my best intentions, I managed to make it out of America successfully. This whole episode just goes to show why I always run late: everything usually works out in the end.

I slept the night down in Gig Harbor to spend my last moments with Anne, so Emigrating Day started at 7:50am, when I arrived - 30 minutes late - to finish last-minute packing before the movers arrived at 8:30. Always a good sign! After I hurriedly packed and the movers came and went, Garth and I headed over to Mae’s Phinney Ridge Diner for one last breakfast. The last time I had been there was with Lily almost two years ago, shortly after I had moved to Seattle! We then finished up with the remained of my stuff heading into storage – and I discovered a garment box that still needed to go to NZ.

The airlines recommend three hours of prep time at the airport for international departures. Now, the first leg of my flight was to San Francisco and I will admit that it is an admittedly exotic and unusual place, but I still do not need a passport to go there yet. Nonetheless, I had planned on leaving for Sea-Tac by noon to have this three hour window. Ah, man plans and G-d laughs, no? We left Garth’s place about 45 minutes late, and still had to go by the post office to collect my last mail, the bank to get some seed money, and the moving warehouse in Tukwila for the unfortunate garment box. I think this would have all worked out still, if it had not been for the damn Interstate. It pains me greatly to admit it, but we ended up wasting close to 40 minutes going round-and-round trying to get on I-5 south from the top of the Rainier Valley – it is not easy to do! By the time we arrived at the airport, there was less than an hour and a half left of my three-hour window (i.e. we were 1.5 hours late now). And then my lateness karma stepped in. Untied Airlines, in their usual manner, had delayed my flight by two hours.

Given this delay, I had, just planned, plenty of time to check myself and my baggage train in, sit down for a drink with Garth, get through security, and make last-minute phone calls and texts goodbye. Sure, my flight landed late in San Francisco, but my original 2.5-hour layover still had enough float that I could dash over to the international terminal and get aboard an Air New Zealand Boeing 777 bound for across the sea with fifteen minutes to spare. Best of all, my luggage made all the connections too.

This, kids, is Defense Exhibit No. One as to why I am always late. On what was the biggest event of my recent life – a 20-hour flight to a foreign country for relocation – I ran invariably late by almost two hours, and yet everything worked flawlessly! I feel a little guilty about the whole thing since I know this is one of my traits that should not be encouraged. However, I also feel just as satisfied about it, because I was able to wring every available second out of my Wednesday.

First Posting, ever...

Ah, my first blog. Let me pause a minute to wipe off the dust left by the drywall guys. Well, actually, that is all I really have time to do. I am starting this thing right in the middle of a mess - I am moving from Seattle to New Zealand, if you had not already heard, and am up to my eyeballs in unpacked stuff. I am afraid you will have to wait a little longer for more scintillating blogosphere material. Until then, good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea...