Today marks 3 months in Wellington and one month on my new job. I feel it is all coming together quite nicely. I've received two paychecks now and feel almost like I'm in good financial shape again. Have been up to Palmerston a few times during the month. Have attended three different high school functions (career events) so far. Starting to have conversations with schools about my individual visits. I'm getting to the point now where I can actually answer some student questions. Still though, Massey has a lot of diverse offerings, it's difficult to get my head around all of the things I need to know. The comforting part is that many of the SLA's that have been at Massey for years still list "product knowledge" as their weakness, so I feel I'm doing okay only a month in.

We have our new administrative assistant in our office. She's a youngster, only 27. She has been involved in setting up a couple of offices before though, so I think she will be very good to have because we are essentially starting our office from scratch. All three of us are new and two of us are new to the country. Even my co-worker that is a Kiwi had spent the past six years away from NZ before coming back the end of last year and he's new to university admin. I think it's great. We all enjoy what we're doing and get along quite well.

After living in the apartment for a month I finally bought drying racks for laundry. Now I just have to catch up on my laundry that I had been avoiding washing for lack of a place to dry it. I did some today and will wash some more tomorrow. I must admit, I miss having a tumble dryer. Just had groceries delivered today so I am set for food for awhile. I think i'll make nachos for dinner tonight, i even bought ground beef. i don't have any beans, i've not been able to find black beans here yet, not that i've searched extensively though. the few places i've checked haven't had them.

Oh, I don't think I ever mentioned that I joined a by mail DVD rental service. It's about nz$10 more than it would be in the States, but it still seems reasonable. I'm trying to get through the Sopranos. So far i've completed season 2. Also watched what is one of the most popular NZ movies ever called "Goodbye Pork Pie," it is a funny road movie from 1981.

Today is an overcast, cool day here with a bit of wind. Supposed to rain tonight.

I've been having a lot of dreams lately about Gisela. I think I miss having a dog. I'm not going to rush to have another though, not until i'm really comfortable with my schedule and know that I will have enough time to take care of it. Would be nice to have a dog though...especially in these months of waiting for Celeste to get here.

Speaking of Celeste, she is in India right now for work. Why don't they send her down here :-P. Well, hopefully it won't be too long. The latest target is by the end of October. We can celebrate Halloween together ;-)

If you are working on coming to NZ, I wish you much luck! I have not yet had a moment when I did not want to be here. It is everything I hoped it would be. That's not to say that there aren't problems with this country, but I think overall it is just where I want to be. Hopefully at some point I can start working toward helping with some of the social ills that are hurting the young people here.

Take care all,

Jon