Update 2010

Well, we have been quite active in New Zealand in the past year, though our blog posts won't show it! Some broadstrokes:

Holly is no longer at Belle interiors, and after a short stint at a Bridal store, she is working with a friend at Optymise Web Solutions performing some SEO work. It has been good to her, she's learning a lot about the back-end of websites, and she is enjoying casual work alongside a friend.

Andy is currently designing his 4th experiment, and has been collecting data for some time. This means that he is often working 6-7 days a week, but we keep telling ourselves that such a strenuous schedule can't last forever and that he'll be working a more reasonable schedule soon. Such is the life of a PhD student! Check out the photos in "The Lab"

We are still in our flat just outside of the city centre, and have been enjoying our domestic home life more than ever. Check out our wee garden!

Last April we had a visit from the Cokers, and were able to show them around town for a few days. It was wonderful to catch up with fellow Americans and to show off our little piece of New Zealand. Having guests and visitors really emphasizes the reasons for us living here, and also gets us excited about the next lot that are sure to turn up!

This coming May, we will be in Sydney to celebrate our friend's wedding. Andy is the Best Man, and Holly is the Maid of Honour. We will surely post lots of pictures when we are back home safe. Until then, we are trying to live modestly, though we have had some fun this past year. Some highlights are:

The Annual Busker's Festival. Always fun! Buskers (or street performers) are brought in to Christchurch from all over the world and perform around town for a long week. They are always impressive, usually funny and are a guaranteed good time.

We have also invested in bikes, thanks to the generous Christmas gift that the Hucks family gave. We are riding all over Christchurch and have been getting quite fit in the process! Look at us - they even match!

And have you heard about Andy's new tattoo? It was completed last winter and depicts the events of the Trojan War, beginning the with mythological Judgement of Paris presenting the golden apple to Aphrodite, and the ensuing battle between Hektor and Achilles. Andy feels that he relates to the struggle within every man to face his counterpart (in the battle scene) and it also is a symbol for the beginnings of all Western culture. As Americans our heritage is mixed at best, but we are most certainly Western, and the Classics apply to us all.

Lastly, Holly is considering pursuing her Master's degree at the University while Andy finishes his PhD. There may be a possibility for him to actually lecture several courses, as his professor is considering a sabbatical in Portugal. Andy has been lecturing several lab sections of Stats classes (Intro to Statistics and Multivariant Statistics,) as well as a Learning & Decision Making class. This would be a great opportunity to practice lecturing and would also be a welcome extension on his own work. So, in the near future both Andy and Holly may be at the university, once again!

Until next time - watch this space!

2009

Yet again, time has gotten away from us and we have not updated with all of the exciting things that have been going on in our hemisphere...
The biggest news is, of course, that we had visitors! Holly's parents arrived just before Christmas and we were able to show them around our little corner of the world. We had a Kiwi Christmas barbecue with our friend, Cynthia, and her family, which consisted of steak and sausages, bread and a couple different salads. On Christmas day, we took a driving tour of the Port Hills, by all the fancy houses then out to Taylor's Mistake, a small bay with a black, volcanic sand beach filled with Christmas-celebratin' Kiwis where we also saw Pohutukawa trees, aka the "Kiwi Christmas tree."

On Boxing Day, we went to the Boxing Day sales and scoped out all our purchasing options. I think mom and dad even ended up with a nativity set from down unda! That evening we watched a movie, Heavenly Creatures, starring Kate Winslet in a true-story that took place in Christchurch in the 50s. It was filmed right here in town and we were able to visit some of the places from the movie...Like the house that Kate's character lived in, which is also located on Andy's campus, the University of Canterbury:


We also took a long "tramp" to see this interesting site...


On my birthday, we took a drive over to Lyttelton, the main port in the area and visited the weekend markets. Then we took a walk through the bush and had a picnic in Mona Vale's gardens.









We went to dinner at Pescatore,


and celebrated afterward with a traditional Kiwi Pavlova topped with local fruits (bought from the market earlier!) and "Pomosas," pomegranate and bubbles!


We all enjoyed what Christchurch has to offer, including the beautiful gardens, and a trip on the Gondola that gave us a view of both Christchurch and Lyttelton harbour.


And we even "punt-ed" on the Avon river.




Did I mention I made Dad buy a hat on my birthday that was oh-so-styley? In case you missed it, here's another pic:


On the last day of their visit, we took the TranzAlpine train across the South Island and crossed the Southern Alps to arrive on the West Coast overlooking the Tasman Sea. It was such a perfect opportunity to see how beautiful New Zealand truly is.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I sure wish I got Thursday and Friday off this week like all you folks back home! We're thinking of you.
Andy and I have had a really exciting past few weeks. The Art Gallery had a Kimono demonstration one evening, and we learned about ancient royal kimono construction, a modern married woman's kimono, and saw a full bridal kimono. I can't even describe how much we both enjoyed the whole night. The first dressing involved 7 layers of inner robes, an outer robe, and a jacket. The inner layers were put on in an order so that the resulting colour combination represented one of many naturalistic concepts, ie "Cherry Blossom" (going from pink to red) or "Pine" (light and dark green with deep reds).
Another demonstration was an older woman who dressed herself, and her presentation was very methodical and technical. Her sash was 4.2 meters long and she wrapped it around her middle and tied an elaborate bow. Very impressive.
When the bride came out, we were both, unfortunately, a bit underwhelmed. They talked about the symbolism behind the all-white kimono, etc., but then they removed her headcover and her hair was all done up and elaborately twisted and propped on her head with different clips and pins and dangly bits! Wow! Then they removed her plain white robe to reveal the most brilliant blue and red silk robe beneath it. It was great, they were totally playing on my emotions.
Japanese wedding, anyone?

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday (Friday for you) with some of our good friends and their families. All of the parents sent along fixin's for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner: Pepperidge Farm Stuffing, Crispy Onion Topper, real marshmallows, cranberry sauce etc. We're gonna show them how it's done!
Many of these Kiwis can't get past the red, white and blue of America, and that it doesn't go along with all American holidays. Oh well. We'll make Inidan vests out of paper bags and they'll start to understand. We're going to force the children to watch Pocahontas, too.
We'll be sure to share pictures.

On the professioanl front, Andy has submitted his research proposal and we await official permission for him to start his research, complete with funding and Skinner boxes. Good stuff.

Our regular activities have been getting more interesting now that the weather's warm and we've gotten to know the city. We've been trying to take advantage of all that NZ has to offer, so we went to the Botanical Gardens the other day and played Bocce Ball ("Petanque") in a shady spot and had a blast. We took some snacks and drinks and played in the garden all afternoon! Yay!
I'll see about uploading pictures from the garden soon.

We'll report more as events unfold!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Let us know what's going on
...in your neck of the woods.

Videos

I have not been successful in creating a functioning "Videos" folder for you all to view. I'll post them here instead:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4J5l29rDSc

This is Holly's AMI Commercial. Yellow shirt, number 4 pulling the rope - I swear!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H2BOGGUbm4

This is a bit of Kiwiana - before TV was as widespread as it is today, television used to cut-off at 11pm in New Zealand. This was the last bit that was aired each night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX-wNSR7RRg

And this is a new commercial...these are like Dum Dums...we all cracked up watching this for the first time!

Sorry there isn't a handy-dandy folder to view them all, but we'll add as we see fit. Enjoy!

Another choice Kiwiana tidbit

We wanted to share another bit of New Zealand with you all. This is a commercial that's been airing for a good while, and showcases the laid-back Kiwi lifestyle. Please note the costumes for the representatives of each country. Bismarck and God are classic.
Follow the link:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4w869_pineapple-lumps-true-story_shortfilms

Pineapple Lumps are a "lolly" coated in chocolate, the inner has a similar texture to circus peanuts. Kiwis love 'em, (but both Andy and I have quite a lot of experience with exceptional candy, so it's not at the top of our list).
The commercial that originally aired didn't include the "Sweet as, Dude!" But we think that they should have made it "Sweet as, Bro!"

Not that you'll believe us but, did you know that Andy is in the back row? He claps politely after "Diamonds!"

Also, I'm going to add a new file called "videos" with links to various commercials and fun Kiwi things. I'll try and post the commercial that I was in, look for: girl number 4 pulling the rope, with the yellow shirt. Look for me!

Sydney!

We've just returned from Sydney, Australia! It was a great time, rainy but warm. We were visiting our friends, Rob & Olivia and spent the weekend in Sydney. The first day we ferried across the harbor and had lunch in Manly, a beach-suburb. The bay was really rough and we charged through 3-4 metre swells to get there! We had lunch on the boardwalk in Manly and people-watched and admired the Tasman sea crashing up against the rocks. On the way back we got an sea-side view of the Opera house and I'm excited to share the images with you. It's such a stunning piece of timeless architecture - I hope you all get to see it in person sometime, too. After some very successful shopping, we had a great dinner that night: dim sum-style contemporary Thai food...Jealous?
The next day we found our way to Paddington and shopped and cafe-hopped to our heart's content. We discovered a great place that celebrates Sangria Sundays, and though it wasn't Sunday, we celebrated anyway. That night we met some of their Australian mates and went to a club where another friend was dj-ing and danced till the wee hours.
On Sunday we visited and spent the day with Rob's three girls and we all played on the beach and ate fish and chips together. I tried to teach them how to "hand-jive" and "Miss Mary Mac" but I think 4 years old might have been a bit too young...
I was bummed that there were no kangaroos running around the city, but Andy did see a big tree-lizard in the bush!
We did, however see the largest pelicans you've ever imagined. We have pelicans back in VA Beach, but these are on a whole other scale. They looked prehistoric in size. I couldn't get enough of them, I hope you like the pictures!
So we're back home now, back to work and Andy's back to writing his proposal and trying to get published. But Australia's been on the mind, as they say, and we're excited to get back there soon.
Our new flat is still pretty awesome. We haven't been too concerned with getting all of the boxes put away, but after this weekend we should be officially moved-in and we'll put pictures up under the "New Flat" album.
We're also exploring "Skype" that will allow us to talk to the US for free over the computer. When we have it all sorted out we'll spread the word so that we can all be involved!
Cheers!

The Gorilla in our lives

There are so many little things that happen on a daily basis that we don't really feel are worth sharing, like billboard images, or which commercials are airing, or what's in the window at the department store. Well this is one of those "little things" that keep coming up and you all should know about it on the other side of the world. It's good fun, I promise;

The first time I saw this from the beginning, I smiled to myself and thought, "Brilliant!"
I'd like to share it with you. Please follow the YouTube link below, then read on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHjieD6CTYs&feature=related

Did you know that Andy is the gorilla? He got this fluke job because he was tall enough to wear the suit! The head is connected to sensors on Andy's face and he was able to influence the face a bit - Weta workshop (Lord of the Rings, etc. located in Wellington) created it for King Kong close-ups.
Also, when I was in 5th grade, my best friend, Barry, and I did a dance routine to this song. It brings back memories! Please enjoy!