People (are Strange)
Trip Start
Aug 24, 2004
1
14
41
Trip End
May 09, 2005
Te Anau,
New Zealand
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Now for you less paranoid readers, friends, family, associates, businessmen, politicians, and super heroes:
Hello. I've been working a lot this past week. Roughly the whole first week of October I was really sick. That week was not fun. The week after that I was sick of being here. My hours at Luxmore were pretty low and I'm not a fan of waitering. I went in to talk to the General Manager (Duncan) and said something like "I can't stay here on $10.50/hr". Now it wasn't really an ultimatum, but more hinting that "I can just pick up and leave if I want". Of course I'm not going to do that because I don't want to go through the hassle of finding another job right now. I also have too much stuff to take with me. Lately I've been looking at cars because then I will be able to take everything with me. Instead of staying in Te Anau until May, I will probably leave around December or January to head for Nelson at the top of the South Island and do some fruit picking. Who knows what's going to happen.
In the past two weeks, we've had two three receptionists quit and one porter. The porter was actually a lot of fun to work with, but now I get more hours portering. This week I'll have worked about 60 hours. My arms are a bit sore from carrying bags and we got a few tips today. I'll also be Kitchen Handing two days a week which is also a nice guarantee of hours. Portering usually implies a twelve hour day during busy times. A partial inspiration for the title comes from a hostess which isn't quite all there. The first day I met Diane I thought she was lost (and possibly homeless). She just had this strange appearance. I think she's got about a week left because she screws way too much stuff up at work.
The Nunnery has had a few additions lately. Four Japanese girls have moved in since the last time I updated. They're students over here for work experience. Megumi and Mariko are in one room and Meiko and Tomimi in another. They can write and read English very well, but I guess it's very hard to speak (and Japanese and English are very different languages from what I hear). There is also a guy next to my room who, thankfully, is leaving in a day or two. He's not the smartest person in the world. He leaves his doors open all of the time so the wind blew the door shut and smashed the windows on it. He's generally loud, but I can usually sleep through anything. Last Wednesday he was kicked out of The Moose only to be picked up by the cops. When he was returned about half an hour later he had blood all over his face and shirt. Apparently he wouldn't give the cop his name so the cop punched him in the head five times while he was cuffed. Now he's got a black eye and his ear really hurts (he was punched in the ear). Apparently there are three cops in Te Anau and that's the one you want to avoid. I slept through all of that and more drama that happened that night since I had to work the next morning. On the other side of me is Angela who seems to be somewhat cranky 24/7. Chris is a bit further down and I hang out with him more than anyone else there. Blair is also in the Nunnery, but he's usually playing video games and he's not really someone that can hold a conversation.
If I do get a car and end up leaving earlier than first planned, I still have to do quite a few things while I'm down here. Many of the Great Walks are in this area. Those are all roughly 3-4 days and the Dusky is 10 days. I'd also like to visit Stewart Island (just South of the South Island) and do a walk down there. Dunedin would be cool to check out and I've heard the Cadbury chocolate factory is there! Lately I've been on a mission to taste all of the Cadbury chocolate here. I haven't been disappointed yet. Well, I have to get to work soon. Stop freaking out when I don't update. It's pretty boring to write, "Well, I went to work today" every three days, not to mention expensive. I'm out.
This is a private blog 
