Life's starting to settle down in Wellington

Hello Everyone!

Well it's been a little while since we last had a chance to update everyone with whats been going on. To begin with, we found a place to stay called Aurora Estates. It began as a convent but has been changed over to an almost dorm-like house. We have our own room but the bathrooms, kitchen, and living room are shared with the other people on our floor. It's filled with university students mostly but the girls across the hall from us are Canadians who are down here to play Rugby. The only problem we've had so far is that its cold! New Zealand does not believe in central heating apparently so we bought a little heater for our room but any excursion to the other areas of the house require some warm clothes. It's often colder in the house then it is outside. But all in all it suits our needs very well.
The job hunting has met with sucess. Last week we started working as street fundraisers for the Red Cross. Yes, Lauren and I were on the street asking people for money. Our boss, Vajra, is the most energetic and positive person I have ever met. For example on last Thrusday he appeared before a judge in a dispute with his landlord which he lost, was ordered to pay 2 months in unpaid rent and was to be evicted by Sunday and he was still bouncing off the walls with positive energy. Unfortunatley, as the week wore on, Lauren and I discover that this almost insane positivity is needed when trying to fundraise for charities as people treat you like lepers. While wearing the Red Cross jacket people would strive to avoid eye contact, walk as far away from you as the side walk would allow, or straight up cross the street rather then pass you by. It did provide some entertainment though, my personal favourite beging the people who decided the safest bet was to run past us. I often observed people walking along until they noticed us and then break into a run until they felt they were far enough past us to continue walking. To make a long story short, we quit. But during the week we did work, between Lauren and I we were able to raise over $3000 for the Red Cross so at least we did some good. We have since taken jobs at restaurants, Lauren at a Turkish place and myself at Russian place with a massive sclupture of Lenin's head at the end of the bar.
This Sat. we have tickets to the All Blacks game versus Ireland (the All Blacks being New Zealands national Rugby team). We've been trying to get someone to explain the rules of rugby to us but it seems that they are very complex. I think i'm just going to cheer whenever a guy in Black touches the ball. I've also discovered a place only 2 hours outside of Wellington where we can bungy jump. The next step is to convince Lauren to do it.
I'm sure i've left out lots of stuff but thats all for now.
Daniel