many reasons to be jazzed on life right now, but for the sake of time, i will only share two here:
1. GENDERLESS STRANGERS! here's the explanation: while traveling this past year, there would be many, many days where i would come across a word in speech or literature i didn't know. since i didn't have access to dictionary.com, i decided to invest in a used American Heritage Dictionary purchased from the main street of richmond, nelson, new zealand near carolyn's house. in said dictionary i found a random address for some person in washington state named "gil." being a big fan of sending and receiving mail, i wrote gil a letter in april sending warm wishes and stranger hellos from me. carolyn, thomas, robin, and i each developed our own version of who and what gender gil may be. thomas even had a dream that gil was a he and that he was stalking me. what's interesting here is that if anything, i'm stalking gil. anyway, flash forward six months to a few days ago - i get a package and letter from gil! gil wrote me back explaining why he/she (still no insight into gil's gender, although the handwriting suggests male and no hint of sociopath tendencies) was in new zealand and included a book that changed his life! gil will clearly be getting a reply. thank you, gil!
2. FACELESS STRANGERS! a few nights ago with a time stamp of at least 1:30 am, caroline, eva, and i were downstairs in our wellington house girltalking (how do we still have things to talk about?!) as we do, and i saw a young man walk through our back yard and start to climb over our fence into the neighbor's garden. in the capitals of most nations, this would incite some level of fear. in the capital of sweet little new zealand, however, incidents like these are met with "meh" and mild curiosity. [mom and dad: don't worry, my neighborhood is very safe. this is merely an anecdote.] ha! wonder what he was doing?! gil?
let's all raise our glasses to strangers! don't have a glass? make a little cup shape with your hand. that will do.
love,
maggie
p.s. robin put up new pictures, some of which are from the cook islands! enjoy!
i don't know how to make this picture not so big
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
i'm going to confide in the worldwideweb and say that right now i'm an illegal immigrant living in new zealand. it's an interesting situation, trying to get my visa sorted out and has definitely shed a new light on the struggle hundreds of thousands of people are facing in the US. like my situation in new zealand, i assume many of these people are not living illegally in the US under malevolent or seedy intentions but are only living in the US truly for the opportunities that outweigh their home country. i hope, if nothing else, when anyone who knows me imagines an illegal immigrant, they see my face, and take an ounce of pity on the people whose plight i currently share. let me just say, thank god i'm not illegal in arizona.
love,
maggie
love,
maggie
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
ahhhhhhhh! so i am back from the cook islands after a lovely (although rather cloudy) ten day stint on rarotonga! big things happened. well, big thing happened: ANDREW CAME ALL THE WAY TO RAROTONGA TO SURPRISE ROBIN AND ME! robin and i got to rarotonga a few days earlier than caroline and eva's scheduled arrival, so on the second morning as we were half-way waking up to the glorious south pacific day, we heard a definitive but quiet knock at the door. i get up, open the door, and my jaw drops. it's andrew! he had been conspiring with caroline and eva for months planning to surprise us! i had no, no, NO IDEA! this was the ultimate surprise probably of my life. that's right. topped, right there.
it was so wonderful to see andrew after a year (almost to the day!) of skype-only contact. man oh man! it makes me grin to think about seeing him! aren't friendships wonderful when you can go so long without that hug or touch that reminds us we are human and then, bam! there's your friend again, no longer bound by screen size or pixels, but here! blood and 98.6 degrees (we hope) and full of humor and love and challenges!
the five of us had our own house on the beach in front of an ocean where we saw whales no more than 30 or so yards from the shore! i say house here, but i mean mansion, as we had so much room in our rented house that there was a whole extra bedroom we relegated to holding luggage. this is probably the first and last time i will ever, ever get to have a luggage room. we rented bikes to get around the 35ish kilometer circumference of the island, although mine got a flat tire on day one, so i hitchhiked everywhere! my first time hitchhiking and what a way to start a habit! all of these wonderfully kind island people would pick me up, drive slowly, sometimes we would stop by their house and wave to a sister or stop by an autoshop to pick up a spark plug, but thankfully, i always got where i needed to go - safely and quickly!
rarotonga has not a single stoplight, and i, myself, never came across a stop sign. i so very much like what that implies - go, go, go! this seems counterintuitive given the island culture that, like many places where the sun turns you beautifully brown, moves at a snail's pace. we made lots of "we're on island time, mon" jokes when one of us would notice that it was 4 pm and no one had left the house. i think this trip truly qualified as a vacation.
we did, however, go on an accidental mountain climb. one morning the five of us set out for what we assumed would be a light trek through the jungle-Lost-looking mountains of inner rarotonga, but turned out to be a hike. like the kind of hike where the trail isn't marked, you just know you're supposed to keep going up, up, up. at three different points during the hike we found ourselves facing a rock wall with a questionable looking chain hanging from the top of it. up we went. so yeah, i mean a hike. five hours later we made it back to the house with only a few scrapes and bumps to show for it.
rarotonga reminded me the most of ghana out of anywhere i have been. the papaya trees growing wild, the pleasantly stifling heat, the ubiquitous collar-less seemingly owner-less dogs (seriously, why are there always dogs around?!), the easy manner with which everyone says hello. i would suggest going to rarotonga. yes i would! make it your next destination! and if you do, pick up my leopard print sunglasses. i think i left them there.
i was very tired once i got back to wellington, but also very glad to be home. caroline and eva came back to wellington three days after i did, and we have been reminiscing about our raro trip and watching our tan lines fade. it's wonderful to share a few more weeks with them in wellie. MY GOD DO WE LAUGH TOGETHER. what a gift to always have funny people around me! wellington has been uncharacteristically warm and sunny coercing me into staying here and making me itch for the summer.
now i am back at marocka for day-two-back-to-work using the internet to compose this small update. it feels completely normal to be back at work and easy, easy as pie. i am very lucky to have kind and understanding owners who work with me! i know that this job is my first foray into "work," but i'm afraid it's still much too breezy. smiling with teeth is what i'm doing! i hope y'all are, too!
love,
maggie
it was so wonderful to see andrew after a year (almost to the day!) of skype-only contact. man oh man! it makes me grin to think about seeing him! aren't friendships wonderful when you can go so long without that hug or touch that reminds us we are human and then, bam! there's your friend again, no longer bound by screen size or pixels, but here! blood and 98.6 degrees (we hope) and full of humor and love and challenges!
the five of us had our own house on the beach in front of an ocean where we saw whales no more than 30 or so yards from the shore! i say house here, but i mean mansion, as we had so much room in our rented house that there was a whole extra bedroom we relegated to holding luggage. this is probably the first and last time i will ever, ever get to have a luggage room. we rented bikes to get around the 35ish kilometer circumference of the island, although mine got a flat tire on day one, so i hitchhiked everywhere! my first time hitchhiking and what a way to start a habit! all of these wonderfully kind island people would pick me up, drive slowly, sometimes we would stop by their house and wave to a sister or stop by an autoshop to pick up a spark plug, but thankfully, i always got where i needed to go - safely and quickly!
rarotonga has not a single stoplight, and i, myself, never came across a stop sign. i so very much like what that implies - go, go, go! this seems counterintuitive given the island culture that, like many places where the sun turns you beautifully brown, moves at a snail's pace. we made lots of "we're on island time, mon" jokes when one of us would notice that it was 4 pm and no one had left the house. i think this trip truly qualified as a vacation.
we did, however, go on an accidental mountain climb. one morning the five of us set out for what we assumed would be a light trek through the jungle-Lost-looking mountains of inner rarotonga, but turned out to be a hike. like the kind of hike where the trail isn't marked, you just know you're supposed to keep going up, up, up. at three different points during the hike we found ourselves facing a rock wall with a questionable looking chain hanging from the top of it. up we went. so yeah, i mean a hike. five hours later we made it back to the house with only a few scrapes and bumps to show for it.
rarotonga reminded me the most of ghana out of anywhere i have been. the papaya trees growing wild, the pleasantly stifling heat, the ubiquitous collar-less seemingly owner-less dogs (seriously, why are there always dogs around?!), the easy manner with which everyone says hello. i would suggest going to rarotonga. yes i would! make it your next destination! and if you do, pick up my leopard print sunglasses. i think i left them there.
i was very tired once i got back to wellington, but also very glad to be home. caroline and eva came back to wellington three days after i did, and we have been reminiscing about our raro trip and watching our tan lines fade. it's wonderful to share a few more weeks with them in wellie. MY GOD DO WE LAUGH TOGETHER. what a gift to always have funny people around me! wellington has been uncharacteristically warm and sunny coercing me into staying here and making me itch for the summer.
now i am back at marocka for day-two-back-to-work using the internet to compose this small update. it feels completely normal to be back at work and easy, easy as pie. i am very lucky to have kind and understanding owners who work with me! i know that this job is my first foray into "work," but i'm afraid it's still much too breezy. smiling with teeth is what i'm doing! i hope y'all are, too!
love,
maggie
Friday, September 3, 2010
leaving for the cook islands in two hours, but thought i should let you all know (thank you for the concerned texts!):
love,
maggie
dr. blog, i presume? oh, hello. it's been a while, yes. two months, even. let's hope this isn't awkward.
INTERJECTION - the one, the only katie (for you, dad: scarlett o'hara) johnson just called me while at work (i've got the internet now at marocka. having the internet is like magic, father time has no control over my day anymore! ha! eight hours fly!)! i've got to get to australia ASAP. good lord, that girl makes me laugh.
it's seems like there is so much of life's little nothings with which to fill this blog entry. life in wellington is still great and the winter is quickly moving out. hallelujah, here comes the sun! with all the rain the winter poured onto us - and now with the springtime sun - wellington has turned green. all over! even these stone retainer walls that i walk by on my way to work are giant canvases of sweet green moss! it certainly gives a new meaning to living in a "concrete jungle!" lush, lively new zealand!
i can't believe that it's almost been a whole year since i left for new zealand. i think right around this time in 2009, i was at andrew and josh's new york apartment realizing more and more that it was the right decision for me to not be in new york this year. the moment i stepped foot into gilly and greg's welcoming home, though, i knew new zealand was right. thank surprising Life that things keep seeming "right."
there have been almost too many good lessons this year on how i want to be living and what kind of person i want to grow into. one of them that i keep going back to is the issue of politeness. i am incredibly lucky that i was born to parents who value being polite, so much so that i spent enough time at cotillion that i'm sure i could fold a napkin swan if a gun was held to my head. but i have learned about a new kind of politeness this year, one that i think is more lasting and one that has no boundaries.
it's a politeness that i suppose is what kept me so very happy in the less-than-ideal living circumstances of both china and ghana. that is to have absolutely no "manners." what i have learned to be polite, what i have learned from my most gracious hosts, is that the easiest way to make someone feel like they are at home is to actually act like you are, indeed, at home. i loved the first night at gilly and greg's how robin and i walked into their very lived-in home and we were warmly shown towels and coffee, but from then on, it was like being at home. since gilly and greg don't very often use napkins, neither did i, and it made everyone comfortable. they were living in their own home the way they like to, and so was i.
in ghana it would have been more improper to eat my meal with a fork in my left hand than to eat with my fingers on my right. in china choosing to use a "sit down" toilet was met with looks of disapproval and questions of one's cleanliness - you want to actually sit on that thing? being polite is entirely relative, and i hope a lesson that i can continue to learn wherever i am. having been graced with now a year's worth of what i believe to be the most incredible hosts in new zealand, i know that part of being polite is being a good guest and making your host feel like you are at home.
as always, homes seem to appear in whichever direction i walk, and for this, i am always, always grateful. this past week i was hosting a german 16 year old in wellington who is a family friend of carolyn's. during much of this week, i - for the first time in, uhh, a year?! - was feeling a bit stressed out, and i very much wanted to throw my hosting abilities under a rug. let the kid figure out where the grocery store is on his own, you know? i mean, he's a child and doesn't speak english in a city he's never been to. he'll be fine. but once i pulled my head out of my butt and repeated the mantra i have decided to live by (WWGoCD? What Would Gilly or Carolyn Do?), i tried to channel all the people who have welcomed me. and i tell ya, the mantra works.
tomorrow morning i wake up and head to a new (albeit very temporary) home - the cook islands! finally, after six months of dreaming about it, caroline, eva, robin and i will reunite tomorrow in our own beach house on rarotonga (google image search. please. just do it.) for a glorious ten day vacation (from what - i'm not sure). it's way past time for my skin to rekindle its relationship with melanin.
love,
maggie
Saturday, July 3, 2010
i looked at a lot of my pictures from ghana today and missed it SO MUCH! it's probably the frosty bite of the wellington winter that is making me crave the equatorial heat of west africa. i mean, forgive this for being uncouth, but it's so cold in my house that my pee steams in the toilet! where is all this global warming? thank you not very much, new zealand clean energy scheme. come on now, do your part in obliterating winters.
so the black stars lost which only makes me pine even more for ghana. if there is one thing ghanaians know how to do joyfully - it's everything. win or lose in the soccer world cup, i am sure there was dancing and singing. and warmth! and constant sunshine! and black people! i miss all of those things.
job is still going well, and it's funny how clearly un-adult i am at doing this. for example, last week i bought a whole chicken, thinking it was the more economical way to get protein into my diet, only to have to call my dad about it and google the method to carving a raw chicken. i also had to wikipedia search what an "invoice" is after getting an email from a manufacturer using that term. it was one of those situations where i would have never thought i didn't know what "invoice" means, but when doing business, it seemed better to be safe than sorry. i kind of take one step forward and then two steps back on this road to being self-sufficient.
one of the more unusual aspects of wellington culture is how many transexuals live here. i suppose with the political atmosphere of a liberal country's capital, it makes sense that many would congregate here, but the percentage is almost alarming. a few weeks ago i saw two obvious men half-heartedly dressed in woman's earrings and make-up. not stellar efforts on their parts, but still. who knew trany could be trendy? bob dylan is probably loving how much the times are a-changin'.
this past week a man who was wearing a carolina tshirt came in. i was hesitant to strike up a conversation with someone who was maybe only sporting a 2nd hand thrift shop find, but turns out he went to undergrad and law school at UNC. i had missed southern accents! home always is everywhere!
love,
maggie
Monday, June 28, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
it seems a bit tricky to update a blog when things appear to be the same, and they are, but different in teeny tiny ways.
one: sodokus have entered my life. i recognize that i'm a bit late getting on the sodoku train, but i have only recently started ripping them out of the daily wellington newspaper during my lunch hour and working on them for the rest of the afternoon. yesterday's puzzle was marked as "medium," and i spent from 2 until 6 working on it. at the end of the work-day, 49 of the 81 sqaures were correctly filled in. this makes me a) probably an undiagnosed moron and b) DEFINITELY in the running for employee of the month.
two: i am such a commuter girl! this past thursday i left Marocka in the afternoon to catch a 30 minute flight from wellington to nelson on the south island to spend the weekend with robin and carolyn's family! as soon as robin decided she needed to leave wellington, i started conspiring with carolyn to make a surprise visit. and it worked like a charm. it's amazing how much carolyn's feels like home because after about five minutes of screaming-surprised fun, it was back to normal: making hot drinks and feeding the pigs. i'm pleased that after a month of working in a high-end downtown boutique, i still know how to seemlessly slide back into farming life. friday morning robin and i cleaned out the chicken house, which is a pleasant enough undertaking if only because it feels sort of funny to have 30 chickens pecking at your boots. and on sunday afternoon while robin and i were having a fifth(teenth?) hot drink of the day, the pigs escaped their paddock and ran up to the house where they were digging up potatoes and uprooting baby broccolis. thomas and carolyn miraculously herded them back to the paddock and installed a, uhm, more effective electric fence. after that perfect weekend of life at the gorge, i hopped back on a 30 minute flight monday morning to get to work with time to spare by 10:00. seriously, if you have no other reason to visit new zealand, you should come just to check out the lax air travel. in two flights this weekend, i never once had to show any form of ID, no one asked me to take off my shoes, and no machine saw the inside of my purse. further proof that new zealand is not only heavenly but also insane.
three: RUGBY. IS. SO. . . AHHHH! incredible? rugby season is seriously heating up in new zealand and everyone here is born being an All Blacks fan, the national rugby team. on saturday, robin, carolyn, and i went to another of thomas' rugby games which only made me like it even more. if a bunch of skinny 16 year olds can make it look hard core, you can't imagine how intense watching professionals play can be. well, you can imagine. and if you can't, you should youtube the All Blacks doing the Haka, a traditional Maori war chant. it makes football with all the foam pads and all the breathers and all the rules just seem so girly. no, that's not it. sure, girls could play rugby, maybe. compared to rugby, american football should be played by ladybugs. or premies.
four: daylight. hopefully. soon(ish). yesterday was the winter solstice THANK THE SWEET JELLY JOP JESUS. i am seriously looking forward to longer days again. in january, robin and i would watch the last bits of the sunset at 10 pm as we climbed into our beds. nowadays, it's good news if the sun fights past afternoon tea. it's hard to know how much of a sunshine person one is until it is sucked out of one's life.
one big hug to new zealand, which still has me enchanted. one big hug to the US, which still has everyone i love.
love,
maggie
one: sodokus have entered my life. i recognize that i'm a bit late getting on the sodoku train, but i have only recently started ripping them out of the daily wellington newspaper during my lunch hour and working on them for the rest of the afternoon. yesterday's puzzle was marked as "medium," and i spent from 2 until 6 working on it. at the end of the work-day, 49 of the 81 sqaures were correctly filled in. this makes me a) probably an undiagnosed moron and b) DEFINITELY in the running for employee of the month.
two: i am such a commuter girl! this past thursday i left Marocka in the afternoon to catch a 30 minute flight from wellington to nelson on the south island to spend the weekend with robin and carolyn's family! as soon as robin decided she needed to leave wellington, i started conspiring with carolyn to make a surprise visit. and it worked like a charm. it's amazing how much carolyn's feels like home because after about five minutes of screaming-surprised fun, it was back to normal: making hot drinks and feeding the pigs. i'm pleased that after a month of working in a high-end downtown boutique, i still know how to seemlessly slide back into farming life. friday morning robin and i cleaned out the chicken house, which is a pleasant enough undertaking if only because it feels sort of funny to have 30 chickens pecking at your boots. and on sunday afternoon while robin and i were having a fifth(teenth?) hot drink of the day, the pigs escaped their paddock and ran up to the house where they were digging up potatoes and uprooting baby broccolis. thomas and carolyn miraculously herded them back to the paddock and installed a, uhm, more effective electric fence. after that perfect weekend of life at the gorge, i hopped back on a 30 minute flight monday morning to get to work with time to spare by 10:00. seriously, if you have no other reason to visit new zealand, you should come just to check out the lax air travel. in two flights this weekend, i never once had to show any form of ID, no one asked me to take off my shoes, and no machine saw the inside of my purse. further proof that new zealand is not only heavenly but also insane.
three: RUGBY. IS. SO. . . AHHHH! incredible? rugby season is seriously heating up in new zealand and everyone here is born being an All Blacks fan, the national rugby team. on saturday, robin, carolyn, and i went to another of thomas' rugby games which only made me like it even more. if a bunch of skinny 16 year olds can make it look hard core, you can't imagine how intense watching professionals play can be. well, you can imagine. and if you can't, you should youtube the All Blacks doing the Haka, a traditional Maori war chant. it makes football with all the foam pads and all the breathers and all the rules just seem so girly. no, that's not it. sure, girls could play rugby, maybe. compared to rugby, american football should be played by ladybugs. or premies.
four: daylight. hopefully. soon(ish). yesterday was the winter solstice THANK THE SWEET JELLY JOP JESUS. i am seriously looking forward to longer days again. in january, robin and i would watch the last bits of the sunset at 10 pm as we climbed into our beds. nowadays, it's good news if the sun fights past afternoon tea. it's hard to know how much of a sunshine person one is until it is sucked out of one's life.
one big hug to new zealand, which still has me enchanted. one big hug to the US, which still has everyone i love.
love,
maggie
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
whoa, now. giant picture on top of a giant picture? too much? see i don't know anything about style. i maybe shouldn't be ordering clothes for a shop?!
BUT
i totes am, especially since i got my business cards in today! i have 500 of them, actually 499 because i already gave one out to a reporter for the wellington newspaper, so get them while they're hot. they say my name on them and "store manager" and everything. bizarre.
today as i was journaling in an attempt to eat up a few minutes of my grueling eight hour days of near solitude, i noticed that the pen i was writing with was a Broyhill Furniture pen. here's what really got me thinking how tiny this whole world is: from what i understand, most of north carolina's furniture business moved to china within the past decade. and now that furniture pen is being used in new zealand by the daughter of a former employee whose bosses are chinese immigrants. and to top it all off, if i calculated correctly, dad hasn't worked for Broyhill since 2006? 2007? amazing that little pen even still works. the gods of globalization must be having an evil laugh right about now.
enjoying today, and enjoyed yesterday, so all signs point to an enjoyable tomorrow. grazie!
love,
maggie
Thursday, June 10, 2010
i have almost finished four full weeks of work! which is incredible because i don't like working - in general. being the manager of Marocka is slowly becoming more exciting, as last week i did my first clothing and jewelry buy. a buy goes something like this: 1) a giant package of individually cellophane wrapped sample clothes comes to the store 2) i freak out like a kid at christmas and tear into all the clothes 3) ten minutes later after the dust has settled, i pick out the pieces that i think will fit in with the store's style and order those. it is fun! (it is okay.)
last week when robin still had a job with greenpeace we took pictures of robin, eva, and me at our respective jobs. the pictures are quite telling in that none of us look particularly happie. we didn't get to stop by caroline's work, but know that she, too, looks mostly miserable most of the time.
see?
so, i am working always, robin is leaving to go to carolyn's tomorrow, and it is always raining in wellington. things could be looking pretty bleak, BUT! somehow they still don't. today i noticed that two of the little bus-stop home things on the way into town have plants growing in their gutters! what are gutters for anyway? i like the idea so much more of them housing accidental fernery. a decorated path to work!
also, with all the rain everything is turning bright baby green again! it reminds me so much of all the times robin and i have driven through fjordland national park, which next to some spot in hawai'i gets more rain than anywhere else on this planet (this fact according to jared diamond). in fjordland there were tiny booger fungi growing on bigger fungi mushrooms growing on giant queen-of-it-all trees. nature's gaudy display of its imperial reign over everything. i remember one evening as we were driving from carolyn's to queenstown noticing that a stop sign (there are NO stop signs in new zealand, so it's amazing to see one period.) had moss growing all over it. i so liked the image of seeing life growing on even the most mundane parts of life. STOP! - for all that is living.
got to go hug robin for the rest of the night. bye bye.
love,
maggie
last week when robin still had a job with greenpeace we took pictures of robin, eva, and me at our respective jobs. the pictures are quite telling in that none of us look particularly happie. we didn't get to stop by caroline's work, but know that she, too, looks mostly miserable most of the time.
see?
so, i am working always, robin is leaving to go to carolyn's tomorrow, and it is always raining in wellington. things could be looking pretty bleak, BUT! somehow they still don't. today i noticed that two of the little bus-stop home things on the way into town have plants growing in their gutters! what are gutters for anyway? i like the idea so much more of them housing accidental fernery. a decorated path to work!
also, with all the rain everything is turning bright baby green again! it reminds me so much of all the times robin and i have driven through fjordland national park, which next to some spot in hawai'i gets more rain than anywhere else on this planet (this fact according to jared diamond). in fjordland there were tiny booger fungi growing on bigger fungi mushrooms growing on giant queen-of-it-all trees. nature's gaudy display of its imperial reign over everything. i remember one evening as we were driving from carolyn's to queenstown noticing that a stop sign (there are NO stop signs in new zealand, so it's amazing to see one period.) had moss growing all over it. i so liked the image of seeing life growing on even the most mundane parts of life. STOP! - for all that is living.
got to go hug robin for the rest of the night. bye bye.
love,
maggie
Saturday, June 5, 2010
the best (moderately okay) thing ever happened yesterday! i got my glasses! it's amazing how much i can see now. the people at the glasses shop seemed unaccustomed to having a client as excited to be wearing her glasses as i was, but seriously, how can people not be pumped? my greatest selfish fear is that i will one day lose my vision, and so to have my vision improved makes me the happiest (nerdiest) girl in the world! call me four-eyes. i love it.
so robin got fired from greenpeace which is exceptional for a few reasons. one: people like robin don't get fired from anything. they are amazing, and so when they stop working for a place, it should be on their own accord. two: i signed up for greenpeace only to have robin get fired and her move to carolyn's. there goes trying to help this planet. three: robin and i have gotten quite strong over the course of this year in working outside constantly, so we easily could have beaten up every single person who works for greenpeace. i know because i met some of them. why didn't we? there's still time.
if nothing else this nine months of living in new zealand has taught me that everything actually does happen for a reason. i just can't yet see the outcome for robin leaving wellington. the answer may come today or tomorrow or in two years, but there will be a reason. there always is.
it's raining this morning in wellington, as it often does, and i am the only one awake in our house. i have a cup of tea nestled between my knees and hair that hasn't been washed in three days. i feel cozy, safe, and happie, as i should. because gratefully, always gratefully, i am.
love,
maggie
so robin got fired from greenpeace which is exceptional for a few reasons. one: people like robin don't get fired from anything. they are amazing, and so when they stop working for a place, it should be on their own accord. two: i signed up for greenpeace only to have robin get fired and her move to carolyn's. there goes trying to help this planet. three: robin and i have gotten quite strong over the course of this year in working outside constantly, so we easily could have beaten up every single person who works for greenpeace. i know because i met some of them. why didn't we? there's still time.
if nothing else this nine months of living in new zealand has taught me that everything actually does happen for a reason. i just can't yet see the outcome for robin leaving wellington. the answer may come today or tomorrow or in two years, but there will be a reason. there always is.
it's raining this morning in wellington, as it often does, and i am the only one awake in our house. i have a cup of tea nestled between my knees and hair that hasn't been washed in three days. i feel cozy, safe, and happie, as i should. because gratefully, always gratefully, i am.
love,
maggie
Friday, May 28, 2010
i have completed two, yes TWO, weeks of work as the manager of Marocka. lots of things in life feel different working a full time job. for one, weekends mean something significant nowadays. for the past nine months, weekends only mean that the library is closed and if we are at carolyn's, then wayne comes home. now weekends are the brightest stars of life. that's not true. but kind of.
i am learning heaps and am challenged every day, not by the job itself, but all the small things that go into running a business. today on my lunch hour (ha! i have a lunch hour now!) i met a prospective jeweler and perused last week's sales. it all still feels as if this is a huge joke, but it seems to be less and less funny as the joke has no sight in end.
in other and much more incredible news, i only recently learned what a theremin is, and it has blown my mind. the theremin, the world's first electronic instrument and the ONLY instrument that is played without being touched, was invented in 1919 by russian inventor leon theremin. i watched four seeming nerds play the electronic gem of their choice in covering gnarls barkley's "crazy." it literally took my breath away seeing it for the first time. now it's twenty minutes later and i haven't stopped learning about this thing. AWESOME.
yesterday i had to take time off of work to go to the optometrist, only to learn that i have a) been technically night blind for a few years and b) have an astigmatism! i ordered glasses yesterday, and i get them in two weeks! I AM VERY EXCITED FOR THE GIFT OF SIGHT to be a new and improved gift of sight! whoopie!
love,
maggie
i am learning heaps and am challenged every day, not by the job itself, but all the small things that go into running a business. today on my lunch hour (ha! i have a lunch hour now!) i met a prospective jeweler and perused last week's sales. it all still feels as if this is a huge joke, but it seems to be less and less funny as the joke has no sight in end.
in other and much more incredible news, i only recently learned what a theremin is, and it has blown my mind. the theremin, the world's first electronic instrument and the ONLY instrument that is played without being touched, was invented in 1919 by russian inventor leon theremin. i watched four seeming nerds play the electronic gem of their choice in covering gnarls barkley's "crazy." it literally took my breath away seeing it for the first time. now it's twenty minutes later and i haven't stopped learning about this thing. AWESOME.
yesterday i had to take time off of work to go to the optometrist, only to learn that i have a) been technically night blind for a few years and b) have an astigmatism! i ordered glasses yesterday, and i get them in two weeks! I AM VERY EXCITED FOR THE GIFT OF SIGHT to be a new and improved gift of sight! whoopie!
love,
maggie
Saturday, May 15, 2010
i don't want to be someone who overuses the word "crazy," but things have gone crazy. let me paint you a picture of the last few days.
tuesday: robin and i sleep in our car waiting to get the ferry to wellington among the mice that cohabitate our 1988 toyota carona.
wednesday: robin and i shell out 15 big bucks to sleep on a patch of dirt in downtown wellington, waiting to sneak attack live in caroline and eva's house.
thursday: robin and i walk around wellington handing our resumes.
friday: i get an interview at Marocka (i don't know why my premature allegiance to this store makes me want to capitalize it), a small VERY FANCY clothing boutique in downtown wellington.
saturday: i meet the new owners of Marocka who hire me, offer me a year long salary, tell me about my paid vacation time, and offer to sponsor me for my new zealand residency.
sunday (today): robin and i tearfully come to terms with the fact that my fun, flippant, no-money life has come to an end. the remainder of our new zealand lives will be different and not entirely as fun. i go shopping for terribly expensive "work" clothes. what?
monday (tomorrow): i start work as the manager of Marocka. not entirely knowing what i am doing, but excited about getting to spend another year in new zealand.
amazing where a week can take you.
what's crazy (see? there it is.) is that my mom is in honduras, so she doesn't even know yet that it looks like i will be missing thanksgiving 2010 for the third year in a row. don't get me wrong, i still have thanksgivings. they have just taken place in ghana and new zealand.
i was a little freaked out about how quickly this all happened and didn't feel like i had time to mourn the loss of jobless-kid-maggie, until carolyn, who i had emailed with on saturday night about new job, called to calm me and robin down. she's good like that.
i am so lucky to know that even if robin has to leave new zealand for a while in september and i am left behind (in the rapture) in this amazing country, i have families here that love me. the first email carolyn sent last night said "this is great news because now you can spend christmas with us again!" i am lucky.
so. bottom line. in seventeen short hours i will be the manager and clothes buyer of Marocka in wellington. come check us out. i have no clue our hours.
oh silly life, you are a fickle beast. just like me!
love,
maggie
tuesday: robin and i sleep in our car waiting to get the ferry to wellington among the mice that cohabitate our 1988 toyota carona.
wednesday: robin and i shell out 15 big bucks to sleep on a patch of dirt in downtown wellington, waiting to sneak attack live in caroline and eva's house.
thursday: robin and i walk around wellington handing our resumes.
friday: i get an interview at Marocka (i don't know why my premature allegiance to this store makes me want to capitalize it), a small VERY FANCY clothing boutique in downtown wellington.
saturday: i meet the new owners of Marocka who hire me, offer me a year long salary, tell me about my paid vacation time, and offer to sponsor me for my new zealand residency.
sunday (today): robin and i tearfully come to terms with the fact that my fun, flippant, no-money life has come to an end. the remainder of our new zealand lives will be different and not entirely as fun. i go shopping for terribly expensive "work" clothes. what?
monday (tomorrow): i start work as the manager of Marocka. not entirely knowing what i am doing, but excited about getting to spend another year in new zealand.
amazing where a week can take you.
what's crazy (see? there it is.) is that my mom is in honduras, so she doesn't even know yet that it looks like i will be missing thanksgiving 2010 for the third year in a row. don't get me wrong, i still have thanksgivings. they have just taken place in ghana and new zealand.
i was a little freaked out about how quickly this all happened and didn't feel like i had time to mourn the loss of jobless-kid-maggie, until carolyn, who i had emailed with on saturday night about new job, called to calm me and robin down. she's good like that.
i am so lucky to know that even if robin has to leave new zealand for a while in september and i am left behind (in the rapture) in this amazing country, i have families here that love me. the first email carolyn sent last night said "this is great news because now you can spend christmas with us again!" i am lucky.
so. bottom line. in seventeen short hours i will be the manager and clothes buyer of Marocka in wellington. come check us out. i have no clue our hours.
oh silly life, you are a fickle beast. just like me!
love,
maggie
Thursday, May 13, 2010
robin and i are in wellington living at caroline and eva's house! it feels sooooooo good to be here even though we are all sharing beds right now because we are overlapping with laura, the woman who owns the house and whose room we will soon inhabit. we are furiously (not so furiously) applying for jobs to make a little money, honey. and there are people like us applying for jobs EVERYWHERE! it's a bit daunting because most people don't have a visa that expires in four months like ours do. we will hope for a job so that we can stay with caro and eva until the end of june, but if not, we have two wonderful new zealand families who want us to come live with them for the winter. grateful.
this may be the most important news of my new zealand life: i was happily given my all-time favorite song by caro and eva. oh, please, stop everything right now and listen to it! better yet, watch Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes perform "Home" on youtube filmed live at KRCW. better better yet, here's the link for it. do it now and watch with goosebumps, as i did, how alive living can be.
happie!
love,
maggie
this may be the most important news of my new zealand life: i was happily given my all-time favorite song by caro and eva. oh, please, stop everything right now and listen to it! better yet, watch Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes perform "Home" on youtube filmed live at KRCW. better better yet, here's the link for it. do it now and watch with goosebumps, as i did, how alive living can be.
happie!
love,
maggie
Friday, May 7, 2010
can someone explain these to me? i saw a woman wearing a pair of them again today, and their prevalence in new zealand has started to be a bit unsettling. are these a big thing in the US right now? why, god, why would it make sense to slide one's tiny toes into foot gloves - that you wear outside? i understand that i carry little clout regarding fashion footwear, as i have proudly been a sponsor and supporter of the bogan movement while in new zealand, but still. what?
in other news, robin and i finished our "jobs" cleaning a hostel in exchange for accommodation on wednesday and are leaving queenstown tomorrow with a brief stop in dundein to spend a night with emily shine and then up the coast through kaikoura to catch the ferry on tuesday back to wellington on the north island! oh! right. so, after a two week investigation into the queenstown job market, we have realized that well, there is none unless you can be here for the full winter ski and snowboard season which ends in october. our visas only allow us to be here until september, so most employers are not excited to hire travelers for only a brief period. SO! caroline and eva who we visited for a week and a half at the beginning of april suggested that we come live with them for the winter! AND DUH WE ARE SO EXCITED TO DO SO! the four of us living together was such fun, and i am eagerly anticipating our reunion. so yes. want to come visit? we'll be in wellington.
if you have been reading robin's blog, you would know that we were thinking about shaving our heads for $1000 cash. this has become a non-issue recently as we are not still going to be on the south island when the head shaving would commence. in light of this change, i mostly feel like a baby fairy who was agonizing over this "huge" decision. i will, though, since i will not actually be faced with the decision, go ahead and say that YES I TOTALLY WOULD HAVE DONE IT. but maybe not. who knows. i suppose if i were really excited to do it and if i had the courage to, i would really look like tom lentz's daughter right now. but instead, my head is warm and my hair ego is intact.
love,
maggie
Saturday, May 1, 2010
wow, wow, in a big way. this blog has been on the bottom of my list to keep up with, by no fault of its own. other things have taken precedent in life recently. things like: hand picking grapes for a few weeks while staying at carolyn's house, finding new and exciting ways to make fun of thomas for having a broken nose (in a hard-core sense, though, because he broke it during his first rugby game and CONTINUED PLAYING. what?), making plans for our winter months, changing plans for our winter months, living in queenstown on the waterfront AS IT FLOODED. things like that.
one thing i noticed today about new zealand, and should you ever come to visit i am certain you will too, is that a big chunk of new zealand's economy must operate on the movement of traffic cones. i don't think i have ever, i mean EVER, driven for more than a day here where i was not instructed where to turn or what is off limits by traffic cones. nine out of ten times, these cones are accompanied by a group of construction men who methodically move the cones back and forth six or so inches every few minutes. perhaps the US should take a page from new zealand's book and begin implementing the cone-employment stage of development. they've only got a 6% rate of unemployment, and from what i understand, that's saying something nowadays.
in other news, robin and i will be leaving queenstown sometime this week and our always incredibly tentative plan is to head to dunedin for a hot minute to see emily shine for a night or two, maybe shave our heads for $1000 cash if timing works out, drive up to picton where we will get a ferry to the north island to move in with caroline and eva for two months! I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT LIVING WITH CARO AND EVA AGAIN. after our entirely successful hangzone week together at the beginning of april, we have been craving one another's company since then, and this is the best way for the four of us to reunite. robin and i need to get jobs in wellington while we are there, too. the headshaving bit should have tipped you off.
i am still learning so much while being in new zealand. i am learning how difficult it is to let go of a future path that i had (sort of) planned for myself upon realizing i want something entirely different. choosing a new direction seems to be hard, no matter how much i want to head that way.
sorry about the bad posting! my may 2nd resolution is to be better about it! ha! no one keeps may 2nd resolutions!
love,
maggie
one thing i noticed today about new zealand, and should you ever come to visit i am certain you will too, is that a big chunk of new zealand's economy must operate on the movement of traffic cones. i don't think i have ever, i mean EVER, driven for more than a day here where i was not instructed where to turn or what is off limits by traffic cones. nine out of ten times, these cones are accompanied by a group of construction men who methodically move the cones back and forth six or so inches every few minutes. perhaps the US should take a page from new zealand's book and begin implementing the cone-employment stage of development. they've only got a 6% rate of unemployment, and from what i understand, that's saying something nowadays.
in other news, robin and i will be leaving queenstown sometime this week and our always incredibly tentative plan is to head to dunedin for a hot minute to see emily shine for a night or two, maybe shave our heads for $1000 cash if timing works out, drive up to picton where we will get a ferry to the north island to move in with caroline and eva for two months! I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT LIVING WITH CARO AND EVA AGAIN. after our entirely successful hangzone week together at the beginning of april, we have been craving one another's company since then, and this is the best way for the four of us to reunite. robin and i need to get jobs in wellington while we are there, too. the headshaving bit should have tipped you off.
i am still learning so much while being in new zealand. i am learning how difficult it is to let go of a future path that i had (sort of) planned for myself upon realizing i want something entirely different. choosing a new direction seems to be hard, no matter how much i want to head that way.
sorry about the bad posting! my may 2nd resolution is to be better about it! ha! no one keeps may 2nd resolutions!
love,
maggie
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
there are few things in life at which i truly excel. one of them is hangzoning and over the past week i have had the opportunity to show off my skill set. robin and i have been in wellington staying with caroline holcomb, a friend from unc, and her friend from high school, eva, both of whom have done the robin and me thing by moving here for a year!
the four of us have spent the last week watching season two of dawson's creek, worshiping pacey whitter, cooking together, taking walks, and making hot drinks. it has been so nice to be in one place where robin and i can just be. caroline and eva have also made us the happiest girls ever by deciding to come to the cook islands with us in september!!! with the weather getting cooler, i am already anticipating the warm waters of the cook islands as a welcome change. can't make it to visit in new zealand? why not meet us at the cook islands in september!
i think it is sometimes hard for people who haven't been to new zealand to understand exactly how small it is here. a good example is that now robin and i have picked up THREE hitchhikers that we know. last week as we were driving up the south island to catch the ferry across to wellington, robin and i simultaneously looked at each other and screamed "is that eddie?" as we drove by an asian hitchhiker bedecked with bags on every limb. clearly, we turned the car around to realize that it was in fact eddie, our korean friend from apple picking who we had last seen on the north island over a month ago. small world.
i just finished reading barbara kingsolver's latest book, animal, vegetable, miracle (a memoir documenting her family's experiment to grow their own food for a year. also, blogger won't let me underline the name of the book) and was disappointed by it. being a fan of everything else i have read of hers, i was surprised at my disinterest in the book - and then it hit me! this is a boring book to me because i know, like actually know, all of the stuff she is writing about. i know when to plant vegetables, i how to harvest them, i know different methods for storing them, i know how to make compost. i know what food looks like. had i read that book a year ago, i am sure i would have found it intriguing and her mission novel, but having lived kingsolver's life for the past seven months, it seems silly to me that she could make a living writing about it! ha! my, how things change.
tomorrow robin and i leave the haven of caroline and eva's and are back to another home, carolyn's for what we think will be the remainder of april. :)
love,
maggie
Saturday, March 20, 2010
where do you put your happiness when you realize that there is no way that it can all fit into one single life? i suppose you stick it in between prayers of thanks and gratitude and hope that it is there to stay.
i have had the best few weeks possible recently. let me recap briefly (be warned: i don’t know what “briefly” means.). mom, dad, and marc came to visit! hooray! probably one of the best family trips we have ever had, if i do say so myself . i think it was pleasantly upgraded by the presence of robin and the trips we all made to gilly and greg’s house on the north island and to carolyn’s house on the south island. it was wonderful for me, and i think for them as well, for my home family to meet my new zealand families. it all felt very full circle. flash forward a whirlwind eight days later to when my amazing family leaves and robin and i once again find ourselves wwoofing at carolyn’s house!
it always feels like such home when we come back to carolyn’s. i love it here in a big way. a too much way. a way where someone is going to have to drag me away from it. WHY GOD WHY DOES MY VISA HAVE TO RUN OUT ONE DAY?! it’s hard to think about having to say goodbye to carolyn and her absolutely magnetic family for good. that day is still months away, and i have already dubbed it “black whateverdayweleavecarolyn’sday.” waaah.
i haven’t been privy to many successful surprises. none, in fact. i am never the one clued in on it, and the one other time that i have been surprised by someone, it was reid showing up for our graduation and i sat in a room full of his friends and in unison we screamed in horror that he had just walked into our house through the guest bedroom window. after our terror subsided, we hugged and were happy to see him, but that momentary lapse into “who the hell is this guy?” kind of killed it.
but! for my birthday a few days ago, i was surprised and in such a good way. robin and carolyn had been conspiring with malcolm and lindsay for a few weeks to get them to leave the north island earlier than they had planned and surprise me on the south island! IT WORKED SO WELL! the afternoon of my birthday, which carolyn and family had been doing a fantastic job of evasively ignoring, robin, thomas, and i were in the kitchen having coffee and pretending to sniff each other in a creepy-stranger kind of way. all of the sudden, i see mally’s face pop through the kitchen! my one track brain didn’t stop to ask the question as to why mally was in carolyn’s house, but rather it knew that mally = lindsay and that mally + lindsay = squeals and squeals of delight! so they all tricked me, and they did it well. that evening, we had a barbeque and cake and wine and all the things that one wants when she turns twenty three. as i was blowing out my birthday candles, i closed my eyes just for show because i didn’t make a wish. what in the world could i have wished for?
thank you thank you thank you, but who are you?, but mostly just thank you.
love,
maggie
i have had the best few weeks possible recently. let me recap briefly (be warned: i don’t know what “briefly” means.). mom, dad, and marc came to visit! hooray! probably one of the best family trips we have ever had, if i do say so myself . i think it was pleasantly upgraded by the presence of robin and the trips we all made to gilly and greg’s house on the north island and to carolyn’s house on the south island. it was wonderful for me, and i think for them as well, for my home family to meet my new zealand families. it all felt very full circle. flash forward a whirlwind eight days later to when my amazing family leaves and robin and i once again find ourselves wwoofing at carolyn’s house!
it always feels like such home when we come back to carolyn’s. i love it here in a big way. a too much way. a way where someone is going to have to drag me away from it. WHY GOD WHY DOES MY VISA HAVE TO RUN OUT ONE DAY?! it’s hard to think about having to say goodbye to carolyn and her absolutely magnetic family for good. that day is still months away, and i have already dubbed it “black whateverdayweleavecarolyn’sday.” waaah.
i haven’t been privy to many successful surprises. none, in fact. i am never the one clued in on it, and the one other time that i have been surprised by someone, it was reid showing up for our graduation and i sat in a room full of his friends and in unison we screamed in horror that he had just walked into our house through the guest bedroom window. after our terror subsided, we hugged and were happy to see him, but that momentary lapse into “who the hell is this guy?” kind of killed it.
but! for my birthday a few days ago, i was surprised and in such a good way. robin and carolyn had been conspiring with malcolm and lindsay for a few weeks to get them to leave the north island earlier than they had planned and surprise me on the south island! IT WORKED SO WELL! the afternoon of my birthday, which carolyn and family had been doing a fantastic job of evasively ignoring, robin, thomas, and i were in the kitchen having coffee and pretending to sniff each other in a creepy-stranger kind of way. all of the sudden, i see mally’s face pop through the kitchen! my one track brain didn’t stop to ask the question as to why mally was in carolyn’s house, but rather it knew that mally = lindsay and that mally + lindsay = squeals and squeals of delight! so they all tricked me, and they did it well. that evening, we had a barbeque and cake and wine and all the things that one wants when she turns twenty three. as i was blowing out my birthday candles, i closed my eyes just for show because i didn’t make a wish. what in the world could i have wished for?
thank you thank you thank you, but who are you?, but mostly just thank you.
love,
maggie
Friday, March 5, 2010
most of the time i try to be one of those people that doesn't say "i told you so," but sometimes the desire to do so is so overwhelming that i just can't help it . . .
on thursday morning, robin and i left our caravan and lindsay and malcolm :( to drive back to auckland to meet jacob :). once we got to jacob, we got delicious thai lunch and hopped on a ferry to a nearby island where we were picked up in a dinghy by julian, a 23 year old german boat builder, and then were taken to a giant catamaran sailboat that sleeps nine people. three germans (friends of jacob's from his study abroad semester in NZ) and three americans all under the age of 24, none of whom had any real ties or remote ownership of this beautiful sailboat. WHAT?!
we sailed around the islands in the east coast auckland harbor for the evening, watched the sunset, made pasta in seawater and washed our dishes in the ocean (we ran out of freshwater in the sink). that night the unusually warm auckland ocean was filled with phosphorescence that was so bright and active that when i looked over the side of the boat, it was like the boat was floating on top of a nite-brite (remember those?!). sparkling stars in the sky and their midnight ocean equivalent - sparkling phosphorescence in the sea.
the next morning we woke up, made breakfast, drank tonic water to stay alive and sort-of hydrated, sunbathed and read all day. around lunch time julian anchored the boat to go diving THIRTY FEET to collect scallops for lunch. the absolute best and freshest seafood i could have ever wanted! no more than 15 minutes from the ocean to my plate. delicious!
that evening we sailed to a sandy beach, rode the dinghy to the shore, and walked the two blocks back to jacob's, took showers, and were introduced to his lovely host parents. good, good day. i couldn't ask for a better day.
i couldn't help thinking about an "i told you so" shout-out to my lovely parents, who, unlike me, are wise enough and old enough to be thinking ahead toward the future. but! no amount of debutante ball connections or interviews with old bosses or labored conversations about money could have gotten me on a fantastic sailboat for free with friends on a perfect auckland day. i am pleased and ever grateful when things like this work out when you don't even ask for them. perhaps it is naive, but why not assume that things like this will work out for the rest of my life? maybe things like this always happen and it only takes the consistent and grateful recognition of them for them to continue. thank you thank you thank you to that big starry - phosphorescence - mountain - ocean - water - fire - wind - life force that i so believe in.
all that being said, my family comes in 19 hours and i am SO SO SO EXCITED to see them and show them this place that is so easy to love.
cheers, to life!
love,
maggie
on thursday morning, robin and i left our caravan and lindsay and malcolm :( to drive back to auckland to meet jacob :). once we got to jacob, we got delicious thai lunch and hopped on a ferry to a nearby island where we were picked up in a dinghy by julian, a 23 year old german boat builder, and then were taken to a giant catamaran sailboat that sleeps nine people. three germans (friends of jacob's from his study abroad semester in NZ) and three americans all under the age of 24, none of whom had any real ties or remote ownership of this beautiful sailboat. WHAT?!
we sailed around the islands in the east coast auckland harbor for the evening, watched the sunset, made pasta in seawater and washed our dishes in the ocean (we ran out of freshwater in the sink). that night the unusually warm auckland ocean was filled with phosphorescence that was so bright and active that when i looked over the side of the boat, it was like the boat was floating on top of a nite-brite (remember those?!). sparkling stars in the sky and their midnight ocean equivalent - sparkling phosphorescence in the sea.
the next morning we woke up, made breakfast, drank tonic water to stay alive and sort-of hydrated, sunbathed and read all day. around lunch time julian anchored the boat to go diving THIRTY FEET to collect scallops for lunch. the absolute best and freshest seafood i could have ever wanted! no more than 15 minutes from the ocean to my plate. delicious!
that evening we sailed to a sandy beach, rode the dinghy to the shore, and walked the two blocks back to jacob's, took showers, and were introduced to his lovely host parents. good, good day. i couldn't ask for a better day.
i couldn't help thinking about an "i told you so" shout-out to my lovely parents, who, unlike me, are wise enough and old enough to be thinking ahead toward the future. but! no amount of debutante ball connections or interviews with old bosses or labored conversations about money could have gotten me on a fantastic sailboat for free with friends on a perfect auckland day. i am pleased and ever grateful when things like this work out when you don't even ask for them. perhaps it is naive, but why not assume that things like this will work out for the rest of my life? maybe things like this always happen and it only takes the consistent and grateful recognition of them for them to continue. thank you thank you thank you to that big starry - phosphorescence - mountain - ocean - water - fire - wind - life force that i so believe in.
all that being said, my family comes in 19 hours and i am SO SO SO EXCITED to see them and show them this place that is so easy to love.
cheers, to life!
love,
maggie
Saturday, February 27, 2010
today is malcolm's birthday! and what did he get for his birthday from me? half a case of beer (robin paid for the other half) and my friendship love. i just liked malcolm up until now, but now that he's 23, things are different. he (and lindsay, even though today isn't her birthday) are part of the exclusive, but ever growing, club of people who i love. no membership fees. no expiration date. mally mally mally.
i have so enjoyed living next door to our asian neighbors during these past few weeks of an apple life. all three of them are inspiring in their fearless forays into english and in their dedication to meeting new friends. their friendship with each other is bravely forged through the muddy waters of accented english and a mutual desire to be in this beautiful country. having them around is like constantly starting a bad joke. a korean man, a japanese man, and a chinese man walk into a bar. . .
i remember during my summer in china how much i loved getting to hear a japanese friend and fellow worldteach volunteer, fumiko, skype her family in japan. the rhythmic quality of the japanese language was nothing i had ever heard before, and i thought it was unusually beautiful. it has been wonderful having another japanese friend to eavesdrop on. a few nights ago we asked kota to read aloud his japanese version of the lonely planet. the cadence of fluent japanese sounds almost like spanish to my untrained ear, and it has the magical capability of making even a travel guide captivating. japanese is the beautiful language i will from now on associate with breathy romance, not italian or spanish.
i was thinking this afternoon how different my generation is from my parents’ generation. remembering the weeks leading up to my semester in ghana both mom and dad commented that going to ghana during a university semester was absolutely unheard of during their youth. europe was their world to discover. i feel lucky that i have been encouraged to greet every inch of this simultaneously big and small planet. every time i take a moment to look around - regardless of where i am - i can’t help but think what a great place it is.
love,
maggie
i have so enjoyed living next door to our asian neighbors during these past few weeks of an apple life. all three of them are inspiring in their fearless forays into english and in their dedication to meeting new friends. their friendship with each other is bravely forged through the muddy waters of accented english and a mutual desire to be in this beautiful country. having them around is like constantly starting a bad joke. a korean man, a japanese man, and a chinese man walk into a bar. . .
i remember during my summer in china how much i loved getting to hear a japanese friend and fellow worldteach volunteer, fumiko, skype her family in japan. the rhythmic quality of the japanese language was nothing i had ever heard before, and i thought it was unusually beautiful. it has been wonderful having another japanese friend to eavesdrop on. a few nights ago we asked kota to read aloud his japanese version of the lonely planet. the cadence of fluent japanese sounds almost like spanish to my untrained ear, and it has the magical capability of making even a travel guide captivating. japanese is the beautiful language i will from now on associate with breathy romance, not italian or spanish.
i was thinking this afternoon how different my generation is from my parents’ generation. remembering the weeks leading up to my semester in ghana both mom and dad commented that going to ghana during a university semester was absolutely unheard of during their youth. europe was their world to discover. i feel lucky that i have been encouraged to greet every inch of this simultaneously big and small planet. every time i take a moment to look around - regardless of where i am - i can’t help but think what a great place it is.
love,
maggie
Saturday, February 20, 2010
apple picking update: still hard, hard, hard. my entire body is sore for all of my conscious hours. it takes a break from hurting while i sleep, but then kicks back in the moment i wake. we are intensifying our farmer’s tans and eating about three apples a day each.
living in the tiny caravan update: still fun, fun, fun. we have bonded with the three asians living next door, err, umm, next car over. without their solicitation, we have started word of the day vocabulary lessons. words they have learned so far: exhausting, obligation, strangle. things are going very well.
malcolm and lindsay update: still love them, love them, love them. last night the four of us came into the hopping town of napier for their annual art deco festival weekend. everyone (really, everyone except us and maybe six other people) was dressed up in boas, suspenders and paperboy caps, and sequins. it was so neat! it felt more like being in the 1920s than a weird halloween because everyone was a part of it.
robin and me update: still happy, happy, happy. we are leaving napier in a few weeks to meet my family in auckland while they visit and then off to the south island again and back to one of our favorite new zealand homes, carolyn’s.
just me update: still me, me, me, but more and more i am becoming kiwi. there is a certain way of life here called “bogan” that i am very much embracing. “bogan” is a term that is a bit fuzzy on definition, but i would most closely associate it with “redneck” at home. bogans don’t wear shoes, often times have mullets or rat-tails, wear bathing suits a lot as actual outer wear. with unprecedented gusto, i support all aspects of the bogan lifestyle. my favorite is not wearing shoes. into grocery stores, shops, the bank. you don’t have to wear shoes anywhere! all of us are enjoying the foot freedom. the other day going into the grocery store, malcolm, robin and i all neglected to put on our shoes even though we had them in the car. it’s great. also, i bought my very own jar of marmite the other day! what happened?
while apple picking is such hard work nowadays there are many silver linings to life. one such being that i get a lot of ipod time. ipods, for those of you pre-gen X, are tiny machines that hold all of your music for you. how do i explain this so you may understand? it’s as if all of your tapes - or records - have had the music taken off of them and moved to a little shiny box. it’s magic. let’s leave it at that.
in addition to the lovely periods of music time, when the four of us do get off of work we are so excited to see each other it’s like an everyday smiley reunion! and then when we get home, we make dinner and laugh for four hours and then go to sleep.
maybe the most important thing i have learned in this past week is that anything can be fun if i am with people i love. and thankfully, i am. the second most important thing i have learned is always, always, ALWAYS wash your produce. people like me are picking it, and trust me, i am dirty when i am doing it. i think i heard malcolm sneeze into his bag of apples last thursday. just wash your fruit, okay?
love,
maggie
living in the tiny caravan update: still fun, fun, fun. we have bonded with the three asians living next door, err, umm, next car over. without their solicitation, we have started word of the day vocabulary lessons. words they have learned so far: exhausting, obligation, strangle. things are going very well.
malcolm and lindsay update: still love them, love them, love them. last night the four of us came into the hopping town of napier for their annual art deco festival weekend. everyone (really, everyone except us and maybe six other people) was dressed up in boas, suspenders and paperboy caps, and sequins. it was so neat! it felt more like being in the 1920s than a weird halloween because everyone was a part of it.
robin and me update: still happy, happy, happy. we are leaving napier in a few weeks to meet my family in auckland while they visit and then off to the south island again and back to one of our favorite new zealand homes, carolyn’s.
just me update: still me, me, me, but more and more i am becoming kiwi. there is a certain way of life here called “bogan” that i am very much embracing. “bogan” is a term that is a bit fuzzy on definition, but i would most closely associate it with “redneck” at home. bogans don’t wear shoes, often times have mullets or rat-tails, wear bathing suits a lot as actual outer wear. with unprecedented gusto, i support all aspects of the bogan lifestyle. my favorite is not wearing shoes. into grocery stores, shops, the bank. you don’t have to wear shoes anywhere! all of us are enjoying the foot freedom. the other day going into the grocery store, malcolm, robin and i all neglected to put on our shoes even though we had them in the car. it’s great. also, i bought my very own jar of marmite the other day! what happened?
while apple picking is such hard work nowadays there are many silver linings to life. one such being that i get a lot of ipod time. ipods, for those of you pre-gen X, are tiny machines that hold all of your music for you. how do i explain this so you may understand? it’s as if all of your tapes - or records - have had the music taken off of them and moved to a little shiny box. it’s magic. let’s leave it at that.
in addition to the lovely periods of music time, when the four of us do get off of work we are so excited to see each other it’s like an everyday smiley reunion! and then when we get home, we make dinner and laugh for four hours and then go to sleep.
maybe the most important thing i have learned in this past week is that anything can be fun if i am with people i love. and thankfully, i am. the second most important thing i have learned is always, always, ALWAYS wash your produce. people like me are picking it, and trust me, i am dirty when i am doing it. i think i heard malcolm sneeze into his bag of apples last thursday. just wash your fruit, okay?
love,
maggie
Monday, February 15, 2010
y'all. apple picking is such hard work.
i am happy but always exhausted. so pumped to be living with malcolm, lindsay, and robin in a trailer that we can tow on our car if need be. laughter to the accident-almost stage every night and every day. we are having so much fun. somehow, despite our tragic picking skills.
even my thumb joints hurt from picking for nine hours. must stop typing!
love,
maggie
i am happy but always exhausted. so pumped to be living with malcolm, lindsay, and robin in a trailer that we can tow on our car if need be. laughter to the accident-almost stage every night and every day. we are having so much fun. somehow, despite our tragic picking skills.
even my thumb joints hurt from picking for nine hours. must stop typing!
love,
maggie
Thursday, February 11, 2010
robin and i have safely arrived in the hawke’s bay region of new zealand! we were welcomed by the loving arms of malcolm and lindsay last night in our tiny caravan that somehow we are all sleeping in. this morning we got up early enough to see the sunrise, ate breakfast, packed lunches, and picked snack time apples from the apple trees seven feet in front of our caravan. waking up to new zealand continues to be exciting and beautiful.
robin and i start our nine hour apple picking work days on monday. malcolm and lindsay have been picking for a few days now, and they are feeling the burn. i am scurrred. but we will get good at it and soon be rolling in dough. maybe rich enough to buy each one of you a ticket to move here!
yesterday during our drive robin and i were trying to list all of the food we have eaten straight from the plant. literally picked it ourselves and then eaten it. lots of time it still has dirt (i call it “dirt” here, which is really my euphemism for horse manure) on it. we have come up with this so far:
peas
string beans
broad beans
apples
pears
plums
tomatoes
cucumbers
lettuce
fennel
bell peppers
lemons
limes
beets
arugula
silver beet
spinach
strawberries
boysenberries
raspberries
cherries
broccoli
cauliflower
custard apples (they are crazy and delicious!)
onions
carrots
spring onions
radishes
grapefruit
heaps of herbs including: thyme, basil, rosemary, cilantro, parsley, sorrell
a grape (i made a mistake and ate a not yet ripe one. much too sour.)
food that we have picked and then cooked a little bit before eating it because it’s kind of gross otherwise:
eggplants
corn
potatoes
squash
zucchinis
turnips
pumpkin
and we are only halfway through the summer. and haven’t even hit the fall harvest plants! this life is yummy, in all the senses of the word.
love,
maggie
robin and i start our nine hour apple picking work days on monday. malcolm and lindsay have been picking for a few days now, and they are feeling the burn. i am scurrred. but we will get good at it and soon be rolling in dough. maybe rich enough to buy each one of you a ticket to move here!
yesterday during our drive robin and i were trying to list all of the food we have eaten straight from the plant. literally picked it ourselves and then eaten it. lots of time it still has dirt (i call it “dirt” here, which is really my euphemism for horse manure) on it. we have come up with this so far:
peas
string beans
broad beans
apples
pears
plums
tomatoes
cucumbers
lettuce
fennel
bell peppers
lemons
limes
beets
arugula
silver beet
spinach
strawberries
boysenberries
raspberries
cherries
broccoli
cauliflower
custard apples (they are crazy and delicious!)
onions
carrots
spring onions
radishes
grapefruit
heaps of herbs including: thyme, basil, rosemary, cilantro, parsley, sorrell
a grape (i made a mistake and ate a not yet ripe one. much too sour.)
food that we have picked and then cooked a little bit before eating it because it’s kind of gross otherwise:
eggplants
corn
potatoes
squash
zucchinis
turnips
pumpkin
and we are only halfway through the summer. and haven’t even hit the fall harvest plants! this life is yummy, in all the senses of the word.
love,
maggie
Sunday, February 7, 2010
last night i grew a new freckle. it’s on my heel, and it’s already blending in nicely. no one ever believes me that i can feel myself growing, but i can. i remember telling people about my discovery early along the mostly smooth course that was getting to know new friends in ghana. this personal revelation was the only speed bump on the way to glorious friendships.
it happened tonight during my towel time as i was lying on my bed. i can only feel myself growing a new freckle in the rare moments when i am in the quiet space of being alone, being on my back, and being peacefully awake. growing a new freckle feels like a tiny and persistent ant is dancing in a single spot on my skin. every single time.
on friday and saturday evenings while robin, meta, and i were staying at saint gilly and saint greg’s beach house, i went out into the incredibly low tide bay where we found the most spa-like mud. the kind of middle of the night black mud that feels like wet silk. the kind of mud that is produced by millions of years of volcanic formation that appears only during low tides in shallow, get low get low get low get low, bays and the kind of mud that costs 200 dollars an hour to have rubbed on your body by a “technician” at a spa. both of these nights we rubbed the black mud all over our entire bodies then stayed out in the sunset and let the heat dry us into a crackle and then let the ocean wash us clean. it felt perfect. when perfect is accurate, you know? i had a dream on friday night where i had black mudded half of my body and left the other half my regular white color. in this dream someone took a picture of it and put it in a museum and the picture was titled “Ebonme and Ivorme.” robin and i tried out the picture setup yesterday afternoon. it was better in my dream.
in other news, robin and i took meta to the airport today and wished her a safe trip back to the united states. after ten wonderful days with us, we all are tired and happy and impressed by all we got to see. it was so lovely having meta here, and i was constantly grateful for her unnecessary, but much appreciated, generosity in funding many of our expeditions! we saw giant kauri trees and sat on wonderful beaches and had a “perfect day at sea” and ate chocolate and drank wine and snorkeled and went to sleep early and woke up early. my only regret (not at all regret. i say regret because i think i am supposed to.) was that i spent a solid ten of a 36 hour period reading a john grisham book. i couldn’t help myself! we are on a (year-long) vacation.
AND WE SAW AVATAR, AND IT IS FANTASTIC. i love aliens?! who am i now? the most stunned i have ever been after three hours of sitting in the dark. great, great, i always want to be surprised and pleased like that, great.
in a few days robin and i will leave auckland to meet up with malcolm and lindsay to hang out for a bit before all four of us start working on an apple orchard. i suspect malcolm will be making serious bank. i suspect i won’t. eh. i’ll learn. and then jacob comes to new zealand and then my family follows a few days behind and then, boom! - it’s the middle of march and we will have been here for six months. where does the time go? probably to starbucks for a non-fat latte and then to the gym and then gets home for dinner with its grandkids.
love,
maggie
it happened tonight during my towel time as i was lying on my bed. i can only feel myself growing a new freckle in the rare moments when i am in the quiet space of being alone, being on my back, and being peacefully awake. growing a new freckle feels like a tiny and persistent ant is dancing in a single spot on my skin. every single time.
on friday and saturday evenings while robin, meta, and i were staying at saint gilly and saint greg’s beach house, i went out into the incredibly low tide bay where we found the most spa-like mud. the kind of middle of the night black mud that feels like wet silk. the kind of mud that is produced by millions of years of volcanic formation that appears only during low tides in shallow, get low get low get low get low, bays and the kind of mud that costs 200 dollars an hour to have rubbed on your body by a “technician” at a spa. both of these nights we rubbed the black mud all over our entire bodies then stayed out in the sunset and let the heat dry us into a crackle and then let the ocean wash us clean. it felt perfect. when perfect is accurate, you know? i had a dream on friday night where i had black mudded half of my body and left the other half my regular white color. in this dream someone took a picture of it and put it in a museum and the picture was titled “Ebonme and Ivorme.” robin and i tried out the picture setup yesterday afternoon. it was better in my dream.
in other news, robin and i took meta to the airport today and wished her a safe trip back to the united states. after ten wonderful days with us, we all are tired and happy and impressed by all we got to see. it was so lovely having meta here, and i was constantly grateful for her unnecessary, but much appreciated, generosity in funding many of our expeditions! we saw giant kauri trees and sat on wonderful beaches and had a “perfect day at sea” and ate chocolate and drank wine and snorkeled and went to sleep early and woke up early. my only regret (not at all regret. i say regret because i think i am supposed to.) was that i spent a solid ten of a 36 hour period reading a john grisham book. i couldn’t help myself! we are on a (year-long) vacation.
AND WE SAW AVATAR, AND IT IS FANTASTIC. i love aliens?! who am i now? the most stunned i have ever been after three hours of sitting in the dark. great, great, i always want to be surprised and pleased like that, great.
in a few days robin and i will leave auckland to meet up with malcolm and lindsay to hang out for a bit before all four of us start working on an apple orchard. i suspect malcolm will be making serious bank. i suspect i won’t. eh. i’ll learn. and then jacob comes to new zealand and then my family follows a few days behind and then, boom! - it’s the middle of march and we will have been here for six months. where does the time go? probably to starbucks for a non-fat latte and then to the gym and then gets home for dinner with its grandkids.
love,
maggie
Saturday, January 30, 2010
wow, so i have been a terrible blogpostcaid! so much has happened that it seems silly to go back a month and a half - to a whole different DECADE, so i will start from today. right now.
i am at gilly and greg's again (hooray!) after a wonderful whirlwind trip with katherine and jodi that took us all across and up and down the south island to christmas with carolyn's magnificent family to new year's with someone who speaks welsh (who speaks welsh?!) to beaches in a sandstorm to sunsets and moonrises to the north island to a 20 km day hike up and down a windy active volcano to laughter and finally to exhaustion. now meta is here visiting and she and robin have flown to the south island for the weekend as i house sit for gilly and greg and feed all of the animals (dogs, cats, piglets, baby cows, horses, chickens. the sheep fend for themselves).
life as a wwoofer is still amazing and is teaching me so much. i am humbled every day by how much there is to know. for some reason, i had been under the ghastly assumption that learning could only take place in buildings called "college." how mistaken i have been, as i have learned more in these past four months than i did in four years at university.
a few days ago i looked down at myself and couldn't help but laugh and be oh so grateful. i was holding a dying hedgehog (or at least we think he was dying) in my left hand, had an armload of squash and zucchini all the size of my calf in my right, had scrapes on my knee from going snorkeling the week before, and had scratches on my thighs from moving bales of hay before i learned to wear pants. life still feels so full and productive.
for lunch today i made a vegetable stir fry with green and purple broccoli, carrots, turnips, beets, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, and beans all from the garden i helped to build. it is so satisfying eating almost completely from nothing but your own sweat, sunshine, rain, and a little bit of time.
it is raining in auckland right now, and boy, do we need it. there are cracks in the dry ground that i can stick a pencil in. i had noticed this in ghana and again am reminded of it here, how rain takes on a different connotation to populations that grow their food for either their livelihood or hobby. rain isn't a dreadful waste of a day, but rather it is the life-giving force that all plants and animals need to thrive. ghanaians, although weary of their rainy season, taught me to be always grateful for rain and having a farm life in new zealand has reinforced that.
the other nice thing about the rain is that it makes such lovely music on top of gilly and greg's tin roof that it drowns out the unwelcome cacophony of the bellowing hungry calves and the two noisy roosters. AND it makes the lilies smell even better than they usually do, so much so that i can smell them all the way inside at the computer.
cheers, rain! drink up!
love,
maggie
i am at gilly and greg's again (hooray!) after a wonderful whirlwind trip with katherine and jodi that took us all across and up and down the south island to christmas with carolyn's magnificent family to new year's with someone who speaks welsh (who speaks welsh?!) to beaches in a sandstorm to sunsets and moonrises to the north island to a 20 km day hike up and down a windy active volcano to laughter and finally to exhaustion. now meta is here visiting and she and robin have flown to the south island for the weekend as i house sit for gilly and greg and feed all of the animals (dogs, cats, piglets, baby cows, horses, chickens. the sheep fend for themselves).
life as a wwoofer is still amazing and is teaching me so much. i am humbled every day by how much there is to know. for some reason, i had been under the ghastly assumption that learning could only take place in buildings called "college." how mistaken i have been, as i have learned more in these past four months than i did in four years at university.
a few days ago i looked down at myself and couldn't help but laugh and be oh so grateful. i was holding a dying hedgehog (or at least we think he was dying) in my left hand, had an armload of squash and zucchini all the size of my calf in my right, had scrapes on my knee from going snorkeling the week before, and had scratches on my thighs from moving bales of hay before i learned to wear pants. life still feels so full and productive.
for lunch today i made a vegetable stir fry with green and purple broccoli, carrots, turnips, beets, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, and beans all from the garden i helped to build. it is so satisfying eating almost completely from nothing but your own sweat, sunshine, rain, and a little bit of time.
it is raining in auckland right now, and boy, do we need it. there are cracks in the dry ground that i can stick a pencil in. i had noticed this in ghana and again am reminded of it here, how rain takes on a different connotation to populations that grow their food for either their livelihood or hobby. rain isn't a dreadful waste of a day, but rather it is the life-giving force that all plants and animals need to thrive. ghanaians, although weary of their rainy season, taught me to be always grateful for rain and having a farm life in new zealand has reinforced that.
the other nice thing about the rain is that it makes such lovely music on top of gilly and greg's tin roof that it drowns out the unwelcome cacophony of the bellowing hungry calves and the two noisy roosters. AND it makes the lilies smell even better than they usually do, so much so that i can smell them all the way inside at the computer.
cheers, rain! drink up!
love,
maggie
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