Hello, my lovely readers 🙂  Well, day #2 is drawing to a close here in Auckland.  Today was fairly relaxed.  I slept for almost 12 hours last night after having been up for basically 24 hours in a row.  I slept for about 4 hours on the flight over but didn’t nap once we arrived.  I wanted to kick jet-lag’s butt, and I think I’ve done a pretty good job.  I was a little groggy today, but remedied that by moving around and keeping busy.  I didn’t have time to be tired!

Today was spent in various pursuits.  In the morning, I spoke with the nurse recruiter that I’d signed on with prior to our move.  Turns out that since I had a created an employment alert profile with one of the District Health Boards prior to signing on with their company, she couldn’t present my application to any of the area hospitals.  That really stunk.  Still, she’s been a great source of advice and has been more than willing to share her contacts with me.  I called 2 area hospitals, one of which had already emailed me and informed me that they “were very keen” on seeing my resume.  We’ll see what happens.

I’m having to remind myself that God is in control and that if I don’t have a job offer in the near future, that it’s OK.  I have a tendency to freak out over stuff like that, and it’s a huge temptation for me to start thinking of all of the things that are related to my finding a job {choosing an apartment location, whether or not we need to purchase a car, changes in spending styles, etc.}.  It’s my belief that I need to do everything that I can to ensure success – work hard, pursue my options, make sure that I’m dedicated and not being lazy – but that up to a certain point, things are not in my control.  I can have the best resume, make phone calls, contact potential employers, be charming and witty and promote myself as a great nurse, but the decision to hire me isn’t mine to make.  After that, it’s in God’s hands.  Knowing that helps me relax and let go of some of the stress that I would just love to hold onto.

After leaving messages at both hospitals, I decided to stay around our rooms in case they called.  Chris went out to lunch with a colleague and invited me along, but I decided to stay here and do some research.  I’m looking at various cell phone plans and home phone/TV/internet packages.  We aren’t big TV watchers and actually didn’t have any channels when we were in South Bend, but we did use Netflix.  There is a similar company here in NZ called Fatso {don’t ask me why it’s called that} but the options aren’t as good as what Netflix offered.  Still, I want to be informed and know what’s out there.  I’m having a hard time keeping it all straight in my head and am sorely tempted to create an Excel Spreadsheet to compare and contrast.  I love Excel Spreadsheets!

This should be my coffee mug!

We also took a drive out to the LynnMall shopping center, located in the New Lynn suburb of Auckland.  It was about a 15 – 20 minute drive from our hotel and was fairly easy to find.  It was fun to see the differences between an American mall and a New Zealand mall.  The biggest difference that I noticed was the overall size of the center.  There were a lot of stores, but each one had less variety than what I am used to.  I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, though.  I think that I’ll just have to figure out what stores I like and learn the New Zealand brands.  It really was like a treasure hunt.  I made Chris walk all around with me, going in a lot of the stores, even if they didn’t seem interesting.  I want to see what’s out there and what the prices are like.

Grocery shopping has been exciting, too, but I’ll admit that sometimes it gives me a headache.  I’m having to learn the NZ food brands.  I can’t find my Tostito’s Baked tortilla chips, but I’m looking forward to trying the Kiwi offerings 🙂  We’ve kept things fairly simple food-wise: soups, a veggie pizza, yummy stir fry, sandwiches…  Really, if you’re not a brand snob or too picky about what you eat, it seems like there’s something to satisfy every palate.

I’m also excited to meet up with some of the NZ friends that I’ve made through the internet.  We’re going to dinner with Travis and Brooke on Friday evening.  I “met” Travis and Brooke through a friend of mine, who knew them from school.  Travis and Brooke are doing a church-plant in Auckland and have been here for about 3 years.  They’re both Americans and have been really sweet to invite us to their home.  We’re looking forward to forming some friendships and being a part of a community here in our new country.

Alright, my bloggy-friends.  It’s time for me to sign off.  Chris and I have some oh-so-glamorous plans to watch a movie on my laptop and drift off to sleep.  I hope that you all have a fabulous day, and I’ll see you later!