Scion, we hardly knew ye

Hey, a post without an exclamation in the title! Well, that didn’t last long. Beware the evil power of the exclamation point; it’s stronger than you think. It already has called Becky over to the Dark Side (see all our previous post titles). I’m trying to stay out of its clutches, but it’s tough. Wish me luck.

Anyway, so in actual news we sold the Scion today. The buyer was a guy named Nate from Yardley, which might as well be in Jersey since it’s on the other side of Philly, and so we met in the middle. And I’m not just using that as a metaphor for a successful transaction. We met at a notary near King of Prussia to do the exchange, and it went off without a hitch. Actually, that’s not completely true since I forgot to bring a screwdriver, and we had to first drive to a Rite-Aid to buy a new screwdriver to remove my old license plate. So that would probably have to count as a partial hitch. But other than that, I can’t complain.

In a strange twist, the notary we used is located only about a mile from where I used to work as a Co-op student at GlaxoSmithKline in Oaks in 2001-2. One of my main jobs there was keeping up-to-date on all the urology drugs in development by other companies. If it sounds glamorous, that’s because it is. Seems like forever ago now, but being in the old neighborhood and commute brought me back to old times pretty quickly. But as they say, you can’t go back, and I saw that our old office is now a vacant medical office building. Whoa whoa, snap out of it man! OK OK I’m back. Nostalgia mode: off.

Back to the car transaction, I really have to say hats off to Craigslist, you’ve come through again. At this point, Becky and I are pretty impressed by the site, as we’ve sold a lot of stuff at good prices on Craigslist in the past year. I can’t say we had too much stuff in our apartment in Burlington, but what we had, we sold, and what we sold was probably sold on Craigslist. The remaining stuff was either thrown out (sorry Brita filter), or sold to extremely hard-bargaining Asian women at a yard sale by Becky.

I was a bit surprised to get more and better responses to my car ad on Craigslist than I did in a paid posting on AutoTrader. I would have thought that a car-specific site would get more interested traffic than Craigslist, but Craigslist must really have a good-sized audience. Either that, or we’ve been extremely fortunate to find the one interested buyer for our cars and for our furniture that we sold earlier. Which, though remote, is also a possibility. I know there are a lot of scams and junk being put on Craigslist, but in our experience, you can definitely find good buyers on there.

In the end, selling the car was a bittersweet experience. I know that I had to sell the car, and that it should come as a relief to be able to get it sold at a good price before I left and not have it hanging over my head, but I’ll miss the Scion. The toaster, box, Xbox, or whatever you want to call it was a really good car. Unique look, good gas mileage, excellent amount of space, relatively cheap price, I hate to sound like a commercial but it’s a pretty good deal.

Nate, hope you enjoy the car as much as we did. You can stop pretending that gas mileage was the reason you wanted to buy the Scion, and admit that you bought the car because you like the styling. And not that you would, but don’t let anyone give you crap about having a unique car, or as I call it for Becky’s benefit every time we see another Scion xB on the road, a sweet ride. Happy trails in the Scion, man.

Lastly, it’s occurring to me quickly that selling your car is a big step, and doing so is helping me to believe that we’re actually going to New Zealand. I guess I haven’t mentioned it earlier, but it seems like we’ve been waiting to go to NZ for so long that it’s somewhat difficult to believe that we’re actually leaving for there in 5 days. It’s a strange feeling, like I’m in some sort of denial that we’re getting to do this. Add that to not having a car for the first time in 5 years and it all seems pretty surreal, but in a good way. I guess we’re sailing in uncharted but interesting waters right about now. Happy New Year’s everyone.

Unemployed Hobos

I worked my last shift at the Batdorf Restaurant on Wednesday night, so my days as a near catastrophe waitress have come to an end - or at least until we need to find paid employment in New Zealand (finally, I have a marketable skill set! No thanks to you, sociology degree...). Oddly, my "near catastrophes" always occurred when waiting on family members. My mother had the pleasure of being doused in house dressing (yum... red zinfandel vinaigrette), and poor Tommy took a plate to the head (in my defense, he leaned right into it). Other than the guy with the shellfish allergy to whom I served lobster bisque, my overall record was pretty clean.

I shall now join the ranks of Andrew and the rest of the unemployed hobos. Of course, with only 9 days left before NZ Day, I'm sure we will have plenty of last minute details to take care of to keep us busy.

(Seriously) The Final Countdown!

We have less than two weeks to go before what we have affectionately named "NZ Day". Our plane leaves Newark (or "Nork" if you're in the know) on January 5th, which should provide a memorable last glimpse of the east coast (ahh, the smokestacks).

In true countdown fashion, we will start to commemorate the important moments leading up to our imminent departure. So...

On the 14th day before NZ Day, Becky sold her car! She looks pretty from a distance but was a mess upclose. Black ice on a Vermont highway will have that effect. Still, the Saturn and I traveled many miles together, and, although I often spoke ill of her, I suppose that she will be missed.

Congrats!

A belated congratulations to our friends Andy and Krista who were married on December 8th. The ceremony at the Eden Resort in Lancaster was beautiful, and we were very happy to be part of their special day. To Andy and Krista, hopefully you two will be able to justify Andy's purchases going forward, and marital bliss will ensue.

Unfortunately, I (Becky) have a severe inability to remember to take pictures at events. ["Actually, I'd attribute it more to laziness." -Andrew] Hopefully, I'll get over it when we're in New Zealand (no one likes a text-heavy blog...). Since I failed to take a single picture of the bride and groom, you will have to settle for a self-portrait of me and Andrew. Congrats again, Andy and Krista!

Bula Coup D’Etat!

Since I last wrote part of this blog, Fiji, has been subject to a military coup. Military leader Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama deposed the country’s Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase, in a bloodless coup on Dec. 4 after threatening to overthrow the government at an earlier deadline. (For a more definitive account, check out Wikipedia.)

At first, when I heard about the coup, I was pretty nervous. I mean, who wants to hear that a country that you’re about to visit is undergoing its fouth military coup in the past twenty years? Not me. Visions of landing on the Fijian tarmac and being abruptly swept away to a sweaty tropical jail (without mai tais!) started dancing through my head. But a quick check of Fiji’s history showed that most of the coups were largely non-violent, and that this one looked to be no exception.

So we’re still planning on traveling to Fiji on our way to Auckland. Little seems to have happened in the past week in Fiji since the coup, and, as I mentioned, it’s looking like the non-violent form of overthrow that has happened before in Fiji. While Australia and New Zealand recommend their citizens not visit Fiji now, it doesn’t look like tourists are in any danger there, and there have been no news reports stating such. The U.S. State Department hasn’t issued a travel advisory for US citizens either. Unless the return of the Prime Minister to the capital Suva brings major violence in the interim, I believe I’ll feel okay about traveling to Fiji. (We weren’t planning on going near Suva anyway, so yay for that.)

Still, any coup is bound to frighten off some tourism, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend that anyone plan a trip there now while there’s a fair bit of political uncertainty. For one thing, coups aren’t a behavior you’re supposed to encourage, so it just seems irresponsible to reward relatively bad behavior from a country with your hard-earned vacation dollar. After all, there’s a lot of paradises out there, many with more stable governance. But since our tickets/rooms are already booked there, I’m thinking it’s still alright for us to go.

However, this is all subject to further developments, so I’ll refrain from getting overconfident that this will go off without a hitch. Still, it never hurts to be optimistic. To be continued…

(Not quite) The Final Countdown!

A simple check of the calendar shows 37 days between now and when our plucky adventurers Andrew and Becky begin their week-long trek to New Zealand. Only 37 days until NZ day - it's hard to believe. It seems far away now but is likely to pass with lightening speed. So many questions will be answered in the next month: What will Andrew get for Christmas? Will Andrew sell his car ? (And if not, how does his dad feel about buying it from him, selling it at some near point in the future, and splitting some of the profit?) Will the current political situation in Fiji result in a full military coup before our visit? How bad will our ulcers be that result from the previously mentioned military coup? Is there a Guinness record for eating potato filling on consecutive days for which Andrew is eligible? I'm exhausted just thinking about these exciting possibilities!

As far as our trip goes (Kassy, hopefully you recognized that as a transition), it doesn't actually take a week to get from PA to NZ these days; we just thought we'd stretch out the trip and stop a couple of places along the way. When we started looking at booking the trip to NZ, the cheapest flights have you making stops in California and Fiji, so we decided to stop for a few days at each place. By taking extra time, we actually saved a couple hundred bucks per ticket, which should pay for our expenses at each stop.

First, we're headed for Los Angeles, La-la Land, home of the Clippers and the Chipper. Josh, if you're reading this, I know no one in LA calls you that. Unfortunately, college nicknames last a lifetime; condolences bud! Anyway, Becky's never been to LA, so we thought it'd be a good chance for her to get her picture at the Peach Pit and try to see some kids from the Real World at the bars in Hollywood. Also, there will be stops at In-N-Out Burger.

After a couple days in LA, off to sunny Fiji ... I've already mentioned the impending political chaos in Fiji. For more info, ask your buddy Google. For now, Becky and I will be thinking happy thoughts, especially about Fijian military chief Commodore Bainimarama. If you're reading this, we'd ask that you mentally send him your thoughts of "Don't overthrow the government." Power of positive thinking, people! Actually, we probably shouldn't take any stand in this argument, as who knows what will happen, and I have a suspicion that we'd make terrible political prisoners. Officially, we only support whoever lets us on and off the island peacefully, especially if poi is involved. My other goals are to try some Fiji Bitter and perhaps score a t-shirt, and to take pictures so that I can add Fiji to my Flickr map. After a couple days in hopefully sunny (and peaceful) Fiji, we're off to New Zealand. But I don't want to ruin all of the surprises already, so I'll save that for later, toodles!

Howdy!

Welcome to our (Andrew & Becky's) travel log. Dear Reader, you probably know at least one of us already, although I (Andrew) have to say that I hope some of you reading this don't actually know us personally. Don't take that as a slight - not knowing us probably means that you aren't related to us, which, as far as the readership of our blog goes, is a positive thing. Our families just aren't that big thus limiting the number of our potential readers.

I'm currently working under the assumption, however, that we're getting lots of web traffic from our families. If that is not the case, our chance of becoming the next Internet sensation (like the dancing hamsters) aren't looking good. Family and friends, I hope this isn't too much pressure, but I have to put this on your shoulders. Those hamsters are hilarious! It's a tough act to compete with... so spread the word about Green with NZ to boost our readership and watch that site meter grow!

All of which is to say "thanks" for clicking on the link that we sent you (or for stumbling here through the Internet some other way). Now, since you're apparently so easily influenced (*ahem* you are reading this post...), we suggest you visit often, spread the good word about us, and leave comments letting us know you're jealous (I recommend 'You suck'). Are you wondering why we thought it was a bright idea to quit our jobs and live like wandering hobos? Ask! Like the local newscasters say, "the answer may surprise you."*

And why should you do any of the things on that aforementioned list, dear Hypothetical Reader? I'll tell you why. In coming months, we promise to regale you with interesting stories, display pictures of our adventures in the South Seas (as soon as I learn rudimentary HTML), teach you the secrets of Driving On The Left Side Of The Road, and enlighten you on New Zealand trivia (Fact: Sheep from New Zealand can speak and can be occasionally heard to say "Four legs good, two legs baaaad"). Now I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty good to me - and it's free!

And I guarantee that we won't stop posting sometime in the middle of our journey just because we've lost interest. I don't even have to worry about that because you've already promised to leave comments, which are the blog equivalent of Ms. Pac-Man pellets. Regarding other short-lived interests I may have had, I have used the Spell of Silence on Becky, and she has no comment.

All joking and ironic posturing aside (which for me is a pretty big aside), hopefully you dig our site. If you like it, leave comments, and if not, please send the email to Becky.

* Actually, it probably won't.

Kia ora!

Welcome to the inaugural post of "Green with NZ" - a blog whose singular purpose is to inspire jealousy in our family, friends, and former co-workers as Andrew and I shirk the adult responsibility of the "real world" to become wayward wanderers of the southern hemisphere. Not seriously - but we do intend to keep you well informed of all the fabulous details of our globe-trotting experiences.

Christened "unemployed hobos" by my nine-year-old niece, Andrew and I intend to shed new light on the hobo experience of two twenty-something college educated individuals. Hobophobes, please consider - we didn't choose this lifestyle, we believe that it chose us.

Many people have asked what inspired the idea of going to New Zealand. In fact, the answer is quite simple - a desk job. While many people occupy their abundant freetime at work with personal email, spider solitaire, or Internet shopping, Andrew and I both filled the hours of downtime with reading Internet news sites. A personal favorite were the travel logs frequently featured by Slate Magazine. One such "Well-Traveled" article was Girls Go Wild, Adventures in New Zealand. The title is admittedly lame, but the content was very interesting. This paragraph in particular piqued our curiousity:

New Zealand is just too small and far away for a radical to bother with. It's such a pain to get to, in fact, that 10 years ago, when I lived and worked in Auckland for six months, there were no apparent restrictions on immigration. To get a job, all I needed was a bank account, and to get a bank account, all I needed was a passport. Apparently, there's more paperwork now, but still, in 2006, I had the feeling I was in a refuge.

We thought, "Really? Is it that easy for a foreigner to live and work in New Zealand? Huh..." And after about ten minutes of online research, we confirmed that, yes, it really is that easy. There really isn't even that much additional paperwork.

Fun fact: New Zealand's per capita ice cream consumption is second only to the U.S. Having recently lived in the state of Vermont (Ben & Jerry's, anyone? Phish Food... yum...), we feel as if this should contribute to a smooth transition overseas.