A Peek at Palmy

Palmerston North has been a wonderful place to live so far.  There are many locations we have yet to explore just in Palmy (let alone New Zealand as a whole), but I think we've been here long enough for me to be qualified to write a few thoughts and impressions about our New Zealand hometown.  I've tried to take photos when I've been out and about over the past few weeks...wouldn't be surprised if someone has said, "There's that crazy lady in the red van taking pictures again!"  Perhaps they might also classify me as the crazy lady who talks to herself (I have to practice my kiwi accent somewhere, and repeating what the radio hosts say is the perfect opportunity!).

First of all, one thing we weren't expecting when we moved here is the reaction we've gotten from Palmy residents, who seem astonished that we would choose Palmerston North, of all places, when deciding where to live in New Zealand.  We feel like we have to defend Palmy, to people from Palmy!  It's been funny.  I truly think some people have the impression that everyone in America lives in a big, glamorous city, because several people have said things like "This is probably so much smaller than what you are used to" when in actuality, Palmerston North is a much larger city than where we've lived for the past several years.  At a population of about 85,000, it's much bigger than Kaysville (26,000) and much MUCH bigger than Mountain Green (3,500).  This IS a big city to us, and we love it!

I took this photo of the city from a hillside across the river:

It's important to note that when you are a foreign doctor looking for a job in New Zealand, there are rarely jobs available in the more highly "desirable" places like Christchurch or Auckland or Queenstown or Nelson or the Bay of Islands (all places that we hope to visit and report on, by the way).  The native-trained physicians naturally gobble up those jobs.  We have heard of ex-pats who relocate to New Zealand and work in all places, but they usually don't go through a staffing agency like we did, and they often commit to staying for many years (or forever).  Foreign doctors looking for a shorter-term commitment usually fill the positions in the less-well-known areas of the country.  As I have stated before, nearly every area we've seen in New Zealand so far seems like it would be a nice place to live!  I guess if this is what you know and are used to, it may seem like a puzzling choice, but based on our experiences and our frame of reference, Palmy is wonderful.

One thing we love about Palmy is that it is very nicely laid out.  Once you get a feel for the main roads in town, it's quite simple to navigate and get around.  We live in a quiet neighborhood not far from city center, but far enough that it's very peaceful with little traffic.  These are shots from my neighborhood, just after sunrise.

Living close to the river pathway has been such a blast so far.  We think it's beautiful, and it's the winter season, so we can't wait to spend more time exploring the local pathways and parks when the weather gets warmer and the days get longer.  The parks we've seen here in Palmy are green and lush and very well-groomed, some with awesome playgrounds for the kids.  I think I'm going to have to do a separate post on the parks entirely, and maybe I'll wait a few weeks to get more spring blossoms in the pictures.

Just outside of town, on the hillside, is the most extensive wind farm we have ever seen.  It's fascinating to watch (we can see a section of it from our home).  We plan to check out the turbines up close sometime soon.  Here's the view of the wind farm from our driveway...

...and from across the street....

...and one more image I found online.  Pretty neat, huh?

Here's our chapel.  It's about a ten minute drive from home.  I love this place so much already, mostly because of the people we've met inside.  Much more on that in an upcoming post as well.  :)

This is a roundabout near us.  We love roundabouts!  They are all over town, and we so prefer them over street lights.

Check out those beautiful flowers, in winter!

There are all sorts of lovely flowering trees, all over town. 

 A sampling of some of the cafes and take-aways near our home...

Steve took me to the Elm Cafe for my birthday.  It was charming and quaint, and the food was delicious!  Looking forward to going back.

Another interesting thing that is different from the States is that nearly everything closes very early, all days of the week.  While most retail establishments in the U.S. stay open until at least 9 or 10 (some even 24 hours), we have found that the whole town essentially closes up shop by 5:30 or 6pm.  The grocery stores stay open later, and some restaurants, but that's about all we've seen.  We have gone to the movies a few times, and the latest showing (even on weekends) is 8:30pm.  It was strange on one of our first nights here to run out at 6:15 to the Plaza (a very nice mall on the square) and find it closed!

In contrast, we've driven by parks at all hours of the day and night and seen people playing rugby.  Oh my, rugby is almost a RELIGION here.  It's such a cool sport, and we love watching it being played!

Sorry that that last one is a little blurry... I started to feel a little pervy taking pics of boys from my car, so I tried to snap it quick. :)  I'll probably embarrass my girls for saying this, but they shamelessly shout out "RUGBY!!" and cheer anytime we see a match being played.  They have a crush on the whole idea of the sport.  We are all freaking out about going to see the All Blacks play in person in a few weeks!!!

The day after I arrived in NZ (the second time), I took a nap with the twins and Steve took the rest of the kids to the Rugby Museum in town.  They all loved it, and I'm looking forward to seeing it, too.

Although our rental home was furnished upon our arrival, we've still had to buy several things to get settled.  There are no Walmarts or Targets or Costcos here, but we've spent a lot of time (and money) at the Warehouse.

There are three major grocery store chains in town.  The nicest (and most expensive) is New World.  I would compare it to Harmons or Ukrops.  It is clean and well-stocked, and there are hardly any lines to wait in.  

We have shopped a lot at Pak 'n Save.  It is huge, crowded, and not as esthetically pleasing, but the prices are definitely lower.

My favorite grocery store is Countdown.  It's sort of in between the other two...not too glam, but not warehouse-y either.  I've been able to find most things I've needed here without much trouble and at a decent price.

These are a few examples of words that are spelled differently than we are used to --

I remember seeing a jewelry store in Utah once that had used this spelling, and sort of felt sorry for them that they had gotten it so wrong.  :)

One of our favorite areas of town is the Square.  It isn't enormous or anything, but it's just a nice, serene spot amidst the busy-ness of the city around it.  On the evening that little Prince George was born in England, all the lights in the clock tower and on the square were lit up in blue.  Here are a few photos from the web, and a few of my own.

Adjacent to the Square is a cute street called Broadway, with shops and restaurants.  There is also a beautiful theater which puts on very high quality productions.  We'll have to catch a show sometime!  Our favorite Thai restaurant (so far) is a few doors down from the theater.  The movie theater (no photo) is across the road.  It's been interesting to see how some movies are released much later here than in the States.  We saw "Now You See Me" last weekend, on opening day...pretty sure that one was released in Utah before we moved to New Zealand.

I mentioned listening to the radio earlier...that has been something I look forward to during my daily routine.  I usually don't have it going during our busiest times, but once the kids are off to school I really enjoy the music and commentary, because it soothes me if I'm feeling a little homesick.  Nearly every song on the radio is one I know and can sing along to, and often times the subjects talked about amongst the hosts are American-related.  Yesterday the hosts were discussing the judges on American Idol, and today the trivia question had to do with American politics.  Take away the accents, and it's almost like I'm listening from my car in Utah!  I love it.

We decided not to get TV hooked up here...we brought our Apple TV with some of our movies and TV shows, and we rent things to watch from time to time.  I had looked forward to watching some of my favorite programs online, but most of the major network websites have a message that comes up saying that we aren't allowed to watch because we are outside of the US.  That's a little frustrating.  Any ideas on how to get around that? 

I hope you've enjoyed this little glimpse into our life here in Palmy.  We love our New Zealand hometown, and haven't regretted for a minute our decision to live here.  Palmerston North is a perfect fit for our family!

Back to School! (with guest posts by the kids)

The first week of school is in the books!  Whew.  Of all the changes we stood to face upon moving to New Zealand, I probably worried the most about the school situation.  I'm happy and relieved that we are underway, and so glad to report that the kids are feeling positive and even excited about the upcoming year!  Here's a pic from the first day, after arriving home from school (the smiles are mostly genuine). :)

I thought I'd have the kids write their own thoughts about their school experience.  It's been fun for me to read what they've written!  Maybe I'll have them post again at the end of the year.

Emily:

Hi!  I go to school now!  My friend is Danielle.  I see the rabbits.  I like school.  I like bananas.

Cameron:

Hi!  Thanks for reading this.  Before I started school, I was nervous and scared that it would be really different, because when we walked up to school, there were chickens running around freely.  There are also cages with bunny rabbits.  I was so happy when I found out that I didn't have to wear a uniform.  It was kind of confusing at first being new, but aren't all first days of school confusing?  I quickly made friends and so far everything is going fine (but I do hear at least 5 or more swears a day).  Mostly the "s" word and sometimes OMG.  I didn't hear many swears at my last school.  Something that is different is that some of the kids in my class take off their shoes and socks in the morning and don't wear them all day.  My friend, Adrian, asked me to call him but he said "ring" me, which I think is funny.  I'm glad to be making friends.  People usually ask me things like "What do you call this in America?" Sometimes it's the same thing and sometimes it's different.  I don't have to do as much homework and it is due every 4 weeks.  In my Utah school I had to read 30 minutes a day but here I only have to read 10 to 15 minutes 3 times a week.  I like to read so I read a lot more than that.  We are about to start a new week of school, and I don't want to wake up early again.  I wish our house had central heating because it gets pretty cold in the night.  It's hard to get out of bed but we have a fireplace so I like to lay by the fire.  I love it here but I do miss Utah.  Here I don't have any real Lego's so I play a computer game called Minecraft which is like computer Lego's.  Can't wait to see everyone back at home. 

* Note from Mom:  Interestingly, none of our older kids have ever gone to school with Emily.  She's always gone to different schools for their Functional Skills programs.  Emily is in pure heaven with Cam at her same school.  The whole school has recess/tea time and lunch together, so she races to play with Cameron.  He patiently plays with her, for all or most of the recess time.  He helps her peel her bananas, and makes sure her face is wiped after lunch ... he's truly his sister's keeper, and we appreciate his genuine love and concern for Emily.  She is in a regular classroom with a part-time aide.  We are meeting with the school this week to assess how things are going.  So far so good!

Julia:

Hi everyone!  Thanks for reading my mom's blog!  My mom has asked me to talk about school here.  Before school started, I honestly wasn't very excited.  I had asked my parents multiple times to homeschool me, and groaned every time the subject of school was mentioned.  I didn't want to wear a uniform, and I just didn't want to go.  My first two days didn't go very well, but the rest of the days went a lot better.  I've actually grown to like the uniforms :) There are a lot of big differences here...like spelling.  A lot of the words are spelled differently here.  Such as: Center is spelled Centre, and Neighborhood is spelled Neighbourhood.  They also have a thing here called morning tea, or tea time.  It's pretty much like snack time and recess together.  I think I like the school system better here because everything is more relaxed.  I often get the question "Do you see famous people a lot?" and when I tell people I like their accent, "(gasp) We have an accent?" Also, "Is it true that Americans eat cookie dough RAW?"  They were surprised to hear that Americans watch Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit.  They say, "It's filmed in NZ so I thought only we watched it." Hehe, yup.  We watch it, too.  I do wish I didn't hear as many swear words, though.  In my old school, I probably heard the F word once or twice in the whole year.  Here though, I hear it several times a day.  In shop, we are making little wooden gumball or "lolly" machines, which I think is pretty cool.  I ride my bike to school some days, and my required biking gear is complete with a helmet and a BRIGHT yellow neon vest.  Not too fun, especially with a knee-length skirt.  We aren't allowed to wear any makeup and we have to wear our hair in a ponytail (unless you have really short hair).  The boys aren't allowed to use any hair styling products.  Overall, I'm liking school and am very grateful for this amazing experience. See ya soon!

* Note from Mom:  Prayers are answered, that's all I can say.  We were SO worried about Julia...she's always been an excellent student, has made friends easily, and has really enjoyed school, so it broke our hearts to see her so distressed about going to school here in NZ.  The fact that we are only one week in and she's saying that she really likes school is truly an answer to our prayers.  Hooray for Julia!

Rachel:

Hey homies. ;)  To begin, NZ's ice cream is the best ice cream I've ever had.  Even the cheapo brands are deliciously creamy and I think I'm in love.  The Cadbury milk chocolate is amazing, too.  My mom just told me that they actually sell Cadbury in the States, we've just never bought it.  My reaction: "What???"  My school uniforms are pretty cool, and it's really nice not having to worry about deciding what to wear, especially since I don't have a ton of time in the mornings.  Early morning seminary is from 6:20-7:40ish (that's including travel time), so it takes up a chunk of time.  It's been great though, and I'm so glad that I get to experience a different seminary setting.  In Utah, it was just one of my class periods during the day, and there were like 25 kids in each class.  Here, there's 5 boys and 2 girls; but I don't feel the Spirit any less than I did in Utah seminary.  My new teacher, Sister Foua, is amazing; she has such a strong spirit and testimony and is a great example to me already, even though I've only been to a few classes.  I really like the ward, too.  They've been super welcoming.  When it came to school, I never really wanted to think about what it would be like too much because I knew I would over-think it and get nervous.  But, everyone has been really friendly so far and are really interested about what life is like in America.  People will ask me, "Do you guys have lockers?  And a cafeteria with tables?  And bells that go off when class ends?"  Yes, we have those; but some people have watched a little too much High School Musical...  They'll ask, "Do people really dance and sing on tables?  And do they ever throw papers in the air when school is out for summer?"  Haha!  It makes me laugh, because there's no lockers or cafeteria tables or bells here.  I've been asked about Mormonism, too.  When I say I'm from Utah, a couple people have automatically associated that with Mormons.  I love answering questions about what I know and what our church does.  It's good practice for my mission and makes me really excited.  Some of the subjects are different, especially math (they call it "maths" here).  They use the metric system, which I'm less familiar with, so it's confusing and I'm pretty far behind.  The rest of my subjects aren't too hard though, because the education system is really relaxed.  Electronics (phones and computers) are openly allowed; in Utah, if a teacher saw you with an electronic, it would be confiscated and taken to the office to be picked up by your parents.  In P.E., we're not allowed to wear shoes, so everyone is barefoot.  Something that's totally different from schools in Utah is the language; it's been the hardest thing to get used to.  At lunch and Interval (morning tea), students can go anywhere they want, which is so weird because in Utah, the hallways are blocked off with cones and the doors are locked.  Also, there's only a couple of indoor halls (they're called corridors here, like at Hogwarts), and most of the school other than classrooms is just courtyards, which I like.  It's nice to get out and walk around between classes instead of being cooped inside all day.  They have the coolest accents here, and people are fascinated with "American accents".  I guess Americans have accents?... Anyway, I've really enjoyed New Zealand so far, and I'm excited to see what the rest of this year has to offer! 

* Note from Mom:  Rachel spent a few hours testing on the first day, so the counselor would know where to place her academically.  I got a call from the teacher who was performing the testing and she sounded so excited..."I have been administering this test for years, and Rachel is the very first student who has ever gotten 100% (50/50) on the spelling portion!"  When we picked Rachel up from school that day, I congratulated her, and she rolled her eyes and said, "Mom, she had to take me all over the school and tell anyone who would listen that I had gotten a perfect score on the spelling test!  It was embarrassing."  We ran into the same teacher at the store a few nights ago, and she went on and on about it again.  Funny.  Rachel is starting to train with the school soccer team today, so hopefully that will be a good experience, too!

Not to be left out, Luke and Landon walk around all day saying, "I go school?  Please?"  I might have to find a kindergarten ("kindy"), or preschool, to enroll them in for a few hours a week.  I've enjoyed more mommy time with my little buddies.

I found it interesting that the three older kids mentioned the bad language.  I know that the kids have noticed some swearing in their other schools, but it's something that has stood out to them more here.  Rachel said it's more than just swearing, but the type of language that is different, especially from the girls her age (she is getting some education of a different sort).  I am grateful that they are making new friends despite the language issue, and they have met several kids who use mostly clean language, so I'm relieved.  Julia said that she cringed with every swear word the first few days, but now she is getting used to it and learning to tune it out.

The uniforms were an issue for like... a day.  The girls have grown to really like them, especially the convenience of not having to worry about what to wear.  Each uniform (including new shoes and gym clothes) cost us $300.  I'm glad they like the uniforms, because at that price, they're probably going to be wearing THE SAME uniform every day for the entire year. :)     

The hardest adjustment for me, by far, has been the busier schedule.  Starting the school routine after a long break is always a bit shocking to the system, but I'm realizing that I was very, very spoiled last year!  Rachel, Julia and Cameron all walked the short distance to school (Rachel had seminary during school hours), and Emily's bus picked her up and dropped her off at the end of our driveway... (sigh).  It's a good thing I love Big Red so much, because we are spending an awful lot of time together these days.  There aren't staggered start and end times here like in Utah, so all the kids in the whole city (all ages) start school at around 8:45 a.m. and end at 3:00 p.m.  It makes for very heavy traffic and lots of time in the car!

I have seen only a very limited number of buses (not traditional American-style school buses, but they look like city buses with a "school" label during school times).  I'm not sure, but my guess it that the buses transport some kids who go to school out of "zone"?  My kids all go to schools within zone (geographic areas), so I don't think they are eligible to ride the bus.  I need to look into it.  I honestly love seeing so many kids walking and riding bikes, most of them in uniform, but it does add to the stress of the traffic situation with kids and bikes and cars in all directions!

The elementary (primary) school is fairly close, but a little too far for Emily to walk with just Cameron.  He likes to ride his bike, but I still have to drive or walk with Emily.  Rachel and Julia's schools are both pretty far away, and in opposite directions...Julia is feeling more comfortable riding her bike, but Rachel's school is the farthest and is accessed via busier streets (besides, she doesn't have a bike yet). 

Including the early-morning seminary travel, I've spent nearly two hours in the van every day over the past week, just taxiing kids to and from school... and that doesn't include any errands I may have to run during the day!  I'm still testing out new avenues, trying to figure out the best routes to all the schools, with the least traffic.  I frightened my poor kids this morning by cutting it too close while crossing a busy road (after waiting nearly 5 minutes for an opening).  Uggh!  No fun.  I'm expecting the kids to be cheerful and adaptable about our new situation, and I need to follow my own advice by figuring out ways to make the school-time commute less hectic.  On the days that Steve is home in the morning, we plan to split up the taxi duties (only one car so one of us will walk/bike), which will be a refreshing break.  

All things considered... the transition to school has gone more smoothly than expected.  We are thankful, as always, for our good kids who are resilient and brave.  They are great examples to us, and we feel like pretty lucky parents.