Outaskool!!!

Today I begin my first day of work at Outaskool, an afterschool childcare center that allows kids to play like normal kids instead of just cooping them up with lots of rules and strict regiments. I am very excited, but it is only an afternoon job. The hours are 2-6ish and will thus leave my mornings free to do other work. I met with the head coach at Jelli Park today and they said that they were very excited to have me working with them. I will probably be doing some work in the mornings on mondays and tuesdays with them, sometimes on weekends and then wed, thurs, fri going to Lincoln to work with Ruth and her husband on her farm and teaching aqua aerobics. I think that all of this piecing together of jobs will work fine for now, but once this term is over, if I'm still in Christchurch, I think I will probably try to minimize myself to one job...it will probably end up being work at Jellie park since I could easily obtain 40 hours there, but who knows. Maybe llama training will suit me better and become the next big thing in my life. :-)

I am very excited about the people I am working with on three accounts. The Outaskool couple seems very much like myself...wanting to work so they can play. That is why they developed the center. The people at Jellie Park seem amazing, they are lighthearted, funny, and totally not by the book which a lot of other swim centers have been like around here. The best part about working with Jellie park aside from the experience and the fantastic people, is the free gym membership that I will be getting with it. I can swim anywhere in the city council district with my employee pass. And once I work with Jellie Park they will pay for any certifications i need to obtain...so for future jobs I will be able to get my certs for free. Donna and Peter (the heads of JP) seem to be fully aware that I need a gig like that to help pay for stuff and they are happy to work around any sort of regulations to help me out. Woohoo! And then there is Ruth and her family who are amazing and remind me a lot of my own family as well as Rueckerts and Murphys from back at Hamilton. Which makes me miss all of them so very much.

I am trying to figure out what to do as of this coming spring. I know that I could potentially be here for a year, and if everything went perfectly as planned I probably will be, but there is also the possibility of continuing school and needing money to do so. If I am not making enough money here, coming home to work at the park is always the best option, but that would mean cutting my time here short. I know I have quite a lot of time to decide, but just throwing that out there for now...I think that whole "comfort zone" thing is a big problem for me, but at the same time, haven't I already really removed myself from my comfort zone in coming out there? I certainly think that I have. Who knows...like I said, lots of time to think

Well, this blog is getting entirely too predictable as it is filled with personal revelations, emotional interjections, and the like. I think I need to find some more humor and entertainment in my life again. Once I do, I promise these posts will be more amusing and worth reading. :-P I know that people can only take so much serious reflection. If there is one thing I am learning here, it is that we are on this earth once and we should enjoy every moment we have. That is the kiwi way of life and I think it's a damn good way to be living if I do say so myself.

-NMK