Week 4 in Christchurch

Hello dear ones,

I'm back with my new update from Christchurch. Although not much has happened in the past few days, there is still a little bit to tell.

After my last blog entry, I just went to work. Wednesday is karaoke night at the bar and I have to say, it wasn't as terrible as I feared. Some people can sing really well, others just have a lot of fun singing and entertaining the crowd. The atmosphere was great.

Thursday (April 20th) I didn't do much during the day, but in the afternoon I went to a lookout point to take some photos of the sunset. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery after a few photos because it had been almost two months here in New Zealand. :D But it was still worth it because I could still watch the sunset and took some beautiful photos.

Friday and Saturday I was working in the bar again. One day there was a concert and the other day a home game of the local rugby team, so it was really busy for us. But it was fun and I'm getting better at understanding people. After work on Saturday, we also had pizza, which I thought was cool.

Sunday (April 23rd) I took advantage of the good weather and went hiking again. This time I tackled the Bridle Path. This path was regularly walked by the first settlers and leads from Lyttleton to Christchurch. In 1850, this path was the main connection between the two cities. The path itself is not very spectacular, but there are still some monuments, mainly benches, that you can look at and the view over the two cities is beautiful. When you reach the summit of the path, you can walk down to Lyttelton on the other side, but instead I chose to continue walking along the Crater Rim Walkways up to the Gondola where my mom and I were before. I also saw a flock of sheep running across the path, unfortunately, I can't upload videos here, but if you want to see it, just let me know and I'll send it to you. In total, I walked 6km and climbed almost 500 meters in altitude, and it took me about two hours. It makes me very proud, but also made me sweat a lot. In the evening when I got home, my roommate cooked a casserole to prove that you can cook something delicious for $5 per person. He's right. Later in the evening, I skyped with my family because my cousin had her First Holy Communion and I wanted to be there at least half-way.

Yesterday, Monday (April 24th), I looked into what else I can do here besides going hiking and what trips I can still do from here. Unfortunately, I also realized that I'm too late for many activities as they no longer take place. Quite annoying, but I'm sure New Zealand still has a lot to offer, and if all else fails, I can always come back here next season and do these activities before going back to Germany. In the evening, I went to the bar with my roommate again and we played cards and drank beer. It got exciting when a bleeding man ran in, apparently he was stabbed in the hand with a knife at the Domino's next door. But the police and ambulance arrived very quickly and then everything continued as before. Honestly, the bar was even more crowded after this incident. I don't know if that speaks well for humanity, but oh well.

So here we are on today's day, ANZAC Day. A holiday to commemorate the Second World War. Apparently, there were parades in the morning, but unfortunately I overslept. Otherwise, I don't have anything exciting planned for today. Since many people have the day off and the sun is shining, I'm afraid the hiking trails will be quite crowded. So today I will clean my car and later, when the stores reopen, maybe do a little shopping.

Other than that, I'm just waiting for the temp agency to get back to me and tell me when I can work this week, hopefully, and I'll be working in the bar again on the weekend. Nothing else is planned so far.

See you soon, your Jessi