Fall 2016

Last weekend was an amazing weekend. Zach Morris, from my Guatemala trip, was in town for some job interviews, the weather was amazing, and it was a busy weekend. I played my annual game of horrible bowling with some minor improvements, just enough to break 100. After the annual Stomp and Chomp event in Cabbagetown and seeing friends in the neighborhood, the band had a house party Saturday night. It wasn't well attended but the bonfire outside was nice and it was good to play for a crowd again. 

Sunday we embarked on a Tiny Doors Atlanta hunt and a project I dreamed up a few weeks back. It took some time to convince Maya to bike pregnant but I think it was safe enough. We biked about 15 miles around Atlanta and visited about 10 of the doors where we made short video clips to someday show our newborn. It's easy to forget to record your life and to actually make and create sometimes but it's very satisfying. 

The pregnancy is going fine. I'm getting used to the idea of being a father and more excited everyday. Visiting some day cares recently made it very real. I've had my adventures going out and living my 20's and at this point this feels more like a good meaningful change. I don't know that I'll ever be more ready either than I am now. We have some ideas for names but tough to narrow it down to just 1-2. I'm not excited about the lack of sleep but having a baby will be life changing in good ways I think. Furthermore, something has to break with work and this will force me to live differently. I don't know that I can give up JV tennis coaching but I might have to at least next semester.

Despite being in my third year of teaching I'm still finding the workload super challenging to manage. I was so tired Wednesday after the election of trump and just stunned all day feeling pretty depressed. Amazing how I went from happy and awesome this weekend to this. It's pretty low. And it's also fall showcase time which is stressful and tiring as well. Seems like every morning these days I have to come in early and then stay late at night. Perhaps the annual "crawl" towards Thanksgiving is unavoidable if you want to be a good teacher that grades for accuracy (and not just completion), differentiates, calls home for failing students, and creates engaging/fun lesson plans.

The Strolling Bones November 5th, 2016

Tiny Door Hunt on a beautiful and unseasonably warm Saturday

Friend and colleague Mike Sopko dresses up for Halloween at Dunwoody

Hiking Mt. Yonah with Ethan, Charlie, and the dogs

The beautiful North Georgia mountains

Pregnant!

It's been a wild ride the last few months, or really continuously since the wedding. I remember getting a frantic skype call from Maya in New Zealand assuming I had done something wrong only to be told the great news: Maya was pregnant!

We are now about four months in and the anticipation is building. I cannot believe I am going to be a father. With Rosh Hashanah happening right now I've had some time to reflect on everything and the past year has been truly monumental. I am a nervous about fatherhood but excited at the same time. It feels so adult and weird. It feels like just yesterday I was finishing high school and embarking on my own journey to manhood and now it's almost time to help another being start on their own journey.

It's been exciting sharing the news with others and most people do not seem all that surprised. I mean, this is what you do I guess at 31 after getting married. We aren't getting any younger and I'd like to be around for more of my child's life.

Besides that big news, I've been traveling a bit lately with a trip to Asheville and camping with teacher friend's for my first ever teacher Fall Break. I also took off for the high holidays and had a 5 day weekend last week where Maya and I traveled to Savannah (see video below of hibachi grilling experience) to meet up with her parents who are considering retiring there. We saw Amos Lee which was fun, met up with some new friends, volunteered with Concrete Jungle, gone up to the North Georgia cabin (again with teacher friends), and met up with Maya's friends in Nashville.

The other big news and change in our lives has been welcoming Haig from Cameroon to our house. Haig is a newly arrived immigrant who is paraplegic and learning English, not an easy recipe for success finding work and moving to a new country. But he's a sweet guy and he seems pretty intelligent. It has been an adjustment though having some one full time in the guest room who needs our help getting around, eating, and surviving here.

The placeholder name is "Shmuel"

Savannah family dolphin hunting

Titus comes to visit ATL but no one is home

Looking after our friends' dog Luca 

VT friends visiting ATL!

Lake Hiawassee with the crew!

Vale and Tray's wedding

We've been enjoying our year's supply of Fair Trade chocolate courtesy of Theo and the World Fair Trade Day contest I won last May. Fantastic!

Haig might have to move to Canada if Donald Trump wins

Dragon Con '16

Dragon Con, according to its home page, is the "the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction & fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe." 70,000 people flock to Atlanta for this annual event that's been going on since 1987. In my three years of living in Atlanta I had been meaning to go but for whatever reason it hadn't worked out. One of the first people I knew in Atlanta, or even before I moved here, Holly Blaine from Sevananda Food Co-op, used to rave about it. She sadly died very young from breast cancer a few years ago.

So I biked my way over downtown this morning to see the famous parade that takes place alongside the convention and it was a pretty interesting site. Lots of people from the crowd also dress up and there's lot of fun, general weirdness and nerdiness. Actually, the best way I could describe the parade was "crowded and nerdy."

At one point, in trying to find some friends, I got stuck in a particularly bad area where too many people were trying to get through too tight a space and the result was ugly. For most of the one block passage I had people on all sides of me so uncomfortably close I couldn't move my arms or hands. I hate how some people react in this situation by pushing the person in front of them (as if that person wasn't also trying to move forward). For a claustrophobe it was a nightmare. I actually had to turn around and give up on trying to meet my friends it was so bad. One very busty girl in costume with green hair was cupping her mouth as she tried to prevent herself from vomiting on every one. Another large heavy set black woman kept yelling frantically: "I need to get to work. I work over there, just right there," as she pointed down the block. One woman with her baby crying said needed everyone to let her pass, but it wasn't a matter of permission, it was just an impossibility. Another woman started flailing her arms wildly as she lost it and spurted out: "everybody has to keep moving." But that was the problem, most people in the passage were trying to move, they just couldn't. I don't think it was the onlooker phenomenon but rather just the sheer numbers packed into such small, normally fairly open, downtown streets. In these situations I guess the bad side of humanity can rear it's ugly head.

I eventually found a parking garage with better overhead views and much more space to breath. I snapped a few photos from there.

Silver Bikers coming through

Hilary and Bill Lizard Clintons holding sign "Make America reptilian again" 

The Crowd begins to disperse 

Final WWOOFING and NZ thoughts

My trip to New Zealand was unique and the WWOOFing experience was valuable. WWOOFing makes you appreciate your regular job if your normal work doesn’t involve exceedingly hard labor. I enjoyed the cultural exchange of meeting Kiwi families and would recommend it to others. “This is our WWOOFer” they would each tell their friends and communities when they introduced us (as if that was the first thing about my identity). On the other hand, I don’t know that I’ll do it again in the future without having more of a specific idea of the type of work I wanted to gain experience in. For instance, although it wasn’t really my experience, a lot of hosts give pretty crappy repetitive jobs to WWOOFers and some even exploit the labor (see this recent article in the Christchurch Press on the topic).

One hostel offered me the chance to WWOOF in exchange for accommodation and I thought that was kind a stretch from the farm volunteering. Then again I worked construction so it’s unclear where the lined should be drawn for volunteer vs. free labor and what’s fair. The other thing I don’t like about WWOOFing is that it can establish a relationship that may be overly defined by the fundamental exchange of labor and food/accommodation. In some cases, especially I’m guessing for younger travelers on a budget, this makes sense. While some hosts may be friendlier and more welcoming, both parties know in the back of their minds why you’re there and it may prevent more of an authentic exchange from happening. But if you didn’t WWOOF, study abroad, work, write, or have some other real reason to be in New Zealand (or already know a Kiwi person) then you wouldn’t have much of an authentic reason to get any closer to the culture anyways.

Towards the end of my stay in Hokatika I saw the famous pancake rocks of Punkaiki on a marvelously bad weather day. I say marvelously because this is the best time to visit the rocks as the huge swells made the blow wholes (actually as far as I could tell it was really “a” blow hole) blow which was really cool to watch and hear. I also some glow worms, these little worms that light up at night like green little stars to attract their pray. I also had the chance to ride the Tranz Alpine train from Greymouth to Christchurch. The 4.5 hour ride cuts through the Southern Alps at Arthur’s Pass and is stunning. I wish that trains, like nice trains, were a more common feature in the U.S.

I spent two days in Christchurch looking at the earthquake torn city and reunited with my old Rwanda flat-mate Johanna. We had a great time together that went by way too fast and it was time to head back to the U.S. and very very soon new school year.

I knew New Zealand had crazy landscapes and would be amazing place to visit. However, there were other things I hadn’t known. Some of my biggest surprises about New Zealand for me were:

·      How sparse the population is: The South Island has less than a million people on it. I remember considering driving from Queenstown to Takaka in the North for a potential WWOOF farm and seeing the expected drive time to be over 12 hours!

·      Over 30% of New Zealand lives in Auckland. Everybody loves complaining about Auckland, the traffic, the housing crisis, the pricing, the South Pacific immigration crisis, etc. I’d be interested in actually exploring Auckland, as well as the North Island, next time.

·      It’s interesting how island nations can develop so differently because of their often unique climates and isolated geography. New Zealand has no squirrels, snakes, and many other common animals we know. This just seems weird to me and makes me wonder how life evolves. It also doesn’t really have dangerous animals when it’s nearby next door neighbor Australia has some of the most dangerous in the world. It also has a crazy pre-historic history of incredibly large flightless birds like the Moa (Man I would have liked to have seen one of those.

o   Also, Kiwis believe that it is a civic duty to kill the invasive rabbits or possums with any chance they get (especially using a car). Similarly, a nice small yellow looking flower that’s actually a terribly invasive weed called gorse from Scotland, is invading the country.

·      They don’t pay capital gains taxes. This is part of what’s driving the housing speculation and apparent bubble. Everybody knows it’s logical, but no politician has the balls to be the first to enact it.

·      How much people here pay attention to U.S. politics. This was less of a surprise than a reminder about how U.S. is “big brother” and whatever we are doing the whole world is always paying attention to. And I don’t mean watching like they know about Trump or Hilary, but they understand and pay attention to the details such as why Hilary should have picked Warren as her V.P.

Goals

When I first arrived in New Zealand I thought about some goals for this trip. Looking back:

·      Learn something with my hands I can take back to Atlanta -> I’d give myself a C on this one. Don’t really have something specific I can point to on this front but generally feel more willing to tinker and try doing things myself. One thing I did like about WWOOFing is that you can just dive right in from the moment you arrive somewhere and that is a good attitude to have about my own work and projects around the house. Just start.

·      Better understand Kiwi people -> Probably an A for how much you can learn in just 3 weeks about a people. The culture is similar and different to American and other Western cultures. The Maori history and culture is super important and I didn’t really get to learn as much about them as I would have liked.

·      Appreciate nature and see stuff I’ve never seen before -> A- With more time exploring the Sounds (Doubtful and Milford) and/or going to the North Island and seeing Taupo and the Tongiroro Crossing I’d probably get an A. But still, as I’ve commented on quite a bit, I feel like I did pretty well here.

Having satisfied my adventure itch for now I feel pretty good about returning to the States and the daily grind. School does start next Monday though, ahhhhhHH!

Panakaiki Blow Wholes

Lyttleton, a cool neighborhood in Christchurch where Johanna and I hiked

Christchurch has lots of container stores!

Reuniting with Johanna!

This seemed racist. One WWOOFer I met from Chili was looking for a job there

Leaving Franz Josef on a rainy day failing at hitchhiking

Mount Cook in the distance, on the way to Franz Josef

Working in Hokitika on the construction site

Enormous swells at Hokitika Beach

Od Fashioned Drying Method

At Derick and Diana's Christian Home

NZ Coastal Road

Construction Site - just starting with Peter, one of two son's of WWOOF Hosts

Tranz Alpine, stopping at Arthur's Pass 

Passing through the Southern Alps on the Tranz Alpine Train

Going to the other side of the Southern Alps on the train

Hiking, Life style farms, and Christianity in Hokitika

New Zealand is a hiker’s wet dream. I’ve been remarkably impressed with the infrastructure and sheer number of trails. I don’t think the North Island could be this crazy (nor does it have the reputation that the South does) but it seems like every town I stop in has an information center with no less than 20 legitimate day hikes within a short driving and sometimes even walking distance. Not having a car has prevented me from exploring to the degree I would have liked but I still got my fair share of natural wonder in here.

After spending less than one day in Wanaka I met yet another 19-year-old German traveling New Zealand for the year. Max was mature for his age and we quickly hit it off. See previous post’s photos on this story. He convinced me to do an epic overnight winter hike to Mount Brewster as he had some camping gear and all I needed was some gators to protect against the snow and a warm sleeping bag. I cancelled a very short-term WWOOF to do this but it was definitely worth it. Seeing the mountains all around the silent and beautiful hut where we stayed was amazing. Even at midnight the full moon gave the dreamy snow-capped peaks visibility.

After a quick one-day wood chopping WWOOF experience in Hari Hari, I moved on to Hokitika, a town whose name I could hardly pronounce but was the site of my next WWOOF farm. Despite this place actually having a small life-style farm, my work consisted of construction tasks on the nearby campground that one of the two sons of the family was building. It kind of brought me back to my months in Canada just after graduating from Macalester where I worked in Northern Ontario for Project Beaver. The work was hard but interesting and I loved driving the tractor and using the fork to move palettes around.

I think because farming has played such an integral part of New Zealand’s history a lot of family’s today dream of having farms. Land is becoming increasingly expensive and the work is hard, which causes many families to quit shortly after they start. I think real farmer’s also can find it annoying, but in Hokitika, the two brothers and their own large families along with the grandparents make it work. Everybody has day jobs but contribute together to run the farm. They have a number of pigs, cows, and chickens and their biggest concern is being able to eat their own meat.

Derick and Diana are devout Christians in a country where religion does not play a strong role. They prayed before every meal, brought me to church, and asked me lots of questions about Judaism. The more churches I visit in different countries the more similarities I notice. It’s not a type of “tourism” I think I’ll want to do more of. It’s not that the experience was bad, it just seems shallow and less interesting than Judaism and I don’t often hear a lot of insightful analysis on Biblical stories. Instead, I just hear praise for Jesus over and over and about how he died for our sins and how no matter how I live my life or how good I am I have no chance at redemption unless I except Jesus into my life. Why would I accept Jesus if I don’t even really believe in the story of Moses and the rest of it?  

I spent 5 days in Hokitika and enjoyed my experience working in construction. The family was interesting and different. They were one of the only families I observed in New Zealand that doesn’t seem to watch as much T.V. as Americans do. They made their own bread, used raw milk, made their own cheese, dried clothing on an old fashioned NZ rack (see photo below), ate their own meat, made their own dishwashing detergent, and bought most everything in bulk. Like other houses I’ve stayed in NZ they also heated their house 100% with the coal burning fireplace. This is to say, despite the moderately temperature climate of NZ, it’s very cold in the South Island winter in the mornings and at nights. I’ve gotten way too used to central air.