You've got Mail

Yesterday, our first piece of mail came to us all the way from New Zealand! It was paper work from the University of Auckland regarding Mark's scholarship - of which I am VERY proud! It's a little blurry as I was so excited taking the photo -but you can clearly see it is from the University of Auckland!!!

This inspired us to FINALLY go out, buy some lamb, learn how to cook it, and most importantly - TASTE IT! Lamb in New Zealand is like chicken in Canada - it's what everyone eats a few times a week, the "go-to" meat, the chicken of the pasture if you will.

Mark and I decided to try ground lamb on recommendation as it was closer in texture to ground beef - a meat that Mark and I already consume. I decided to make lamb burgers with our ground lamb as again, it would be very similar  to foods we already eat so presentation would not bias our taste.

I mixed up the lamb just like ground beef - similar spices (garlic, onion, pepper), bread crumbs, egg  - and made it into patties which I then fried. They don't look too much different from your plain old Canadian burgers (see photo below). Their taste is another thing, even with the garlic and onion you knew you were not eating pork, beef or chicken but not in a bad way. We both decided we liked the lamb, and are excited to taste New Zealand lamb this fall.

Our next challenge will be roasting rack of lamb or shoulder of lamb.

Our lamb burgers before they met our buns and condiments 

Paperwork Central

The last two weeks have been spent getting all of my paperwork together for my New Zealand Qualifications Assessment. This is "Step 1" in obtaining a teaching license. It is the step where they verify that I have enough schooling, credit hours, experience and such to qualify for their New Zealand Teaching License. They have 40 days from receiving all of the paper work to let me know if I qualify to apply for a teaching license. Once the results are in, I can start to apply for the teaching license. I am currently trying my hardest not to look at the tracking number from Canada Post every day, especially with the Easter holidays, as there are some days it does not move very far.

We have also started the big purge. We currently have plans to take with us 4 suitcases (the maximum two people flying that far can take), and send 4 Rubbermaid bins down ahead of us. It will be very strategic as we need to take everything we will need/want with us in a very small amount of space.

There are somethings that are easier to leave behind than others. We are unable to take any appliances as their voltage is different. Even with converters we would fry anything except cameras/laptops, which are built to withstand international voltages. I am going to miss my slow cooker - a lot. For those of you who know how busy I really am, it has been a blessing. I am also going to miss other comforts like my Tassimo machine....especially since they JUST brought the really good lattes to Canada.  I know that Mark is going to miss all the plants/gardening and aquariums as we find our plants and animals new homes.

Furniture has been sold/in the process of being sold or it has been marked to give back to the original owners. All of our clothing has been sorted into sell/donate and keep piles, but even that may need a second sorting. Our decorative items are slowly being given away to family and friends, while others are being donated. It is really humbling to look at what you REALLY need to live, what you want to live comfortably, and what you want to live extravagantly.

So far, our list of stuff to take consists of very practical things/irreplaceable things:
*clothing/outerwear
*towels
*basic pots/pans/dishes/cooking utensils
*one set of bedsheets/pillows
*a few nostalgic items such as our painting of the place we met/our framed wedding invitation/photos of friends/family and if we can squeeze them in a few places I would like to take a few decorative items to make our new house, OUR house.
*our most favourite board game: Settlers of Catan
*Mark's dive gear
*camera/laptop

(Are we missing anything?)

It has been a battle between cost of shipping/cost of replacement when we arrive in NZ. Some things are worth shipping as their cost quickly outweighs that of the shipping, while others are better to be replaced in NZ.

I am sure that between now and our departure our list will grow and grow and then in July as we are packing, it will shrink quite small as we really pick out those things that we are able to take.

Mary-Ellen and Mark