Books are heavy!

So, I see that Janwyn turned her book post into an advert for Orson Scott Card! =). I'm sure no one is interested in what I thought to pick up...

As some of you know, I've been slogging (the only way to describe it) through Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand for too long now. So, in order to encourage me to finish it before we leave, I bought Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, who also authored Into the Wild. I liked Into the Wild so I thought that this would give me enough incentive.

I also picked up Undaunted Courage by Strephen Ambrose about Lewis and Clark. Ambrose might be best known for writing Band of Brothers regarding E Company, 506 Regiment in WWII. For those who haven't seen the HBO mini-series, put it on your NetFlix queue! It's a must!

But first, I have to finish 100 pages of Rand. Remember, Who is John Galt and A is A!

the girl effect

Please take a moment to view this video. It reminds me of the work portrayed in the book, Three Cups of Tea. Greg Mortenson works to improve the lives of girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which in turn improve their communities.

The Nike Foundation is also on a mission to create opportunities for girls, and thus the world.

Reading Material for the trip

This weekend Cor and I decided to take a trip to Powell's Bookstore to find some good reads to keep us entertained during our "OE", as Cor calls it. Altogether we ended up buying 7 books, which we'll add to our already growing pile destined for NZ. Maybe we'll have to a designate a whole bag for books?

Anyways, part of my repertoire of books is Shadow of the Hegemon, the second novel in the Ender's Shadow series. It's been a long time since I've read Orson Scott Card, but I'm excited to learn what happens next in the world of Bean.

For those of you who don't know, I was introduced to Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card by my 6th grade teacher, Mr. Fickes. It is a science fiction story about an extraordinary child, Ender Wiggin, who is sent to Battle School to become the greatest commander of the International Fleet. The IF is preparing for another invasion from the Buggers, an insectoid alien race.....Yeah, I know what you're all thinking....it's the same thing Corey thought when I bought Shadow of the Hegemon yesterday. What? You read sci-fi?

Well, I read Orson Scott Card and that's about where it ends! Just thought I'd let you all know how excited I was get back into the series...some of you who will read this remember listening to Mr. Fickes reading Ender's Game....and some of you have even named your cat after one of the book's characters! (Dink Meeker)

If you have any other suggestions on books, feel free to recommend!

A Kiwi Address? Weird!

So, one of the requirements for working in New Zealand is setting up an address. Through a firm in London, we were able to do that this week. Not only does this give us the ability to set up banking, but our friends and family can keep in touch via post while we're there. Our Kiwi address will be:

Corey Klein
#5154
Nomads Fat Camel Travel Desk
38 Fort Street
Auckland City
New Zealand

This is set to start on 5 November 2008. Right now, I'm trying to confirm that Janwyn is on the address list as well, but it appears that the Kiwi's have a lax schedule in replying to e-mails. I'll update as I find out more info.

Planning progress thus far...

...So where were we? Oh yeah, planning for New Zealand. Well, the biggest change thus far was selling our condo. We were fortunate considering the market, as it sold in 6 weeks. However, we do miss our "nob hill" neighborhood.

That set us up for renting for a bit. In that we were lucky as well, finding a rental agency that would rent month-to-month. We were even able to find a place in a trendy neighborhood, two blocks North of Hawthorne, Portland's answer to Haight-Ashbury. (Yeah, I'm not digging the "vibe" here to say the least.) But parking is easier!

We've also had to update our passports, which were due to expire in 2009 (NZ requires passports to be valid 6 months past your expected departure date). Additionally, we had to have our passports updated in order to apply for a Working Holiday Visa. Having the Visa gives us two key advantages: the ability to stay up to one year and the ability to work legally. One significant hurdle is you can only apply if you're 30 years or younger. (I [Corey] turn 31 in September!) Fortunately we've received word that we've both been approved.

We also joined WWOOF, a fantastic organization which allows you to trade daily work for room and food. Their focus is on Organic and Sustainable farming and gardening practices, so we're looking forward to adding to our skill level.

And then there is that other detail, we went ahead and bought our tickets this week. We're on Air New Zealand again. They had fantastic service the first time and will be direct on our return to SFO. It's nice to have that detail out of the way.

So what's next for us? We'll we have a laundy list of things to work through. Including:

• Selling quite a few items we don't need to store (anyone want an awesome Kenwood stereo?)
• Set up a New Zealand Bank account (Bank of New Zealand being the top candidate)
• Find a place to store my car
• Arrange Medical Insurance
• Arrange for phones while in NZ
• Register so we can vote prior to our departure.

And that's all before we consider packing! Should be exciting!

What's in a name? or How I learned to stop worrying and love the blog

"Post and Bugle"? Who came up with this crazy idea?

...well that was some of both of us. We had the concept of a blog for a while now, but it had to have a name. JT was pretty ecstatic that the blog should be more encompassing than just our Kiwi trip, so no "Southern Hemisphere Blog" would do.

I thought that as this would be somewhat of a newspaper-style posting, why not go with a newspaper-sounding name? Together we thought that "Post and Bugle", kinda typical of how amalgamated newspapers retained their former names (think St. Paul Pioneer-Press and Dispatch), had a good quality ring to it. Almost Mullet-style (you know, business in the front, party in the back). But now I'm getting a bit far fetched.

Now we just needed a family identifier. After considering every permutation on Toy-Klein there is (Kloy, Tlein, Lenoykit anyone? We thought, "Lefties, we're both lefties, that's specialized and unique enough!" Hence our new blog.

(And yes ladies, before he was the best Batman ever, Mr. Bale was a "Newsie".)

Whoo hoo...we bought tickets!

Last night Corey found a great deal on tickets to New Zealand. He agreed to stop checking flight prices if we bought our tickets last night...we'll see if he can resist! =)

Well, it feels good to have purchased the tickets...now we have a target date for leaving. Backing up from that date, we'll be able to figure out when we need to start driving down to CA and when our last days at work will be. And it gives us a timeframe so we can plan on things happening after we get back. YAY! It feels good to have some structure to the trip, even if we end up changing it later.

Another one of my accomplishments this weekend was getting 3 posters on the wall to track all the details of our preparation and the things we look forward to doing while in NZ. So much to think about! But it's coming together and we are very excited.

Hot off the Presses! ... Welcome to The Lefties' Post and Bugle!

Hola all, welcome to Janwyn and Corey's fantastic blogging endeavor!

We've been ruminating for a bit how to best keep in contact as we embark on our OE (Overseas Experience) and dreamed up the concept of this blog. Currently, we give thanks to the Alameda Brewhouse for hosting us while we get things set up.

Well, more planning news to come shortly, peppered along with Kiwi-educational tidbits. Hopefully this should prove to be a great tool used by all.