And the hunt begins...

Before I tell you more about our time in New Zealand, I’d like to tell everyone about a news story last week. On the day Amy and I left Auckland, a man was fatally stabbed to death on the street. This occurred about an hour after we left our hotel, less than 2 blocks from where we were staying. The man was leaving his office building when he saw a woman getting attacked. She called for his help – she did not know him and he did not know her. He rushed to her assistance and started to chase the attacker. The attacker turned around and stabbed the man before fleeing. The man, fatally wounded, was able to dial 11, the first two digits of the emergency number 111, before collapsing on the street. Some construction workers saw him collapse, and were able to call 111 and spot the man fleeing and eventually identify him for police. There were several days worth of stories about this man, this “good samaritan” who by intervening saved this woman’s life. The woman spent a few days in the hospital; however the man who saved her died on the street before ambulances arrived. The reason I wanted to share this story with everyone is not because it shows how dangerous New Zealand is as it really isn’t dangerous at all, but because it shows how selfless most New Zealanders are. Had this happened in the United States would someone had jumped in as quickly, and stopped the woman from being assaulted? Here in New Zealand the FIRST person who was asked for help responded. The FIRST person who saw the man collapse responded. And the FIRST person who saw another man fleeing responded. This story in the news touched me. It shows what we all should do but rarely do. The man died saving others, and left behind his wife and three children. Was that his intent? No. His intent was to do what was right no matter what the cost may be for him. To that, I tip my hat to you and all those like you in world.

Now, as for our adventures in Wellington...
Monday we sent out our resumes. I applied for approx. 20 IT jobs, and got a lot of responses. Amy applied for a few random jobs – a wine shop, a bar, a sandwich shop, etc, and got a few responses. Tuesday I had to go into town to have an interview with a recruitment agency called Kelly Services. Kelly Services is the agency I’ve been working with for a few weeks now, they just wanted to meet me in person and discuss the job market, etc. So I went in and was told that they didn’t have jack and blah blah blah blah. There’s an election here in 6 weeks, and nobody knows who is going to get elected. If it’s this one dude then everyone in the government loses their jobs, and if it’s the other then they hire 300,000 more people. So the current state of the job market is: “Wait 6 weeks and see what happens.” Yuck. Between that and Wall Street’s shortcomings, nobody wants to hire anyone permanently.
But wait... I’m not looking for a permanent job, I’m looking for a CONTRACT job. *evil laughter* Since nobody wants to hire people only to then fire them if things turn really bad, they’re looking to contract people! Woo-hoo! Wednesday I had two more interviews at recruitment agencies (Candle ICT and IDPE IT Recruitment Specialists). The first one, Candle ICT, went phenomenally well. The guy loved me. I was workin my Zach-Magic again, and he was eating it out of my palm. He’s going to shortlist me for a job as a Systems Analyst (what I want to do) that he has to turn in today. I should get a call from them today or tomorrow to schedule an interview with the company. The second agency wasn’t taking too well to the Zach-Magic-spoon-feeding that we’re all so keen to. They outnumbered me two to one, so I was caught off-guard and couldn’t understand his accent too well. They were going to pass my resume on to a company that had already interviewed a few people, so hopefully they haven’t found anyone worthwhile yet and call me for an interview.
Amy called a French restaurant and spoke with the owner about getting a job as a hostess. She had a quick interview there yesterday (in French apparently) and is going to have a trail-by-french-fire night there this evening to see if she fits. She followed that interview up with one at a wine shop, where she was pretty much given the job (she has to have a “trial” night to see if she likes it and then the job is hers). After that interview she had yet another one, this time at a sandwich shop. She has a trial morning there on Friday. She’s excited about the wine shop and the restaurant, but they’re both full time and both evenings (4/5 – 11pm) and she doesn’t want to work opposite shifts from me. The sandwich place she’s not too excited about, but it pays 50 cents more an hour than the wine shop, and the hours are from 5-11am. She’s going to try them out and see what she likes over the next few days.
We’re going to head into town today to use some internet. I have to check my email and see if anyone got back to me about any other jobs. I also have to check the sony style store’s website, as yesterday they told me they’d be advertising a position on there. It may not be a job in IT, but it’s a job that includes a Sony discount and who doesn’t love that?
We’ll try and get more pics up of Wellington soon. Hope everyone is doing well.

Happy (late) Birthday Grandma Pancaro! I miss you guys!



P.S. - Here's a link to a news artcile about the man who was stabbed. They have since arrested the attacker and found the knife used. LINK