Maggie and I have finally accomplished daily earnings of minimum wage! Hooray! This is a huge accomplishment, considering the fact that it means we each pick 3,000 pounds of apples each day. Surely we have super strength by now. Unfortunately everyone we are with shares this strength, so we haven't gotten to test ours quite yet.

One of my favorite things about our current living situation is our 3 neighbors, Eddie from Korea, Isaac from China, and Kota from Japan. We call them the "crazians" and hope that they have an equally inappropriate, friendly name for us. Their English is great, though part of the fun is how many pieces of our conversation are lost in translation's great abyss. For example, this is a snippet from a conversation Kota and I had this morning (with a brief cameo by Malcolm):

R: Kota, when we are in Auckland together, are you going to hang out with me and Maggie?
K: (furrowed brow) Hang out? I do not know this hang out?
R: You don't know 'hang out'? Like, you know...hang out.....um....
Malcolm: Like chillax!
K: (blankness, clearly. starts typing it into his little electronic translator.) H-A-N-G....
......to leave? leave with?
R: No! Hang out. Like to do something with. Like if I sit on this bench with you now, I'm hanging out with you. Or if we go out to dinner we are hanging out. Just being with people. So are you going to?
K: Hang out? I don't know...

See? It doesn't always work, but most of the time it's great. And I'm sure he'll hang out with us in the end. Yesterday we came home from work and they had "decorated" their "house" with a bunch of paua shells and chalk and a sign that said "Welcome Home." It was a great surprise to come home to. AND! Eddie taught us how to make Korean pancakes, which we first loved in Auckland, so we are pleased to hold the secrets.

Happy birthday today to Malcolm - we gotta go try to figure out how to get a slip-n-slide on the beach. And happy almost coming here to the Lentz fam! We can't WAIT!!!!!!

love.