Ok, end of the suspense. I have my hair. All of my hair. I don't have $1000. After so much anxst, so many polls, so much consideration, we never heard back from the people doing the project and our plans mean that we can't be in Dunedin on the dates when it happens. I suppose it wasn't meant to be. I appreciate the encouragement, though. I really like to think that I would have done it, had the opportunity arisen in the end. I felt silly about all of my dramatic deliberation because I had conversations about it with multiple female friends of mine, only to find out later that they had already done it and it was no big deal. Heidi failed to mention it completely in our whole convo and then emailed me later with a picture of her bald head. It was so not a big deal that she didn't even need to mention it. Jessie, a friend from UNC who is also in NZ, received an email with a link to the ad and then I saw her the other day and was surprsied to see her short hair. She jumped the gun and shaved it off 6 months ago because she was in Singapore and it was hot. These women are perfectly capable of maintaining perfect cool about it, whereas I fear that I would use mine as a badge of cool for the rest of my life. They are truly the cool ones.

Maggie and I finally have a winter plan! We can't promise that it will stick, since our plans rarely do, but it is our "plan." We leave Queenstown tomorrow and go to Dunedin to spend a night with a friend. Then we head back up to the ferry and jump over to Wellington. We've now said bye to the North Island 3 times, but for some reason it is always a lie. We received an awesome offer from Caroline, Eva, and Eva's cousin Laura to come live in Laura's house for free until the end of June while Laura is out of town. It is a great house, in a cool neighborhood and we like Wellington and will seek out jobs for that time. We have to work, and we figure we've got the best chance of getting jobs in a bigger city. Plus, living with Caroline and Eva is just about the most fun I can think of, so that works out pretty well. THEN on the last day of June (maybe) we head to Nelson for our final weeks at Carolyn's. We aren't AT ALL ready to let go of that place yet. So we will work there as well and leave in mid-August in time to sell our car and visit Gilly and Greg again. Dad is coming for all of July, so that will let me have the flexibility to travel a bit with him. Carolyn said that we can work as cleaners and cooks at the house where the lumberjacks of their logging business live during the work week. I don't know why people give us such incredible offers, but we keep accepting them and it has yet to be a mistake.

Queenstown has been a lovely place to spend two weeks. We only had to work a week of our two here, but we got to remain at our hostel for free. Our boss even gave us tickets to the movies, which is a big time treat for us right now. Being in Queenstown is a lot like being back in college. A lot of young, social people working and playing and drinking a lot. It's strange to fall into this world after so many months in a totally different life. I've gotten so accustomed to rural life that I surprise myself with my reclusive tendencies now. I think I'm not so good at being a socialite anymore. I can see it changing if I stayed longer, but I'm happy with the idea of spending winter with the people and places I've come to love most in this country.

I gotta go find a job.