Not in the USA

I am not sure what I should talk about this week.  I could tell you about the weather but it has not been very exciting.  There has been a couple of nice mornings when I have opened my window but after about an hour or two it starts to get windy so I close it.  The weather mostly is sunny in the mornings and then grey and windy in the afternoons. Nothing too exciting in the weather.   I could tell you more about my lectures but like the weather they are not too exciting.  Last week I went to my lectures and labs and did finished up my geol report and started working on my psyc lab report.  Other than that lectures have been the same.  Nothing too exciting during lecture.  This weekend was a nice and laid-back sort of weekend.  I spent most of my weekend working on readings for my psyc paper.  On Saturday there was another All Blacks game so I went to one of my friends flats and watched it there.  Nothing too exciting happened this weekend.  As you can see my week has not been very exciting.  I am not complaining about this because it is nice to have a slow week once in a while but it does make it hard to write a blog about the week.  I have decided instead of telling you about my unexciting week I am going to play a little game.  My mum taught me this game when I was younger and we went to the UK.  The way the game works is you are to name as many differences between where you currently are to where you came from so when I was in the UK we would play “How can you tell we are not in CA (or not in the USA).”  I am now going to play the game for you but now I am in NZ so I will be playing “How can I tell I am not in the USA (or Maine or CA) but instead in NZ.”

1)      They drive on the not right side of the road-I am still trying to get use to this when I cross the street.   I have decided that the best way to cross a street is to look both ways when crossing each lane so it does not matter which sided the cars are coming from I will see them.  This also means that they go the other way around roundabouts

2)      The steering wheel is on the right side of the car-I have messed this up many time when getting in the car coming back from soccer. When walking I have also thought that kids were driving the car.

3)      The drinking age is 18-This has not had that much of an effect on me but it is fun that if I go to a bar/pub with some friends I get carded and they still allow me in. 

4)       Life moves on even if there is a small earthquake -Back home when ever there was an earthquake (they were always small) everyone would be very excited about it but here earthquakes are old news and as long as the building is still standing there is nothing to worry about.

5)       The night sky -I am still very excited whenever I see the Southern Cross.

6)      They use “ey” at the end of sentences to ask a question. - I am still trying to learn how to use “ey” properly

7)      There is also other vocab differences such as “sweet as” which means sounds good or cool beans.  They have jandles and togs not flip flops and swim suits.  They “touch wood” not “knock on wood.

8)      They have the awesome sport of rugby that all sports people follow.

9)      They are really creative in their team names.  All Blacks = rugby Tall Blacks = basketball Silver Ferns = net ball Football Ferns = women’s soccer All Whites = men’s soccer, Black Caps = cricket

At least they have names for their teams unlike in the states they are all just Team USA
10)       There are more sheep and cows then people
11)       You cannot use the ocean as a way to tell east and west because it is such a small island when you ask where the ocean is they say all around -This confuses me but not as much as it does going from west coast to east coast

This is just start of a long list there is but I should probably get back to getting work done.  I may add to the list here or in future blog posts if I think of more good things.  I may also play the game “How can I tell I am at Bates but instead am at UC”.  Hopefully this week there will be more exciting adventures that I will tell you about in the next blog post.  Until next time have fun and smile :)

P.S. Since there were no pictures this week here is a picture I took during break.