You know what the funniest thing about the English language is? It's the little differences. I mean they got the same words over here that they got there, it's just here it's a little different.
Examples:
-Say you break your arm. You go to hospital. Not "a" hospital or "the" hospital, just hospital.
-Curious about what's going on in sport? Read the Sport page. I'm curious about was happened to that last 's.' ***We'll have a whole entry on the world of sport soon***
-For a country with the letter 'Z' in its very name, they never ever use it--other than in said name that is. Authorise, customise, prioritise, criticise, organisation, etc.--you get the idea. I guess that's what they did with all those S's they took from the end of sports. Also, they don't even have tow away "zones" around town. They have tow away "areas." I'm telling you, it's all a big conspiracy against the letter Z.
-Don't cry over spilt milk. Yeah, I spelt that right!
Here's to celebrating the little differences!
Cheers!
Oh, and in case you were wondering, even though NZ has the metric system, at McDonald's the "Quarter-pounder with cheese" is still the "Quarter-pounder with cheese."
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Scattershooting
Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Blackie Sherrod. Here are a few random observances, occurances, and thoughts.
-I saw a Dodge Ram pickup truck today. There's nothing inherently strange about a Dodge Ram I'll grant you, except it's the first (and only) pickup truck I've seen since I've been here.
-Instead of handles, toilets in NZ have two seperate flush buttons on the tank. Think of it like a double-barrelled shotgun. 99% of the time, one barrell is all you'll ever need. But it's nice to know you've got that second barrell loaded and ready for bare for those truly heavy duty jobs.
-Ate at a burger joint yesterday called Murder Burger. Their marquee featered a cat in between the words Murder and Burger, and all the staff wore t-shirts that said "Meat is Murder." I had the chicken sandwich.
-While eating my tasty Murder Burger chicken sandwich I observed a sign on the wall that made me chuckle. It was a drawing of a panda on all fours with a second panda standing over the first with a metal folding chair raised over his head poised to come crashing down. The caption read: "Proudly supporting WWF."
-Had dinner the other night with two Kiwis, two Aussies, and a Brit. Several times over the course of the evening I had to reassure myself that all six of us were, in fact, speaking the same language.
-Walk signals at intersections make a futuristic ray gun kind of sound when it's safe to cross. It's a funny sound, and I like it.
-There's an inordinate amount of Turkish cafes in Auckland.
-In my opinion, previous attempts to introduce $1 coins (Susan B. Anthony and Sacajawea)in the US failed so miserably because of the continued existence of the $1 bill. NZ has both $1 and $2 coins and the lowest denomination bill is the $5, and it seems to work brilliantly.
-For $2.50 I sure wish I got a little more than 390 mL of Coca Cola.
-There's no tipping in NZ. That has been both refreshing and disconcerting.
-A full page newspaper ad for a local car dealer appearing in the NZ Herald advertized "All Jap brand vans priced to move. All Toyotas, Nissans, Fords, and Mitsubishis!" "Jap" apparently isn't un-PC here, and Fords are apparently a "Jap" brand.
-I haven't watched one minute of television since I've been here--and I haven't missed it one bit.
-WWF is the acronym for both the World Wildlife Fund--which uses the panda on their logo and the World Wrestling Federation--whose practitioners use metal folding chairs to pummel their opponents.
-I saw a Dodge Ram pickup truck today. There's nothing inherently strange about a Dodge Ram I'll grant you, except it's the first (and only) pickup truck I've seen since I've been here.
-Instead of handles, toilets in NZ have two seperate flush buttons on the tank. Think of it like a double-barrelled shotgun. 99% of the time, one barrell is all you'll ever need. But it's nice to know you've got that second barrell loaded and ready for bare for those truly heavy duty jobs.
-Ate at a burger joint yesterday called Murder Burger. Their marquee featered a cat in between the words Murder and Burger, and all the staff wore t-shirts that said "Meat is Murder." I had the chicken sandwich.
-While eating my tasty Murder Burger chicken sandwich I observed a sign on the wall that made me chuckle. It was a drawing of a panda on all fours with a second panda standing over the first with a metal folding chair raised over his head poised to come crashing down. The caption read: "Proudly supporting WWF."
-Had dinner the other night with two Kiwis, two Aussies, and a Brit. Several times over the course of the evening I had to reassure myself that all six of us were, in fact, speaking the same language.
-Walk signals at intersections make a futuristic ray gun kind of sound when it's safe to cross. It's a funny sound, and I like it.
-There's an inordinate amount of Turkish cafes in Auckland.
-In my opinion, previous attempts to introduce $1 coins (Susan B. Anthony and Sacajawea)in the US failed so miserably because of the continued existence of the $1 bill. NZ has both $1 and $2 coins and the lowest denomination bill is the $5, and it seems to work brilliantly.
-For $2.50 I sure wish I got a little more than 390 mL of Coca Cola.
-There's no tipping in NZ. That has been both refreshing and disconcerting.
-A full page newspaper ad for a local car dealer appearing in the NZ Herald advertized "All Jap brand vans priced to move. All Toyotas, Nissans, Fords, and Mitsubishis!" "Jap" apparently isn't un-PC here, and Fords are apparently a "Jap" brand.
-I haven't watched one minute of television since I've been here--and I haven't missed it one bit.
-WWF is the acronym for both the World Wildlife Fund--which uses the panda on their logo and the World Wrestling Federation--whose practitioners use metal folding chairs to pummel their opponents.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Best laid plans
So The Rattler got me a whole 22km up the road from Auckland before a new, more sinister rattle appeared, this one accompanied 30 seconds later by billowing smoke from under the hood! Luckily I had just enough time to exit the motorway and turn onto a side street before she completely died on me. Yep, a whole 22km! Ah, the good times we had. This all happened this last Sunday mind you, when I had just set out for Taiwawe Bay to do some work for a property owner up there. I called Andrew (the afore mentioned property owner) to tell him what had happened. He was heading up Sunday night as well, just a couple hours behind me. He helped me push my Chariot into a parking space at a gas station, we arranged for a tow to a local garage and we were off. We'll get back to the car in a bit.
Taiwawe Bay.
We arrived after dark, but it was close to a full moon that night and the view of the bay was spectacular. I tried in vain to capture the sublime scene on film (or the digital equivalent) but if my camera has specific settings for night time shots I don't know what they are. Every attempt at a picture just came back completely dark. Oh well. The daytime shots the next day were pretty good. Andrew has a vision for his property to return all the plant life to native bush. That means getting rid of all the non-native tree species including poplars, willows, and pines. He hired a couple of arborists to do the skilled cutting with the chainsaws, and a nice Australian couple, Liam and Sewane, who answered the same ad that I did, and I served as the unskilled labor hauling the cut branches down the hill to the chipper. I have to tell you, I have never worked so hard in my entire life! And I wasn't even getting paid! The trade off was two days of work and then we (the unskilled labor force) get the run of the place for the next week or so. But I don't even get that because I have to get back to Auckland with Andrew on Tuesday because of my broken down lemon of a car. but more on that later. After about ten hours of repeatedly trudging up the hill, grabbing another pile of branches, and dragging them down, we knocked off for the day. Took a nice refreshing dip in the Ocean, then the six of us (Andrew, the property owner; Collin and Jimmy, the arborists; and Liam, Sewane, and I, the unskilled labor) climbed into Andrew's boat to go fishing. We caught about thirty Red Snapper, but only one was legally big enough to keep. By the time we got back from fishing, our roast lamb supper was almost ready. Jimmy fileted our Snapper and cut it into bite size pieces and Andrew provided some wasabi and soy sauce, and we enjoyed some fresh sashimi as an appetizer. Not too stinking bad! The roast lamb was fantastic as well.
The next day we only worked for six hours. The arborists had more pressing things to do with their chainsaws, so we the unskilled labor, spent our time ring-barking pine trees. Ring-barking is where you cut about a three inch band about a half a centimeter deep around the entire circumference of the trunk--cutting a 'ring' into the 'bark', ring-barking. This kills the pine. We were able to ring-bark about 40 pines in those six hours. Cooled off with another dipin the ocean, had a nice lunch and then it was back to Auckland for Andrew and me. Andrew is an architect and he had a presentation he needed to work on so he let me drive the three hours back to Auckland. It's a good thing too, I need the practice. Driving on the left still just feels inherently wrong!
My lemon
The garage I had my car towed to seems to think that I have a pretty good case against the garage that performed the mechanical inspection on my car before I purchased it (and actually perfomed some repairs before I drove it away). Andrew agrees, and he's seen fit to act as sort of my advocate in dealing with the first garage. He seems to think that he can convince them that its in their best interest to repair my car at no expense to me. We'll see. If not, I'll have to write it off as a $2500 object lesson on the perils of being too trusting, and start all over again on the car search. If so, the repairs will probably take a week or so. Either way, I again feel trapped in Auckland. It's like Michael Corleone said about the mafia, "I try to get out, and they just pull me back in!" The good news is that Andrew has been so incredibly kind to help me out. Not only with dealing with the mechanics, but also by allowing me to stay at his place until everything gets sorted.
I know this whole stumbling, bumbling, frustrating, and expensive start to my New Zealand adventure will ultimately be one of those things that I can look back on and laugh, but at present it just doesn't seem too funny. Just gotta keep plugging along I guess. Will keep you posted--hopefully will have some good news to report soon.
Cheers.
Taiwawe Bay.
We arrived after dark, but it was close to a full moon that night and the view of the bay was spectacular. I tried in vain to capture the sublime scene on film (or the digital equivalent) but if my camera has specific settings for night time shots I don't know what they are. Every attempt at a picture just came back completely dark. Oh well. The daytime shots the next day were pretty good. Andrew has a vision for his property to return all the plant life to native bush. That means getting rid of all the non-native tree species including poplars, willows, and pines. He hired a couple of arborists to do the skilled cutting with the chainsaws, and a nice Australian couple, Liam and Sewane, who answered the same ad that I did, and I served as the unskilled labor hauling the cut branches down the hill to the chipper. I have to tell you, I have never worked so hard in my entire life! And I wasn't even getting paid! The trade off was two days of work and then we (the unskilled labor force) get the run of the place for the next week or so. But I don't even get that because I have to get back to Auckland with Andrew on Tuesday because of my broken down lemon of a car. but more on that later. After about ten hours of repeatedly trudging up the hill, grabbing another pile of branches, and dragging them down, we knocked off for the day. Took a nice refreshing dip in the Ocean, then the six of us (Andrew, the property owner; Collin and Jimmy, the arborists; and Liam, Sewane, and I, the unskilled labor) climbed into Andrew's boat to go fishing. We caught about thirty Red Snapper, but only one was legally big enough to keep. By the time we got back from fishing, our roast lamb supper was almost ready. Jimmy fileted our Snapper and cut it into bite size pieces and Andrew provided some wasabi and soy sauce, and we enjoyed some fresh sashimi as an appetizer. Not too stinking bad! The roast lamb was fantastic as well.
The next day we only worked for six hours. The arborists had more pressing things to do with their chainsaws, so we the unskilled labor, spent our time ring-barking pine trees. Ring-barking is where you cut about a three inch band about a half a centimeter deep around the entire circumference of the trunk--cutting a 'ring' into the 'bark', ring-barking. This kills the pine. We were able to ring-bark about 40 pines in those six hours. Cooled off with another dipin the ocean, had a nice lunch and then it was back to Auckland for Andrew and me. Andrew is an architect and he had a presentation he needed to work on so he let me drive the three hours back to Auckland. It's a good thing too, I need the practice. Driving on the left still just feels inherently wrong!
My lemon
The garage I had my car towed to seems to think that I have a pretty good case against the garage that performed the mechanical inspection on my car before I purchased it (and actually perfomed some repairs before I drove it away). Andrew agrees, and he's seen fit to act as sort of my advocate in dealing with the first garage. He seems to think that he can convince them that its in their best interest to repair my car at no expense to me. We'll see. If not, I'll have to write it off as a $2500 object lesson on the perils of being too trusting, and start all over again on the car search. If so, the repairs will probably take a week or so. Either way, I again feel trapped in Auckland. It's like Michael Corleone said about the mafia, "I try to get out, and they just pull me back in!" The good news is that Andrew has been so incredibly kind to help me out. Not only with dealing with the mechanics, but also by allowing me to stay at his place until everything gets sorted.
I know this whole stumbling, bumbling, frustrating, and expensive start to my New Zealand adventure will ultimately be one of those things that I can look back on and laugh, but at present it just doesn't seem too funny. Just gotta keep plugging along I guess. Will keep you posted--hopefully will have some good news to report soon.
Cheers.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
My Chariot awaits!
My first EnZed (NZ) Car:
I've been in Auckland for a whole week now and I'm more than ready to get a move on, but the logistics of buying a car ended up taking more time than I thought they would. Particularly the wire transfer of funds from my US bank to my NZ bank. You know how in the movies when the bad guy needs money wired to his numbered account in Zurich and his techy henchman on the laptop can confirm the transaction instantaniously? That's not how wire transfers work! Of course the money left my US bank the second I hit send, but didn't show up in my NZ account until three days later.
However, with money finally in hand I went to the Backpackers Car Market--a huge garage where backpackers who are leaving the country sell their cars to those just arriving. I found a nice little 1991 Mitsubishi Chariot station wagon that was listed for a price within my budget. Had a legal check and a mechanical inspection done on it, and negotiated the final price with Sven--a nice German fellow and the car's previous owner. I drove my Chariot the three miles or so back to my hotel, and I have to tell you, every 30 seconds or so I had to take a deep breath and reassure myself that it was in fact "right" that I was driving on the left! That's seriously going to take some getting used to.
In case you're wondering, I've already decided on a name for my sweet sweet ride! I'm gonna call her "The Rattler." Many of you know of my affinity for word play so it should come as no surprise that this chosen name has a double meaning. First, from my first blog entry on Kiwi-speak you may recall that "rattle your dags" means "to get a move on." I'm hoping this car will help me to rattle my dags all over this country. And second, well, she rattles like a son-of-a-bitch when you get her over 50 kph!
My first NZ Job:
This afternoon I'm rattling my dags up north a bit to a place called Taiwawe Bay (go to Google maps and type in Taiwawe Bay, New Zealand and hit the "satallite" button in the upper right-hand corner to change the image ot an overhead satallite photo). I answered an ad placed on the notice board at the International Exchange Program office for the job. It's for two days manual labor (digging a drainage ditch and some various other landscaping duties on a private property) and what's more, it's an unpaid gig! The payoff is that for those two days work I then get nine days free accommodation and food at these people's private beach house in their own private Pacific Ocean bay! I get full use of their facilities including their small boat and kayak. Seems like a fair trade to me. I don't know that I'll have internet access while I'm there so the next update might not be for a bit. Catch you on the flip side.
Cheers!
I've been in Auckland for a whole week now and I'm more than ready to get a move on, but the logistics of buying a car ended up taking more time than I thought they would. Particularly the wire transfer of funds from my US bank to my NZ bank. You know how in the movies when the bad guy needs money wired to his numbered account in Zurich and his techy henchman on the laptop can confirm the transaction instantaniously? That's not how wire transfers work! Of course the money left my US bank the second I hit send, but didn't show up in my NZ account until three days later.
However, with money finally in hand I went to the Backpackers Car Market--a huge garage where backpackers who are leaving the country sell their cars to those just arriving. I found a nice little 1991 Mitsubishi Chariot station wagon that was listed for a price within my budget. Had a legal check and a mechanical inspection done on it, and negotiated the final price with Sven--a nice German fellow and the car's previous owner. I drove my Chariot the three miles or so back to my hotel, and I have to tell you, every 30 seconds or so I had to take a deep breath and reassure myself that it was in fact "right" that I was driving on the left! That's seriously going to take some getting used to.
In case you're wondering, I've already decided on a name for my sweet sweet ride! I'm gonna call her "The Rattler." Many of you know of my affinity for word play so it should come as no surprise that this chosen name has a double meaning. First, from my first blog entry on Kiwi-speak you may recall that "rattle your dags" means "to get a move on." I'm hoping this car will help me to rattle my dags all over this country. And second, well, she rattles like a son-of-a-bitch when you get her over 50 kph!
My first NZ Job:
This afternoon I'm rattling my dags up north a bit to a place called Taiwawe Bay (go to Google maps and type in Taiwawe Bay, New Zealand and hit the "satallite" button in the upper right-hand corner to change the image ot an overhead satallite photo). I answered an ad placed on the notice board at the International Exchange Program office for the job. It's for two days manual labor (digging a drainage ditch and some various other landscaping duties on a private property) and what's more, it's an unpaid gig! The payoff is that for those two days work I then get nine days free accommodation and food at these people's private beach house in their own private Pacific Ocean bay! I get full use of their facilities including their small boat and kayak. Seems like a fair trade to me. I don't know that I'll have internet access while I'm there so the next update might not be for a bit. Catch you on the flip side.
Cheers!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
First Day
Arrived in Auckland yesterday morning at about 7:00am. Man, that was a long flight. Wheel's up to wheel's down was 12 hrs 12 minutes. Got to the hostel by 7:30, but checkin wasn't until 1:00pm. Killed some time by chilling out in the hostel's aptly named "chill out" lounge. Got my bearings by walking around downtown Auckland. Walked through a really cool park with some funky looking trees. Came across a group of Indian men palying Cricket in a park. I bought a chocolate-dipped ice cream cone from an ice cream truck and sat down on the side of a hill to watch the cricket match. i watched for close to an hour, but was no closer to understanding the the rules of the game, much less the objective, than I was when I first sat down. It was still fun to watch. Got back to the hostel around 1:00 for checkin. Got my room--a dorm style affair with four bunkbeds. Met two of my "roommates," Jenna and Donald, a nice couple from Ireland. Chatted with them for a bit and claimed one of the three open beds left in the room--a top bunk. Walked about town for a few more hours. At this point I'm simply trying to do whatever I can to stay awake. You see, while I'm desperately tired, I don't want to get in bed at three in the afternoon only to be wide awake in the middle of the night. I'm able to hold out until 5:30pm when I finally give in and hit the sack. Despite my fears of waking up in the middle of the night, I sleep for about 13 hours and get out of bed at around 6:45am Monday morning. Today is all about logistics. I have a three hour orientation at the International Exchange Program office and then I have to open my NZ bank account, apply for my Internal Revenue Tax number, and figure out what to do about getting a local mobile phone.
Auckland is a beautiful city, but I'm already itching to get out of here. But I'll probably have to stay for a few more days while I get all the logistical stuff figured out. Tomorrow's big adventure will involve looking into what I need to do about buying a car.
Auckland is a beautiful city, but I'm already itching to get out of here. But I'll probably have to stay for a few more days while I get all the logistical stuff figured out. Tomorrow's big adventure will involve looking into what I need to do about buying a car.
Friday, January 30, 2009
LAX layover
Three-hour layover in LAX waiting for my 13-hour flight to NZ. I'm sitting in the American Airlines Admirals Club lounge in a soft leather chair in front of wall-to-wall picture windows above the ramp, an AA 767 idling a mere 25 feet below. I'm enjoying the last few sips of my first vodka tonic and I can see my second making its way over to me from the bar. Now this is the way to kick off this trip. A fella could get used to this. Thanks for the hook up, Tony--it's much appreciated!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
I'm sure I'm going to need this!
How do you pack for a year? For several months now this has been more of an abstract question, but with my impending departure now nine days away it's become a very real quandary. I've done quite a bit of research online, talked with people who have taken similar trips, and even read an entire book on packing light, and the overarching piece of advise is "don't pack too much, don't pack too much, don't pack too much!" So, you know what I'm going to do? I'm GOING to pack too much! I already know it.
You see, I tend to be a contingency packer. I think to myself, "well if I go there, then I'm going to need this, and if I do that, then I have to take this." And with the possible contingencies of my trip being virtually limitless, I'm finding that I could easily fill a half dozen suitcases and still feel like there's more I would need. I'm going to try my best to pare my list down to the bare essentials, but it's proving difficult. Sorry scuba fins and snorkel, you're going to have to stay home. I'll just rent when I get there. I'm still on the fence about doing the same with my rock-climbing harness and shoes. And clothes! Holy crap, what do I do about clothes? When I start posting pictures and you keep seeing me in the same three t-shirts wherever I go, know that indeed some tough decisions were made prior to departure.
My younger brother, a far more experienced traveler (and a minimalist packer), gave me a suggestion the other day. He said I should skip the underwear all together and just "go commando" to save space and weight in my pack. While I appreciate his thoughtful suggestion, I'm not quite ready to make that kind of leap just yet.
Well, that's it for now. I have to go back and resume my post standing in front of my closet with a blank stare on my face for another couple hours!
You see, I tend to be a contingency packer. I think to myself, "well if I go there, then I'm going to need this, and if I do that, then I have to take this." And with the possible contingencies of my trip being virtually limitless, I'm finding that I could easily fill a half dozen suitcases and still feel like there's more I would need. I'm going to try my best to pare my list down to the bare essentials, but it's proving difficult. Sorry scuba fins and snorkel, you're going to have to stay home. I'll just rent when I get there. I'm still on the fence about doing the same with my rock-climbing harness and shoes. And clothes! Holy crap, what do I do about clothes? When I start posting pictures and you keep seeing me in the same three t-shirts wherever I go, know that indeed some tough decisions were made prior to departure.
My younger brother, a far more experienced traveler (and a minimalist packer), gave me a suggestion the other day. He said I should skip the underwear all together and just "go commando" to save space and weight in my pack. While I appreciate his thoughtful suggestion, I'm not quite ready to make that kind of leap just yet.
Well, that's it for now. I have to go back and resume my post standing in front of my closet with a blank stare on my face for another couple hours!
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