Interviews are kinda fun

Interviews are a lot like going to the hair salon, where it's acceptable to get to talk for an entire hour about your hair, or it's like going to the dentist and discussing interesting aspects about your teeth. It is kinda fun to just sit there at interviews blabbering on about yourself and your ideas about things and no one can really argue with you.
It must be how managers usually feel.

Seriously?

This morning Miley Cyrus' music video Party in the USA came on at the gym and I almost teared up seeing the American flag. Dude. Homesick much?

The Differences between our Parallel Universes

When you visit New Zealand, one of the first things you notice is that other than some of the plants and the people driving on the left side of the road, it's almost exactly like the States. The feeling makes you feel comfortable and happy. Happy, because if you're from Seattle like me, you realize that you're in a place that's like home but Sunnier. Which is definitely a good thing.

There are rolling green hills and vineyards that look just like San Francisco, but maybe better. The pine forests seem a little like Bend, OR or Lake Tahoe. There's Denny's, Burger King, McDonalds, Ford dealerships, and Blockbuster. Radio commercials use familiar jingles, and the evening news uses the same icons as ABC World News. Friends, PBS, Dateline, The Simpsons, The Nanny, Glee, Heroes, Lost-- almost all the tv shows are imported from the States or the UK. Children develop US accents from watching the Disney Channel.

Moving to a new place so far from home, yet so similar to home, really makes me notice the differences between the two countries. The differences are striking and surprising, because here you are merrily living in your new home in exactly the same way as you lived in your old home, and -bump- what was that? You do what? You call that a what?

• Children are allowed to say "damn." Even very religious adults will say "damn" at work. It's a riot to sit there as the prude American and listen in on all the swearing.
• When people say, "Hey we should have tea/lunch/breakfast/beer sometime," they really mean it. It's not a way to end the conversation. If you don't follow up it's pretty rude.
• Pumpkin. People eat lots of pumpkin here, and you know what? It's wonderful. I don't understand why we don't eat more pumpkin in the States... didn't it originate in the Americas for goodness sakes?
• Most kiwis, for all the pumpkin here, have never had pumpkin pie.
• While we're on the subject of food, please don't ask for "turkey sausage" at the supermarket (as I did my first week here). You will get a blank look. There are turkeys here, but they're about as common as goose in the U.S.
• The Ministry of Education encourages me to make decisions about how I interact and treat my students based on their ethnicity. I make notations on my caseload list on the race of my students. Can you even imagine that happening in a public school district? Litigation city. But actually, treating people a little different based on their different cultures is getting results in NZ-- while Maori and Pacific Islander students in NZ are still below white students in academic achievements, they've made huge gains in the last 10 years because of recent initiatives aimed at supporting them.
• Many young educated professionals leave NZ for the UK, causing a serious brain drain. The NZ immigration department has developed polished advertising and websites in order to lure skilled immigrants to the country. I am always asked why I moved here, which shocks me. Isn't it obvious?? This country is absolutely gorgeous. I was philosophically told by one young man, though, that "You don't really see how pretty a place is when you've lived there your whole life."
• There are absolutely gorgeous, to-die-for properties available that kiwis poo-poo because they aren't in the best socio-economic area. These properties, with their views, would go for at least a million in the States.
  
• There are so many business opportunities here, from property to restaurants to products, that it drives me a little nuts and makes me wish I had a business degree. (There is a grungy shopping center in a nicer part of town that would be huge money maker if it were made over. The country is in dire need of pedicurists. A few more Mexican restaurants wouldn't hurt. An Old Navy or H&M franchise would make big bucks. And that prime view property isn't going to lay fallow for long...)
• NO window screens. No window screens!! When I asked a kiwi about this, she laughed at my silly aversion to bugs, and said, "Well this isn't Australia you know," (which has tons of very awful bugs).

• It is considered normal to have baked beans on nachos.

• If you have an important person in your life, be that a boyfriend, fiance, spouse, or whatever, that person is called your "partner." It is a nice word that covers everyone that reminds me of "Ms."
• In the office, names are alphabetized by first name. Even in Outlook.
• Having your cell phone go off during a meeting is not considered a huge faux pas. It is not even a little faux pas.
• Phone numbers do not have always have 7 numbers. They could have 5 numbers, or they could have 8 numbers.
  
• Hedgehogs are not pets here. They are animals that carry diseases and that run wild in your backyard. I saw my first (live) hedgehog today crossing the street; I just had to stop my car and look at it, it was so cute!

Need to get on that...

During a skype conversation with Bryce's dad and Tammie last weekend, the issue came up that I'm not on health insurance. I'm not really sure how I overlooked that little task item. Bryce is covered on travel health insurance, because he lost his work health coverage before I did and took care of it.

Health insurance is not automatically offered to us as part of our benefits package at work. NZ doctor visits and prescriptions are subsidized by the government. My recent ER visit was only $250 NZD ($177 US). It would have been less if we were residents.

As a skier, I definitely need to get moving and sign up for health insurance. My dizzy spells which I've had infrequently for about 2 years have gotten more frequent and stronger in the last week. I almost fell over while standing around and talking with friends on Wednesday. I have been to a doctor in the States about this and he wasn't really worried-- so I suppose I shouldn't be too worried. But I'm a little alarmed that I might suddenly keel over during a therapy session--I've had to concentrate really hard this week to continue working with a child although I felt that my head was swimming.

A little bit of a misperception...

Today on the radio this DJ said something along the lines of,
"So it's Four-Twenty Day in the States right now. It's like a holiday! That's right, in the States you get to take the day off work to smoke weed!"

Gym Membership and Take-out Pizza

Bryce got a killer deal texted to him-- $10 a week for the gym, and the first month is free. I met him at the train station to sign up (the gym is at the train station which is awesome).

Since we were so healthy by getting a gym membership we decided to reward ourselves by going to our favorite pizza place, Hell Pizza. Mmmm.


We normally get the Limbo but settled on the Purgatory Pizza this time ;-)

Tuis

Tui (pronounced "two-ee") birds are one of our favorite things about New Zealand. They sing as I can ready for work in the morning, and they sing as I make dinner. There's tons of them around our house, which is a little unusual. They have two voice boxes, so they sing and make cool clicking sounds. Their sound is really distinct.

Here's a tui singing by our house:



They have a white ball of fluff on their neck, so they're really easy to spot. They have the funniest flying pattern too, they flap their wings a few time and then stop, so that their bodies swoop downwards. It looks like they're zig-zagging along as they fly through the air.