blunt?

I have never thought of myself as blunt. In fact, I dislike blunt people, and I strongly dislike people who brag about how they are blunt. You know those type of people, who bitchily say, "I tell it like it is."
That said, here, in NZ,

I am the blunt one.

Apparently. I am learning how to soften my language, especially in my e-mails. I sit for way too long at my computer, trying to figure out a nice way to say something potentially upsetting, when my coworkers and managers can compose a better, almost musically soft and sweet, message-- in seconds. While I'm trying to work on this aspect of my communication, there's a flip side that is really excruciating:

People just won't directly tell me what they mean.

You can't imagine how frustrating it is, to have to guess what someone's circumlocutions really mean. Even more frustrating than figuring out the point-- is figuring out how to respond. Do I directly address what they are indirectly communicating? Is this an appropriate time to express frustration/set up boundaries about the indirect communication? Are they being passive/ aggressive? Are they trying to say something that they feel is awkward or is making them nervous? If they are hiding rudeness, how do I stand up for myself? Should I address their mode of communication, or do I address what I think they're trying to communicate? What the hell do I say??

I have so many examples of this, but really shouldn't post them online.


And the thought occurs to me-- are people going as nuts with how directly I talk about things?

naaa

poi e

We saw a great NZ movie a few weeks ago, "Boy," that reintroduced a cool old song. It's reaching the top of the music charts now, because it's awesome!

Cafe Hopping

Skyped with Sheryl and Herb, and then Roy and Tammie, for most of the morning. So nice to be in touch with family, it makes us feel way less homesick. Sheryl said she found flights from LA to Auckland recently for only $399; we told her to definitely jump on those tix and visit if she sees them again.

We drove to Miramar to try out the famous Chocolate Fish. This cafe, when it was in its old location, was the favorite hang-out place for the actors on the Lord of the Rings movies. The cafe has since moved to Maori land so it's on a restricted license-- it doesn't have the best view and it can't have a kitchen so all the food is sandwiches served on paper plates. Their sandwiches were nice but we didn't stay long. The old Chocolate Fish must've been amazing. The present cafe that that bought out their old building is in a gorgeous location.


I made a new cafe rule-- that if we don't get coffee with lunch, we're allowed to go to another cafe for dessert and coffee. Bryce decided he liked this rule, so off we went to Cafe l'Affare in CBD. It's a great Italian cafe with an awesome vibe. It's yet another cafe recommended by Sally at work. (Sally has also recommended our other favourite cafes: Havanna, also in CBD, and People's Coffee in Newtown). I had a pear-ginger slice and Bryce had a blueberry sour cream square. We walked around the shops after coffee but the city pretty much shut down at 4:00. It's still hard for us to get used to the condensed hours of operation of most stores.

Korean

Not to be too flip, but it's interesting that the week where the situation in S. Korea appears to really be approaching "war mode" is the same week that we try out Korean food for the first time. We went out with a fellow UW alumn and her roommates.

It was pretty yum; it was really neat to roast our food over a wood fire in the centre of our table. Had a Korean beer too, called Cass, and some pretty nice stuff called Soju. Reading up on Wiki, Soju costs about $3-4 US in Korea, but it cost about $10 US at the restaurant in Wellington.

There were small rooms in the restaurant that were rented out for karaoke, so you could have your own little karaoke party. It was pretty awesome. No one thought that they were a good singer, so there was just this fun, laid-back vibe of everyone singing their hearts out. Everyone was super outgoing. Highlights included the fact that I apparently remember every word to the "Barbie Girl" song. ;-)

Music

Awesome song just came out by The Naked and Famous. They're a NZ group and I am so bummed because I just found out that they just played a show last night in Wellington that I missed! We're going to make a real effort to go to some shows now--

Other great NZ groups:

Mint Chicks



Kids of 88



Computers Want me Dead


Phoenix Foundation

tv

I'm getting caught up on a lot of TV. American television episodes run a few seasons or weeks behind the States; and go through quarterly rotations so you're always getting caught up in new television shows. There's satelite tv available called Sky but we don't have that, so we're limited to just a few channels: TV1, which plays on 3 channels, TV2, which plays on channel 2, and TV3, which plays on channel 3, and... guess channel 4... nope you're wrong that's called C4, which usually plays music videos all day. There's a Maori channel and a parliament channel and that's about it.

Right now the tv channels are stuck in a totally boring rotation of shows. Survivor. Ug. House. ick.


But Wednesdays, ahhh. Wednesdays you get Flash Forward and Lost. Wednesdays used to be Big Bang Theory day, but that has been replaced by the hideous Cougar Town.

Here's to Wednesday, until Lost's season finale Saturday night! (We're trying to ignore all the American news stories talking about the finale that already played in the States last week.)

Pouring Rain

It has been pouring down rain since Sunday night. The forecast on Sunday called the storm system, "the worst storm we've had in awhile," which is awfully ominous considering that there's been a lot of really bad storms lately. Tuesday morning we woke up to the clock radio calling the storm "a bomb." Several people were about an hour late to work today because of car smashes on the motorway. There's lots of flooding in the lowlands but luckily we live on a hill. Unluckily, the cable tv went out so Bryce couldn't watch Grey's Anatomy (shhh, don't tell him that you know his secret vice). ;-)