Friday was filled with paper writing and walking around town (the reward system was used once again). I headed downtown, which is about a 40 minute walk or a 30 minute power walk, because I had yet to check out all the shops and such. I ended up walking around and up and down some random streets just exploring. They have mall type places in downtown Hamilton that are basically connected to the same building as other stores outside of the mall, but then you can come out on different streets and such. That didn’t make much sense, but sadly that’s the best explanation I can come up with… sorry, just try to picture it I guess. Anyway, I ended up meeting a friend that I met at a church about a month ago (still weird that I’ve been here for that long already, dang!), Melissa, for coffee at Starbucks. It was super fun to get to know her better and hopefully I’ll get to hang out with her again! I walked around a little more after that and accidentally didn’t give myself enough daylight to get back to Uni, so my speedy run/walk only took about 20 minutes, that’s a record! Hamilton doesn’t seem too unsafe, but better cautious than sorry, right? I’ll leave before the sun is setting next time for sure.
I got back in time for inter hall basketball, but it definitely wasn’t as fun as volleyball was. The refs were students and didn’t care about fouls one bit, so it ended up to be more of a free for all than a structured game. Furman intramurals, I miss you already! Owen, they could really use your help here!
TODAY. Today was spectacular, but then again, any day that begins with a 1.5 hour breakfast is spectacular. After doing some school work with a little procrastination mixed in, Megan and I went to our friend Kenzie’s house/farm in Cambridge, which is about 15 minutes outside of Hamilton. He invited us to come see his family’s organic farm, mini rainforest, goat, bird, dogs, cows, and river front property! Yes please! After a tour of his beautiful house, we put on some gummies (aka gumboots--aka rainboots) and headed down to through the rainforest-y area to the river. Oh wait, first Kenzie equipped us with a weedeater, a huge hoe, and a pitchfork/ax type thing. I wasn’t expecting a clear cut, brick laid pathway lined with flowers or anything, but still, a gas powered weedeater?! Is that really necessary? We got on our way and within seconds I felt like I had crossed the border into the rainforest in Brazil. We trekked through mud, grass, weeds, and other green plant type things covering the ground. Also, Kenzie did indeed use the weedeater to clear some of the brush and vines out of the path, so yes, we did need it. We were down there trekking and exploring for about an hour and we saw the Waikato River, creeks, waterfalls, and such. Just imagine Montreat (in Brazil) times a bajillion. Did I mention Kenzie’s Chihuahua, Georgie, came with us too? Through the mud, water, thorns, brush, rocks… yep, a fluffy little Chihuahua. Nope, not kidding. She made it the whole way, get it girl!
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| The view from Kenzie's house. The rainforest area is in the pit and the river is winding in the background. So beautiful! |
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| Megan, Georgie, and Me |
After that, we helped get some firewood, chatted with his Mom, had a delicious homemade blueberry muffin, and headed back to Uni. Kenzie let me drive. I REPEAT… I DROVE. A CAR. ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROAD. Alllllll the way back to Uni! Sheesh this boy obviously has no trust issues, that’s for sure. It was SUPER weird, but I actually adjusted to it a lot faster than I thought I would. The only thing that really confused me was making turns. It just felt so wrong to cross the WHOLE intersection when making a right turn! SO EXCITING though!
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Tonight, Megan and I walked about 5 minutes to a tavern to watch the NZ All Blacks vs Australia rugby game, which NZ won. It is SO cool to be in the All Blacks gametime atmosphere in this country! I’ve never experienced EVERYONE, literally every single person, in a public place cheering so intensely for the SAME team. They have so much NZ pride here and I love it! I got some more rugby questions answered and also got a high five every time NZ scored. They make American football players look like complete WHIMPS. These guys get mauled, stepped on, tackled, pushed, slapped, etc and they don’t even wear pads or helmets. Toughen up America!
I’ve had some super hilarious conversations with kiwis lately. Here are some highlights…
“So what state are you from?”
“Georgia”
“Oh, that’s above California right?”
From there, I ended up geographically explaining America using my lunch tray.
“Oh ok, so you’re the one above Florida, or the corn, right?”
“Are the cinemas HUGE in America? Like two stories?”
Not sure where this idea came from, but maybe..?
“What are those red cups called?”
“Solo cups..?”
“Yeah! Oh sweet-as so you really use those?”
“Yes”
Who knew other countries were so fascinated with our plastic disposable cups?!
“The food in America is probably so much better than ours.”
“Yeah, I might agree with you on that one, but why do you think it would be better?”
“I don’t know, I mean you guys have turkey sandwiches”
Apparently the only sandwich choices here are ham and chicken. I hadn’t noticed that one yet.
“Don’t you have a McDonald’s on like every corner on America?”
“Yeah, that and Waffle House. Have yall heard of Waffle House?”
“No, but that sounds awesome-as!!”
To a boy in my hall:
“Pep, you’re our favorite kiwi.”
“Ahhh you serious?! You guys need to seriously reconsider!”
“There are Starbucks drive-thrus in America, eh?”
“Yep.”
“Awww no way! That’s SO cool!”
The little things are so fascinating!
“So Atlanta is in Georgia right? And that’s wear all the rappers are from?”
“Yeah, there are some rappers in Atlanta…”
“So what does ‘Throw some deuces on it’ mean?”
“Well, I think that means like 22 inch rims on a car, so deuce means 2, which would make 22 plural, so deuces. So I guess it literally means… put some 22 inch rims on that car…?”
Haha! I had never really thought that whole thing through, but hopefully I explained that right. We all know I’m not the rap/ghetto expert.
I wish that typing/reading could depict how funny it was to hear a kiwi say, “Yall come back now, ya hear?!” in an attempted southern accent. Hahaha! Hilarious!
Interesting Observations:
-Lots of people are not married, but in a civil union here. I’m not sure what the advantage to that is or why you wouldn’t just get married though…
-“mean”=”cool” or “awesome” or “rad” Example: “Ahh bro, that pizza was mean!” or “Check out that MEEEAN car over there!”
-Custard is used a LOT here.
-“petrol”=”gas” Example: “petrol station” or, if watching a sporting event… “Bro, you’re running out of petrol out there! Slow-as! Speed it up!”
-Apparently there was a girl here last semester from Alabama, so they just called her “Alabama”.
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| Cows. |
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| The Waikato River |
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