Kia Ora - Hi

Another week gone. Wow, and something close to 150 of you read my last post, how flattering. You guys must be bored eh? Well there were no icy beaches or brakeless bike adventures this week but I do want to give you guys a little taste of what life is like over here. In my last post I was unable to really elaborate on the details of day to day life among the Kiwi's (people from New Zealand) so I will do my best to buy you a mental thousand dollar plane ticket here so you can walk around yourselves.

As some of you may know Kiwi's do everything backwards from North America, they drive on the left side of the road, winter during our summer, water flushes opposite from toilets at home (not entirely sure but we'll just let that one go...). So you can imagine my surprise the second morning here at about 8am as I tried to cross the street, looking left, taking a step into the road and then looking right, at a car that had stopped two feet from me. Welcome, noob. It's been about a month since then and still I look like an absolute tourist animal as I lurch across roads craning my neck in every direction so not to end up like the pesky NZ possums that didn't quite make it (NZ version of the raccoon). You'd think that at some point things would just click but still I find myself doing that awkward hop/jerk/dance move on sidewalks as I travel along the right side and lets not get started on the traffic jams I have caused in grocery store aisles across Palmy.

Wildlife here is ridiculous, plants and trees are amazing but even more so are the birds that I see and hear on a daily basis. Each day I find myself looking up into the trees to find birds that sound like creaky doors or beautiful bells. They are about the only wildlife I see here aside from sheep, cows and the odd rabbit or possum because the only animals on the island were brought by settlers at some point. One strange thing I have found is that people really don't mind if birds come indoors. Down at the dining hall there are small finches flying around all over the place eating crumbs off the tables and floors. There are also a number of them at the local Pak n Save (grocery store) just zooming around in the rafters. I feel as though people would be having a fit at home if there were animals flying around their food, I kinda like it though. Birds gotta eat too haha.

As far as fashion goes here, guys wear short shorts and many of them sport braided rattails or mullets which is kinda funny but hey thats just the way it is. I think the rattails may be a sport thing (i.e. rugby team...) though I cannot say for sure. There are also a lot of people, mostly guys, that walk around barefoot here which is also very different from home but I'm all for it provided the streets are clean like they are here. What I do not agree with here so far is the music selection haha. This country or at least from what I have heard is stuck back in the 90's.... N'Sync, early Brittney Spears etc... I think I may start anonymously mailing CD's out to local radio stations and see what they think of the future (or even the good stuff from the past haha).

I have now taught myself how to cook up some pretty awesome lamb chops which was inspired entirely by this video, http://www.recipes.co.nz/lamb-chops-with-mash-vegetables (sault and pippa... ). When I arrived at the grocery store I was a little disappointed to find that twin blonde chefs didn't come with the lamb chops but bought them anyways (8.80NZD for about 8 of them for those of you wondering about prices). I managed to make a balsamic reduction sauce for the chops too which is a must if you're in the mood for some lamb.

Just a quick sidetrack here, a friend of mine posted this on her Facebook and it couldn't be more true for the non Kiwi's here getting lost in conversations. Apologies in advance for some of the language but it is worth watching. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPg_wp5KbCc

I personally have not been up to too much this week, anything that can be deemed as action began on Wednesday night when I played in my first volleyball game since grade eight. We ended up losing but thats alright, it was great to get out and meet people from the other dorms and burn off some energy. Thursday night is apparently when the weekend starts at Massey because a couple flats down from my own there was a party for two girls that had celebrated their birthdays that week. This as some may say, 'escalated quickly'. It started off fairly tame, a few beers, some delicious finger food and about ten or twelve people from around the flat. Then... out of nowhere, two massive towers(tower consists of about five stacked paper plates) of green, tequila jelly shots, homemade rye, scotch, and a bottle of tequila. There was a game of limbo involved, people were wobbling into walls, I had a wicked hairdo for a while after my hat was taken hostage and there were way too many incriminating photos taken. It was a great night, and like many great nights before this one, I woke up with a beautiful hangover. I say beautiful because I had the means to sleep most of it off and faired far better than most of my friends from the night before. When I finally did get out of bed, I went into town with a friend where we ran into  some people from the night before. To give you an idea of how they did, both of them woke up around 10 15am, for 10am presentations, following their 9am classes.

On Friday night we planned a falafel cooking night at a flat 11 where about twelve people showed up and a few of them cooked up some falafels and kumara fries with salad. This was pretty awesome considering I had never eaten it before and it was my first meal of the day haha. The dessert for the night, rote grutze, was made by a friend from Germany and was absolutely delicious. It was a hot berry sauce that was served over vanilla ice cream, just awesome. Unfortunately this night didn't last long because everybody was still suffering from Thursday and so everyone was in bed by about 11pm.

Saturday started off with pretty miserable cold, windy, grey, drizzling weather which warranted some movie watching till about 2pm. Shortly following this, some friends got me organized and off we went to  another rugby match but this time it was the local Manawatu Turbos taking on Taranaki. It was comparable to a Junior level hockey game so the talent was certainly there but not nearly on the same scale as the All Blacks. We were so fortunate that the rain held off the entire game but man was it ever cold and windy. The home team Turbos ended up winning 15 to 10 and so off we went to warm up at the nearest watering hole. We ended up stopping at a small Irish pub called Rosie O'Grady's because it had a fire place right in front of the TV. I ordered some fish and chips, a pint of Summit Lager and next thing I knew the All Blacks were taking on the Australia Wallabies on the tube. In fact, the four of us there watching the game were so entranced that when the first try was scored we nearly jumped out of our seats due to the cheers that erupted from behind us. The bar was absolutely packed full of die hard All Blacks fans (and one or two Aussie fans). The All Blacks laid a beating down on the Wallabies 30 to 14. Our rainy, grey, saturday didn't turn out so bad after all.

Finally (I know... I said this one would be shorter... I'm sorry) tonight (Sunday, I am 16hrs ahead of Ontario), the group of flats where I live held a potluck dinner and I got to try food from all over the world which was amazing, I cannot remember the names for most of the dishes but to give you an idea, there were crepes, schnitzel, curried chicken to name a few. I of course being the master planner that I am failed to plan any Canadian dish ahead of time and resorted to my go-to food, Banana Bread which turned out to be a hit, thank you mother. When asked if this was a Canadian dish, I simply told them that if they were going to believe that I had a dog sled and lived in an igloo, knew Joe and Suzy from Canada etc. then yes... banana's grow in Canada and this was probably the most delicious thing ever to eat while sitting on my chesterfield.

Well I'm stuffed, which means tired here instead of full so I think I will let you all get back to Facebooking, Stumbling, Youtubing or whatever else you may be doing to avoid work. Thanks for reading again and I hope you all have a great week (and Sunday for most of you because you're just starting it right now). Again, I will put up some pictures and stuff on here over the next few days and you can always check out the NZ album on my Facebook.

Cheers,
Brayden