Paul's Travel Notebook

Paul's New Zealand Picture Album! Updated 2/1/05

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

To hell with being sick.

Tuesday

Status: My nose is running like a track star. I think this cold is peaking today. Damn.

I wake up early, eat some breakfast, then conk back out for a few more minutes. I wake up again, throw the finishing touches on my economics paper that’s due today, and proceed to drag my delirious ass to class, where I proceed to zone out/sleep through the class. I think the professor notes my lousy state and leaves me alone.

I try the sleep-all-day and drink tons of water approach. Biogeography falls victim to this as I sleep through it. Scouting reports indicate I didn’t miss anything important. Good.

Since the rest of the day is a moot point, let’s have a quick lesson on NZ culture.

RANDOM NZ STUFF: Some other things I’ve picked up along the trip:

  • “Thanks” is used like “Please.” As in, “That’ll be $10.00, Thanks!” This still catches me off guard – why are you thanking me when you have yet to receive payment?
  • After further investigation, “Bugger” is probably a borderline curse word. We don’t really care, and still find it funny to yell it out randomly in crowded places.
  • My American accent sticks out like a sore thumb. People pick up on it instantly. It’s very weird when all of a sudden, you’re in the minority. I’m trying to use a little more of the local dialect to try to fit in better, but I feel like an idiot doing it.
  • The metric system only has a loose hold on this country. McDonalds still has a “1/4 Pounder w/ Cheese”. Probably because “.113398 kilogramer w/ cheese” lacks the same zing to it.
  • The airplane industry still uses feet – I just recalled that we ascended to “15,000 feet” and not 4572 meters. I think this is more that English is a global standard in aviation.
  • Womens shirt sizes here are driving our girls crazy. If you’re a Size 0 in the states, you’re a Size 10 here. Haha, you’re fat now!
  • If women had anything to say about it, America would be on metric by now… instead of weighing 110lbs, they’d be 50 kg.

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