(1) If you are male ages 13-25, and want to be “cool” you must have either (a) a mullet or (b) a haircut that looks like someone just closed their eyes and started randomly chopping. No joke.
(2) They weren’t lying when they said there were more sheep than people.
(3) People here eat a LOT of meat and potatoes, and very little things green…
(4) My “plan” for making friends by playing soccer is not looking so good. Why? Well, I am the oldest player on my team, apparently. Who knew 22 was so old… It was this one girl’s SIXTEENTH birthday the other day. That would be so cool to make friends that can only hang out until 9pm because they have a curfew and have to get up to go to high school the next morning. Hmmmm… I’ll have to come up with a plan B.
(5) Cops here are sneaky. There are speed cameras everywhere (as in, in addition to the permanent speed cameras on poles, there are random parked vans with cameras attached to the back that will take your picture if you are speeding, and promptly deliver a ticket in the mail… and no I haven’t gotten one). There are also people that are hired to sit and take pictures of drivers in the car pool lane to make sure they have at least 2 people in the car. Literally there is a man standing on the side of the road taking pictures of every car in the carpool lane. It’s a little much if you ask me. There are also unmarked cop cars that will get you for speeding. Apparently speeding is a very serious violation here in the big NZ.
(6) People here love love love skinny jeans. You will never see me wearing skinny jeans, so I am bound to never be fashionable here (not that soccer shorts and a sweatshirt is ever really fashionable anywhere…)
(7) People think it’s really cool that Arnold is the governor of California. Sweet.
(8) Cell phones are ridiculously expensive. It costs like 40 cents a minute to call from cell phone to cell phone. And on top of that, most plans only include 30 monthly minutes... So everyone in New Zealand, I mean EVERYONE, basically only texts.
And what else is new… oh, well, so our “new” car (which is ’99 VW Passat) is going to be the bane of my existence, I’ve decided. Ok well maybe that’s a little dramatic, but this car was supposedly a great deal, we got it for like $3,000 less than it’s worth, blah blah blah… Well, on the second day we drove it, the Anti-lock brakes light went on, and the heater went completely AWOL. As in, we are driving along, listening to music, and then we hear this low humming noise, which promptly turns into a loud awful screeching wailing blood curdling screaming noise… no we did not run over a sheep, that’s just the sound out heater/AC makes… apparently that costs $1100 to fix. Who needs AC or heat in a car anyway, right?