It’s been a month since I’ve arrived in NZ.
What has been happening so far?
Lots!
What have I observed so far?
Lots!
Let me list down what I’ve observed so far…
1. Weather watching/talking
I could never understand why would people from the seasonal countries (from books, TV, etc) ask/talk/discuss about the weather. It’s as if you’ve got no other topic to chat about and you resolve to the weather.
In the same way, the people here may think my head has only got “food” in it because I would often start with, “Have you had your break/lunch?”
Anyway, being here and being subjected to cope with the temperamental weather – news time becomes a MUST when it comes to weather forecast.
Eat your words, FeR!
Yup. I’ve succumbed to watching the weather AND talking about it to people at work or at home.
“Oooh! It’s cold today!”
“They say it’s going to be sunny this weekend.”
“How is it outside? Is it chilly?”
“It’s a nice sunny day.”
“It’s freezing out there – are you going to walk home today?”
“Oh, look! The sun is out again!”
“What a miserable day it is today, isn’t it?”
“Oh…it’s all yucky and cold today!”
Well, it’s important for me to watch the news for the weather (or go to MetService) because I’ve to walk to work and I want to be PREPARED!
2. Inactivity
There is a reason why bears hibernate all winter long.
Unless you’re a nocturnal person, the absence of daylight is really tricky – it makes you THINK that it’s late and it’s time for bed. By 630pm I’d be home from work and I’d feel sleepy by 7pm!
The cold doesn’t really help you stay awake either and you’d just want to snuggle up in bed (electric blanket that was previously turned on would’ve warmed the bed up!). I wouldn’t want to go out after dark and would not be tempted to do so “just because”. Now you know why the shops close early (but work closes at 9pm – quite late ady lor)…
I found out that this doesn’t happen to myself only. Housemate goes to bed at 9pm…sometimes earlier and her son goes to bed at 730pm! People at work say that they couldn’t stay up to 10pm.
I cannot stay up late like I could back home. Most nights I’d be in bed by 10pm and wake up at 7am (not getting out of bed but just waking up to the alarm)…to finally roll out of bed at 740am or 8am.
3. Foreign words
Words that I’ve heard of (or not) but never used (or used differently) back home.
Brolly, spuds, biff, have tea (meaning dinner), lemonade (7-Up/Sprite), sweet, nuke, smorgasbord (chap fan and this word would probably be prominent at Chinese food places) …and words that I just couldn’t remember at the moment.
4. Coins
Copper does NOT mean one cent. It’s ten cents. No five or one cent coins here.
The first time I had to man the till, I had to return $1.30 to the customer. I looked into all the compartments and there were no ten cents! Only fifties and twenties.
I was *this* close to asking the customer if she had a ten cents’ coin but then I saw “10″ on the copper coin (finally) and went…”ooo!” in my head.
5. Organic/health
Ah! Probably this is why I would never fit in.
People here are “into” health foods or organic produce. People at work are crazy about working out/sports (apparently one of my female colleagues was in the Olympics and Commonwealth before and her fiance has won the “IronMan” title twice or something)
And FeR goes, “So which cafe has got really good sweet pastries?”
*blink blink*
Anyway, I will be getting some fish oil capsules soon (I’ve been breaking out like no tomorrow and my scalp is dry-flaky!) and that would be as “healthy” as I would get in taking supplements.
There is a gym in the city centre that has got the LesMills programme but to walk there and back would be a session on its own already. Definitely not going to attempt that now when it’s cold. We’ll see how it goes come Spring.
I thought I had more to write but everything sort of flew out the window (it happens when I sit myself down to write)…they will probably come back when I’m twiddling my fingers.
I miss all of you back home.
I miss the people, the food, the places, the convenience of having “everything”…
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
“Had ur breakfast/lunch/dinner yet??” no worries, i ask tht all the time to my colleagues.
Interesting! Add more when you remember. Hehe
It’s been a month?
Not like last time, winter also can stay up ‘late’ hor?
You can be the resident food expert at your place then. Soon enough will be femes enough where you can do food reviews too!
And people will read your reviews and seek your advice for where to eat…
it’s been a month?!
woah, time flies!
bila mau datang, neighbour?
wahh… happening. ^^
btw, i like talking about health food too… lol. I just found something called a “calorie shifting diet” that I wanna talk about. hahaha.
Time flew and so did my memory. It was 27th that I flew out of Malaysia and arriving in NZ is on 28th. I don’t know why I keep thinking I flew out on 28th and got here on 29th.
surt: back home people understand mah…here different case
Che-Cheh: have added a few more!
Anne: it’s been more than a month now!
Janvier: expensive to eat out oh! That’s the main problem/hinderance, I guess.
lynn: soon, soon! haha!
leech: haih. I am not the gym/health bunny like you ler…my favourite past time is to tidur