Random Commentary

Here are random things that I've thought over the past week about life and people in New Zealand.

- Because everything is flipped here (with driving), I'm often amazed by it. Sam tells me to stop talking about it, since I repeat it so much: I keep saying "Look, the steering wheel's on the wrong side!" or something to that extent. Also, the things I understand unconsciously surprise me. For example, Sam and I will stand at an intersection and almost get run over because when checking for oncoming traffic, we keep looking in the wrong direction by habit. Sometimes we do double-takes because we're like, "Wait, are we looking the right way or the wrong way?" and it takes us a couple seconds to figure it out.

- A question I got a lot back home was "Why don't you go backpacking in Europe?" Believe it or not, there are TONS of backpackers here, and most of them are from Europe. Also, I've met some people who really are hardcore travelers, going all over. One person I met said she hadn't been back home (in Britain) for more than 2 years! Another said that she'd been in Australia, Fiji, Taiwan, other South Asian countries, and her last leg of her trip was going to be through the US going from California to Boston. Living in NZ, you're bound to meet people from all over. But in the US, you could live your whole life there and never meet a backpacker. Kinda sad. Also, I notice that here, hostels are really good/cheap alternatives to hotels, and sometimes even temporary apartments. A guy here in our dorm is up in Auckland (from Gisborne, east coast of NZ a bit down south) to see his kids and maybe buy a boat. Back in the US, I think most people would have found a hotel instead. I've also seen senior citizens here in this hostel too. It's pretty interesting.

- Almost every single Korean/Chinese/Asian I've seen here is a fob. They all have the same hairstyles too, haha. But I wonder, what do you call someone who's ethnically Asian but grew up in New Zealand? Sam and I are Korean Americans. Are people here called Korean New Zealanders? Or just Korean Kiwis?

- Auckland's pretty boring... it's not even that nice to look at. Sam and I are anxious to leave this city. What we plan to do next is go down south to the Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay, or Wellington to look for jobs. We definitely don't want to stay here.

- The Queen St of Auckland is like the Michigan Ave of Chicago, but Queen St is nothing like Michigan Ave (in a bad way).

- At first Sam and I were like "We haven't seen any police so far." Once we did, we had to comment on how weirdly colorful they are (and the design's weird too). Also saw another police car with blue and yellow, with the yellow replacing the orange.



- A couple of Asians moved into our suite a couple nights ago, and instead of getting the free dinner the hostel offers, they cooked themselves some real-good-smelling ramyun (the good kind too, like the ichiban or shin ramyun). Totally reminded me and brought nostalgic feelings of my Korean home (or maybe just of the food. We're not homesick yet). And funnily enough, another suitemate was cooking himself up some Americanized ramen, which reminds me of home too, but the American side, haha.

- Sam and I really wanna go to a rugby game. The 2007 Rugby World Cup is coming up in about 3 weeks, and after that, we won't have a chance to see a game. Hopefully we'll plan one out before the season ends.

Last note: I realize how hard it is for me to keep up with people back home. I don't get a lot of internet time, and most of it is just writing in this blog and checking status of things Sam and I are doing. But I'd like to know how you guys are doing too. So if you can, leave comments about you at your school/work, kupc yg, ec, ncpc, bu, etc etc. Also, I try to go on AIM, but if I suddenly sign off without saying goodbye, it means that my time ran out and the computer cut me off. So I'm saying sorry in advance. =]