If you dial USA's 911, you get NZ's 111. So what you see is what you get... You can try to hang on to "the American way" with which you are most comfortable and familiar... but it will only remind you of how far from home and how surrounded by NZ you really are. It is very difficult, very confusing, irritating, and frustrating to learn and realize that every little thing you thought you knew has become strange. Including yourself.
The viscosity of Coke, the number of times a phone rings before you get an answering machine, measurements of temperature and distance, availability of hot water in your washing machine, cost of mascara, time it takes to burn under the sun, number of people who sail and/or farm - are all starkly different. But that's expected. It's the other things - the things you thought were universally IMPORTANT that really aren't, that makes you wonder what has happened to your sanity. Time after time, you are proven wrong. Call it what you will, but it feels like a kick in the face.
*By "you" and "yourself" I mean "me" and "myself," so don't get scared, because obviously I'm surrounded by NZ, and most of you are resting comfortably at home wherever you are. Probably in America.
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble, it's what you know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain
I don't want any trouble. But woooosh, it sure feels like something has been pulled out from under me - and I've been swept off my feet (and not in the good way). Maybe I can come away stronger, wiser, more tolerant. Or decide that I like the differences and stay. But right now, the big differences in the big things make it easy to resent the small differences in the small things. I wish I could get a grip on something, anything, to remember what it feels like to know what I'm doing. But I am grateful that I can't. Because this is why I left the U.S. This is why I'm here. To see, and to find, what's important to me.
I promised I would give an update on some of the things I've been up to. So here you go: I've been volunteering for the local library, selling *gently used* (and also some *beat up* cover-chewed-off, smelly, and sometimes furry) books twice a month and when cruise ships come into town. I've also been helping out with a local/global wildlife project (it's mostly in the brain storming, rough draft, consolidating stage, so it's hard to explain). And I'm currently taking a first aid class with St. John to learn more about NZ's system of Public Health/Safety. And to learn how to save a life the Kiwi way. I did forget to mention - that I'M NOT IN PAIHIA! At this point, I think that's "worth writing home about!" (funny expression that I never heard til I came here, I probably didn't use it right. Especially since I'm posting on my blog and not writing home at all). I am in Whangarei, until the 2-day class ends. I'm learning that NZ's methods of first aid administration really are different than those of the U.S., and it confuses me. I mean, human life is human life, right? There are tried and true methods, always a "this is why we do things THIS way and not THAT way?" But there must be something else at play here... I don't know what it is.
How can you know who/what to trust if you don't feel you've been well-informed? I'll take as many kicks in the face as it takes to find out.
Even if it means a stiletto in my eye.
*By "you" and "yourself" I mean "me" and "myself," so don't get scared, because obviously I'm surrounded by NZ, and most of you are resting comfortably at home wherever you are. Probably in America.
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble, it's what you know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain
I don't want any trouble. But woooosh, it sure feels like something has been pulled out from under me - and I've been swept off my feet (and not in the good way). Maybe I can come away stronger, wiser, more tolerant. Or decide that I like the differences and stay. But right now, the big differences in the big things make it easy to resent the small differences in the small things. I wish I could get a grip on something, anything, to remember what it feels like to know what I'm doing. But I am grateful that I can't. Because this is why I left the U.S. This is why I'm here. To see, and to find, what's important to me.
I promised I would give an update on some of the things I've been up to. So here you go: I've been volunteering for the local library, selling *gently used* (and also some *beat up* cover-chewed-off, smelly, and sometimes furry) books twice a month and when cruise ships come into town. I've also been helping out with a local/global wildlife project (it's mostly in the brain storming, rough draft, consolidating stage, so it's hard to explain). And I'm currently taking a first aid class with St. John to learn more about NZ's system of Public Health/Safety. And to learn how to save a life the Kiwi way. I did forget to mention - that I'M NOT IN PAIHIA! At this point, I think that's "worth writing home about!" (funny expression that I never heard til I came here, I probably didn't use it right. Especially since I'm posting on my blog and not writing home at all). I am in Whangarei, until the 2-day class ends. I'm learning that NZ's methods of first aid administration really are different than those of the U.S., and it confuses me. I mean, human life is human life, right? There are tried and true methods, always a "this is why we do things THIS way and not THAT way?" But there must be something else at play here... I don't know what it is.
How can you know who/what to trust if you don't feel you've been well-informed? I'll take as many kicks in the face as it takes to find out.
Even if it means a stiletto in my eye.
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