New Zealand is much more chill than America and not wearing shoes, even in public places and while driving, is completely acceptable. We see kids walking to school all the time barefoot. The students in my program have been taking full advantage of it and have been coming to class shoe-less. I went barefoot when we gave out fruit for the city outreach, which was a lot of fun, but I'm going to wait until it gets warmer to make it a habit. Another oddity is that roundabouts are everywhere. They're practically a replacement for intersections here. I find them stressful, and it seems like it would just cause more accidents because it all hinges on yielding and people being defensive drivers. I've only seen a couple of traffic lights, and absolutely no stop signs.
A fun fact about New Zealand, the ozone layer above the country is really thin, a lot thinner than most places in the world. It's kind of strange since there's only 4.5 million people in New Zealand and they really don't create that much pollution, but apparently for some reason unknown to me it's thinner, which just means its a lot easier to get sunburned. Another fun fact that I was excited about, is there are no snakes in New Zealand because, other than the birds, all the animals that are here were brought into the country, and really, who would want to bring snakes.
And now for some more Kiwi lingo. Though first of all, I would like to offer a correction. I know I said Vegemite was the New Zealand equivalent of Nutella, but that's not true. They told us that to trick us. Apparently it's a yeast-based spread, so it's actually salty not sweet, even though it looks kind of like Nutella. Quite disappointing.
Anyway, here are some more:
Telly- TV
Hotties- hot water bottle
Stubbies- short shorts that men wear
Boot- trunk of a car
Car park- parking lot
P- meth (somehow this came up, don't ask)
Drink bottle- water bottle
Trolley- shopping cart
Bum bag- fanny pack
Good on ya- nice job/good for you
Sweet as- awesome
Choice- cool/really good
Feel free to adopt any of these sayings and incorporate them into your everyday lives. I know I am.
1 comment:
hahaha so you better be careful when you say "i have to pee" ;)
And wow I am jealous about the no shoes... here we have to wear shoes in the house even! I cheat when no one is around.
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