New Zeland is not ready for someone who can eat like I can

So I've been dying to share some of my thoughts on some of the cultural differences here. It is definitely not the place I'm used to. So here goes.

The food.

As the title might hint, the food situation in New Zealand is not what I'm used to. We have a pizza place down the street from campus, Hell's, is pretty well known and very delicious. The largest size they have is the equivalent of our medium. Maybe. I was sorely disappointed when I first received it. They have NO late night deliveries, or even deliveries at all for that matter, and I have never in my my entire life craved Jimmy Johns more.  Even the campus food. I can get one helping, of one choice. the only way I can get seconds is if I wait until the last 5 minutes of the specified dining time. Its pretty rough. Any one who knows me knows my love for food, and the food has been killing me. I hate that I've (or my dad :)) has already paid for my food. kinda stinks.

The locals.

All of the kiwis I have met go one of 2 ways. The first is kind of a Jersey Shore guido look alike. They all wear skin tight clothing and wear WAY too much cologne and hair product. At bars they are very aggressive. I have had guys come on pretty hard. On the up side, I rarely buy drinks. Another crazy phenomenon that is too popular is the rat tail. One looong piece of hair hanging down the back of a mans head. Usually bleached. I have never been more repulsed by a fashion statement ever. When a guy tells you you're beautiful, I feel bad laughing- however its just hard to take a bleached rat tail, Affliction t-shirt and alligator shoes remotely seriously. The other half are pretty awesome. True daredevils, fun to be around and live a crazier life than we can comprehend. Those are the ones I want to meet. I've also met another girl I really like. Her name is Stacey, and she is in my outdoor leadership class. She is part of a sheep shearing family and lives on a farm. Most of her family members compete in shearing competitions and the one next month she offered to take me to. I am MORE than ecstatic to attend.

The culture.

The biggest difference is the pricing of things. NZ imports about everything, so the prices are way jacked up. Its hard to justify buying shampoo. You also need to pay for plastic forks and knives at the chinese food place down the road, plastic grocery bags, straws, and glasses of water. The entire city shuts down at about 7 pm.  Busses, stores, campus computer labs, everything. It's definitely hard to get used to. If I ever gut frustrated with the culture- this will be the reason. Driving on the other side of the road and car. Freaking weird. Hitchhiking is socially acceptable. All of the greenery. Its incredibly dense for one- if you're driving on a road with trees on either side, it gets surprisingly dark. The mixture of palm trees and pine trees and everything in between is pretty odd, yet allows me to get my fix of living in 2 different places. The people here are quite private. Everyone is very helpful, but never really offers any insight on feelings or anything close to it. Again, for anyone that knows me... that's quite the opposite of my personality. A couple conversations with both Ben and Stacey prove that. I've had both tell me that some things we've discussed they haven't told anyone. And don't think these conversations are crazy- they've included our parents jobs and opinions on day to day things (government, food, teachers). I was flabbergasted when they both told me that these things were not included in normal conversation.

For now that's all I can think of- but I'm sure you'll see some more soon scattered through out my blog.

Next up- SoundScape, the crazy concert in downtown Hamilton

For now i'll leave you with one of my favorite NZ songs ive heard while being here.