While I love this country and most things about it, there are a few things that have been bugging me. Therefor, my traveling companions and I have begun writing a list of grievences to present to the New Zealand Parliament:
1.) Your ketchup tastes funny and, to add insult to injury, you call it Tomato (pronounced toh-mah-toe) Sauce which is confusing.
2.) Your spoons are always either too big or too small, you don't seem to have embraced the teaspoon.
3.) In case you haven't noticed, you drive on the wrong side of the road. This confuses us in simple street crossings, not to mention the awful roundabouts where we are constantly reminded to "give way", but we can't figure out to whom.
4.) Sometimes you call dinner 'tea', sometimes it's 'dinner', other times it's 'supper', but sometimes 'supper' means dessert and 'tea' means tea... we are never sure what meal we're about to eat.
5.) Your birds fly too fast. We try to watch them to add them to our species lists, then they fly away before we can figure out what they are... what's with that?
6.) We still haven't figured out how to order a cup of coffee. What does "flat white" even mean, what about "long black"? Why does the barrista give me such a mean look when i tell her I just want a cup of coffee?
7.) Your milkshakes suck. Room temperature milk mixed with artificially flavored syrup is not what milkshake means.
I'm sure there are more to come, living in another country is confusing! On the other hand, we have found many things to embrace about our new land, including but not limited to: the all blacks, hokey-pokey (not the dance), mac's, tip top, hangis and hongis, 'good on you', 'mean feeds', and much more.
Having a great time, miss you all.
-Kathleen
