Initial Observations

I’ve settled into my flat (house) and sorted out all my classes, which will start next week. We call each other family in our flat, and we are part of a complex of about five flats that we consider extended family. My family consists of Charlotte, Craig, and David- with Hannah still to come. Charlotte, or Charlie, is my Kiwi host from Wellington who studies Law and Commerce. Craig is from California and studies English and Business at USC. David is from Christchurch and is here studying Heath Science (which is like pre-med). Hannah is coming today and is from Minnesota. We already have flat dinners and enjoy sitting out on the lawn with everyone from our complex.

I have also finished course approvals, and if everything goes as planned I will be taking Sociocultrual foundations of P.E., Animal Designs for Living, Maori Society, and Music in Popular Culture. I have been going on walks around town and the botanical gardens, but wanted to explore without a camera first so that I don’t miss just experiencing it all. So, I will just include a few interesting observations that I’ve made thus far:
1. To turn a light off you push the switch up
2. Jell-o is called jelly and jelly is called jam
3. The streets around the Cadbury factory actually smell like chocolate
4. Since they drive opposite of us, they also walk opposite on the sidewalk, staying to the left instead of the right (Charlie told us this so that we would stop awkwardly almost running into people)
5. The street containing fast food is known as “Fatty Street”
6. People look at you funny when you wear a Boise State Football shirt with an American football on it