My life and one more amusing Kiwi saying

For my schedule and detail oriented friends that want to know EVERYTHING I am doing (Suzanne and Sarah), here is my life the past couple of days:

Tuesday (after my last post about what I am doing)- I went and worked on the farm with Aaron all afternoon which was surprisingly entertaining because I was learning lots of new things (though I doubt I could do it many more times and be entertained). That night Harry, a guy in the youth group at New Life, asked Aaron and I if we wanted to go to a seminar on "global technology." Although it didn't sound like something we would generally do in the States, we were in New Zealand and asked to do something so we said sure. It ended up being a sales pitch for ASN (a video phone company). We were wearing nice shirts and jeans and walked in late to find everyone in suits. AND I'm pretty sure we were supposed to sign up and pay to get in on the meeting but walked right past the lady on accident. Oops. Oh well. If I had to pay I would have sat outside anyways. Then we went to a coffee shop across from the mall in Christchurch and got some tasty drinks (Aaron and I shared an AMAZING vanilla chai tea). After the whole ASN sales pitch we had a good time at the coffee shop and goofing around in the closed mall.

Wednesday- For some reason my stomach decided it hated me this day. I had plans to bike around town and get out and do something, but my stomach decided I should just stay inside and do nothing all day. So I obeyed it and did just that. I started reading Wicked, posted my blog about Kiwi language, and did random things. That night Aaron and I went to a bible study with the New Life uni students. It was good to be back in a community of believers. We talked about backsliding in your faith and making sure to shine your light. I am sure this will surprise most of you (especially those that were in my community group), but I had a lot of troubles not being the leader of the conversation. I'm just SO used to being the leader in those situations. It also quite made me miss all the girls that I had a Wednesday night bible study with last year. :( They didn't laugh and make fun of each other quite as much as we did. :D Really, though, it was awesome to be a part of that.

Thursday- I spent all day over at Tim and Julie's (the owners of the sheep farm). I was supposed to help Julie's mom prepare things for some catering she had to do this weekend, but there was a breach in communication somewhere and we ended up not even seeing or talking to her. When we went to the place she works, however, they told us she wasn't catering until next weekend. So we don't know if schedules just got messed up or what... Instead I hung out and talked with Biddie, their daughter. We had funny conversations about the Kiwi and American differences. She asked a few times if we really did something in America that she had seen on TV shows. One of my favorite parts is when she asked if we can buy cookie dough in the store and I explained to her that many of my friends and I just keep it in the fridge for those occasions that we need it. She thought it was awesome we could buy it and keep it for that long- they have to make it each time they want some cookie dough. It made me feel bad for Kiwi girls' nights. I guess lawyers here also don't get their first degree and then go to law school. They start law school right after high school. That explains why so many of the uni students at New Life were confused when I told them I just graduated university and will now be going to law school. We also went to the beach to walk their three house dogs. Last night Barry and I also had a fun conversation. He asked what a fraternity was and then we had a LONG explanation about them all. Yet another thing Kiwis have really only heard about because of TV and are often confused about.

Also, it occurred to me on Wednesday night (when listening to some of the uni students talk) that I forgot to include some of my FAVORITE Kiwi sayings that is really quite confusing when you are first here. First, let me explain my first encounter with these sayings.

One day, I was talking to someone here about the fact that I had just graduated from Purdue with a double major and would be going to law school soon. We then got on the conversation of Indiana and why I would choose them despite the fact that they were Purdue's rivals. After I had explained that they are actually ranked pretty high, they have in state tuition, and they offered me a scholarship they looked at me and said, "Far out! You must be smart az." When they said this I didn't know what to say. Were they making fun of me or trying to compliment me?

For a while I continued to hear Kiwis says "cool az" or "bored az" or many other sayings that ended with what sounded like another word for a donkey. For a long time I thought they simply all had an obsession with the word and it must not be profane for them. Later on, however, I finally realized that they say similes without finishing the sentence all the time. They were really saying "cool as (a cucumber)" or "smart as (Einstein)." They simply just shorten the similes so they don't have to come up with something clever at the end. Really, it makes talking to someone so much quicker. It's just confusing to us Americans that don't always know what they are saying. ha ha

That's it for today.
I hope things are going well for all of you.