50 Things I Have Learned in New Zealand

I was compiling a list of things I had learned in New Zealand (I started this list while I was still there), and I was at Thing #41 when I decided to go for it and make a list of 50. You've gotta keep with tradition, you know. So here is another list of 50 things. This time instead of being "about the author," these are things that kiwi land and the people therein have taught me over the past 4 months:

1. The longest place name in the world (40 syllables, 85 letters) can be memorized in approximately 2 hours of study in the car while on a road trip (Try this at home: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu).
2. Fish and chips are a way of life.
3. The All Blacks are fabulous, even if they didn’t win the Rugby World Cup.
4. Sheep can be cuter than most people give them credit for.
5. Rainforests and glaciers can exist in the same place (I mean literally within the same view. Look left and see a glacier, look right and see a waterfall).
6. Ski hills can and do erupt, so plan your vacations wisely.
7. Music connects people of all ages and cultures.
8. Humanity is universal. People from all over are kind and good and loving and welcoming and encouraging.
9. Living near the ocean provides a kind of beauty that one can never fully experience living in the Canadian prairies.
10. Living in the Canadian prairies provides a kind of beauty that one can never fully experience living in New Zealand.
11. Canada is HUGE.
12. Sometimes we take life too seriously. The kiwis are refreshing in that they don’t always worry about being politically correct. They are human, and usually pretty darn funny about it too.
13. Electric blankets and space heaters are amazing, but central heating is underrated.
14. I should travel my own country more.
15. I love my family more than ever (if this is even possible).
16. My relationships with my friends at home are even deeper than I thought before I left.
17. Paua shell is amazing to look at. It’s so natural, yet so complex and unique in its colours and patterns.
18. A tattoo on the rib cage hurts more than I could have ever anticipated.
19. Teaching can be tiring, but also so rewarding. It is especially amazing when your students go out of their way to tell you that you’ve made a difference.
20. Time flies when you’re having fun.
21. Getting mail is still one of the most exciting small things in life.
22. Technology is incredible in that an e-mail or a text message sent around the world can be met with a response within seconds.
23. The kiwi accent is difficult to imitate without sounding Australian.
24. Falling in love with an impossible situation can be painful, but it is better to love and get hurt than to shy away from it altogether for fear of experiencing pain, as experiencing a range of emotions, good and bad, is part of what makes us human.
25. Treat every experience as an opportunity to learn about yourself and the world around you.
26. Fruit Bursts, jet planes, and a healthy supply of V energy drinks are a staple for any kiwi road trip. Driving in a red convertible with the top down is a bonus.
27. Driving on the “wrong” side of the road and the car isn’t as hard to adjust to as one might imagine. Be prepared, though, to reach for air when you try to buckle your seatbelt (it’s to your right, not your left), and to slam your hand into the window at least once when trying to change gears (if driving standard). Also, don’t be discouraged if you turn on the windshield wipers the first time you try to signal. You might look silly, but I promise it’s perfectly natural.
28. New World is the best grocery store (and sometimes if you’re lucky, they’ll have posters of All Black super hottie Dan Carter hanging on the walls).
29. Spending your money on experiences is never wasted. Sometimes you just have to forget about the budget and go live life.
30. The southern sky on a clear night is beautiful and awe-inspiring. The Southern Cross, Scorpius, and Jupiter are usually the most visible.
31. Glowworms in large groups look like icicle lights.
32. Glowworms have no mouth in their adult phase, so once they mature they just sit there looking pretty until they die of starvation. That’s pretty darn interesting.
33. A white Christmas is a part of my life that I didn’t realize how much I appreciated until I moved halfway around the world, to a country whose people celebrate Christmas with outdoor swimming and barbeques.
34. The flat prairie landscape of Saskatchewan is comforting and familiar (and requires no Gravol or Dramamine like some of the winding roads in New Zealand).
35. Toilet paper is always more fun with pictures and patterns on it, particularly if those pictures are of cartoon sheep or other endearing designs.
36. Setting your watch to the local time at your destination as soon as you get on the plane is a good way to avoid jet lag.
37. You don’t realize how little you know about your own country until you leave it and are faced with tons of people asking you questions to which you have no answers.
38. We have the tendency to be wasteful at home, often because we have no choice. In New Zealand they have the option of full flush or half flush on their toilets, and they have switches on their electrical outlets so that they don’t have to use energy when not necessary.
39. A hearty kiwi meal isn’t complete without the famous trio of potato, pumpkin, and kumara.
40. Travelling is worth every single penny. I hope to spend millions more pennies on overseas experiences.
41. I have an accent.
42. Choirs from different countries can sound surprisingly similar, even though the differences in the inflections and vowel sounds are so obvious when speaking. Somehow singing erases any noticeable accents.
43. If you believe in something, believe in it with your whole heart. The rewards are often great for those who dive in 100%.
44. Making calls to mobile phones in New Zealand, regardless of whether you’re calling from a land line or not, is ridiculously expensive as you are charged mobile rates. This means that a 45-minute conversation to Canada costs approximately $5, while that same conversation to a mobile in Hawke’s Bay or Wellington or anywhere costs about $25. Oops! (But it was worth it!)
45. You can never take too many pictures.
46. Digital cameras are awesome, as they allow you to be an insane photo-snapping tourist without worrying about making every picture turn out just so. You can always go back and delete the ones that didn’t work.
47. Netball is more fun to play than to watch. It is enough like basketball that catching onto the rules can be difficult initially (I apologize to everyone for constantly getting within 3 feet of the opposition with the ball… I caught on eventually!).
48. Canada and New Zealand are more alike than you might think. Australia is more like the States.
49. Hot pink tote bags from Supre are pretty much the utmost in fashion.
50. Growing up happens so fast, but being able to watch oneself in the process and to be able to appreciate the beauty in the transformation through all of the beautiful, challenging, awe-inspiring, life-changing, memorable experiences is really an amazing thing. Life is so full and rich. Live it. Love it. Learn from it.

50 random things - #51-100

For a list of "random things #1-50," refer to the link on the right hand column of my blog (under "About the Author"). Here comes the list, #51-100! Somehow I can't figure out the numbering, so just add 50 to each number and it'll be all good. Again, in no particular order:

1. My favourite time signature is 6/8.
2. Fewer things freak me out more than walking down a stopped escalator. Walking up is ok, but walking down is just trippy.
3. I have an affinity for necklaces and sunglasses. You will very rarely see me without a necklace.
4. I have chubby baby hands with dimply knuckles. This may have been cute at age 2, but now that I’m 22 I feel as though this might be a little odd.
5. I cry at the end of the movie “Dead Poet’s Society” every time.
6. If I focus on the sound of a clock ticking, I inevitably start subdividing it in 8th notes, 16th notes, and various triplet patterns. It becomes very annoying, very quickly.
7. I am good at mini-golf, but can’t play regular golf because I always want to swing the club like a baseball bat.
8. All of my piercings and tattoos have memories of friends associated with them. I believe that body modification is a bonding experience, so I always bring friends along (belly button = David; helix = Allyson; conch = Kari; nose = D-Bo; 8th note tattoo = Misha; tragus = Nick; koru tattoo = Kirsten)
9. I have never experienced a pain more intense than getting a tattoo on my rib cage. I’m sure that even childbirth will pale in comparison.
10. Every year I try to make a note of announcing when the day, month, and year are the same (i.e. “It’s July 7th! 07/07/07!”). Next year I will do the same on August 8th.
11. A sunset on the beach takes my breath away.
12. I find the notion of musicians playing in time with their heartbeats prior to the invention of metronomes completely romantic and human. I should try it sometime, just to see what it’s like.
13. Don’t ask me if I’ve seen a certain movie, because I probably haven’t.
14. I have a horrible tendency to fall asleep during movies. Most of my friends have accepted this fact. My friend Dave somewhat jokingly insists that I find his company so boring that I could fall asleep while watching a movie at his house, even if I had just awoken from a 12-hour slumber. Sorry, Dave.
15. I far prefer driving standard/manual to automatic.
16. I have never bungy jumped, but I did the Shotover Canyon Swing in Queenstown, New Zealand, which is similar to bungy in that you jump (or do a backflip, or a handstand, etc.) off of a tall platform – 109m in this case – into a long free-fall. Doing a backflip off of a cliff was the scariest thing I have ever done in my life. I screamed all the way down, and then went back for more. I think doing the Canyon Swing proved to me that I’m braver than I give myself credit for, and as such I am now keen to do both the bungy jump and sky dive.
17. I love inspirational quotes.
18. I am convinced that Ella Fitzgerald and I are soul mates because we share the same middle name (albeit different spellings). I could listen to her singing for hours on end, and I have been known to do just that on long road trips.
19. I believe that you don’t fully appreciate the beauty of your own country until you leave it. Travel has an amazing way of opening your eyes to what has always been around you.
20. When I was in my teen years, I had a shelf that ran the length of 3 out of 4 of my bedroom walls at home. Amazingly, I was able to fill all three shelves full of picture frames. I had something like 56 picture frames in my bedroom at the time. Cleaning around them was a bugger, but at least I was constantly reminded of my rich life and my wonderful friends.
21. I love karaoke to a ridiculous extent. The guys at one of the karaoke bars in Saskatoon know my friends and me by name (and sometimes by song choice). It’s somewhat embarrassing, but more entertaining than anything.
22. I used to be a prolific letter-writer. I had pen pals from around Canada and the States, and the occasional overseas one. I don’t write as many letters by hand as I used to – I suppose technology has made it easier to keep in touch through the Internet. Still, somehow there is something so heart-warming about receiving real “snail mail” from somebody.
23. I am addicted to Facebook. Whoever created that website is a genius.
24. I keep journals in which I write anything and everything that comes to mind before I go to bed at night. Sometimes I think that I’d hate for other people to read them, and sometimes I think that it would be interesting for people to stumble across them after I’m long gone. I doubt that anything I write in there would be a surprise to anyone, as I am very open about my emotions.
25. I love having girls’ nights in with my friend (and now roommate) MacKenzie, in which we have “Sex and the City” marathons where we stay up for hours watching episode after episode, eating Crispers in our pyjamas, giggling, and engaging in plenty of girl talk.
26. The more I think about it, the more I believe that everything happens for a reason. This may or may not be true, but it sure makes those tough moments in life a lot easier to bear.
27. I am not religious, but I do consider myself to be spiritual. I used to feel like I needed to identify with an organized group, but the older I get the more I realize that I am perfectly comfortable believing what I believe and living my life the way in which I choose to live it. I believe that the higher power comes from all around and deep within (which I understand are contradictory statements); my “faith” is in myself, in the people that I love, and in the beauty of the small things in life.
28. I know almost nothing about politics. It’s sometimes embarrassing to admit how little I actually know. I cringe at the thought of political discussions around the dinner table. Can we talk about music or travel instead?
29. The smell of fuel is strangely comforting to me. I’m sure I associate it with good childhood memories of family road trips.
30. I can do this weird thing with my tongue where I can curl it into a clover formation. This is clearly one step ahead of the rest of you, who likely can only curl yours into a U shape. I’m actually not sure how I can do that, as neither of my parents or my sister can do it. I only discovered this “talent” when I was in my late teen years.
31. I am always in awe when I look out the window of an airplane to discover that I’m flying above the clouds, across mountain ranges, or across the patchwork quilt fields of the Canadian prairies. I love taking pictures out the window, especially if the wing of the plane is in the shot.
32. I have always decorated my lockers at school with colourful magnets and pictures of friends and family. Now that I am in my 5th year of university, I still decorate my locker. I’m not sure what I’ll do when I’m finished school – I guess I’ll just have to find a corner of my desk in my music office for a bulletin board collage or something.
33. I have magnetic poetry on my fridge, and I can sit there for hours coming up with different combinations of words. Sometimes I am actually quite pleased with my creations, and I have even been known to submit my magnetic poetry for writing assignments at university.
34. I can’t clean my room unless I’m listening to music with my windows (or at least my curtains) open.
35. I sometimes have a “tongue on the flagpole” mentality. When I visited the Waitomo glowworm and Aranui caves in Waitomo, NZ, we were clearly and strongly warned against touching any of the limestone formations because of their fragility. The entire time walking through the caves, I felt the urge to stick my hand out and poke a stalactite. I’m sure if the guide hadn’t warned us not to touch anything, I probably wouldn’t feel the need to do so. I guess I’m still a child in that sense.
36. I miss having my hair in braids. If I had enough money, I would have my hair braided every year, with a different funky colour each time. I’ve had these braids done three times; the first was brown with golden highlights, the second was black with burgundy, and most recently I had black with bright purple. I think I might opt for black or brown with deep blue and green next time, just to mix it up a little (and perhaps to match my tattoo – see #59).
37. I get overly excited when I’m saving up for something specific. When I was in Grade 11 I put away tip money from my waitressing job for a month so that I could buy my video camera (which, although outdated, I still use today). Before I went to Austria and Czech Republic, I again put away all of my tip money from my summer job to be put towards the cost of that choir tour. My next plan is to save up money to travel to Germany in 2010 with two of my best mates from New Zealand, and I’m already excited about it.
38. I am a list-maker. I don’t think I could be nearly as organized as I am without them. However, I don’t think I could ever top my Auntie Diane, who once made a list of lists that she had to make. Now that’s impressive.
39. Not a day goes by where I don’t think of how lucky I am to have such an amazing family and great friends. Sometimes I wonder if I tell them often enough, although in my heart I know I do.
40. Every once in a while I’m reminded of how much I miss the original old-school Nintendo. I was the master of “Adventure Island,” a game that I inherited from my cousins Brent, Sean, and Scott (and Auntie Donna and Uncle Jack) after their realization that I was so in love with this game that I would wake up at 6am on a Saturday (while on summer holidays!) to play it in their living room. I’m pretty sure Auntie Donna even has a picture of me in my nightgown playing this game, circa 1992.
41. I love doing little things for people when they’re least expecting it. It tickles me when people do the same for me.
42. I get a great deal of satisfaction out of stapling the cover page of an essay or an assignment and handing it in.
43. I got Sponge Bob Square Pants “sippy cups” in my Christmas stocking as a joke a couple years ago, and I actually use them. I think the packaging said something like “For ages 3+,” and my argument is that I am older than 3 and should therefore be able to drink my chocolate milk from my Sponge Bob sippy cup in peace, without the risk of being ridiculed by my friends (I do have an extra sippy cup though, if you’d like to join me for some chocolate milk).
44. If it were socially acceptable to wear pyjama pants in public, I would probably do it a lot more than I do. As it stands, I only wear pyjama pants to the grocery store late at night (probably to buy chocolate milk for my Sponge Bob sippy cup – see #93).
45. Living through a winter season in the southern hemisphere has made me realize how much I appreciate snow and the idea of a “white Christmas.” There is something so cozy about freezing your butt off in the car on the way to visit friends and family, and then warming yourself up by the fire in the company of good people, good food, and laughter. This Christmas will be especially meaningful to me for that reason.
46. I had my tonsils removed when I was 17, and I had just finished my run as “Gertie” in the musical “Oklahoma!” The surgeon and the anaesthetist had both seen the show, so before they put me under for surgery, they requested that I do the horribly irritating and piercingly loud laugh that defines the character one more time while I still could. I vaguely remember starting to do the scream-like laugh, then fading out as they put the mask over my face. I’m sure anyone within earshot would have been wondering what the hell had just happened.
47. When I was a young child my parents allowed me to be creative with the way that I dressed, only stopping me when my fashion decisions were potentially dangerous. I suppose I now understand that wearing slouch socks and a mini skirt in the middle of a Canadian winter is not the best idea. Thanks mom and dad.
48. I sometimes wonder what I will be like in 5 years, and where my life will have taken me. Then I think back to what I was like 5 years ago, and I try to imagine whether I am now who I thought I would be in 5 years time, 5 years ago (does that make sense?).
49. I used to fight my curly hair. Now I enjoy it, as it is a part of what makes me who I am.
50. I used to spend my summer days as a child setting up lemonade stands with the neighbourhood kids to make enough money to go to the waterslides at Kinsmen Park or to buy candy from the Mac’s store on 15th Avenue. In the summer after Grade 4, a few friends and I decided to make our own business called “Kal’s Café” (which stood for Kendra, Ashlee, Lauren; we were later joined by our friend Melissa, so we said that the S in “Kal’s” could stand for her last name, Sommerville). Ashlee’s dad built us a café out of a few 2x4s, some lattice board, and a bit of cardboard. Amazingly, that café weathered several storms and still managed to be open for business in my backyard for the entire summer. We sold 5-cent candies, lemonade, and tickets for fun activities like jumping on my mini-trampoline and walking on stilts. We made $30 profit that summer, and we spent it on a pizza party in a tent in my backyard in the fall. I still smile and laugh when I think about that summer, and how much fun we had riding our bikes around the neighbourhood shouting “Kal’s Café! Open today! At Lauren’s house!” It’s only now that I’m older that I realize how much my parents delighted in the small things as my sister and I grew up (like the time we made perfume out of flower petals and water), and I am so thankful that they allowed us to be creative and excited about our many little projects. (And while we’re at it, who could forget the time that I dressed up as a gypsy, complete with hoop earrings and a mini-basketball covered in tinfoil, and sat on the curb outside our house telling fortunes?).

50 things for "About the Author" link

Sam inspired me to do an "About the Author" link on my blog. I had fun coming up with 50 random facts about myself, so here they are, in no particular order:

1. I can be too trusting. My mom affectionately refers to me as a golden retriever puppy – always wanting to believe that everyone is good, and that nobody would ever intentionally hurt me. I’m getting better at judging character as I get older, but I still have the tendency to trust people unless they prove to me that they can’t be trusted.
2. I call my grandpa “Bobby” because that’s what my sister called him when she couldn’t say “grandpa.”
3. When I was in grade 2, I tripped over my sister as we were both running up the stairs. I hit the corner of the wall, and got 7 stitches down the middle of my face. My grandparents were visiting at the time, and we sent Bobby (see #2) to the hospital with me. He’s an artist. We left my grandma, Connie, the nurse, at home. Go figure.
4. I always sign my name with an 8^th note at the end.
5. I have that same 8^th note tattooed on my left foot. It took me 6 years to actually decide to do it.
6. I have played every drinking straw that I’ve ever had in the past 8 ½ years like a slide whistle. If you’ve ever gone out for a drink with me, you’ve probably seen this.
7. My toenails are always painted.
8. I was not a naturally talented singer. I had to work very hard for my voice. As such, it is one of my pet peeves when someone says, “You’re so lucky that you have such a natural talent.” No, I have determination and a strong work ethic.
9. I also have asthma. It is easily controlled.
10. For 2 years, I played a saxophone in sax choir that was almost as tall as I was. My back and shoulders ultimately made me give it up, but it was fun while it lasted (for the record, the saxophone in question was the bass sax).
11. I am a physical clone of my dad, and an emotional clone of my mom.
12. I have an older sister whom I love dearly, despite all of her attempts to fool me as a child. She once told me that a “family reunion” was a type of domestic pet, closely related to the dog.
13. I love to write poetry, but I don’t do enough of it anymore.
14. I’m a better baker than a cook.
15. I want to have children. One of my greatest fears is that somehow I will be unable to have my own biological children. There is no reason for this fear, yet it’s still there way in the back of my mind.
16. I used to speed skate. My skin suit had the World Industries devil on the back. Perhaps then it is no coincidence that my best race was the 666m.
17. I love ghost stories, even if they make me crawl into bed with my parents at age 16.
18. I take pictures of everything. I wish I knew more about photography.
19. One of my fondest childhood memories is watching Saturday morning cartoons while my dad made Mickey Mouse pancakes.
20. Age is just a number to me. Every stage of life can be beautiful in its own way, if you choose to see the beauty in it instead of focusing on your age.
21. I rip my fabric softener sheets in half when I put my laundry in the dryer. Half a Bounce sheet does the trick, and it saves money (see #46).
22. I’m allergic to animals, kiwi fruit, pollen, sulfa, and maybe plastic band-aids (I have a weird little scar where I put a plastic band-aid on once).
23. I wish I could compose music in the style of Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Jason Mraz, etc.
24. I have a very girly taste in alcohol. Kahlua is my drink of choice, either in the form of Paralyzers or Brown Cows.
25. For many years, my family would go on a ski trip to the mountains during February break, usually to Alberta, BC, or Montana. My dad would always make his world-famous pizza the night before, then my parents would pick my sister and me up from school at noon so that we could get on the road early. We’d be all excited, and then year after year, without fail, we’d have van trouble and we’d have to devise some ridiculous scheme to get the required car part. The most memorable one for me was the time mom and dad had an alternator or something like that shipped on a Greyhound bus that was going to be passing through Cereal, Alberta at like 3am, so they made arrangements to be waiting on the side of the highway in the van, and they flashed their brights when they saw the bus approaching so that the bus would stop and they’d get the alternator. Despite the travel delays and the excess spending of money to fix these problems, we always laughed about it.
26. If I can help it, I will never go to bed angry at someone. Sometimes this means staying up until 4am.
27. I have a low tolerance for pain, yet I have a tattoo (see #5) and 5 piercings, not including my earlobes.
28. I can play multiple instruments, but somehow I’ve never been good at the piano.
29. Traveling amazes me. No matter how far removed you become from your home in terms of geography, culture, or language, you still find people who are exactly like you. I’ve found that music seems to be the common denominator, probably because most of my travel experience has been with choir.
30. I keep a pair of slippers in my locker at school, and I’ve worn them to class so often in the past 4 years that very few of my profs comment on their outrageously shocking neon yellow/green colour anymore.
31. It’s my ultimate goal in life to pull my debit card out of the ATM before it beeps. I’ve been trying for years, with no success so far.
32. I view glasses as a fashion statement. So far I’ve owned pairs in black, deep red, semi-rimless, and now purple and orange with rhinestones.
33. I was a very persistent and determined child, which was tiring for my parents at times. Fortunately, they didn’t stifle my determination, because now when I want something I will work my butt off to get it (see #8).
34. I got 99% in Jazz History in my 3^rd year of university, and I cried because I thought I was going to get 100%. I didn’t realize the absurdity of this reaction until much later.
35. I love to sing along with Ella Fitzgerald’s recording of “Blue Skies” while I’m driving. I’ve done it often enough that I have almost aurally transcribed her entire scat solo.
36. When I need time to be alone with my thoughts, I love to go for long walks with an Ipod full of good tunes. Walking at night is better than during the day.
37. Marshmallows taste better frozen.
38. Inside jokes make my world go around.
39. I hate spiders with a passion. This stemmed from an incident when I was 16 in which I was on a canoe trip on the Churchill River, and I discovered a big, fat, hairy black spider crawling inside my bra, between my boobs. I’ve never screamed so loud in my entire life.
40. My mom and I are very intuitively connected. Often I’ll come home after a long day at school, and as soon as I sit down at the computer she’ll e-mail me. Sometimes I’ll call her at work, and she’ll answer, saying, “I just had my hand on the phone, about to pick it up and call you.”
41. They say procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. I’ve almost mastered this art.
42. I get great satisfaction from hitting the snooze button on my alarm.
43. I have been known to sleepwalk when I am extremely overtired. This has only happened a handful of times in my life.
44. Despite #42, I am a natural morning person.
45. Astronomy fascinates me, but I know very little about the topic. I find the expansiveness of the universe entirely mind-boggling.
46. I’m not an impulsive spender of money, nor do I buy brand name products when I don’t need to. I’d rather save my money so that I can spend it on travel or good times with friends.
47. I tend to be typecast. In choir, I almost always get the jazzy or gospel solos. In musicals, I tend to play the loud, bossy, or irritating characters. I hope that this is not a reflection of the directors’ opinions of me.
48. When I fall in love, I love with my whole heart. Sometimes this leaves me vulnerable and capable of being easily hurt.
49. When I get the giggles, it can be hard for me to stop. This is especially funny in situations in which it’s completely inappropriate to laugh.
50. I view life as an ever-changing adventure with unlimited opportunities for new friends, new experiences, and meaningful self-discovery along the way. The profundity of human experience and emotion will always keep life interesting for me.