Living in Palmerston North

We are often reminded of Mark Twain's famous quote about the US and England being "two countries separated by a common language". Certainly applies re New Zealand! I find myself hanging on to what people say because I don't always get it the first time. Accents here are kind of a cross between British and Australian, yet uniquely Kiwi. They pronounce a lot of words that Americans use a short "e" with a long "e". Such as message becomes "meesage". In talking with the salesman at Vodafone (local cell phone store), he said he would send me some information in a "teeext meesage". I had to ask the guy to repeat it several times before I got it. Similar conversation with a woman telling me a story who kept using the word "deet". Turned out to be "debt"! Ralph asked another doctor at the hospital if he thought patients had as much trouble understanding him as he did them and the doctor said no, because they watch so much American TV here. And then there are totally different slang expressions, different words (nappy for diaper), and different spellings. A waiter over the weekend wanted to guess where we were from. He said if he says Canada, then it's usually America, or vice versa. But he guessed my American accent correctly, and then further identified it as "West Coast"! Yeah, thoroughly Southern me. :) Ralph had a doctor at the hospital tell him that he had a good friend living in Chapel Hill, Alabama. These stories make me feel a little better about being so ignorant of New Zealand geography!

We've been spending a lot of time studying various maps and guidebooks. So many places to go, and choices have to be made. Ralph has a few days off next week and we are going to Wellington. It's about a 2 hour drive, or bus ride, or train ride---take your choice. I'm a little leery of the train ride since part of the track took a plunge into the Manawatu Gorge the week before we got here due to extremely heavy rains. They supposedly have it fixed.....

Ralph's job is going well. He's still adjusting to it. The medical system here is more like the British system and things are done very differently.

Most days I take a long walk with a destination in mind. It's about 1.5 miles to the town square and the public library, of which I am now a card carrying member. It's about a mile to the nearest grocery store of size. Walked there this morning. I've just about given up figuring out what I'm paying for stuff---it has to be bought regardless. Could spend all day there doing math trying to figure out prices! First there's converting kilograms to pounds, realizing their sales tax is already built into the price, then converting NZ dollars to US dollars ($1.00 NZD = about .74 USD). I get frustrated trying to find ingredients I consider common (in the USA), but can't find here, so I've been keeping the cooking fairly simple. The beef here is incredible. It's all free range and steaks melt in your mouth, whether from the grocery or a restaurant.

The sports channels are full of rugby, rugby, and more rugby. Also the Commonwealth Games are going on. I had never heard of them but apparently it's like the Olympics, but just countries who are or who have been part of the British Empire. There is a lot of American television but no particular rhyme or reason that I can tell to when a show might be on. All of the series are at least one season behind what is being shown in the US. We catch a random football game or two at crazy times (because of the 17 hour time difference), and it does look like we picked a good year to miss watching our Tennessee Volunteers. (: