September 21, 2013 It's All Espresso Here

During the mostly sunny time since I last wrote, I have continued searching for everyday activities to take in Auckland life. This has frequently included more time out and about on Ponsonby Road, a lively area nearby filled with restaurants, cafes, and boutiques. I now feel quite comfortable venturing out on my own or with the new friends I’ve made, and the neighborhood where I live with my host family has started to feel like home.

The easiest thing to do is go to one of the many cafes I see everywhere, and while trying new ones has been one of my favorite activities since I arrived, the coffee has taken some getting used to. Back home I was accustomed to beginning each day with a huge mug of coffee, but that’s not really an option here since everything is espresso instead of filter coffee. Only twice have I found non-espresso on a menu in the form of French presses some places, but really I’ve almost stopped drinking coffee altogether. Instead I experiment with other hot drinks and often opt for chai lattes—which are even more delicious here than I’ve tasted back home.

Something that was unfamiliar before I came here, but that I’m getting a liking for, is rugby. I’m the first to tell you that I have very little understanding of the sport, but it is a good game to watch. There are actually two variations of rugby—union and league—and one of the things I still can’t really discern when watching is the difference between them. My host dad describes league as being more like American football because a team is allowed a certain number of downs before they must kick to their opponents, whereas union has a “make them take it” format where a team may possess the ball as long as they can. The league team my host family supports the Warriors, and the union team that basically the entire country supports are the All Blacks (so named because they have worn black uniforms since their formation in the 1880s).

While I haven’t yet attended a live game of either kind of rugby, I had heaps of fun when I watched a couple of the All Blacks games while at a sports bar. Not only was the game exciting, but being in a building full of kiwis cheering for their national team amplified the experience. The games I saw were against Australia and South Africa, which are apparently particularly hated rivals of the All Blacks, and I could detect that on the field and from the viewers’ heated reactions to the game. Imagine the passion American fans spread among all our pro baseball, basketball, and football, all funneled into a single team. The atmosphere was great fun, and I think I’ll enjoy becoming more familiar with rugby while I’m in the country where it’s the national sport.

However, it’s not just coffee and sports that they do differently here, but something that strikes me is that the approach to all food and drink is unlike that in the U.S.: I think kiwis really focus on enjoying their food whereas American culture focuses on the convenience of food. Here, fast food businesses are noticeably less prevalent, but grocery stores (small and large) and actual restaurants appear everywhere. My host parents, self-proclaimed “foodies,” love cooking—which is an activity I managed to avoid for much of my life—and my host dad is particularly appalled by my lack of culinary skills. In the last month, though, I’ve cooked and baked for the kids, and they usually consume the dishes without complaint. (Driving and communicating were the initial challenges I faced here, but I find operating ovens and stoves far more frightening territory.) Despite my unfamiliarity with this approach to food, I do like it, and it’s one thing from my time here that I hope to carry home with me once I leave.

Besides embracing the locals’ affinities for cafes and rugby, I still walk and drive around with a newcomer’s eye. One thing that I notice is the art around town—it’s nothing spectacular, but it sure beats plain cinder blocks. I took some photos of murals and mosaics I like best (more here), including this one from outside a restaurant in the Grey Lynn neighborhood. And, as always, what makes me feel most like a foreigner is all the times I have to figure out the language around here. The latest vocabulary:

• bench – kitchen counter top. This means I’m not sure what to call park benches anymore.
• capsicum – bell pepper
• rocket – arugula
• heaps – they use this the way we use “lots”
• dooberry (not sure that has a correct spelling) – doohickey
• bits and bobs – stuff. Also, the name of a store I saw at the mall...that presumably sells stuff
• churr brah – “Sure, bro”; an informal expression of agreement
• ta – thanks
• crikey – interjection 

Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I’m still surprised to realize I’m living in another country. I laugh to think how the Lenora from a year ago would react if told that I’d be where I am today. Doing something like this was something I’d dreamed of doing but never thought I’d actually have the courage to try. Here’s to more fun in the near future!

—Lenora

August 20, 2013 Wintry Mix

 I have spent the past few weeks settling into what will be my normal life for the next year, and I’m still having a great time as I become more comfortable with my surroundings. Now I know my regular routines for taking care of my charges, and I’m reaching out to new people and exploring different activities and parts of the city. In general, I believe I’m settling in quite nicely. I can’t believe I’ve been here an entire month!

People back home have asked me about the earthquakes that hit NZ recently, but they were much farther south from where I live, so we haven’t been affected here at all. More noticeable has been the nasty turn in the weather, which stayed cloudy, windy, and drizzling for much of the past couple of weeks. This picture pretty much sums up a typical winter day here, so I’ve been wearing out my rain coat.

The last newsletter conveyed that my top challenges were driving and understanding Kiwi-speak, so I’m happy to report that I’m conquering both! The roads are now easier to navigate, and although I’ve taken the scenic route to more than one destination, I’m familiarizing myself with street names and traffic patterns. That said, driving is hindered here because the street signs are rather sparse, so when I do get mixed up going to new places, I have a lot of trouble figuring out where I am. Communication still remains the most common obstacle for me (see the vocabulary section), but I’m more comfortable with asking others to clarify what they said.

More Kiwi vocabulary:

• Marmite – a horrible, horrible spread they put on toast here. It tastes like salty tar, and it’s probably about as nutritious.
• lemonade – Sprite. I’ll need to introduce them to actual lemonade.
• pudding – any dessert one eats after a meal, whether or not it’s actually a pudding
• zed – what they call the letter “z”… but they still pronounce it “zee” when singing their ABC’s. Confuzing.
• flash – fancy
• buggered – broken; the fate of many toys around the house
• whinge – whine; what the kids do when a toy’s buggered
• knackered – exhausted
• Pardon? (pronounced “PAH-den?”) – what they say when they want you to repeat yourself. I’m slowly adopting this 

My focus for the past few weeks has been to find ways to meet locals and get away from au pair-related atmospheres when I’m not working. That has included going to yoga classes and joining a very laid-back water polo team—so laid back that they don’t hold practices, they just show up once a week to play games. I didn’t score any goals in my first game, but don’t worry: I intend to bring honor and glory to America with my water polo moves before the end of the season.

Another cultural outing was couple weeks ago when I went to trivia at a restaurant. I thought that I probably wouldn’t do that well since most of the questions would be oriented toward locals. I was right. I talked a German au pair into going with me (I wanted our team name to be something like “Foreign the Afternoon,” but we settled on a portmanteau of our names), and we came in dead last. At least a third of the questions were about cricket, rugby, or soccer, and a good number involved pop culture that only Kiwis would know. However, I did score a point for knowing that the New York Giants are a football team, and my social studies education degree served me well on geography questions. Regardless of the pitiful score, we had a good time!

I must say, though, that even though I’m still very excited to be here, I certainly have moments where I miss what’s going on at home. I missed being at the end-of-season banquet for my lifelong swim team. I’m now missing coaching another season of fall water polo. I have missed and will be missing family members’ birthdays. It’s a comfort, though, to know that all those I wish I could share those moments with are thinking of me here and miss me. I’m glad I have lots of someones to write home to!

However, instead of letting myself get homesick, I embrace all the opportunities to encounter new things, and occasionally I have my camera with me as I do. The picture on the next page is actually from the ferry ride to Waiheke that I wrote about in my last letter. The tall, pointed structure you see in both photos is the Sky Tower, which was once the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere and remains (as far as I can tell) the only recognizable feature in the Auckland skyline. Hopefully in the next month I’ll get a chance to venture outside of Auckland, so stay tuned for more pictures of my adventures.

—Lenora

July 29, 2013 Kia Ora, Y'all

I’m sitting on the beach just outside Auckland. A forty-five minute ferry ride brought us to Waiheke Island, and even in the middle of a New Zealand winter, I couldn’t ask for a more pleasant scene. It’s a great place to cap off my first week here, and even though most of that time I’ve spent jetlagged and culture shocked, I’m thrilled to be in such a marvelous country.

My journey began with my parents and one of my sisters dropping me at Hartsfield, where I caught my initial flight to San Francisco. As I sat waiting to board the long flight for NZ, I thought I’d feel overwhelmed by the thought of leaving the US for the next year. Instead, I felt worry from trying to make sure I found the right gate—and then amusement when I saw that the plane was covered in an obnoxious, giant poster for The Hobbit movies. What a way to leave my homeland, huh? After enduring the grueling thirteen hours in the air, I finally landed, breezed through customs, and met my host family.

I’m living with a wonderful family in Auckland; the house is a short drive from the city’s center, a short walk from a bay, and one step from a lovely park. The weather has been sunny for most of the time I’ve been here, but it started raining as soon as I bought a camera—and the sun reemerged when the camera’s batteries died a couple days later. Sorry—this picture came from a Google Images search and not my own photographic talents. That said, I have seen some stunning sunrises and sunsets since I’ve been here—perhaps I’ll snap one of my own someday.

While I haven’t seen that many sights, per se, I’m continually saturated with new sights, sounds, and experiences. The vegetation is mostly green, even in winter; the buildings are rarely over two stories high, except for downtown office buildings; the water is everywhere I turn, and filled with boats. On the whole, I’m getting used to my environment, but I still catch myself looking around slack-jawed.

The biggest and most obvious adjustments have been the roads and the accent. In case you didn’t know, they drive on the left side of the road here, which threw me the first few days but has been surprisingly comfortable to embrace. Well, maybe not quite embrace—I’ve only driven a couple of times in the city and in the wop-wops on Waiheke—but it no longer feels all that strange.

As far as I know, I’ve avoided bringing disgrace to America through words or action. I’ve been trying to catch onto terms so as to not offend others and to not make a fool of myself, and I’ll compile new vocabulary for readers to learn along with me.

• Kiwi – a New Zealander. Like the bird, not the fruit
• Give way – yield. A very important driving term on their roads
• Flannel – wash cloth. And they’re not even actual flannel!
• Biscuit – cookie. They would refer to our biscuits as scones, but I’ll teach them about real biscuits before I leave
• Wop-wops – rural back country, full of pleasantly challenging driving terrain
• Maori – indigenous people of NZ
• Te Reo – the Maori language
• Kia Ora – “hello.” One of the few Te Reo words I can both spell and pronounce
• Hongi – Maori greeting where two people press their noses and foreheads together. I’m still not sure if this is a real thing or a joke they tell tourists.

Conversation, however, is still sometimes a struggle. The first few days, I thought my ears were still adjusting to the altitude changes of flying, but then I realized they were adjusting to listening to a bunch of Kiwis. I’m employing my hard-of-hearing grandmother’s tactics of pretending to understand folks most of the time, then admitting I have no idea what they said only when I can tell they need an intelligible response. I feel a bit silly constantly asking others to repeat themselves, and it’s particularly challenging to decipher the speech of the small children in my care. Alas, I still find ways to communicate (maybe I’ll convince New Zealanders to use “y’all”), and I’m sure I’ll soon have little trouble understanding those I encounter.

      Despite the many adjustments I’m making (and will continue to make), I’m excited to be embarking on this spectacular adventure for the next year. I agree with the sentiment that a tourist sees what he has come to see, whereas a traveler just sees what he sees. I want to travel because I want to have authentic experiences of life in another country; being an au pair in New Zealand is hopefully the first of many opportunities to live abroad. These newsletters will describe what I encounter overseas and how I interpret another culture, and I look forward to sharing my experiences with everyone!

—Lenora