The latest

There have been some computer difficulties, but now I am back on the blog! So much has happened, and it makes me sad because I feel like I can’t remember it all to put on the blog. However, a lot of it are things people said, and that may not come off too well in writing anyway. 

Anyway, right when I was thinking I may as well have been in Germany instead of New Zealand...other travelers arrived at the hostel! (I say this because EVERYONE is German, this is not a joke....there are German people traveling everywhere, all the time, like crazy. I feel like I should speak German coming to NZ)! Nonetheless, in the past few days we have had people from France, Chile, and Argentina. Yay! Everyone was nice except the guy from Chile. We asked him if he wanted to watch Harry Potter with us...it was on TV. He said, “No, I have REAL movies in my room.” Later he asked about a grocery store. We said, “Go to Pack n Save. It is the cheapest.” He said, “No, I will not buy that shit!” Then he asked us where the local bars were. We said we didn’t know, but he went out anyway. The next day I asked him how his night went, and if he found what he was looking for. He said, “No, everything was shit, and the people were not classy.” A few days later he left, and we were all relieved. 

I realized I am the only person at the hostel who is American, and speaks English as a first language. Some people are better than others with English. Most can speak very well, and we can have a perfectly normal conversation. Others are still struggling a bit. Somehow though, I have become the universal person to ask all questions about English. I spent an hour with this nice guy from Argentina last night going over his resume for work, and correcting it. It is actually fun. They all say they really do want to improve their English, and I am having fun helping out. 

At work the past few days we have been in a warehouse because the weather has been colder and bad. We stand up and bend wires for 8-9 hours a day. While all the guys were bending 5 or 6 at a time, I was struggling with 4. So I went down to 2 or 3 wires. That made it faster, and easier so I was keeping up. 

While we were doing this I realized I was standing next to a guy I didn’t know. Turns out he is from the Sudan, has been in NZ almost 5 years, and has not seen his wife and kids for 3 years! I’m still not sure why he left exactly, but I think he is trying to become a citizen of New Zealand. Anyway, he asked me some funny questions. First he said, “There are a lot of African Americans in America, right?” I said, “Yes, especially where I live in Atlanta.” He said, “Is it like the movies where people are driving around with the windows down and rap music, holding guns, and shooting people?” (He had just seen a movie that was named something about “the hood.”) I laughed and said no. I explained there were “bad” neighborhoods in certain places, but the streets of the U.S. were not lined with crazy gangsters from the hood like in some movies. He also had seen another movie and asked me if I thought the world was going to end next year in 2012. The last thing he asked, which was what he was most shocked about, was why I was there doing the farm work. He said, “Why are you here doing this dirty hard work? In your country you can fly rockets if you want to!” Anyway, we chatted almost the whole day. He was so sweet and funny and interesting, but I think he was surprised to hear the answers to some of his questions.

Work is good, but can get very boring and tiring. Standing up for so long is killer. The first few days were nothing, so I thought I was super strong or something. Then suddenly by the afternoons recently I am longing to sit down. Thankfully I have Jacob to chat with, but we move at different paces and run out of things to talk about. I knew we were bored the other day when Jacob asked me if I had seen bulls where I live. With the double L’s and the Chinese accent I had NO IDEA what he said. Finally I realized he said “BULL.” I explained what I knew, but said I really never saw any bulls. A few minutes later he was saying under his breath, “boo boo booo.” He was trying to say “bull.” For an hour or more I think Jacob would say, “boooo” or “buuuu” and I would say “bull.” By the end he was saying “Booouuuuo” and I was saying “BuuuuuuLLLLLLLLLLL.” This went back and forth for a very long time. I guess it kept us entertained, and by the end he did say “bull.” But I think lost it again later.

Sorry this is so long!