Just a few of the differences between here and there. . .

Yesterday we went to church and afterwards they were having a barbeque lunch for new people so we joined them. I was astonished at how many people wanted to talk about American politics with me! I laughed at their assumptions about my political opinions and affiliations without giving too much away, but I finally said to one of the ladies that has become a friend that we simply don't talk about such things in the States, at least not in the South and certainly not at church. She laughed and told me Kiwis talk about politics all the time! It's definitely not taboo, in fact it's talked about as much as the weather. I'm not sure this girl can adapt but we'll see - I have no shortage of opinions but it does sometimes seem bad form to air them all!

We went to Palmerston North on Saturday to see Hugh and Margaret and on the way stopped to meet Rico, an 8-month-old golden retriever to see if he might fit with our family. He is a beautiful dog and the girls fell in love and to my surprise even Dugald is quite fond of him. So, against the advice of some of our nearest and dearest, we adopted him. He isn't living with us yet, we weren't quite prepared to take him home that day, but he is being delivered to us by his very sweet owner on the Weds following Easter! I honestly can't wait. Call me crazy. . .

But back to the differences between here and there . . . no one here has air-conditioning. It's not really needed - the weather is pretty mild and the windows can be open without an invasion of mosquitos or other pests so it's quite nice. Except for the dust. There is a lot of dust without the a/c to filter it and I am having to learn some coping mechanisms (like don't look too closely at the floor you JUST vacuumed).

Another notable difference - whenever you see children out and about they have on hats. Definately something we need to look into as New Zealand lacks ozone and therefore is even less protected from the sun than the white fluffy sand of Clearwater Beach. I have been trying to slather the girls in sunscreen whenever we are going out, but even so they got a bit pink today on our walk to and from ballet.

I also mentioned with the car shopping the lack of selection. I will say that I like a lot of the Kiwi products better than what they have at home (cheese, bread, fresh produce, lamb, coffee, wine, definately wine) but there is less selection and availability. I had to run in to the grocery store on the way home from Palmerston minutes before it closed at 10 pm and the produce was gone. Seriously, like two apples were left and they looked like they may have been there awhile. But, and this is fun, I also bought some soap that same night and it somehow didn't make it into my bag (horrors, I was using plastic). Anyway, today the girls and I popped back in to get some produce and other bits and pieces and I mentioned the soap incident to my cashier who was NOT the same cashier from the previous night, but being a small town she said "Oh yes, right, I have it for you" and went and got it, no questions asked. I think I would have gotten the soap in Walmart too but it would have taken a lot longer, receipts would have to have been produced and they might even think I was lying. So that was nice.

We are coping quite well with just one bathroom between us all - it helps that the toilet is in a seperate room, not just area, from the shower and bath. I went to an open house down the road on Sunday and they had the same set up. Makes sense and I am so glad they thought of that! Sunday I decided check out one of the millions of open houses they have every weekend. They seem to make much more use of them here than at home. They also don't really price the houses, at least not that I can tell, that are for sale. Some are for sale by tender, others have a rateable value on them which I guess is a suggested price/tax assessment price, and others go by auction. It's a bit confusing but I'm not really looking to buy anyway, I'm just checking out other people's homes to see what's out there.

Gas is priced by the litre (yep, they spell it litre, not liter) so that's different. And, and this is terrible, no pay at the pump!!!!! Gas is expensive here but we have a car that uses less of it than the suburban so we haven't had to make too many adjustments to the budget on that one. Oh yeah, and we drive a lot less and we only have one car, which brings me to another difference, public transport. The bus system here is great (only say nice things when talking about something your brother-in-law owns). Seriously it's been nice to not have two cars to pay for and look after and it only takes Dugald about 10 minutes to get to work on the bus and they are safe, clean and reliable and run frequently.

The girls are involved in many of the same activities here as they were in Texas - but if we wanted to we could sign them up for cricket, rugby, netball, field hockey, water polo and a few other sports not seen so much at home. We're sticking with what we know at the moment but give them time . . .

Of course the school calendar year is completely different - the Kiwis just began their new grade levels and school year in February. Since we are homeschooling I think I will just keep plugging away on our current school year schedule with breaks thrown in here and there when we do something like, I don't know, move across the planet. Tomorrow our container arrives (yippee, happy dance). I'm giving myself a few days of grace to unload the beast but then we are back to our full curriculum for the first time since Christmas.

Laundry is way different - for starters I can only get half as much in the washing machine as I could in Texas. Then I hang all my stuff out to dry in the back garden (yard). I hate using the dryer, there is one, because it is tiny and slow. I avoid it at all costs because I can also see the electricity meter in my minds eye and it is going ballistic. We pay a lot more for electric and natural gas here than we did, but thankfully like the petrol (gasoline) we don't seem to use as much. Now that may change soon as winter approaches because though we lack a/c we DO have central heat and we need it! I wouldn't mind having it on now in the mornings, there is an amazing amount of fluctuation in the temperature between day and night here.

If you come visit us here and you are from America a good thing to remember is that along with driving on the left people also walk on the left-hand side of the sidewalk, they walk to the left as they enter a store, pretty much everything is "to the left, to the left" (ode to Beyonce). That has taken some getting used to. Oh and when someone invites you over, and you ask three times if you can bring anything and they say no, no, no at least three times - don't believe them.

All in all there are things to be grateful for every day and we are glad to be here but it is fun to notice the things we like better in America and the things we like better here. So far this has been a grand adventure!