Minor Differences...

As most of you could probs guess, there are a few differences between Kiwi culture and the American culture I've grown up in. So I decided to highlight a few them in this blog post!

Cheese
It's really expensive here. Like obnoxiously so. I'm gonna have to cut back on my cheese intake, and dairy intake in general, if I want my funds to last more than a couple months.

Accents, Accents, Accents
The accents are crazy here!!! I didn't even think about it before I came here, but the Kiwi accent varies from region to region, just like in the US. I've met some Kiwi's that almost sound American, others that sound English, and even more that just don't sound like anything else I've ever heard. Sometimes I have a major problem understanding them. Like while I was in lecture the other day, it took me a full minute to understand a Kiwi trying to tell me he liked my rain boots. Literally sounded like another language.


Gingers
They are everywhere. Seriously, I don't think I've ever seen so many in one place. Maybe southpark was right about them taking over the world.

U's instead of O's
As expected, Kiwis say "mum" instead of "mom." Not expected, they put u's in place of o's in other places too. Like instead of "nom nom nom," they say "num num num." Which I personally find even funnier.

Dunners
That's what they call Dunedin for short, makes me laugh every time!

Hitchhiking
It's quite popular here. Not sure whether I'm willing to try it myself, but according to everyone here, it's perfectly safe.

Male Hairstyles
Guys seem to spend more time on their hair here than I ever do. The funny thing is, these hairstyles include what I refer to as "stylized bedhead," a weird mohawk thing that isn't quite a faux-hawk, and rattails. They're all kind of gross actually. Especially the rattails. I even saw one guy that had multiple rattails, one of which was braided. Super gross.

Nature Valley Bars
They're even better here than they are at home. Like, a million times better. Soooo delicious!!!

Lecture Wear
Back home, the most popular outfit for college students sitting in class all day is sweats. Here, people actually look really nice. Like they didn't just wake up five minutes ago and could totally go out to a fancy restaurant at the end of the day without needing to change. I've never felt so underdressed for class before....

Z
The letter, is pronounced "zed" here.

Class Size
So I was in my lecture for Marketing, about a hundred students, and the teacher said, in absolute seriousness, "I see we have a smaller class size here, with 130 enrolled..." WHAT?! 130 students is not small!! It's giant! And yet it's still not my biggest lecture by far!

So those are a few of the differences I've noticed so far, though there are a million more out there!! But that being said, a lot of things are still the same, too!

Another update, I am meeting lots of awesome people here!! Plenty of other international students of course, one of whom spent the last few weeks in a van driving around all of New Zealand! I think that sounds like so much fun! I've also met a few people that know how to surf, so I'm hoping they'll be able to teach me!! I've literally met so many people these last couple weeks, I doubt I could pick them out of a line up. Who knew I could be so social?!

Well I'm off to continue having the time of my life, more to come soon on my beach adventures from this weekend!