The American Stereotype... Day 5

Today I had my international student orientation, which on the whole, was pretty boring. I got a few pieces of relevant information, but I could have gotten that in less than the four hours we were there. After orientation, a few of us went off to get phone cards, then I went with a few girls that I met, Stacey & Taylor, who are from Boston, to check out the city. We went downtown on a bus, which only took about ten minutes. We really didn’t stay downtown for very long, maybe an hour and a half, but it is a rockin’ little city. It’s really easy to navigate and it’s absolutely gorgeous. There’s this really cool life size chess set that I saw in the middle of Cathedral Square, which is vaguely reminiscent of the chess set from the second Harry Potter movie, only about half the size. Anyways, we got on a bus to go back to Ilam.

We definitely got on a bad bus, we should have known when the bus driver went nuts at some people, but the geniuses we are, we stayed on. Big mistake. The beginning of the bus ride was fairly uneventful, one guy pretended to be deaf so the bus driver would stop yelling at him. Granted, I knew there were other Americans on the bus, I didn’t know that I would be pretending to be Canadian in only a few moments time. We were at a university stop and the bus driver closed the doors. Well, the other people that were on the bus decided it was time to fulfill an American stereotype. Loud and rude. This big girl and her friend realized that they needed to get off at that stop, just as the doors were closing, then the girl yells, at the top of her lungs ‘WAIT!’ then proceeds to tell her friend, very loudly, that this is their stop. The bus driver said something about not paying attention, which totally set this girl off. She yelled something like “WELL I DON’T KNOW, I’M FROM THE STATES!” She proceeded to yell obscenities at the bus driver as she disembarked. I promptly told the guy next to me, ‘I swear I’m Canadian.” The people on the bus were completely awestruck. Someone actually asked if she was being serious.

Anyways, we walked about 15 minutes to the supermarket called Countdown, and picked up a few grocery items. In addition to groceries, I bought a reusable grocery bag for NZ$.99, since it’s not only eco-friendly, but it’s also easier to carry and way more durable than a plastic bag. And I kinda feel like I’m doing something good for the world. It’s because I’m amazing.

I learned something really weird today. If you are dating someone and you live together for a year, you are legally in a marriage, so if you break up, you are entitled to half of everything, even if you have more. Lame. Also, they have maps that are Southern Hemisphere on top, as well as ones that are centered on the Pacific Ocean, instead of the Atlantic Ocean. I’d be sweet to get my hands on one of those.

So right now, I’m battling a cold that I think I got on an airplane, it’s trying its hardest to knock me out, but I’m fighting it tooth and nail, and I’m drinking tea like it’s going out of style. One more thing… I found the coolest crackers, they’re kinda like saltines, with perforated edges and all, but they are four saltines together in one cracker, they are about three inches square. Simple things make me happy. I think I’m going to get up lazily tomorrow and head downtown. Now I’m going to sleep.