Aside from having an indecent amount of sheep, New Zealand is very similar to British Columbia. It’s a very young country, has lots of mountains (I’m going skiing on them this June), and is home to a very outdoorsy lot. In essence, ‘tis Hippieland.
There are some slight differences, however, that make sure I never get too disoriented.
For example: this place is ridiculously safe.
No poisonous creatures, like the big spiders, jellyfish, etc., that I’ll be finding in Australia.
There’s hardly ever any serious earthquakes or tsunamis, considering that they’re right on the edge of the tectonic plate that keeps on giving South East Asia so much trouble.
There aren’t any big carnivorous mammals, like the bears and cougars of our homeland which we take so for granted but leave the Kiwis I meet in awe and fear. You should see their faces when I tell them.
“Oh yeah, I’ve seen tons of bears. No, don’t worry. They’re not dangerous. As long as you don’t get in between them and their food or young. Or provoke them. Or if they’ve grown used to humans and are in the dump or something. Or gone camping with food in your tent. No seriously, I consider myself lucky when I see a bear.”
*preens under awe*
“And is it true you have. . .” They pause, as if determined to pronounce a complicated word properly. “. . . squirrels?”
“Yep,” I answer knowledgeably. “And when the colonists first arrived we didn’t have much else to eat so the Indians showed us how to hunt them. That’s why in Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving with roast squirrel instead of turkey.”
*cackles*. God, I love being the foreigner. People’ll believe anything.
Note to self: never pursue a career as an ambassador.
Love!
Lentil,
The Girl Who Might Have a Compulsive Story-Telling Disorder. ;)
There are some slight differences, however, that make sure I never get too disoriented.
For example: this place is ridiculously safe.
No poisonous creatures, like the big spiders, jellyfish, etc., that I’ll be finding in Australia.
There’s hardly ever any serious earthquakes or tsunamis, considering that they’re right on the edge of the tectonic plate that keeps on giving South East Asia so much trouble.
There aren’t any big carnivorous mammals, like the bears and cougars of our homeland which we take so for granted but leave the Kiwis I meet in awe and fear. You should see their faces when I tell them.
“Oh yeah, I’ve seen tons of bears. No, don’t worry. They’re not dangerous. As long as you don’t get in between them and their food or young. Or provoke them. Or if they’ve grown used to humans and are in the dump or something. Or gone camping with food in your tent. No seriously, I consider myself lucky when I see a bear.”*preens under awe*
“And is it true you have. . .” They pause, as if determined to pronounce a complicated word properly. “. . . squirrels?”
“Yep,” I answer knowledgeably. “And when the colonists first arrived we didn’t have much else to eat so the Indians showed us how to hunt them. That’s why in Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving with roast squirrel instead of turkey.”
*cackles*. God, I love being the foreigner. People’ll believe anything.
Note to self: never pursue a career as an ambassador.
Love!
Lentil,
The Girl Who Might Have a Compulsive Story-Telling Disorder. ;)
2 comments:
Interesting that you mention eating squirrels. I kid you not, but this has been in seveal newspaper and magazine articles recently: eating squirrels. Apparently it is back in fashion! Who knew we had such fashionable kitties.... yes they have killed a squirrel. Poor thing, however they didn't eat it. Tsk, such wasteful behaviour! Two Kentucky doctors last month reported a possible link between eating squirrel brains and the rare and deadly human variety of mad-cow disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
to be found at: http://www.greysquirrel.net/brain.html (only click if you want to! I don't want to get you in trouble with your hostess.) and here is another tidbit: TV chef Jamie Oliver should encourage schoolchildren to eat grey squirrels in an effort to save the endangered red species, a Conservative peer says. to be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4835690.stm
Anyhoo, a white bear was spotted in East Sooke Park this week. A 'spirit bear' I wonder if your dad has seen it? You might want to ask him.
Love you tons,
Mom
xoxoxoxoxo
I was about to write that you Canadians and your holidays are weird. I mean, you don't even celebrate Thanksgiving on the right day. But then this evening while I was reading a book about my home state's favorite sport, there was a story about one farmboy whose dad's favorite dish was squirrel brains--fried, I'm assuming, because that's the default way of cooking around here. So maybe only my first point about your weirdness stands.
But I'm glad someone enjoys being a foreigner. I never liked it much in India. One night when we went to see a temple celebration, one guy in a group of young Indian men pointed at us and yelled, "Look! Foreigners!" I pointed back and yelled, "Look! Indians!" Or I meant to, anyway. Stupid delayed retort instinct. But I glared at them real good (Southern expression). Or the journalists who wanted to take our photo and stick bright spotlights and mikes in our faces for interviews when we were tired after the celebration and were looking for our taxi driver, and they got mad because they didn't realize we wanted to attend the celebration for a reason *besides* getting in the local paper, I kid you not. But I agree with you that there are some perks. I rather enjoyed the lack of animosity as I braced myself for at least mild latent hostility when I told someone my nationality, and everyone thought I was British anyway (which roused *my* mild latent hostility). Hari and the guys thought it was *hilarious* that I could tell where an English-speaking foreigner was from by his accent (they kept testing me with cricket players on T.V. who are all from Australia anyway). Okay, I'll stop citing pseudo-relevant examples of the up- and downsides of being a foreigner. And please don't eat the squirrels. I'm quite fond of watching them scamper around while invisible cats chase them and try to steal their nuts.
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