"Culture? What's that?"

So I’m here.  In Auckland.

…It’s gray.  And humid.  And all the hills remind me of the Texas hill country, but greener.

But the architecture is like this mesh of Asian and European, and the cross-walks have these Nintendo sounds to make you cross the street (yes, like Frogger), and you absolutely have to look in both ways before you cross the street.  Because the drivers are INSANE and will MOW YOU DOWN.

The cognitive dissonance is staggering, and I’m pretty sure being so tired isn’t helping.

That being said, I’ve already found myself assimilating: I have consistently said “fri-tah-tah” instead of “fri-ta-ta”.  Go me!

Other things I’m not doing so well on: mistakenly hearing $300 instead of $30, saying stupid things, putting my stuff in the completely wrong room AND MAKING THE BED then having to go back and take them off, getting over jet lag, saying more stupid things, making friends with my Taiwanese roommate.

Taiwanese roommate is sweet as can be, loves cute things (just like I do!), and has a Moroccan boyfriend that she met in a casino.  She has also apparently decided to take me under her wing, because she was here alone for two weeks and hated it and doesn’t want me to go through the same thing.

Language barriers aren’t helping, though I keep telling myself it’s good experience.  “You’re putting all those intercultural communications classes to good use!” (Though, really, I think what helps the most is that we both want to make friends.)

Good things today: free upgrade to 2-bed room, cute boys that I’ve been flirting with—

Okay, tangent time, but, but, is it, like, a moral imperative that the boys in NZ be ten times hotter than the ones in the states?  Because I have yet to see one that isn’t aesthetically pleasing.

Seriously.  I sat and made goo-goo eyes at some cute Kiwi boy sitting across from me in LAX last night for about 3 hours.  And he made them right back (though, honestly, it could have been that he fell asleep with his eyes open).

Okay, more good things: opened a bank account, am making friends, flirting with more cute boys, and I GET TO SLEEP IN A BED TONIGHT. 

YEEEEEEESSSS.