Dog Days
Sep 1, 2007
I've been spending this week housesitting and dogsitting for my friend Tim while he's out of town for work. No more hostel and annoying French people. It's nice having a whole house to myself and unlimited internet. I used to opportunity to turn my job search online which ended up being successful. I'm starting a short term job with a cosmetics company in their distribution department next week... I know, totally random, but that's the point. The funny thing is that the lady who interviewed me was wearing some black lacy thing and knee high leather boots, and we were in an office filled with high end cosmetics. It felt like I was in some fashion industry reality show. Other than that, the week has been slow paced, and it would've been pretty lonely if it weren't for Coke.
That's Coke. I never had a dog, so his behavior was totally foreign to me... so affectionate.
That's the house. I might decide to flat there once the owner comes back. It's quite nice.
Dogs are weird.
By the way Olga, the guys are saying "mate" in the advertisement. They use that word instead of "friend" down here. "Me and my mates are going out the the pub tonight"... here are a few other things they say differently down here...
"heaps" = a bunch, a lot, loads. e.g. "heaps of my mates headed down to the rugby game"
"sweet as" = cool, awesome, great, etc. e.g. "Sweet as!" (I thought it was "sweet ass" until I saw a banana say it in a fruit juice commercial and I thought, that can't be right)
"reckon" = think, believe, is that so?, that is so. e.g. "I reckon that... US Americans are unable to so because... uh... some people out there in our nation... don't... have maps."
"cheers" = thank you
...After a few weeks, I've gotton used to driving on the wrong side of the road. Crossing the road is another matter, I still keep on stepping into the path of cars speeding towards me. Here are some other things that take getting used to.
...Looking up into the sky at night and realizing how unfamiliar it is;
no north star, no orion, no big dipper.
...Eurotrip rules don't apply here. Kebabs are just as expensive as anything else.
Overall, food is very expensive here, even groceries at a supermarket.
...Nothing like Wal-mart. The Warehouse is the closest thing, but there's
not a wide selection. Commercial jingle is catchy though.
...Daffodil days, I think to to raise money for cancer research. I knew the
seasons here are all flipped around, but didn't realize today was the first
day of spring until today. They don't wait for the solstice. Also tomorrow
is Father's day here. That's different.
...It's hard getting used to the size of the city, the 4th most spread out in the world. You really have to drive everywhere. And you don't identify where you are by "Auckland" because it's too ambiguous, so you use the neighborhoods instead, and each one has a center like this where you find the restaurants, cafes, and shops. Another effect of having to drive everywhere is the outrageous cost of fueling up the car. It's $1.57 a liter which is about $6 a gallon, which is about 4.50 USD a gallon, which in a 3 liter engine car doesn't take you very far. But hey, that's not stopping me from exploring. BTW, I can say 1.57 quite definitively because there's no variation in the prices here. I don't know if it's a law (considering it's New Zealand, it's probably not) or gas stations just don't bother trying to compete. It's nice knowing you don't have to shop around for the best price.
... I still haven't figured out if toilets flush the other way yet, they're pretty economical with water usage, so I haven't found a bowl full of water to observe yet.
... and the Sox get swept by the Yankees... what the fuck???