Living so far from home there are, inevitably, some aspects of American life that I miss. And of course, there are some things that I definitely do not miss. Here they are:
Things I miss:
Mexican Food-Broccoli on nachos is NOT Mexican food people
Predictable Weather-Apparently 2 days of sunshine in a row is asking for too much
Good Cheese-Unless you're Oprah, cheese is a luxury here. So your choices are big bricks of: Mild, Tasty, Edam, and Vintage. Go wild.
NPR-Fresh Air, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, The World, Talk of the Nation, This American Life, The Splendid Table, even Click & Clack.....Oh how I miss you! (No streaming radio or podcasts here, see below)
A Good Bagel-Oi
Unlimited, Fast Internet Access-In NZ you pay according to how much bandwidth you use, both downloading and uploading. If you go over your monthly limit, you are punished with dial-up speed. This may be a human rights violation.....
Fresh Herbs-I paid $4.00 for about 3 springs of cilantro, err, coriander (P.S. the "h" in herbs is not silent here)
Pounds, Ounces, Gallons, Calories, Fahrenheits & Miles-It's 14 degrees Celsius outside, I put 24 liters of petrol in the car yesterday, my ice cream bar contains 13025 kilojoules, I don't know how many kilograms I weigh, but I get to drive 100 kilometers an hour. Huh?
Things I DO NOT miss about America:
Traffic-Rush hour in Dunedin lasts, oh, about 10 minutes
Health Insurance-Everyone in NZ is covered by a National Health Care System that works (most of the time, anyway)
American Beef Industry-Kiwi cattle are free to roam the hills and munch on grass all day long
Mass Consumerism-There is no real pressure here to have the newest, latest, or greatest
Homeless People-Maybe it's too cold for them this far south, but the only people peeing in the streets are drunk Uni students
Corrupt Politicians-New Zealand is considered one of the least corrupt countries in the world (along with Denmark & Finland). It's a lot harder to hide dirty deals in a small country
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