Flybys or Flybuys

[November 13]
Well we've been here almost a week and things are finally settling down. This is Abby's second day of school and she's adjusted really well. She's the popular new American girl in the class and she's even OK with their decidedly unglamorous school uniforms. We're in our "flat" near campus. Its really close to campus and Abby's school, but with the weak dollar, it and everything else is more expensive than we expected.

Internet access is weird here, even at the University. We've had to put some cash into our university accounts to pay for internet access and paper for printing. Any access outside the University is charged to your account and international access (like checking NCSU email) costs even more. We've borrowed a TV and its amazing how many U.S. shows are available. This is "free" airwave TV, but includes cable standards like SpongeBob, the Office, etc. Abby's happy. TV also is full of world championships in sports we've never heard of, like "netball". Seems to be like the old girls playground basketball in the U.S. where there were offensive players on one side of the court and defensive players on the other.

Radio seems to be dominated by either U.S. rock or gardening talk shows. Language is generally not a problem, but there are some things we don't quite get. The kids at school didn't know what "jelly" was when Abby described her sandwich; I guess everything is "jam". When I bought Abby's school uniform last night, the clerk asked me if I had any "fly-bys". I said no, but checked my zipper just in case I was causing an international incident. I still don't know what she meant.

So far I'm the designated wrong way driver in our rental car. It took me two days to figure out how to look to my left to see the rear view mirror. Shifting gears (even just from R to D) with my left hand looks takes some real effort, especially since we have to back directly out of our driveway into a busy street. I won't tell you how many times I've casually tried to look like I meant to get into the passenger side to drive. My current strategy is to pretend that I always unlock Karen's door to the car before going over to the "driver's" side. I just act like that's the way we do things in the U.S. and I can't believe that they don't open their wives' door first here in this primitive country. Of course this works better when Karen is actually with me.

It's spring here (see Abby picture attached) and we're going to "the show" this PM: http://www.theshow.co.nz/2007-show/ I guess it’s like the state fair. We arrived when the spring weather here is a bit cooler than the fall weather we left. Its generally in the 50's or 60's during the day and pretty cool at night (30's to 40's). We actually had hail yesterday. By Christmas it's supposed to be consistently warm.

[November 15]
As part of my sabbatical research and by popular demand, I've pursued what the clerk meant which she asked me if I had any “flybys”. At first I thought this must mean flier like you get by junk mail. But then we saw the word on windows around town and that didn't make sense.

Then I looked it up on Google. When I posted: "flyby definition" it sent me to http://sohos.wordpress.com/ where it listed this definition:

FLY BY Definition: The act of scouting out a bathroom before pooping. Walk in, check for other poopers. If there are others in the bathroom, leave and come back again. Be careful not to become a FREQUENT FLYER. People may become suspicious if they catch you constantly going into the bathroom.

Of course I couldn't believe that a clerk would ask me this question, but if she did I certainly wasn't sure whether I should admit to a stranger how may flybys I've done. I tried a different spelling and limited the search to New Zealand and found the link below. It's sortof like green stamps.

I'll let you know as my research progresses. Cheers, Bob