Today it is still cool, but sunny, and we are going to the Royal New Zealand Show this afternoon. This is both the provincial and national agricultural show. We expect to see hundreds of kinds of sheep. As far as we can tell, it is a lot like the State Fair, but we'll know more tomorrow.
The people here have been so helpful and kind, and we are very grateful to all of them, but especially to Jeanette Allen at the Forestry School at UC. She has helped us get settled and even found a TV and radio for us to borrow. We actually watched the news this morning and found out that the weather will be...cold. Really cold in Invercargill, pretty cold in Christchurch, and just cool in the North Island. They, however, are supposed to have 130 km winds up there, so maybe cold isn't so bad. We've had sleet today, and some rain and wind of our own.
One of our first cultural and social experiences has been dealing with rubbish. Chch has a pretty cool system of rubbish collection-they charge you a hefty price for each trash bag (which has 'Christchurch Council' written on it in large letters) and they ONLY pick up these bags. So, on Monday night we ventured out in our wrong-hand drive car on these wrong-hand drive roads to find a supermarket that had these special bags.
We finally found the right aisle; only the entire shelf was empty. There was a woman nearby stocking shelves, and she came over and joined us as we stared intently at the empty wire shelf which was labeled "Official Christchurch Rubbish".
"You're looking for the rubbish bags are you?" she asked, as we all continued to look at the empty shelf.
She bent down to get a better look at the empty shelf.
"Um, well, we..." she stood up and looked at us, then back at the shelf.
"I don't know when we'll we getting any more in". Not that it would have mattered to us anyway, as rubbish day is Tuesday and it was Monday evening.
All of us, me, Bob, Abby and the clerk were still standing in a semi-circle around the empty rubbish bag shelf, staring at it. Maybe hoping one would appear if we stared hard enough.
"Well, um..." She bent down to check the empty shelf one more time. The shelf remained empty.
"You could maybe find some at Countdown? It's just across the way there?"
Then she stood looking at us apologetically, as though she were personally responsible for us coming to the store too late to get our rubbish bags.
This type of extra-solicitousness is pretty common here. It seems the Kiwi do not like to disappoint their customers or clients. They are also much chattier than Americans. Even in a business context (such as opening a bank account) there is more conversation, and although it may not be more personal than what we're used to, there seems to be MORE of it. At any rate, it could also be that these kindly clerks are expecting US to end the conversation and move on, and we don't know how they do that here. Yet.
This is in contrast to the no eye contact with strangers on the sidewalk phenomenon. When walking, if you pass someone you don't already know, you look away. Down or to the side, but no eye contact is made. At first this was very disconcerting, as we are used to nodding or even smiling when we encounter another walker, but we are getting used to this as well.
To finish the rubbish bag story, we braved the wrong-ways again to get to the other supermarket. (Aside: shopping carts were labeled as 'trolleys' at the first market, but 'trundlers' at the second.) Alas, they too were out of official rubbish bags. Lesson learned: buy your official rubbish bags before the evening before rubbish day.
Karen.
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