Reports are to be written in passive voice

It's report (report cards) time at my school, which usually means long hours and major headaches. Besides writing 100 paragraphs about my own 100 students, I was unanimously selected to be the chief proofreader for the rest of the Social Studies department because I am the only English geek in the bunch who has eagle eyes to search out typos wherever they lurk. So I read about 1,000 more paragraphs. Apologies for being such a grammarian, but in the course of reading all those comments, I couldn't help noticing the Kiwi predilection to write in passive voice.

First, an example of passive voice: The hamburger was eaten by me.
and an example of active voice: I ate the hamburger.
Seemingly, both sentences convey the same information, but there is a different tone to the first one. It's as if the hamburger went out and got itself eaten; as if it was somehow the hamburger's fault. As you can see, the passive voice can be used to shed blame.

What I noticed on reports is a tendency to write things such as: She is to be commended for her effort or It is pleasing for me to see her improvement. Why can't they just say I was pleased with her improvement!?!?

I was wise enough NOT to put red marks all over my fellow teachers' reports every time I saw passive voice. I reserved my red pen for their instead of there, run-on sentences and typos. But I mentioned the preponderance of passive writing to them, who were absolutely shocked to hear that the passive voice is frowned upon in America.

In fact, most American university professors believe that the passive voice signals sloppy, lazy thinking; that the writer has not fully thought through what they are discussing. Automatic grammar-checkers on word processing programs also point out passive construction, as if it needs to be changed.

But in New Zealand, it is accepted and even preferred. The Auckland newspaper is full of sentences like It is understood that the man was from Hamilton. In America, the reporter would have written Unidentified witnesses said... instead.

My colleagues and I agreed that this is a partly due to the British penchant for understatement. Likewise, there is a custom of not wanting to take credit for something for fear of looking like a braggart. Therefore, a NZ company report would say clients were well-served. American culture, however, values directness and speaking plainly. Americans aren't afraid to take credit and a US company report would say: our staff served clients well.

And yet, an American made perhaps one of the more memorable passive statement, used to shed blame: Ronald Reagan said "mistakes were made" when referring to the Iran-Contra scandal.

Hard of HearingKiwi

We've been living here for 1.5 years now, and we really are better at understanding the Kiwi accent. I swear. But at times, it still stumps us. There have been three recent events that reminded me just how muddled I can get.

There's a great kids' book called Millions, written by Frank Boyce. It's about two young British boys who found a bag of money and had to figure out whether to spend it, how, and on what. Eventually it was made into a movie, and my library purchased it. So I decided to bring it home on Friday and watch it. All good so far. In the opening conversation between the boy and his dad, I understood exactly 0% of what they said. Curt didn't fare any better. The boy's voice is kinda high, and he mumbles a little. Maybe that's why we missed it. We re-wound it and watched the scene again. Nope. Nothing. This movie takes place in Northern England and is about a low-income family, and their accent is absolutely unintelligible to us. There seems to be a lack of consonants in their speech. We finally resorted to subtitles. I'm so ashamed. We had to watch an ENGLISH movie with subtitles!

Also this weekend, there was the national spelling bee going on in Washington DC. Curiously, a New Zealand girl had qualified to compete, and it was a big news story around the country. I didn't even realise that the American spelling bee allowed kids from other English-speaking countries, but I guess they do. It seems like it would be a bit of a disadvantage for her because there are so many things spelled differently (like manoeuvre and kerb) that she had to learn. There are also words that sound significantly different (like furor in US = furore in NZ which has 3 syllables fyur-OR-ee). And she has to be able to understand the word that the judges are saying. That actually turned out to be easier than the judges being able to understand what SHE was saying.

The Kiwi girl made it beyond the preliminary rounds and into the televised finals, where the judges constantly struggled to understand her. For instance, they couldn't tell if she was spelling a word with a G or a J. G/GEE in NZ sounds a lot like J/JAY because E sounds like A. The judges kept asking her to repeat it. She'd say JAIE - or something like that - and they were stumped. Finally, they asked her to give them another word that starts with the same letter. She said giraffe. Ah hah! She was spelling with a G after all. The New Zealand news was having great fun with the judges' ignorance. They interviewed Kiwi schoolmates who all agreed she'd clearly said JAIE and why couldn't the judges get it?

The third incident happened at my school (which is named Diocesan School, but often called Dio for short). One of the teachers came in to the library to do some photocopying and struck up a conversation with us:
Teacher: Do you have a Dio beer in the library?
Lara, a fellow librarian answers: Nah.
Teacher: I have one beer, but I need about 4.
(I look puzzled)
Lara: Where'd you get yours?
Teacher: A parent of a student gave it to me.
(I'm still looking puzzled)
Teacher: I was going to be teaching a unit on storytelling, and thought it might be fun to use Dio beer.
(I'm extremely puzzled)
Lara: I think there's one downstairs in the office, though.
Teacher: Yeah. Theirs is all dressed up in school colours.
(I am beyond puzzled now)
Teacher: Remember when they were taking pictures of the beer and emailing to everyone?
Lara: People who dress up their beer must be sick.
Teacher: You sure have a funny look on your face, Megan.
Me: I'm still trying to figure out what this conversation is about. Usually if I listen long enough, I can use the context to fill in the blanks. But I'm lost. Are you talking about Dio beer???
Teacher and Lara, laughing hysterically: No, a Dio BEAR! You know, a stuffed teddy bear with the school insignia!

As you can tell, I'm still not quite fluent in Kiwi. But I did have a small success recently: I commented on the lovely scones that we had for morning tea, and Lucy said I pronounced it exactly right! (I've only been practising every Monday morning tea for the last 10 months!) Scone in Kiwi is pronounced about halfway between SCUHN and SCONN. And I did it right. Once.

Road Trip, Day 4 - Easter Monday

7:30 a.m: The B&B chimed a series of sing-song bells and announced that breakfast was served. Apparently this building used to be a frat house and they used the bells to get their frat boys out of bed or to declare Lights Out. Personally, I would have preferred to sleep longer (of course) and skip breakfast, but once the bells woke me up, I figured I might as well partake of their fine food. They offered the usual hot brekkies plus a few unusual breakfast menu items such as creamed corn, baked beans or spaghetti. I'd never heard of baked beans for breakfast before I moved to NZ, but evidently beans on toast is standard fare. No thanks. We never did understand about serving spaghetti for breakfast, and don't know if it was served with marinara sauce, or if it was just noodles. We mainly stuck with the traditional eggs or bacon-type selections. Miss Winnie, the tubby resident dachshund particularly liked the lamb sausage; Erica didn't.

Today we mostly wandered around Christchurch: the park, 2 museums, and the main square.
1. In the park, we saw a man punting on the Avon River (a punt is a flat-bottomed boat). The punter wore a fancy waistcoat and a jaunty straw hat and pushed the boat along with a long pole, just like in Cambridge, England. In fact, Christchurch is reminiscent of a proper British city with its cathedral, formal garden, cloisters, and Christ College. Conversely, the accent in Christchurch is LESS British than in Auckland. The people here on the South Island over-pronounce the letter R according to the North Islanders. In Auckland (and in England) they say purple as "puh-ple," and they find it humorous that the hicks on the South Islanders pronounce it "pur-ple." Of course, I say "pur-ple" too so it sounds pur-fectly fine to me.

2. We went to Christchurch's art museum (of course) and were pleasantly impressed with their collection. There was some weirdo modern art at the beginning, but lovely New Zealand and international art further on. Plus, the museum cafe had good coffee (for Curt, Nolan, and Erica) and a muffin for me (chocolate of course). After the museum, we headed toward Cathedral Square, the town centre, and stopped to buy some shoes for the Shoeless One! Yipee! We also had to get a new journal for me, since I was on the last page. I've always kept a journal during vacations, but for the last 1.5 years since we moved to NZ I have kept it up every day because let's face it, living here is like being on a never-ending vacation! Every day is full of new things to explore and learn, and that's why we like it.

3. In Cathedral Square there were a dozen spectators watching a giant chess game, in addition to a handful of smaller, regular-sized chess games. I think it's a pretty cool initiative to offer chess to the public in the town centre. The 2 men who were playing weren't your stereotypical chess players, either; they had numerous tattoos, multiple piercings, baggy saggy pants, and hoodie up the whole time. I'm not exactly sure what a stereotypical chess player would look like, they these guys looked more like stereotypical unemployed druggies.

4. The day wasn't over yet so we decided to go to the Canterbury museum which also turned out to be better than we expected. Erica especially liked the display of bugs. Nolan liked the stuffed NZ birds because you could push a button and hear their birdcall. He always liked pushing buttons. I liked the Antarctic exhibit. Most of all, Nolan liked the weta. He'd been wanting to see a weta ever since he arrived. It's a wood-eating bug about as big as a cockroach, and it's really gross and disgusting-looking. It became "famous" when NZ's Weta Workshop (named after the bug) won a bunch of Oscars for special effects for The Lord of the Rings movies. So Nolan's been dying to see a real weta. Ick.

5. That night, we went out to dinner and had an excellent chocolate decadent dessert (of course). After dinner, we went back to the B & B for another game of Hearts. Nolan and Erica were tired of losing to Curt so they ganged up on him (and won).

Overall, we had to admit that we liked Christchurch immensely. I remember when Curt and I were first immigrating to New Zealand, we didn't think we wanted to live in Christchurch because it was too small, too far out in the wop-wops, too provincial, too far south, or too cold. We were wrong (of course). It turns out it would have been a great place to live.

Plus, Christchurch is a magnificent word: Chch is the accepted abbreviation for Christchurch, since it begins and ends with ch. Actually, there's another ch in the middle! I seriously can't think of any other words that have ch 3 times. Now, THAT's a fantastic word.

Back to Work

The summer holidays are over, and school has started up again. I'm back at work. It's weird to have this all happening in February instead of September. I may never get used to it.

Being away from work for 2 months over the summer meant that I forgot my passwords (There are 3 different ones for various library systems). I couldn't remember my morning routine at work as I open the library, turn on the lights, turn on the computers, etc. Every morning I seem to forget something different. I even forgot to feed the fish.

One bit of excitement for the library staff was a box of chocolate given to us by an English teacher. This assortment was the expensive kind and even came with a diagram showing which shape represented which flavour. I love those. We 4 librarians decided to each eat one chocolate every day. Since it was the inaugural day of the box, though, I proposed that we each eat two this time. Lucy seconded the seconds. We ate two. At the end of lunchtime, Barbara sealed the box with a label and wrote her signature across it, to try to make sure I didn't eat any more. (I arrive at the library every morning at 7:30 and am all by myself for the first 90 minutes so I could - in theory - eat extras during that time and nobody would be the wiser.) Still, I couldn't believe they didn't trust me! I told Lara and Lucy what she'd done and said, "Can you believe it?" They responded, "Yes." When I got home that night, I told Curt what Barbara had done. "Can you believe it?" "Yes."

Later that week, I encountered a good example of the British influence on New Zealand society. We were discussing the news that Prince Harry was going to serve in Iraq. They were all worried about him and concerned for his safety. I said, "He's just the second son. They'll still have William." Well, that elicited a horrified response from everyone which included loud gasps and statements such as, "You're so American!" They said it good-naturedly, and clearly kidding me, but there's an element of truth there. Of course, they went on to explain that it's commonly believed that Prince Harry's real father is James Hewitt, with whom Diana was having an affair. Apparently Hewitt is a redhead and so is Harry and most people believe that Charles isn't Harry's real father. This was all news to me.

Another example that happened this week was when Lara was trying to describe a certain student: "She has dark hair cut in a bob." Nobody knew who she was talking about yet. "And she looks very British." Suddenly EVERYONE knew who she meant. What does one look like if one "looks British"? Apparently, it means one has pale skin. Looking British is not a description that we would use in America, but everyone here certainly knew what it meant!

I also learned 2 more pronunciations this week:
• Mocha is pronounced mock-a, not moke-a. I told Curt to make a note of that for the next time he orders a coffee.
• Furore is the NZ spelling for furor, and is pronounced fyer-or-ee. I'd seen the spelling but didn't realise it was pronounced differently until I head someone on the radio say it. I learn something new every day.

It's nice to be back in New Zealand where my brain is constantly stimulated by Kiwi pronunciations, words, and culture. When describing this aspect of living abroad to an old friend in Bellingham, she pointed out that most people would find so much newness exhausting. But no, I still find it exhilarating.

Fun with Words

My apologies for using so many Kiwi-isms in our Christmas letter, but I just have too much fun playing with language! Our family has always liked to play with words. When the boys were little, they liked to call me Marm instead of Mom (they still do), and then they started making words rhyme with Marm such as possiblarm (possibly) and taking a schwarm (shower). Austin also used to claim that since the plural of octopus was octopi, then the plural of bus was bi. Twenty-five years have gone by, but we still enjoy using our made-up words. On Saturdays, Curt always lows the mawn (mows the lawn). We go to the grocerary store. We wash the launderary. We wear soxes and we eat grapeses. We try not to talk like this in public, or people might think we're mentally challenged. But it is our family lingo.

Well, you can probably imagine how much fun we're having in a new country, trying to learn new words and phrases and pronunciations!

Sayings:
I'm reading a book of Kiwi sayings. It's a relief to see that some sayings (like hissy fit) are used in both US and NZ. Other US sayings will be incomprehensible to Kiwis, such as "out in left field" which is a baseball saying, and nobody plays baseball here. I recently learned the saying "That's not cricket!" which means "that's not fair" or that's not how it's supposed to be done." I've also noticed how US sayings - but not NZ sayings - have been influenced by Spanish words and by Jewish culture (such as schmuck). Instead, New Zealand has Maori words mixed in. At my school, the student commons or student lounge area is called the whanau space which is Maori for family.

Pronunciation:
• In NZ, they pronounce the H in herbs. And vitamin is pronounced "VITT-a-min." They say "ba-NAH-na" and "to-MAH-to" but potato is still pronounced "po-TAY-to." Don't ask me why. Lat week I actually said "to-MAH-to" during a conversation, and my colleagues got all excited.
• I've also been trying to get them to teach me to say scone properly, because we get scones for teatime every Wednesday. I explained that I pronounce it "scone," rhyming with "phone" and "throne," right? I thought I'd proved my point. But then Lara said "scone" rhymes with "gone." What??? English is such an impossible language. Why doesn't "gone" rhyme with "phone"? Good grief. So every Wednesday I try to pronounce it like "sconn" or "scunn." Then I ask, "Did I do it right?" Their response is to bust out laughing. Apparently I need some more practise.
• Another noticeable difference is the pronunciation of su as shu. For instance, peninsula is pronounced "pen-IN-shu-la." If you're trying to sound hoity-toity, you'd say it more like "pen-in-SYU-la," but most people shorten syu to shu. Other examples are: "con-SHU-mer" (consumer) and even "SHTU-dent" (student). This all seemed very strange to me until I realised that American English does the same thing in issue, sugar, and insurance. Do you hear the sh sound? I remember learning how to spell sugar when I was little and wondering how on earth the sh sound was supposed to be spelled su! Well, 40 years later, it finally makes sense. It probably used to be pronounced "SYU-gar." These are things only an English teacher like me would contemplate.
• You've probably heard the British-type pronunciation of secretary as "SEC-re-tree" with only 3 syllables instead of 4. Well, the same applies for library - it has 2 syllables: "LI-bree." And I work in a LI-bree. Every time I answer the phone, I'm supposed to say "Hello. LI-bree. This is Megan." I'm trying to say LI-bree, but let's face it, I'm not very good at saying it like this. So the person on the other end of the phone usually takes an extra second to process what I just said and whom they might be talking to. They often hesitate and sound as if they're worried they may have dialed a wrong number.
• I haven't been able to figure out any pattern to New Zealanders' pronunciation of foreign words. New Zealanders butcher the foreign pronunciation of pasta, saying it "PA-sta" instead of the Italian "PAH-sta" while Americans maintain the original Italian "PAH-sta." But New Zealanders maintain the original French pronunciation of debut as "day-BOO," which Americans butcher into "day-"BYU," Who can keep these things straight?
• Curt often gets in trouble in choir when he sings "planted" real loud instead of "plahnted" or "master" instead of "mahster." (I'd get in trouble, too, but I don't sing as loud as Curt.) But our choir director is happy when we sing "oh" because the Kiwi o sounds more like "ow." Think Eliza Doolittle before she met Professor Higgins.

Words:
• In America, students take tests. In New Zealand, students sit exams. When you think about it, nobody really "takes" a test. It sounds like you grabbed it off the teacher's desk, stuffed it inside your coat and ran out the door with it. On the other hand, sitting an exam sounds like you put the paper on your chair and sat on it, which makes about as much sense as stealing it. So neither of these verbs are very accurate. Oh well.
• When you do something well in NZ, people say "good on you!" In the US, we would say "good for you." The Kiwi version still sounds funny to my ears, but neither preposition makes much sense when you think about it (and I obviously do). Does it mean the speaker is bestowing some goodness ON you because you did something good? Or that there will be goodness FOR you at a later date ... perhaps in heaven? Who knows.

As you can see, one of the things that I love about living overseas is that there's constantly new things to learn. I guess immigrating wouldn't be such a good idea if you were the type of person who is set in their ways. No, you have to be someone who is willing to adapt. And I truly love noticing all the cultural differences. Perhaps it keeps me young ... well, at least it keeps my mind sharp.

Christmas letter 2006

As you are unwrapping your gifts on Christmas morning, we will be celebrating our one-year anniversary of immigrating to New Zealand. As expected, it’s been a grand adventure:

We arrived last year on Christmas Day and spent the next month or so finding a place to live, buying cars (for driving on the other side of the road) and appliances (with funny-looking plugs), and job-hunting for Curt.

He quickly got a job as a hydropower engineer, which has been an easy-peasey transition from his work in the hydro industry in Oregon. He's still a dam engineer. He likes it. He visits lots of dam job sites and coordinates things with the dam contractors. Really. He also likes to ride his bike to work every day, as long as he doesn’t get a puncture. He eventually resorted to bullet-proof (Kevlar) tyres. Really.

My first job as an intermediate school teacher turned out to be a major dog’s breakfast (if you can’t imagine what this phrase might mean, you’ll find the definition in the next paragraph). For instance, one day a student got angry and chucked a chair through the window and broke it (the window, not the chair). I was absolutely gob-smacked. Well, that job was making me miserable so now I have a different job as a school librarian at a posh private high school for girls. (On a side note, I never imagined myself surrounded by 1500 females, having lived with 2 brothers, then a husband and 4 sons!) Being a librarian is everything I love - books, organising, bulletin board displays, students who want to read, no grading papers and no report cards. It's a dream job. It was a struggle to leave teaching behind, though, and I may still go back to it someday. For now, I'm loving the freedom and the time that comes with NOT being a teacher, which allows me to explore and enjoy New Zealand more.

Throughout the year, we’ve tried to do some traveling around New Zealand and so far we have seen the national capital building (called the Beehive), giant kauri trees, endangered kiwi birds, stinky sulphur geysers in an active volcano area, Maori cultural performances, museums, concerts, bookstores, oodles of sheep, and tonnes of beaches. We’ve learned about ANZAC Day and Guy Fawkes Day, rugby and cricket (well … not so much about cricket). We’ve eaten pavlova (a dessert) and kumara (a sweet potato). We still manage to muck up the pronunciation of both Kiwi/English and Maori words, but we have figured out that taxes are called rates and the mailman is called a postie. We also know that wop-wops is any remote area out in the middle of nowhere, and a dog’s breakfast means a real mess. Living in a different country on the other side of the world is an exhilarating experience, constantly learning new and exciting things.

In July, we went back to visit the familiar world of Bellingham. My dad had suffered a stroke (plus 3 more since then) and I stayed for 2 weeks. For now, he’s unbelievably frail but still hanging on. My mom is a saint and is (of course) coping extraordinarily well with some assistance from hospice care, and from Austin & Nolan who both live in town and help devotedly. In addition, my brother and his family have recently moved back to Bellingham so for the most part, everything is sussed (taken care of).

While we were in Bellingham, we got to see all 4 boys and loads of old friends, which was nice. Nolan graduates from WWU in March, and he & his girlfriend will be coming to stay with us in New Zealand for 2 months. Carlin graduates from Multnomah Bible College in May and is coming out for a while. Boone started the engineering program at UW in the fall, but may change his plans and come to NZ for a while, too. That’s fine with us; we like having them around. The only one who doesn’t have immediate plans to visit is Austin, who is content in Bellingham with a good job and a long-term girlfriend.

We also bought a house in September (so we’d have room for the boys to visit) and are all moved in. We were in a small rental house before, so it feels good to be more permanently shifted; to finally unpack everything and to get sorted. (Amazingly, nothing in the container was broken when it was shipped across the ocean.) Even better, we have a real address this year so everyone can post Christmas cards to us!

Meanwhile, we found a nice church home and joined the choir and have made heaps of friends. Last weekend was our church’s big Messiah sing-along: two hundred people singing Halleluiah Chorus + soloists from the opera company + a trumpeter = a flash event. It is a little strange here to have all the Christmas music and Christmas sales going on while it's 75º out and everybody's shopping in jandals (flip-flops). But I’m not complaining.

Curt’s company closes down their entire office for 2 weeks at Christmas time, and my school will be closed for summer holiday by then, so we're flying across the ditch to Sydney Australia for a week. Christmas in Sydney will be pretty cool (actually it'll be pretty hot, but you know what I mean), especially the New Year’s Eve fireworks from the Harbour Bridge.

So while you’re toasting each other with champagne on New Year’s Eve, think of us toasting each other with champagne overlooking the Sydney Opera House. Even though we’ll actually be in Australia at the time, we’ll still be toasting our new life in New Zealand. Ultimately, it’s turned out to be a brilliant year. Cheers!

Commonwealthy Names

New Zealand is definitely a former British colony. There is an especially strong Scottish influence. As such, we've noticed different naming trends here compared to the US.

Curt works with a lot of men named Colin and Graham and Nigel. In addition, there seems to be a lot of Simons and Frasers. There's also plenty of people named Hamish and Angus, young and old. I'm afraid Hamish and Angus aren't very common names in the States. In fact, if you named your baby Hamish or Angus, your poor kid would probably be the laughing stock of the school.

Female names in New Zealand are not as distinctive except for Phillippa (or Pippa) which is common. As far as I can tell, most NZ female names are relatively similar to US female names. There's Emily and Jenny and Katie, etc. But there doesn't seem to be very many females named Tiffany or Jordan or Ashley, and there's few males named Justin or Taylor or Dakota.

Some British-sounding last names are: Doherty, Lawry, and Haworth. But I don't notice as much difference between NZ last names and US last names.

So far, all my observations have been concerning the "white" or Pakeha population. But NZ has a high number of immigrants and their names are becoming more prevalent. There's plenty of Chinese names and Indian names (the subcontinent, not Native-Americans) and a noticeable dearth of Spanish/Mexican names which I was accustomed to in the US.

There are also heaps of Maori names and Pacific Islander names that roll off your tongue lyrically. I had Maori students named Rangi, Teina, Arama, and Parai. There's beautiful Maori place names too like Papakura and Timaru and Rangitoto. Some Pacific Islanders' names can be really long and confusing for me. There's a man at church whose last name is Taule'ale'ausumai. The others at church can pronounce it, but I can't yet. Other islanders' names are easier for me such as Sapolu and Lolohea.

Of course, I'm not really pronouncing any of these names "right" whether they're Pakeha or Maori, because I say them all with an American accent instead of a Kiwi accent. But that's a whole 'nother topic.

wordies

There's some cute words in New Zealand, and a lot of them seem to end with "ie."

• Your breakfast might be called a breakie. One restaurant offers the Big Breakie, the Vegie Breakie and the Continental Breakie.
• An umbrella is a brolly
• A bag of candy is called lollies which is short for lollipops, but doesn't mean the candy is on a stick. It's just general candy.
• Your relatives are called the rellies
• Your aunt is always known as your auntie (but your uncle is just an uncle)
• Diapers are called nappies which is short for napkins
• Fizzie is pop (a carbonated drink). All fizzies are outlawed at my school. We confiscate them and pour them out.
• The mailman is called the Postie. And they're usually women. And they ride bikes on thier routes. And they don't pick up your letters; they only deliver.
• The Salvation Army is called the Sallies. (As in: Take your donation to the Sallies.)
• Ozzies are Australians. New Zealanders have a HUGE inferiority complex/rivalry with the Australians. If our rugby team loses all its games except the one against Australia, it's still considered a successful season
• Pommies are the British. There's LOTS of British people living here. I don't know why they're called Pommies, though.
• Boaties are people who go boating all the time and there's plenty of them! Yachties are essentially the same except with more money and bigger boats.
• Surfies are ubiquitious here, too - not just in Australia
• Bikies are motorcycles gang-types, what Americans call bikers. Somehow "bikies" just doesn't sound very scary

Other cute words:
• A summer home is a bach, short for bachelor, which refers to small bachelor's homes built by early settlers and later used as summer homes. Now it refers to any summer home of any size.
• A BBQ is called a sausage sizzle. We had one at school on Meet the Teacher night. The Deputy Principal barbecued sausages (like bratwurst) for all the students and their parents, and the sausages were served on a slice of bread rather than a hot dog bun.
• A chin wag is a long conversation
• Do-up is a fixer-upper (a house that needs some work on it). After you do up the kitchen you could sell it for a profit.
• Everyone uses the word heaps instead of tons as in "I have heaps of homework tonight"

JOBS: Cheers and Tears

First for the CHEERS:
Curt got a job! It's perfectly suited for him because it's a position as a structural engineer for the hydro department of a big firm (a dam engineer). It's exactly what he did at PacifiCorp in Portland and he truly enjoyed his work there. So it was perfect to find an opening that fits so well. Of course, they're probably happy that they found a candidate that suited the job so well, too!

It was a L O N G process. He actually inquired about the position in early December before we moved, and he was finally hired on Jan 31. First, he had a pre-interview with the recruiter in charge. Then he had an initial interview with two of the bosses at the company. A few days later, he had to return for 2 hours of psychometric testing (!). It was similar to an SAT test, including reading comprehension, analogies, and math patterns & problem solving. THEN he had one more "structured" interview. Well, I guess he passed the test and the interviews because they hired him.

He'll be working for a company called Maunsell, an international firm based in Australia that does work in New Zealand, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Qatar, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. They even do some work in Afghanistan. They do buildings, defence, power, transport, etc. Can you tell I've been reading their glossy brochure? :)

Anyway, it feels good to know he has a job. As Curt says, "It's a relief. It's nice to feel wanted. I'm looking forward to getting back in the groove again and getting my brain engaged. It'll be good to have some social contact with other people in this country." And honestly, we've both been getting pretty bored sitting around for the last 6 weeks.

Now for the TEARS:
I started my job on Feb 2nd for two days of staff meetings and team planning. My head is spinning. There is so much new information to take in (and I miss a few words here and there, because of the accent) that I get overwhelmed. Contrary to the title above, I haven't actually cried ... yet. But I'm pretty darn close at times.

I debated whether to discuss my problems in this blog. Obviously, I'd prefer to tell you about all the things that are going right. But it only seems fair to include the frustrations so you will have a more complete picture. Besides, I like to vent occasionally. Prepare for a little whining.

Basically, I'll be teaching 29 13-year olds and I'm in charge of teaching reading (good,) writing (good), social studies (good), and maths (not as good, although at least there is a textbook I can use for this). Yes, it's called maths here, not math. I guess since it's short for mathematics, it makes certain sense. In addition to the subjects I teach, my students go see other teachers twice a week for PE, art, music, home ec, tech, and science (really good!). I also fill in for the librarian for 2 periods and teach computers for 2 periods to fill out my schedule.

It sounds doable, but somehow I feel like I'm drowning. All these new concepts and new processes and new lingo that I'm trying to comprehend haven't jelled in my brain yet, like jello when you first mix it up and it hasn't set. It will take a while for all these new ideas to solidify. Meanwhile, my head is full of mush and I'm not used to that.

Here's a small example of the kind of problems I have in understanding everything that is being said: The students work in exercise books, not loose-leaf paper in a binder. Their supply list says to bring a 1B5 for maths and three 2B8s for literacy and a 3A1 for spelling. Huh? I went to the stationary store tonight to find out what these things are. Anyway, these kinds of things pop up in every minute or two so I'm always a few steps behind because of these huge gaps in background knowledge. It sure gives me empathy for recent immigrant children who are not only learning a new language, but struggling with a new culture all day!

The other two problems are concerning my classroom:
1. My room is totally empty and unsupplied.
This classroom wasn't used last year, so there was no stapler or pencils or construction paper or anything. (I went shopping tonight and spent my allotted $40, which didn't go far) There wasn't even any desks for the kids, but they found some old, wooden, broken, cracked, graffitied desks for my students to use until newly purchased desks arrive ... in a month or two. The chairs are moulded plastic chairs like patio chairs. There's no file cabinet or tables or counters. There's an old teacher desk with 2 drawers.

2. The container full of our belongings – including 40 boxes of my classroom stuff, bookshelves, etc. – hasn't arrived yet. So I don't have the files full of all my lessons and ideas. I feel crippled without those. I don't have my huge collection of young adult novels (and the school library isn't open yet) so my students can't start silent reading yet. I have no posters on the wall. Those of you who know how much time I spend fixing up my classroom and making it welcoming for the first day will know how disappointing it is for me to have to welcome students to a bare room with depressing old desks. Ugh.

I guess I could compare it to going camping and all you have is the tent. No matches. No pots. No food. No toilet paper. No sleeping bag. No hatchet. Just a tent.

All right, that's enough woe-is-me. Let's talk about some good aspects now:
• They provided a laptop. (OK, so I lied about the tent being empty. There's a laptop in there.)
• There's a huge walk-in closet. (Eventually I will have lots of stuff to put in there)
• I only have 29 kids.
• There's a twenty minute break in the morning for tea. And there's an hour for lunch.
• The room has whiteboards and carpeting (my classroom in Portland had chalkboards and linoleum)
• I won't have to score papers and assign point values for everything. (Instead, I write descriptive grade reports twice a year telling their level and what they need to work on)
• Everyone says my name correctly because here, Megan is always pronounced MEE-gan.
• I won't be bored any more.
• Nobody chews gum. :)

Now I will end with 2 funny stories about accents:
• When filling in for the librarian, I will be seeing the students from Room 2 and Room 6. The Deputy Principal tells me that Room 2 is "Lunn's" class and Room 6 is "Dorn's" class. Later, I figured out that he said Lyn and Dawn, not Lunn and Dorn. Oops. I'll get the hang of this accent eventually.
• At the opening assembly on the first day of school, each teacher reads their class list outloud to announce which kids are in which class. The principal recommended that everyone practice pronouncing the names on their list. However, they quickly assigned a different teacher to read my list at the assembly because I can't even pronounce the white kids' names "right" let alone the Maori names like Rangitawhiti Arama. :)

Well, now you know how I'm feeling on the 2nd day of my job. :(
I'm sure when I write again about my job in month or so, things will be better. :)

Moving in, Camping out, Meeting the locals

On Sunday, Rick and Kris picked us up at the hotel and helped us move our stuff to the new house. Since our belongings don't arrive on the ship for another few weeks, we are basically camping out in this empty house. Rick and Bev provided a mattress & sheets, a card table & 2 folding chairs, and some dishes to get us started. They've been a godsend.

Next, the 3 men went shopping for a car, and I stayed behind to nest. I have to trust them to make a good choice, and not come home with some hot little sportscar convertible. While they're gone, I set up house as much as I could and then took the bus to the grocery store. What an experience!


There's a bus stop at the end of our road, but I was standing on the wrong side of the street when it drove by. (I keep forgetting what side they drive on) I hailed the bus, and the bus driver graciously stopped for me anyway. He asked me if I'm going to "limo." Huh? "Limo." Finally I understood: he was saying "Lynn Mall." Yes! That's where I was going. Well, he started chatting and by the end of the ride we were best friends. His name is Roy. He lives right around the corner from us. It's a good neighbourhood, he says. The next passengers got on, a young woman and her baby. They proceded to tell me all about Dora, another regular bus rider who is quite a character, apparently. I told them about how we just moved here, and that I would be teaching at Te Atatu Intermediate, and that the 3 men were out buying a car today. Everyone was quite amused to hear that I trusted them to select a car without me. Once we arrived at the mall, Roy pointed out the grocery store, where to pick up the bus to come back home, and what time it would come. People sure are friendly! I've noticed it especially when I am by myself. I must look lonely and lost. (I usually am)

When I got back, I saw the car Curt bought: blue Honda Rafaga, like an Accord. It seemed like a good choice. (Whew!) We promptly hopped in the car and did some shopping. Since our electrical appliances from the States wouldn't work on NZ voltage, we didn't ship them; we planned on purchasing new appliances once we arrived. So that evening we bought a toaster, a warp-speed electric tea kettle, a fan, and a radio alarm clock. Yesterday, we'd picked out a fridge, TV, microwave, and washer & dryer, which will all arrive tomorrow. It felt a little less like camping out once we had a few of those things. But we'll be sleeping on a mattress on the floor for 4 more weeks. And I'm old!

Originally, we hoped the container full of all our furniture and belongings would be on a ship that would arrive here Jan 16 ...but that ship was full so it went on the next ship which would arrive Jan 30 ... then we got a call that said it wouldn't be here until Feb 6! My job starts Feb 2 and I'll still be wearing the same 4 sundresses over and over. And none of my teaching files will be here, or my vast classroom library collection! Brother. I was hoping we'd be pretty settled by the time I started working.

Cricket, rugby, and library cards

Today when I was at the Telecom store trying to set up internet access and cable TV at our new house, the two young salesmen tried to educate me about New Zealand sports. They were asking if I wanted the Rugby Channel (I kid you not) or the other Kiwi sports channels. But I declined and told them I don't understand any of those sports anyway. I noted, however, that there's been a lot of cricket on TV lately, which I can't follow at all.

Here's what I learned from the Telecom guys: Cricket is a lot like baseball except instead of running around four bases, they just run back and forth between two bases. (Think of them running from home to 2nd and back) And instead of three guys batting per inning like in baseball, the entire team of 11 gets to bat. Then it's the other team's turn to have their 11 guys bat. But in cricket each team only does this twice, not 9 times like in baseball. There's somethig called an "outing" that may be the same as an "inning" which would be pretty funny if you think about it. I don't really know yet because I haven't learned any of the terminology. I'll work on it.

Anyway, besides cricket, I also admitted that I don't know anything about rugby. Well, the whole office was in an uproar about that one. Everyone agreed that I simply MUST learn about rubgy, because it's the national sport here. In the end, they inspired me to go find some books about rugby at the public library.

So Curt and I took a little field trip to the library and even got our own library cards. Getting a library card was actually pretty exciting because it made me feel like an official Auckland resident and not a tourist. I think it's significant that I got my library card before I got a credit card or a debit card. I LOVE libraries. We spent a delightful evening there browsing through magazines, DVDs, newspapers, and books. There were about 5 shelves full of rugby books in the 796.33 section. I checked out one book called "The Girls' Guide to Rugby" and a children's non-fiction book about how to play rugby. Here's what I know so far:

They have really cool names for the positions:
FORWARDS:
• Hooker
• Loose-head prop
• Tight-head prop (the hooker+loosehead+tighthead combined are also called the front-rowers)
• Locks (also called the second-rowers)
• Blind-side flanker
• Open-side flanker
• Number 8 (Yes, that's the name of the position. Does this guy always wear number 8 on his jersey?)
BACKS:
• Half-back
• First five-eighth (I am NOT making these up)
• Second five-eighth
• Left wing
• Centre
• Right wing
• Full-back
Don't you love those terms? I'm especially fond of the" Loose-head prop" and the "Second five-eighth." I need to continue my research and find out what those names mean or where they came from. It's hard for me to imagine little kids growing up wanting to become a "Second five-eighth" but that's exactly what the children's book was about!

Now for the scoring: They get five points for a "try." To me, a "try" would mean they attempted to get the ball over the line but didn't make it. But I am wrong. A "try" means they DID get the ball over the line. They scored! They scored a "try." I can tell this is going to take a while before I am rugby-literate.

Arrival in NZ

Well, we arrived on December 25th. It seems fitting somehow to set foot on New Zealand soil on Christmas Day to begin our new life. It was sad to say good bye to so many good friends at work, at church, and in our neighborhood, but we are looking forward to new friends in our new country. On the way to New Zealand, we spent 4 days in Hawaii which was a perfect transition for us. We stayed with my brother Ross and his family, and my parents were there too, so we got to spend some quality family time with everyone before we said good bye. Being in Hawaii also provided us the opportunity to get adjusted to the warm weather. It had snowed in Portland the day before we left! But it was plenty warm in Hawaii and when we landed in Auckland (pronounced "Oakland") it was summer and about 75º.

As we passed through the immigration checkpoint at the airport, I was expecting an extra-long session with the officer because we had a US passport, but are arriving as NZ Permanent Residents on one-way tickets. Alas, he spent 60 seconds looking at the stamp in our passports (which took us 7 months and 200 pages of documentation to acquire!) and waved us through. That's it?!? I wanted to take a photo of this momentous occasion, but suddenly it didn't seem very momentous. Oh well. We're here!

Our friends, Rick and Bev were at the airport to meet us, and it was good to see their familiar faces. Thankfully, they took us to our hotel because we needed a nap and a shower after flying all night. Later, they came back to get us and took us to their house for Christmas dinner. Their daughter Christina (a primary teacher) was there, as well as their daughter Sharron (a nurse), her husband Kris, and their friend, Jo. Sharron and Kris just returned from living and working for a year in the U.K. This is apparently a common practice and is called one's "Overseas Experience" or O.E. for short. Everyone seems to have an O.E. after they finish university. Anyway, they just got back last month and were living with Rick and Bev for a while. Christina still lives at home, too.

We had a nice family Christmas dinner with all of them and sat around afterwards learnng about the best cell phone plan, the best bank, the best neighborhoods to live in, etc. We have so many decisions like these to make and it's really helpful to have their advice! They also tried to teach us a little about rugby so we would have some background knowledge. Rugby is VERY popular here and the national team, the All Blacks, are like gods and hearthrobs all wrapped into one. During our conversations, I struggle listening to their accents, however. Kris was saying "the beest thing is"...and it took me an extra second to realize he was saying "the best thing is". Later, however, I realized something: my name, Megan, will be pronounced "Meegan" by people here, which means everyone will always get it right! That'll be a first.