Trivia

Dunedin often feels like a parallel universe to me, since it is simultaneously freakishly similar to Canada and freakishly different. This is the first time in my life, since moving away from home, that I've been routinely homesick, and I think that's why. Everything is so familiar, but also off.

I love how the waxed paper covers on the sticky bits of 'feminine hygeine' pads here have random trivia printed on them. Who knew that women's middle fingers are more sensitive when they're menstruating (how did they test that, and why???), or that rabbits and parrots are the only animals that can see behind their heads without actually turning their heads. Suddenly I have a whole new perspective on how my apartment must look to my beloved bunnies!

I love that you can get banana-flavoured chewy chocolate bars here (previously mentioned 'perky nanas') and that 'hokey pokey' is a flavour of ice-cream. 'Hokey Pokey,' incidentally, is that crunchy golden foam stuff that you get when you melt white sugar and add a little baking soda to it (for you Canadians in the crowd, what's in the middle of a 'Crunchie' bar, or, for people who've been to Korea, what the little old women on street corners make in thin discs with pictures pressed into them with wire). I also love that corner stores are ALL called dairies, and that they ALL still sell fresh ice-cream by the scoop.

I love that all the little birds I see day in and day out still astound me with their unexpected colours. Fat little chickadee-esque ones that turn their drab brown backs to reveal bright red bands above their beaks and fly away in flashes of brilliant yellow otherwise hidden beneath their wings. Black birds with bright red beaks that behave like robins, grubbing up worms in the dirt. Parrots like Christmas ornaments, half green and half red. Rainbow finches.

I love that people say things like 'chuffed' when they're pleased, and 'knackered' when they're tired. That 'trim' means low-fat milk in the context of coffee, where 'flat white' is a single shot with a lot of un-steamed milk, and 'long black' is a shot of espresso mixed with hot water (aka Americano). That french fries may be 'fatties' or 'skinnies' and are generally eaten with aoli instead of ketchup (which here is called 'tomato sauce'). That sweet potatoes are called 'kumara' because that was the local Maori variant of them. And that people think it's normal to eat peanut butter and honey together on toast but would never dream of eating peanut butter with jam.

I love that up the hill there's a French bakery that is only open on Fridays because the baker is solo and takes all week to stock-pile the quiches and meat pies and fruit tarts and chocolate croissants that will sell out so quickly that to arrive after 8:30am is pointless. We went this morning at 8, and the shop was already half empty. The pastry was surreal, so perfectly flakey and buttery and light.

I love that stores have real sales, BIG sales, seasonal sales, storewide sales. That clothes come in sizes that fit me. That size 10 women's feet are so common that I find footwear in second hand shops. That not only are there people skinnier than me, but fatter than me too. Lots skinnier. And lots fatter. That the 'Jenny Craig' is in a dilapidated old building with little traffic flanked by bustling coffee shops, around the corner from possibly the world's best hamburger joint and about 80% of all things edible in Dunedin.

I love that kleenex comes in either mint or eucalyptus. That sheep are practically a national obsession. That all of the professional sports teams have 'black' in their names (rugby: all blacks, basketball: tall blacks, hockey: black sticks...). That 'Emma' sounds like 'Ee-ma' and 'bra' 'bra-er.'

I don't love that dental floss comes pre-coated with toothpaste. That blister band-aids are $14 for 4 (more expensive than in Korea!!). That busses cost a fortune and may or may not ever arrive at their advertised stops. That broken alcohol bottles (and pools of vomit) are utterly ubiquitous around campus. And that there is so much sugar in everything that my teeth actually ache before I brush them. But these are small prices to pay.

Tomorrow I am going up the coast to a place where the defining feature of the geography is a collection of perfectly spherical boulders. And next week I am going sea kayaking (with seals, I hope, I hope!) and then to a cheese-making class. It will be my first trip REALLY away from town, 6 hours up the coast. Think of the new things to love (and not to love) will be discovered then!