Friends week

This week was a good week for friends new and old.

On Wednesday, I met up with a girl I met on the bus back in January.  She sat in the seat behind me from Auckland on my way to meeting my family for the first time at Lake Taupo.   It was a chance meeting- she dropped her phone and couldn’t find it, so she asked me to call it for her.  I did, she found it, and we talked for the next three hours!  Brittany and I met for dinner in Palmerston North, a college town an hour away.  It was a great reunion chat, and I feel lucky to have met her.

The square in Palmerston North 

Last night, Fiona (the mom) and I went out to our second movie.  It was a Woody Allen movie called “Midnight in Paris,” and I must say I appreciated the French interspersed throughout.  I really am fascinated by the fact that I seem to be better at French since arriving here.  I think simply travelling again has helped to awaken my latent French abilities!

This week we had a new arrival on the farm- a temporary farm worker who just happened to be a girl around my age from England with a background in sheep farming.  Marie is awesome!  We’ve had some good chats already and are looking forward to visiting and a picnic tomorrow.

Lastly, on Sunday I'm meeting up with a group of other au pairs!  I happened to strike up a conversation with a mom at the pool when chauffeuring Ashleigh to swim lesson two weeks ago.  This week, the woman (who I learned was named Jeanette) actually called in to the swimming pool to have one of the pool staff take a message for me.  She knew I was looking for people to meet up with and somehow found the number of an au pair in the area.  Bless this woman!!  When talking about it over dinner that evening, Fiona commented "There must be something about your smile."  I agreed, and said "Yes- it screams 'please be my friend!'"

I’ve noticed a few things that are rubbing off on me- I’ve been saying things like “mum” and “ay.”  Also, when I’ve been writing words like “behavior,”  that British extra “u” (behaviour) is sneaking in which is creeping me out a bit.  I thought I might pick up an accent while here, but I’ve realized now that I’ll likely just walk away with some new vocabulary words and expressions.  The vowels are different here, and that’s not something I’ll pick up like a drawl visiting the South in the USA.   For instance, the letter “e” is pronounced more like the letter “i.”

In animal news, I’ve had to break twice now for cattle in the road, another New Zealand “must” that I can now check off my list.  Also, I woke up one morning to a hedgehog in my yard.  Now that’s a great way to start a day!  Fiona and I had a chat about pets, and I learned that they don’t have pet snakes or pet tarantulas here because they are not currently found in NZ.  I am not complaining.