Lots of fun and headaches

Last week was great! Still on orientation, although some appointments were cancelled. No worries, if everything that was planned for this morning is cancelled, we'll take you to the Christmas Shop! Yeah, I know, my colleagues are amazing! The Christmas Shop is a wonderful place, where you can buy X-mas decorations almost throughout the year. I've certainly spent some money over there...
On Friday we had our annual Formal Mental Health Ball, which is basically just a big party with supper and everyone in fancy clothes. One other thing I've learned that night is that supper is something like a walking dinner. Everyone was supposed to bring something to eat, and I, under the impression that 'supper' is just another word for a late dinner, brought this lovely pasta-salad with smoked salmon and cucumber. Unfortunately, no cuttlery (knives, forks,...) was provided, so I ended up eating pasta-salad for the rest of the weekend. Ah, these culture differences...

After being a good girl not drinking too much at the ball and going home at 1.30 am, I woke up early (8.30) and decided to surprise the home front. My webcam still has to arrive in NZ along with my other stuff, so all I could do until now was hear and look at my family using Skype while I typed in messages. When I was talking about this to one of my splendid colleagues, she suggested that I could borrow her webcam, which she wasn't using, until my own webcam arrived. Everyone should have colleagues like these! So Saturday morning I astonished my family with my sudden appearance. They decided I'm getting really spoiled here, and they're absolutely right. I'm enjoying every minute of it!
Next on my list for Saturday was the Santa Parade in the town centre. Because of heavy winds they decided not to hold the parade, and it was postponed to Sunday. Unfortunately for all the kids in Invercargill, the wind had not changed much on Sunday, so no Santa Parade this year!. The child in me is very disappointed...
The best part of my weekend however was the meeting with my future cat. Yes, that's right, I'm getting a cat. Another one of my colleagues (don't you just love them!) has a nice cat that delivered three kittens 4 weeks ago. They are adorable! I'm getting an all grey one, and I'm in the process of looking for a name, and getting really excited about having a kitten. The week before Christmas she's coming to her new home with me.

After that day the headaches started to come, and though I felt better on Sunday, Monday morning I felt terrible. After a long internal battle between calling in sick or stop being such a wuss, I finally got dressed and went to work. I spent less than 5 minutes there, went home again and slept 'till noon. The next day wasn't much better, and after calling in sick I slept 'till noon again. I think the lovely rainy weather, the small amount of warm clothing brought in my suitcase, a lack of good night sleep (due to heavy winds, rain and hail, and to the excitement of using that webcam) and the huge amount of new information, people and culture finally got to me. So next weekend, I'll probably just have one thing planned: setting up my X-mas tree.

NZ vs BE

It's funny how everything's so different in another country. If you've ever heard people talking about how much the Netherlands differs from Belgium, despite being neighbour countries and speaking almost the same language, you can only imagine how much NZ differs from Belgium. For you kiwi-readers all this weird stuff is actually completely normal, but it might interest you how it differs fron what I'm used to.
Here's a random sample:
1) The sun is positioned in the north at noon, not in the south! Very useful information if you get lost down under, and want to find your way by looking at the sun's position...
2) All dairy products taste different; so don't be too sure your favorite product tastes the same because it has the same name (e.g. Philadelphia cheese; not to mention chocolate). It's supposed to have something to do with the cows eating different grass and breathing different air. I wonder if I would taste any different after a few years in NZ... (I should probably stop eating grass)
3) When going to a ballet (or other cultural event), people eat ice cream during the break. Not just children, but everyone! Forget wine or beer, ice cream is the thing here! I know some people in Belgium who'd sign up for that right away!
4) If you want to open or lock a door be sure to turn the key the other way around than you're used to. Most of the time anyway...
5) Every socket has a switch of it's own, so that you can control whether or not you allow power to come to the appliance that is hooked up. If you find yourself in a motel and can't figure out why the microwave isn't working although it's hooked up, try the switch next to it!

But NZ, or at least Invercargill, is also a bit similar to Belgium:
1) It rains a lot!
2) There's a lot of rain!
3) It rains for most of the time.
4) When the sun's not shining, it's raining.
5) And the weather can be very wet and rainy.

Welcome to my new site!

After a lot of administration, gathering of information, job applications and the inevitable frustration, I have finally arrived in my new country. The process that brought me here can be read about on my previous blog (sorry, it's only in Dutch). Since that process is now over (except for the small thing called NZ residence), I've decided to open a new blog. One that can be read by my new friends and colleagues as well. Therefore this blog has to be in English, but I'm sure that my friends and family in Belgium (and the Netherlands) won't mind.
Please let me know when I have written some horrid mistake in grammar/spelling or otherwise.

I hope you'll all enjoy my new blog!
Linda