Being from the States

So a lot has happened since I last updated. I wrote of my trip to the Zoo on Saturday and my quiet Sunday afternoon and it is now Thursday here. So let me back track briefly on what I've been up to before I dive into the current topic I have in mind for this day's post.

Monday, I had a very interesting religion class. We had a guest speaker who was very entertaining. He discussed the idea of purity in religion and also in general. He talked about purity balls (something I suggest looking up, they're quite creepy), the idea of bodily purity, eating things that are pure, cleansing the body, and such. He talked about Leviticus, about how it is about bodily fluids and "leaking." It was really, really interesting. We talked about what we would consider gross (sharing toothbrushes or sharing underwear) and what we consider okay (sharing coats or sharing a pen.) I liked it a lot and could say more about it, but that has come and gone and is no longer as fresh in my mind as other ideas. I also had a psych class, which was unremarkable. Afterwards I went to the library with Chris, did some studying until my computers battery died (I didn't bring the charger) and the two of us made/had dinner at Stafford. I cooked chicken stir fry. I'm starting to really enjoy and be proud of my abilities to cook. I also really enjoy serving others my food, I get extreme satisfaction out of that as well. After eating, Chris and I watched the new season of Flight of the Conchords (which I've already seen because it aired earlier in the States).

Tuesday, Stafford was having this "Cultural Dinner" which entailed cooking a dish from your cultural background and bringing it to some what of a potluck in the common room of Stafford. I decided to make my mom's dish "bulgogi." Stafford apartments don't have ovens (for some bizzare reason) so I went to Chris's house to cook. This required me to do the set up at Stafford (I prepared to marinate and put the meat in the marinate in some ziplock bags) and then carrying raw meat in a backpack with a bag of rice on a bus all the way over to Aro Valley. I felt quite smug on the bus thinking about how no one would be able to guess that I had about 1 lb of raw meat marinating in my bag.
Cooking at Chris's was an experience. His house, as I've described it before, is really cool, large and in a nice location by the woods. It gives off the impression of an old vacation house, with all the essentials for living in a house there, but all sort of second hand. It smells of old wood and everything is cobwebby, but the way a rustic unoccupied vacation house might look. His kitchen was fully stocked with two ovens, a large stove top, a large counter and sink and all the utensils you could think of and then some. However, all of it was extremely secondhand and sticky with some mystery substance. Haha. This meant we spent a good majority of the time before cooking, cleaning all the pots, pans and spoons we needed in order to begin. We also had to scope out which oven looked the cleanest, because both were rather dusty looking. Once we started cooking, it all ran pretty smoothly. Chris egged me on to making a lot of rice, because I wasn't really sure of the portion size. As it turned out, we had about a 4 person serving size of meat and then about a 10 person serving size of rice. It was A LOT of rice. We then took a bus, with all the food, to Stafford. My dish was the favorite! I was really excited, people kept coming up and complimenting on the dish and asking for the recipe. I can't remember the other food there because I mostly ate my own (so much for cultural learning). The only other thing I remember eating was this dessert that Laura (my flatmate) made. It was this delicious traditional kiwi cake dish, which I rather enjoyed. After that, Chris and I went to a "Tramping" club meeting. We signed up to join, and then met up with some friends for a St.Patrick's Day celebration.

Wednesday was my day off from classes. It was sort of a rainy day so I spent it cleaning up my room and sorting out some homework. Around 5ish, Stephen and Chris were doing some busking so I went and heard them play for a while. Afterwards Chris and I went to the library and studied for quite a while. Then we met up with Stephen again (who was doing an art project and couldn't come to the libary to do it) and we went to the YHA where Stephen's friend Vince works.
Vince, who I may have described in much earlier posts, is a swedish 22 yr old who has been living, traveling and working abroad for over a year. Stephen met him when he stayed at the YHA (a hostel in Wellington) where Vince works. I've hung out with Vince on many seperate occasions and he's shown us around to local hotspots for coffee or lunch and has facilitated a lot of cross cultural meetings with other people that he's met through the hostel. He's a really interesting guy, and yesterday was his last day in NZ as his visa has expired and he must return to Sweden.
SO, last night was his final hurrah and our last chance to hang out with him. We all sat in the YHA (it was raining a lot) talking and having some beers. I met lot of different people that night. Two men from England, four Germans, one Kiwi, a Chilean, and a girl from Kenya. As always, it was really interesting to hear different perspectives on things. We talked a lot about America, and being from the states, which comes finally to my topic of interest for today. A lot of discussion is constantly around the recent election. Vince made an interesting point saying that although he's not sure Obama will actually (through policies) pull us out and through this depression, he thinks that the most important thing Obama is doing for our country is giving a new face, a good and inspiring face, for the future for other nations to see.
SO. Today I had two classes that further engaged my interest on other peoples perspectives of Americans. I had a psychology lab from 9 - 11am this morning, and although we started out talking about our research proposals (the topic being on helplessness) we ended up straying into a topic of me being from the States. We had a really interesting conversation about the school systems. All the people at my table were from NZ and were surprised that I had another year left of school. They were also surprised to find that if I wanted to pursue psych as a career, I'd probably have to do grad school. Apparently, here, you don't "need" to go to grad school and further, they only have 3 years of Uni. We also talked about the cost, I told them about Mt.Holyoke and how, as a private college, it can be quite expensive. Then they asked about if people had internships or "apprenticeships." I explained the internship system in the states (get one in the summer) and they were also surprised about this. Apparently internships and apprenticeships are something you get after Uni. They talked a lot about "builders" or construction workers. I got pretty confused about this because I think of construction workers, or just the manual labor industry to not be... something you do after Uni. But, I've also got this snobbish American outlook on things when it comes to jobs after college. One girl told me, "well, builders have really important jobs because, you know, they create all our buildings and structures in the city." It was kind of an eyeopener for me, because although I hold that view and I do think that a lot of the "working class", as I may put it, hold really important jobs, I never really considered them something you'd do if you've gone to college like Mt.Holyoke. It sort of like, in the States you go to college in order to NOT go into a job like a construction worker. Here, any job is a good job. People seem to be just getting an education because they want one, not because they want to get a reputable job. I wish the states was like that. That's what I like the most, when I'm learning just for the pleasure of learning.
Additionally, wow this is a long post, when we were talking about our research proposals, one girl was talking about how she was interested in people being overly positively reinforced. How athletes can be overly encouraged and when they reach their peak and can no longer play, they find themselves helpless and a loss of identity. We found this tied in well with American upbringing. In the States it's really emphasized to find that "one" talent you're good at... math, science, sports, etc and then really play it up. So much of childhood is spent going to various different classes and activities to find something you're good at. NZ is different in that they don't want to set anyone apart from anyone else. If something has talent in one area, it's kind of like "great job" but nothing more.

On top of that conversation, I went to a sociology tutorial where I had a very engaging conversation with a man, Peter, who must have been in his late 50's early 60's. He was returning to school to further develop his knowledge as a lawyer. He was quite a talkative man, and we spent a good amount of time before class talking about what I was doing here. He was really interested in how I got where I am, why I chose psychology, etc. It was a very self reflective day, where I constantly was reminded that I was from the States. I find it interesting that although I feel very at home here and I don't feel that large a gap of different between myself and the Kiwi's, there are some major differences between Americans and Kiwis and there are things that we just don't understand about each other.

Sorry that was so long, I hope people actually read that. Haha.