Welcome to the first (of many I'm sure) "Bethisms: NZ Edition" blog post. Going to a new country brings many interesting experiences... moving to one for six months can cause even MORE interesting (or in my case, awkward) experiences. 30 hours doesn't seem to be that long of time. In fact, it's really not that long. However, for me, loads of Bethisms can occur... Here are the awkward moments I had in the first 30 hours of my departure to NZ:
1. Waiting to board my plane from Chicago to L.A.? I was on the phone with my sister Jackie, I started WEEPING, and the younger guy sitting next to me moved a couple of rows away. Obviously crying made him very uncomfortable. Then I ended up sitting next to him on the plane... seriously... what were the chances?! He did not make ANY type of conversation with me on the entire flight.
2. My flight to Aukland was LONG to say the least... and naturally, I would be sitted next to an extremely obnoxious couple. THANKFULLY I was in an aisle seat so I could get up and move whenever I wanted (13 hours is a LONG flight), but still. They were super touchy-feely (and I HATE PDA) and tickling each other the first 45 minutes of the flight. The woman had the giggle of Fran Drescher meets Peter Griffin from 'Family Guy.' They were also telling inside jokes over and over and OVER again... I finally got to the point that I decided to stop reading and put my head phones on. The guy looked at me because I was pretty much blaring my music. I looked back at him and clearly turned my iPod volume up even more. I am normally not this sassy with strangers, but I could not stand it anymore. Another annoying thing? Every time I had JUST fallen asleep, he decided he needed to get up and go to the bathroom. I took his mint from his dinner plate... oops.
3. Customs in Auckland... Well, first of all, carrying all my luggage without a cart/trolley was hilarious enough. Going through customs? They made me open up my bags and they searched my shoes... mainly my rain boots. "Have these been used or are they new?" "Um, they are used..." "We normally take boots like these away because they carry coil and seeds..." "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't think it would be a big deal. They look pretty clean to me, though." "Next time, it will be a $400 fine." "Oh, okay, thank you..." Close one... good thing I look like I am 16 and probably made them feel bad for me.
4. The bathrooms in NZ freak me out and confuse me. First of all, the toilets are all like mini toilets... seriously, they are way smaller than American toilets... and, instead of just having a button to push to flush, the one's in the Auckland airport had four buttons. It took me like one full minute to even figure out how to fully flush the toilet. The huge line of women waiting waiting probably thought I was crazy.... especially since there was only one stall and there was NO way they didn't know it was me trying to figure it all out.
5. After I arrived in ChristChurch and were leaving the airport, I almost got hit by a car (look right and THEN left) and also walked to the wrong side of the car to get in the passenger seat. My host family just laughed at me... at least they are getting a dose of my awkwardness from the get-go... there shouldn't be too many surprises from now on...
I will make sure to keep you updated with more and more Bethisms over the next six months!
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