A Note to Me Mates

You may be thinking "why in the Sam h-e-double hockey sticks can he not spell?" or "Derek doesn't really speak like that...." Well, immersing yourself in another culture certainly forces some adjustment.

• NZ - pronounced "en zed"
• Harbour - harbor 
• Organisation - organization 
• Tyre - tire
• Heaps - a lot
• Mates - friends
• Chips - fries
• Biscuits - cookies
• The Warehouse - a very run-down Wal-Mart 
• Fillet - said with a hard 't' 
• Lamb - it's everywhere and on everything. and it is delicious.
• Subway - literally everywhere
• No making a turn on a red light - no exceptions!
• "Get On" - this one confuses me. 'How long are you on for?' or 'How did you get on with your previous co-workers?'
• The metric system - why can't Amurica adopt it already?

My very Minnesotan vowels are disappearing. O's and A's are not as long. 'Auckland' is pronounced like 'Oakland' folks. My only issue is the word bag. Minnesotan's simply are not able to pronounce it like the rest of the world. Plus, I need to maintain some of my own MN personality by dropping one of these from time to time:

• "Kiddie-corner"
• Oh yeah, you betchya 
• Eh
• Drive faster! 
• Miles, inches, pounds...

Calories are counted in Kilojoules here. This is one adjustment I will refuse to make. Therefore, whatever I eat has no caloric intake so it's like I'm eating absolutely nothing all the time! Such a food-lovers paradise!

Now I've a massive craving for a hot dog that really needs to be taken care of. Plus I'm impatiently waiting on job news.

Cheers,
:D