5) Whenever I tell people I am from the US, more specifically from Washington D.C., whether these people be Kiwis, Aussies, Canucks etc, they always refer to as me being from Washington. However, whenever they say that I think of Washington state not D.C. So I ask them why they always say that and apparently it’s just how they know it. Well if it works for them and if they know roughly where it’s located that’s okay.
I myself never knew Canberra was the capital of OZ until a few weeks after I got here, but now that I know I can definitely put it on a map!
6) People driving on the other side of the road- When I first got to NZ and stepped out the airport and looked at how the cars were set up, the first thing I thought was “Weird”. But after 18 days in New Zealand I got pretty used to it. Still, there are times when I’m walking in a parking lot, for example, and a car is coming towards me so I instinctively move to the right because I think they will also go the right. However, they are going to the left so I just end up in their way. The same also happens when walking on a path with people coming in the opposite direction. Hopefully, I will adjust to staying on the left side soon!
It’s ironic how long it took me to get used to the left side and just when I did, I had to come back to the right. The right side of the road threw me off for a bit and seemed strange, but now it’s almost back to normal (I wrote more but it got deleted THREE times, so if you want to hear more about this, just ask me!)
7) People’s view on Americans. I met a lot of Canadians and Aussies on my NZ tour and many of the them told me something along the lines of being “one of the good Americans” aka not the Loud and Stereotypical Americans they have met/ expected. Also on my tour was a girl from NY who had a loud voice, smacked her gum incessantly and was generally an obnoxious party girl. Clearly, I was a much more appealing American than her (except for the manwhore guys on my trip who just looooved her!)
The opinion about Americans still varies drastically depending on who you talk to. I’ve had people tell me to my face that “Everybody in the whole world doesn’t like Americans because they think you are stupid. True Fact.” and that “You are a typical American… loud, self centered, only cares about herself.”
Now I obviously don’t hold much value in these judgments given that the first was from a drunk Norwegian Uni Student who is ridiculously pompous and I hadn’t met a single person who knew him and didn’t recognize that. The second was my roommate who was angry because I didn’t want to go out with him.
I heard some nice things about us, including from a very sweet South Korean High School boy I met on my plane back from LA who told me that “I think… American girls are…. a lot prettier than Korean girls” as he looked over at me from behind his thick framed glasses. Overall, its all about who you talk to and how absorbed they are in themselves and their culture.