Same Country, Different Flat

September 22: Monday was our last day at our first homestay. We did laundry first thing since we knew our new homestay wouldn't have the room, really. Afterwards, we began packing everything up around the house and organising stuff for packing later. We went to school after lunch and studied for quite a while, though I also worked on my train article for the day. Still on track! (Get it?) That evening, we had a chicken dinner with the homestay, her mother-in-law, and the other student and then watched Bates Motel in the evening. Not too remarkable.

September 23: Move out day! Everything got arranged with Sam in advance so we moved out as soon as we could. After breakfast, we began final packing and loading up the car. And boy was the car full! It was packed to the brim for a three block move. Getting the luggage up two flights of stairs was a bit harder work. Once we got everything in, we went to Hornby to do some shopping. We grabbed lunch at Wendy's (US-style one) then we checked out a bunch of stores for cheap towels and whatnot then went to Pak 'n' Save to pick up some grub. Sam called us about halfway through shopping to let us know that he had locked himself out! So we hustled back to let him and his two kids into the house. We returned to Susie, our previous homestay, to drop off the keys and thank her for housing us for a month. We pretty much spent the rest of the night chatting with Sam about everything, though his kids also jumped in and out of the convo quite frequently.

September 24: Today was a work day with a trip to the Uni after lunch for a good five hours of studying/research. It went a bit too long, to be honest. I was very glad for it to be over. I wanted to play a game after dinner (Fish. Big fish. Mmmm) but we ended up getting distracted and delayed and time passed too quickly. Honestly, not our most productive day ever.

September 25: Today was an organising day. We woke up and began rearranging all of Sam's games. He left early and said we could, so we did. The living area has a bunch more room now and the games are much more visible. All good things. It took me hours afterwards, though, to write my train article. The things just didn't want to get written. I dread tomorrow's article, too, since it is quite possibly the most convoluted one in the entire book. Eccles became Olympia but then appeared again elsewhere. Meanwhile, Hayes spur and Union Mill are somewhere here too. Yeah, I'm lost. The rest of the afternoon was spent with me trying really hard to read a book in French (mixed results) and then reading another book decidedly not in French (better results). We got back to the flat and had dinner (more fish but garlic bread this time) and then we played our first game in New Zealand (yeah, it's been a busy month): Santiago de Cuba. It was a bit random and quite fast, but overall it was pretty fun. I don't see a lot of replay value to it, though.

Random Visualisations:
Gonna go on a list of New Zealand things that are also done by Brits. Such as...

• Inverted Commas – This is a term used to refer to the fact that Brits only use single apostrophes when typing. To note this during speech, instead of saying "Quote" they say 'Inverted Commas'. Yeah, quite a mouthful, I know.
• No Zs – The Brits and Kiwis hate them. Zs are even called "Zee" when spoken, they are called "Zed". And since we're in New Zealand, that NZ initials are everywhere. And in every case, it is pronounced "Zed". So, ANZed is our bank. Weird. Most of the time, "z" becomes an "s" in writing, as well. So we "socialise" rather than "socialize".
• Our – "Armour" not "armor". Remember that! Our country is full of 'ours' not "yours".