Sporting Update

NZ women's hockey team: Black Sticks
NZ men's bowling team: Black Jacks

I kid you not.

Auntie Smeeches Comes for a Visit

My sister just left yesterday after a 2.5 week visit. Despite the earthquake, we had a great visit and had fun at the local parks, beaches, zoo, Franz Josef glacier, etc.

Communication Disorders

Communication disorders are apparently housed in a building not far from Rocky’s building on campus. A fairly prominent sign proclaims this to be the case. On noticing it for the first time, I wondered exactly what was in that building, what the staff people in that building do on a daily basis, and what do Kiwis consider to be a communication disorder. Because it strikes me that perhaps I ought to check it out, plagued as I have been by a number of minor yet surprising difficulties bridging the language barrier between American English and Kiwi English.

An example: Not too long ago, Rocky and I went shopping for a dresser to hold The Squidd’s burgeoning wardrobe (thank you, friends and fam). Because we are new to the area, this was an exhausting proposition. Needless to say, we stopped at many, many stores from crappy to trendy, dead cheap to astronomically expensive. Among our many stops was a department store called Ballantyne’s. While there, we saw one of The Squidd’s teachers. She’s a lovely woman and a lovely educator, but we decided not to stop her and, instead, to let her enjoy her weekend without reminders of work to intruding on her outing. However, come Monday morning, when I went to drop off The Squidd, I mentioned to her that I’d seen her at Ballantyne’s, which I pronounced bal-an-teens. She looked at me oddly and asked me to repeat where I saw her.

So I said it again: Bal-an-teens.

Blank stare.

You know, Bal-an-teens, that department store downtown.

Lightbulb clicked on. Big smile now. Oh, Bal-an-TINES (rhymes with ‘valentines’). Yes, I was there with my daughter.

Seriously? The pronunciation of Bal-an-teens is so off that it’s completely unidentifiable as a reference to the store in question? Huh.

And another: Rocky reminded me that tomorrow we are meant to attend a potluck-style party at the home of his department chair. When I asked him what time it begins, he told me he wasn't sure. And before I could roll my eyes and ask him to puh-leeez find out, he told me the evite says to show up around "midday splicing of the mainbrace." Umm . . .

Earthquake: The Saga Continues

We are still doing fine. Yesterday, we went to the Orana Wildlife Park and fed the giraffes.

After surveying the damage a little more, the places that have fallen down do not surprise me in the least. Brick construction. No to little support for the structures. Built before building standards were set forth. Poorly maintained. Or built on mud near streams.

These are the buildings they are showing on the news.

Summary so far.

After a 7.1 quake, no loss of human life. Zero.

Power was voluntarily shut down to ensure no fires for about 6 hours.

No looting and people behaving.

Volunteers helping out all over the place.

The grocery store was a little bare, but shipments have resumed today.

We are still getting aftershocks, but they last for about 5-10 seconds.

If this quake happened near Philadelphia, it would have been a very different story.

Earthquake Update

First, I am back in Christchurch and everyone is completely fine and dandy.

Second, do not believe everything the news might be telling you! There is minimal damage. The major damage is to a sewer line, some chimneys fell down, and there are a few cracks in some roads built on marshy soils. The one or two buildings in Christchurch that they keep showing on the news were gutted and structurally unsound...they were already in the process of tearing down those buildings. In essence, any Seattle blizzard is 10x more dangerous than this quake.

We have power. We have lots of food. It really is not a big deal. Hell, all the stores are open including the KFC and McDonalds down the road.

At worst, we have to go without a shower for a day to ensure that the water lines have not been contaminated.

That's it.

Earthquake in NZ

7.4 Magnitude earthquake west of Christchurch.

Power is out, but family and house are fine.

I am in Westport right now and doing fine.

NZ Sports

Every morning when I take Rocky (and sometimes The Squidd) to school, I invariably catch the sports report on my current favorite radio station. So over the weeks and months, I've picked up the names of some of the NZ national teams:

Rugby: All Blacks
Soccer: All Whites
Cricket: Black Caps
Women's Rugby: Black Ferns

Anyone noticing a (predictable) trend here? And just this week, I heard mention of the national basketball team. Wait for it. Yes, it's the Tall Blacks.