Ask Trees: Part I

Hello World, you'll remember a while back I had an Ask Trees post, I figure its time I answered some of those questions.

The first couple of questions are from Alicia, by blog buddy and penfriend:

what would you do if you were sitting quietly in your living room one night while rich was asleep and it felt like there was something crawling on your face. you think it's just your hair, but then when you go to brush it away you realize that it's actually a horrible CENTIPEDE!!!

I would most like let out a wee screen, flick the centipede across the room and then take a photo for facebook/instagram. I'm not sure what I'd do with the centipede next - as I live in the middle of town and there's no trees or grass around here. I think I'd put it in the car park and hope for the best for the little guy.

I guess I should say here though - generally creepy crawlies don't freak me out too much - however if in this proposed scenario it had been a cockroach or a huhu beetle, Alicia would hear me screaming from Pennsylvania.

Fun fact - this actual scenario happened to Alicia, well actually perhaps that's not so fun.

Alicia also sent me a "bonus question"

bonus question: what's the best thing about being a kiwi? 

 I'm not even sure where to start on this one - so, so many good things about being born in New Zealand.

The more I see of the world - the more I realise just how lucky I was to be born at the bottom of the world. Sure we are far from perfect, but there's a hell of a lot of good things happening down here and I'm so lucky to be part of it all.

So in no particular order - here's the top five things about being a Kiwi (for me at least):

1) Kiwis don't take themselves too seriously

Compared with other people I have met in my travels, Kiwis just don't take themselves too seriously and making fun of your friends, family and yourself is just part of life.

Where else in the world would a police officer have a conversation with a suspect like this:


2) We make some of the best movies in the world

So perhaps I'll a little bit bias about this one, but we do make some incredible movies in this country, often on a tiny budget.

Here's a few of my favourite Kiwi films of all time:

The Quiet Earth

2. Sleeping Dogs
3. Meet the Feebles

 4. Vigil


 


5. In My Father's Den


3) In the grand scheme of things, New Zealand is a very liberal country and social change appears to happen very quickly

One thing I noticed living in Korea was that the physical environment changed very quickly - a 10 story building could go up in a matter of months and the built environment was constantly changing. However, the the social context were very slow to change. Whilst living there I met people who were surprised that New Zealand had a female Prime Minister - they were even more shocked when I told them she was the second female Prime Minister and had been the Prime Minister for nine years.

In my relatively short lifetime I can remember the legalise prostitution bill and the civil union bill both going to the house with great controversy - but now people seem pretty accepting of both acts and just get on with their lives. Just recently a bill passed its first reading in the house which will allow same sex couples to marry, I'm hopeful that will pass into law also.

Down here, things do seem to change pretty quickly and I think I would struggle to live in a country where things are more conservative or where change was slow to come.

Also - New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the vote in 1893, women in this country have had the right to vote for over 119 years. That's pretty incredible.

Image from Te Ara

4) I can have a professional job and still wear whatever I want to work

This certainly isn't the view in the whole country, the rural areas do tend to be more conservative, but it seems in Wellington - particularly in the public service, you are judged on your skills and talents rather than what you look like.

This means that I can still dress how I want and hold down a good job - I'm pretty sure in other parts of the world, I'd be expected to put on a black suit and march to the beat of a corporate drum. That's really not the case here at all! I work with people with piercing and visible tattoos and its not an issue.

Also my hair extension in whatever rainbow colour they may be have never been questioned or so much as raised an eyebrow in my office.

Although - more than one person has told me that I do bring colour to the workplace - which is a positive thing!

I think I'd feel like I was losing a bit of myself if I had to "tone it down" to have a job I loved - thankfully in this part of the world, I can have both!

 5. It's BEAUTIFUL down here!

This music video - "Aotearoa" (which is Te Reo Maori for New Zealand) by Minuit came out when I was living in South Korea. I watched it in my classroom and I just about lost it - pretty much everything that's good about New Zealand is in this video. Enjoy!


Last but not least - New Zealand - WHAKA YEAH! (You may not get about 90% of this if you're not a Kiwi - sorry)