Pavlova and Christmas Crackers: A Very Kiwi Christmas

"So is this really different from what you're used to?"

That's question I got 3 times on Christmas Day.

From what I could tell, they all meant the amazing early summer weather. Which, to be fair, was really amazing.

But, besides the weather, it was still pretty different than what I'm used to.

Those you who are fortunate enough to know my family, know that we can be... loud. Our holiday is usually the epitome of bustling.

A Kiwi Pavlova
(Photo from Facebook)

It was more of a "silent night" and day here. It was an away year here where families trade off to each side, so only 2 of the usual 4 families came to Josh's family Christmas. It was also an away year for his brother's family, so it was pretty small.

It was his parents, his sister and her boyfriend, and his uncle for lunch and his other uncle's family for dinner.

While very laid-back and stress-free (for the most part), it was not as boisterous as what I'm used to.

There were a few kiwi traditions I got to take part in.

One unique kiwi Christmas tradition is having a pavlova for dessert. The kiwi pavlova is a food similar to a meringue, but it's thicker with a crispy crust. And, it's topped with whipped cream and fruit.

I love sugar, but it was too much even for me. It was still good, but maybe next time I'll get a smaller slice.

I'll talk more about pavlova in a future "Kiwis Can Cook" post.

Josh's family wore their hats, so I could share this kiwi tradition with you!
(Photo by Erin Grigson)

Another kiwi Christmas tradition is the Christmas Cracker. The idea vaguely resembles that of breaking a wishbone. Two people grab each end and pull. The person that gets the bigger part gets to keep the prizes inside. Each cracker contains a toy, a joke, and a paper hat.

At Josh's family's Christmas, everybody got a cracker. And then, with his mom's help, I convinced everyone to wear their hats. It was definitely something new and different.

While I had a few new experiences, I also brought a couple Kentucky/American traditions with me.

I was assigned dessert duty, so I baked for 3 days. I wasn't sure of quite how many people to expect, so I made lots.

First, I tried my hand at Buckeyes. For those who aren't familiar with the confectionary, it's a super sweet peanut butter ball dipped in milk chocolate. And it looks like a buckeye. They're sweet, but delicious.

Then I got dipping fever, so I made some chocolate-covered pretzels as well.

And then, since they were such a hit at New Zealand Thanksgiving, I made some more mini apple pies.

Turns out I made way too much food. But that's alright.

Speaking of food, one other difference was that most of the food was served cold. But when you think about it, is that the warm weather lends itself to cool food, while in winter, you want something hot in your tummy.

I think that just about wraps it up for my first kiwi Christmas.

I'm sorry I haven't been posting the last couple weeks. I decided to take a break for the holidays.

Stay tuned for more posts coming soon!

A Musical Journey That Led Me To Friends

Up until about 8 weeks ago, I knew maybe 10 people in this country.

In October, I saw an ad on Facebook asking for people to audition for a show.

To give me a chance to get out and meet some people, I decided to audition. Less than 2 months later, I have met more than 30 new people, all of whom I can call friends.

The Cast in our "Stayin' Alive" costumes!
Photo by Joshua Baylis, edited by Erin Grigson

Top of the Pops, a musical journey from the 1950s to today, opened yesterday/today, depending on where you are in the world while reading this.

I originally auditioned to sing "Chandelier," by Sia, but have since gotten involved in 6 more numbers.

We have 4 company numbers. We open with "December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)" by the Four Seasons. The lovely Julie is featured on it and it's a really fun way to start the show.

From there, we have solos, duets and small groups performing songs from the 50s through 70s including some by Elvis, ABBA and the Beatles.

We end the first half with a super funky, awesomely choreographed, Saturday Night Fever-esque rendition of "Stayin' Alive," by the Bee Gees. I've never felt quite so disco as I do during that number.

After a short intermission, we open the second half with Billy Joel's "For the Longest Time." We have 8 individuals featured in this number and I love getting to do the cool harmonies.

This half is when I have lots to do. I get a break in the 80s, but then stay busy.

I kick off the 90s with our group who salute the Spice Girls with our version of "Stop (Right Now)," a song I had never heard until they assigned me to that group.

But it's been an absolute blast working with the other girls.

Immediately after Spice Girls, I have to change into my cowgirl outfit (including my boots and hat) and come back out to do some line dancing in the second half of "Something to Talk About," by Bonnie Raitt.

After that, I get a few songs to catch my breath, which gives me time to change and glitter up before I go back on for "Chandelier."

There are 2 more songs before our final company number, which is "Born This Way," by Lady Gaga.

Total costume changes: 7. Total numbers I'm in: 7. Total amount of fun: Priceless.

Unfortunately, not all my loved ones can come see this amazing production. However, I'm proud to say that pretty much everyone I know in this country knows about it/is coming to it. (Though, to be fair, three quarters of the people I know in this country are in it, so...)

Stay tuned for more photos coming soon!

Accents Confuse as Often as They Impress

Besides phrases being different or having different words that mean the same thing, kiwis also pronounce things pretty different.

I'll be honest, I love Josh's accent. It may or may not be one of my favorite things about him. But that doesn't mean I don't get confused when he speaks. I do. And when a foggy look passes over my face, he realized I'm lost and backtracks... another thing I love about him.

Understanding English with a kiwi accent can be hard. Having to decipher common American words/phrases in an accent as they speak at a normal speed or faster is a struggle. But then add in the fact that kiwis put the emphasis on different syllables and I have to admit: sometimes I get lost in conversations.

Luckily, as I make these lists, I'm finding it easier to keep up in conversations and even add to them occasionally.

The other day, I asked Josh to clarify something for me. I asked him if he meant "yarn" or "yawn." When he said each one, I swear it sounded the exact same. This is something that only adds to my confusion.

The good news is that it isn't just me getting confused. One of the grocery chains here has a commercial out now that pokes fun at the fact that when kiwis say beers and bears, it sounds the same, as it does when they say cheers or chairs.

It's funny because back in America, Josh and I went out with some friends, mostly international, and we went around the table and all said the word, "water." They were poking fun at the way Americans say it (which, I told them, is not fair because there are so many American accents and we all say it different from one another). But just around the table, the difference was crazy. There was Irish, Mexican, British, Kiwi, Moroccan and American and we all said that one word different. That just emphasizes how different our accents are and how one word can change so much.

And while watching a Netflix special of Trevor Noah, I realized he points this "water" pronunciation out, too.

Also, apparently in New Zealand, Erin and Aaron sound very different. There is almost always a very distinctive "E" put at the beginning of my name when spoken. I've always thought of my name as "Air-in," but here, it's "Ear-in." It definitely takes some getting used to.

Here are some other things Kiwis pronounce differently from Americans (written out phonetically for your convenience):

• Adidas - Add-ee-dass
• Hyundai - I can't even spell this out phonetically...
• Nissan - Niss-in
• Cemetary - Symmetry
• Garage - Gair-uj
• Scone - Scunn
• Tomato - Toe-mah-toe
• Sauce pan - (all one word) Saucepin

And I'm certain that there are more. 

It's fun to listen to a new and different accent, but be prepared to decipher it if you're trying to comprehend everything. 

Black, White and Ferns: What's the Deal With Kiwi Sports?

I don't pretend to know everything about sports. But since coming here, I feel like my eyes have been opened to some of the problems American sports have that don't belong on or off the fields, courts, courses, etc.

Before I tell you about the problems I'm seeing, I want to explain how sports work here.

For those who don't know anything about rugby, or don't know a lot, let's break it down.

In rugby, there are two types: league and union. Here, we're talking about union. Under the category of union, there's national, Super Rugby, provincial, and club.

Club would be the smaller scale, which is like the county/multi-town team. Then, if you're good, you would move up and after a bit of work, you might make the provincial team. That might be comparable to playing for your state. Then, if you're really good, from the provincial team, you can make it onto a Super Rugby team. This is still like playing on a provincial team, but like an All-Star team that plays internationally. And then, the best of the best from the nation will be selected for the national team.

There is a good chance that they will play together to represent their nation, which might encourage athletes to show a lot of respect for their opponents as well as their colleagues. I doubt that's the only  reason, but I'm sure it has something to do with it.

Some people might say that you see this all over the world. I disagree, if only because you don't see it at this level.

In New Zealand, there is an incredible amount of national pride in sports. To explain this better, let's look at the names of New Zealand sports teams.

Everyone knows the All Blacks, or at least most people have heard the name. The All Blacks is New Zealand's men's national rugby union team. They win a lot. They've won the Rugby World Cup three times (1987, 2011, 2015), which is more than any other national team, which is probably why you usually see them ranked number one in the world.

But the names of the other sports teams, both women and men, have a similar ring to them.

Just to make it fun, I'm going to put the names alone below and let you guess which name goes with which sport. (Answers will be at the bottom of this post.)

• All Blacks

  

  The silver fern is the national symbol of New Zealand.
  It is on every uniform of New Zealand national athletes
  in some form or another.

• Black Ferns
• Tall Blacks
• Tall Ferns
• Iron Blacks
• Silver Ferns
• Black Sticks
• Wheel Blacks
• Black Caps
• White Ferns
• Kiwis
• Kiwi Ferns
• Black Sox
• White Sox
• All Whites
• Football Ferns
• Ice Blacks
• Ice Fernz

They all kindof flow together, don't they?

The names create a sense of unity. The national symbol of New Zealand is the silver fern, and the colors are black and white. This is true across all national sports teams here.

But back to rugby.

At the end of each game, whether it's the national team or the club team, the captain of each side, win or lose, will say a few words. And it's always classy. They don't talk trash about the other team or blame the referees for what went wrong. They say what went well and what they'll work on in the future and move on. In many cases, the losing team will even be complimentary of the winning team.

You just don't see that very often in America.

And when an athlete is being honored for how many games he/she has played (sometimes 100, occasionally 200), the other team participates in recognizing the player because they understand what an accomplishment it is.

They're incredibly respectful.

The captains speaking after the games is not restricted to rugby. You can see this happen after netball, cricket, soccer, even basketball.

Their respect spreads beyond the field, court or pitch. It speaks to the pride athletes have in their nation and how their actions reflect on that nation.

That's something I think is severely lacking in American sports. I genuinely feel like many American athletes don't think about how their actions and their speech reflect on the country they represent. You can see that at promotional events, during sporting events, and on social media, athletes talking about the poor officiating, the weaknesses of their opponents, and bringing up personal matters that have no place in sports.

You just don't see that here. There's just a different level of class.

That being said, I still love my Cats and my favorite American athletes. Classiness is something I've always held important in determining who I root for (Hello, The King of Class, Phil Mickelson). But others might learn a think or two from athletes here.

I like to think that if more New Zealanders were put on American screens, they might rub off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Below, you'll find the sports matched to the team names.

Sport	Men	Women
Rugby Union	All Blacks	Black Ferns
Basketball	Tall Blacks	Tall Ferns
American Football	Iron Blacks	XXXXXXXXX
Netball	XXXXXXXXX	Silver Ferns
Field Hockey	Black Sticks	Black Sticks
Wheelchair Rugby	Wheel Blacks	Wheel Blacks
Cricket	Black Caps	White Ferns
Rugby League	Kiwis	Kiwi Ferns
Softball	Black Sox	White Sox
Football/Soccer	All Whites	Football Ferns
Ice Hockey	Ice Blacks	Ice Fernz

Extra, Extra: News in New Zealand

Something I've noticed since being here is the way the news works.

First, I need to put this into perspective. In new Zealand, there are only really two major national news programs.

Some people might find this scary; you're worried that since there are so few options, those two programs control what you see, so they can control what you think.

I understand this argument. Competition creates diversity and promotes the cultivation of new ideas. But based on what I've seen, that's not a problem here.

As a journalist (and yes, I still think of myself as a journalist), you might think I'd be wary of a nation with so few news networks.

I'm not.

Almost every time I turn on the news, I feel like I'm getting an unbiased story and learning something new and important.

It's exciting and refreshing.

When I worked at KyForward, we would have the news on all day long, either CNN or MSNBC. While I love and respect both of those channels for their reporting and opinions, I got tired of the negativity. The coverage was rarely about something that made me feel good about what was happening where I lived. That's not limited to those two shows, but it's off-putting just the same.

When I moved to South Carolina, I didn't have cable, so the news I got was always online. I got the New York Times Breaking News headlines sent to my phone and if I wanted to read something else, I'd just search for it.

But back to the present.

In New Zealand, the program we always watch is 1 News. It's on at 6 p.m., so we usually watch while eating dinner. This program covers everything. They have to appeal to all types of people: Labors (similar to Democrats), Nationalists (similar to Republicans), working moms, sports fans, college kids, everyone. And they do an incredible job.

They cover big national news, important international news (and yes, that includes some Trump stuff), fun features on unique people here, and then... then there's sports.

Sports

But it's nothing like any sports news segment you've seen in America.

The sports anchor is a woman. And if that's not new, then how about the sports she covers?

There's Courtney Duncan, a 22-year old kiwi making a Motocross name for herself.

There's Lisa Carrington, the kiwi rower on course to win a handful of Olympic medals.

• There's cricket.
• And baseball. 
• And cycling.
• And American football.
• And horse racing.
• And golf.
• And shot put.
• And underwater hockey.
• And yes, there's Steven Adams, too.
• And then, of course, there's rugby. League. Union. Sevens. Tens. You name it.

The New Zealand women and men's teams won the Rugby World Cup Sevens in 2018.

The fact that they covered rugby is not what's exciting. The exciting part is that they cover the women's win as much as the men's.

It's incredible.

They also cover netball and field hockey, activities that are predominantly women's sports.

The news gives equal coverage and equal merit to men and women's sports and it's so impressive.

Let's be honest. WNBA players aren't famous in America. But who's fault is that? If their incredible amount of work was publicized more, then maybe more people would be interested.

Some people might disagree, saying that people who are interested will follow the sport and don't need the news to over it.

I beg to differ.

Since being here, I've been exposed to lots of rugby. And I'm beginning to love the sport. But I wouldn't have learned how much I like the sport if I hadn't been exposed to it on the news.

I also really like netball. Don't get me wrong, it's no basketball. But it's impressive none the less.

New Zealand sports are really interesting, so I'll be talking more about it in another post. I'll be getting into the specific awesomeness that exists here, so stay tuned.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Weather

What news segment haven't I mentioned yet? The weather. And let me tell you, 1 News has really unique ways of sharing the national weather.

Fun fact: The city we live in is almost always featured when giving the high and low of the following day. And we don't exactly live in a big city.

But 1 News also enhances their weather reports using 3-D models to engage viewers. I don't mean they use 3-D tracking. I mean using special effects, the country surrounds the weatherman (who's name is Dan, which just makes me laugh every time... Dan, the Weatherman) while he talks about each island and the specific cities.

It's also really interesting to see why we don't get the same weather as the rest of the country. When using these effects, you can see why the storms that hit the west coast of New Zealand don't make it to us (they hit the mountains and don't get over them, or at least don't come at us as strong). It's really cool.

Weather can be mundane. Weather is the definition of "small talk" in a conversation. But the first time I saw this way of showing the weather, I was drawn in.

Everything else

Normally, I wouldn't skim over the government news or features, but this post is already really long.

First, I want to take a moment and acknowledge that the news anchors learned quite a bit of Maori or Te Reo for Maori Language Week in September. Maori, along with English and New Zealand Sign Language, is an official language for the country. I cannot imagine American news anchors learning and speaking on live television any Native American tribal languages.

What I want you to know about the international news is that they don't dwell on any one specific country's news. Yes, we see Trump, but he doesn't dominate. In fact, there are some days when I don't see him at all (which I LOVE).

Obviously, Australian stories impact us here, so we see a bit more about Australia than any other places, but we also see British stories, Thailand stories (obviously with the soccer team stuck in the cave), Korean stories, Turkish stories and Chinese stories. We see hurricanes in Hawaii, fires in Colorado and California, and the passing of Aretha Franklin, John McCain, and George H. W. Bush.

In national news, there's a lot about making life better for the average New Zealander: regulations on rental properties, raising wage of teachers and nurses (both groups went on strike recently), building affordable homes for New Zealanders to buy, and job opportunities for those who need one. They tackle homelessness and the struggles of heating a home in winter. But even these sad topics, they present with hope.

Hope. Not fear.

New Zealand news is exciting, fun, refreshing, and informative. And I hope U.S. news networks take note.