A Flower Bed And Mexican Woes

Dec 21, 2008

img_5602“Compared to Chicago, New Zealand’s like a botanical garden,” said Sammy. But New Zealand being a giant-sized flower bed isn’t the only thing setting it apart from Chicago. Everybody here is nice. Period. Even from the moment we stepped into the ‘Air New Zealand’ terminal in the San Francisco airport, we were greeted with an unfamiliar friendliness. Our section’s flight attendant was particularly merry and had a sort of grandma-esque aura. Once we got on land and had walked around a little, we realized kindness does not only dwell in the thoughtful stewardess; New Zealand is a happy land. But why? Coming from Chicago (and having recently visited New York), its kind of an astonishing fact. We have a (slightly proven) theory: Smaller communities have better chemistry. Everybody’s nice because there’s less of a city to deal with. One less parking meter, one less grocery store, one less cab driver, and a lot less stress. The same phenomena sort of happens in Michigan. We visited a family there, and they were extremely hospitable, treating us as if we were their close relatives. Small town (or country) = niceness. I rest my case.

For the past two years, our family has gone to Mexico during winter break. Some of the best memories I have were made there. We absolutely love snorkeling, one thing they don’t have in New Zealand (at least where we are). It makes me–us–miss the cool Central American nights, with half mutilated gecko carcasses being carried away by hordes of ants, and tan actors doing Grease en Español. Its great to be in New Zealand, I’m just having Mexican woes.

By the way, do New Zealanders think Americans sound just as weird as we think they do? Unless they’re just really good listeners, it seems like our accents (or non-accents) don’t matter to them. Its all a matter of perspective: Our normalities are their oddities.. are those words?

| Posted by Spencer on Dec 21, 2008

9 Comments

Lee
Dec 21, 2008 at 6:58 PM

You’re very lucky to get to travel and enchance your perspective at such a young age. You also write very well — I’m a journalism major in college and you write way better than most of my peers. Enjoy the rest of your vacation and Happy Hannukah! Is Tweedy a Jewish name?


 
flower garden | Digg hot tags
Dec 22, 2008 at 10:59 AM

[...] Vote A Flower Bed And Mexican Woes [...]


 
sound garden | Digg hot tags
Dec 22, 2008 at 11:37 AM

[...] Vote A Flower Bed And Mexican Woes [...]


 
Danny
Dec 22, 2008 at 1:04 PM

Spencer, I just checked the weather in Chicago. It’s 2 degrees right now with a wind chill of 15 below. You are SO LUCKY to be there!! Please give Sammy a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY from me, Kendall, and Leah–what did you do to celebrate? And what does he know from botanical gardens?

Miss you guys!


 
Spencer Tweedy
Dec 22, 2008 at 1:24 PM

Oy that’s so cold! Sammy says thanks. We ate a really rich chocolate cake and invited our house’s owner over. It was really fun!

Me too!


 
Spencer Tweedy's Blog
Dec 28, 2008 at 3:22 AM

[...] ‘experienced trampers’. Okay, what? Oh yeah, that’s just one of the many weird (or un-weird) terms they use [...]


 
Spencer Tweedy's Blog
Dec 31, 2008 at 10:00 PM

[...] at our friend Simon’s house, a couple down from ours. I hung out with some Kiwi kids, who–just like everybody else here–were really nice. They spent at least thirty minutes entertaining themselves by asking me to say [...]


 
Cypress and Sienna
Jan 4, 2009 at 6:54 PM

Hey!
We feel so privileged being mentioned in your blog!
[I hung out with some Kiwi kids, who–just like everybody else here–were really nice.]
Hope we didn’t annoy you to much!!!

email us. bye!


 
Spencer Tweedy
Jan 4, 2009 at 7:38 PM

HEY!!! Hahaa, don’t worry about it–you guys were really funny!

What’s your email address? Bye!


 

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