Mellow Yellow and Fashion Fest

The last few weeks have been quite eventful. Last weekend my roommate Zoe and I went to the New Zealand Fashion Festival. It was the final days, so unfortunately not very many activities were going on. We ended up going to the Designer Garage Sale to get in the week’s shopping quotient. While attempting to find parking, we came across both a fashion photo shoot and also a runway show which was pretty cool. Although the day wasn’t incredibly exciting, it was still interesting to attend a fashion festival in a foreign country.

The biggest even that has take place was Zoe buying a car last weekend. It has been quite an interesting experience, to say the least. Zoe and I are both used to driving on the right.  In New Zealand, they drive on the left, so this has been quite a challenge. The first week whenever we were driving, we kept repeating “LEFT lane” over and over until we finally arrived at our destination. I am pleased to report that there has yet to be any accidents or dilemmas. The car is a very light yellow, so it has been referred to as Mellow Yellow from our home stay family. Mellow Yellow has stuck and is now the nickname for the car, despite Zoe saying she would NEVER name her car!

This weekend Zoe and I went to the beach—the weather, considering it is now fall, is still absolutely amazing and always in the high 60s or low 70s—and downtown Auckland.  I would love to say it was a relaxing day, but it wasn’t overly so. It was our first time attempting to drive into the city on our own without someone else driving. Thankfully, it wasn’t that scary of an experience and we didn’t up travelling down the wrong lane!  The biggest problem we encountered was attempting to find parking downtown on a Saturday afternoon. Despite the difficulty in finding a parking spot, the day proved to be wonderful. We had lunch downtown and then walked around for a while before heading to the beach at Mission Bay.

Another event that has occurred is the gradual change of my spelling. I’ve noticed that my spelling has began to resemble that of a New Zealander. I am beginning to insert the letter “u” into words and find myself replacing a “y” with an “S”. Some examples: labor has become labour, favorite has become favourite, and cozy has become cosy. My spellcheck has been working overtime lately!

Next weekend we are going to, hopefully, go to a rugby game. I can’t wait and will definitely keep you update on whether I manage to figure out the sport of rugby!