Caldina

So today I walked to the mall, and I have to say, it was really nice to just be me. I sometimes feel like I sort of copped out going to an English speaking country, but I was so grateful today to just be able to go out by myself and wander around. I went to the book store and bought myself a ruler and protractor for labs (so Jules, if you find the bag and those are in there, don't bother with them). I unfortunately also got food... I try really hard to avoid getting food, but I have a bit of a weak spot for Shamiana. You know how in America, the food court always has the same generic Asian food? Well, here, being all close to Asia and whatnot, generic Asian generally doesn't cut the mustard. So there are those same repeating restaurants (are they restaurants? They're not really), but there is one for Japanese food, one for Chinese food, and one for Indian food. Also, there is one for Mediterranean food, but that's not Asian. So anyway, Shamiana is the Indian food that crops up at every food court in Christchuch, and I sort of love it.

Anyway, the alone time was good. I could hum whatever popped into my head (Turn! Turn! Turn!, Wind Beneath My Wings, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town - the Xmas episode of Futurama was on last night, which sort of threw me off), I could run away from the butterflies without anyone being a tool about it, I could go as fast or as slow as I wanted. It was great! Also I used up some of my one and two dollar coins, which was good, because they are accumulating quickly.

Something that I noticed, though, is that pies are a big thing here. I was thinking about this on my walk, how meat pies are very popular, and there is this company that I saw advertised several times, Mrs. Mac's Meat Pies, and at first I thought of Chicken Run, which was sort of funny, but then I thought of Sweeney Todd and suddenly felt not amused at all. It's too easy to replace Mac with Lovett, and then I just feel yucky.

On a nicer note, last night, I played pictionary!!! It was excellent. There were EIGHT PEOPLE and it wasn't like OH MY GOD I'M GOING TO TALK OVER YOU ABOUT SOMETHING COMPLETELY UNRELATED AND NOT PAY ATTENTION TO WHEN MY TURN IS AND BASICALLY BRING THE ENTIRE PICTIONARY GAME TO A STOP BECAUSE I HAVE NO ATTENTION SPAN, and we finished the entire game! I think it was the largest pictionary game I've ever finished!

Aaaaaugh, Devon saw Watchmen last night, I'm so jealous. Movies are very far behind here. Jeevan, who is a friend of my flatmates' from Singapore said that he saw a movie in Singapore (which is already a little behind the U.S.) in November, and he saw the preview for its theatre release in New Zealand last week... I can't remember which movie now. Sadness.

Oh, also on my walk, I saw this cute car called a Toyota Starlet, and I wanted it... Mom, Dad, you should look for a Toyota Starlet. I also saw a nice one called a Toyota Caldina, but that was creepy because I saw it, and I was checking it out, and then I realized the driver was sitting in the car, so then I pretended I wasn't checking out his car. That's not the creepy part, sorry, except maybe on my part. About five minutes later, I saw another black Toyota Caldina, and I couldn't quite tell at first if it was a Caldina or not because the font is really bad. But, it had the word Caldina written on the back of the rear window, just peeling off so it wasn't obvious. Anyway, I thought, sweet, I can check this one out instead, and the driver was sitting in it! And I thought as I walked back trying really hard not to stare, that maybe it's the same driver, I wonder if it is. Then, maybe ten minutes after that, I came across a third black Caldina, this one definitely the same one because it had the name across the back the same way (should have checked the license plate number, but didn't think of it), and the driver was sitting in the car. At that point I got a little paranoid because I had made a turn onto another street since the second time I saw the car, but I was nearly to the mall, so it didn't matter.

So I have a photo of a Toyota Startlet, but none of a Caldina because the creeper driver was always with his car.

Have a nice day!