Tag: International
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Our Christmas as Immigrants
It’s 9:40AM on Christmas Eve here in Hamilton. We are seated in the surprisingly spacious waiting room of the Hillcrest Medical Centre. It’s a relatively small operation boasting some eleven doctors and two grumpy receptionists. The room is far from full so Gwyn is feeding Clark a banana. Despite the inauspicious locale, all is well…
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Language, Identity and Culture
We had a farewell morning tea for a colleague earlier today. My friend is a lovely woman of British extract who will be moving away to start life anew with her ‘partner’. The use of the term partner as a synonym for all manner of couplings is something I’ve found strange here in New Zealand.…
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Life: Standard or Fast?
I mailed a letter to a friend Friend back home the other day. When I looked at the New Zealand Post mailbox outside our student centre, I reveled in the appropriateness of their signage. Over the past year, my life has been lived on the ‘fast’ side of life’s mailbox. Looking back over my 31st…
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Public and Private Life
My wife, Son and I applied for an extension of our visas today. Coincidentally, today is also the four year anniversary of our marriage. If you had told me on our wedding day that four years hence we would be living in a foreign land, with an infant son in tow, I would have promptly…
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The Lone Star Restaurant, New Zealand Style
Having long grown tired of my much-too-small flat, I decided to brave the wilds of public transport and mosey on down to the Lone Star Cafe & Bar. As you can see in the photo above, the decor is almost spot on. Wood floors, exposed beams on the ceiling, and above all American country music…
Pax Plena 