Some notes

Jen -

 - About half of the clothes I brought to New Zealand are some shade of blue.  Seriously.

 - Trying to teach euchre to people whose first language is NOT English is just a very bad idea. 

 - A man staying here from Australia made a great big batch of pancakes for a group of us sitting in the kitchen for lunch. I sat down at the table with everyone, took my knife and fork, and began to cut my stack of pancakes into pieces, like I would normally do at home. The German, Scot, and Aussie all stopped talking and eating and just looked at me. The Scot asked, “What are you doing?” (Except he really asked, “Whaaht thhe f--- ahre yew doin?”) I replied, “Well, eating my pancakes.” I looked up to see what I was doing wrong: they had all poured the syrup onto their pancakes and then rolled their pancakes burrito style and were eating them starting with one rolled end. According to the Scot, I, an American, was eating my pancakes too “daintily and sh—“. In “typical American fashion”, I was “trying to be better than everyone else.” 

 - My accent is getting weirder by the day. I almost keep saying, “Cheers” instead of “Thank you” (I stop myself at the last second).  But then we I say, “Thank you”, I’ve got the whole, “thank yew” thing going on.  What the heck. 

T - There is currently a GIANT earthworm sitting in a coffeemug next to my bed. It is waiting for the opportune prank moment.