On medals at the Olympics

There's one thing that is very apparent at any Olympics, regardless of where they take place, or whether they are summer or winter.

The USA has a massively inflated ego .

Those annoying cries of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" are the bane of many non-American sports fan.  The boastful  tweets from athletes and spectators alike about the US “showing the rest of the world that we’re the best” and the like.

Yes, the States wins a lot of medals – usually more than any other country – and it has produced some truly fantastic and incomparable athletes who deserve all the kudos in the world, but there's a bit of perspective needed when you look at those numbers.  When you compare hardware with population, the story of who is “the best” has a very different outcome. 

Before every Olympics, Sports Illustrated releases their list of medal picks, and these games are no different.  Now let's pretend that the magazine's crystal ball had just been in for servicing and was working particularly well the day they made their predictions and everything they expect to happen does indeed take place. And let's suppose that each medal won represents a million dollars, and every person living in a country that wins a medal split the money equally.

For these Games, SI predicts that China will win 100 medals. With 1.4 billion inhabitants, it only takes some rudimentary math (some that even I can do) to calculate that each of those medals would have to be shared between 1.4 million people.  Therefore, each Chinese person would receive a less-than-stellar 7 cents at the end of the games.

The States are pegged to take home a hefty 110 medals. If they did, it would mean that 314 million Americans would each be 35 cents richer.

By comparison, Canada, with its predicted comparatively modest 17 medals, would win 48 cents for each of its 35 million people.

But even more impressive is humble little New Zealand.  If SI is correct, this tiny country with all of 4 million inhabitants will take home 16 medals.  That translates to a full $4 for each kiwi, and that's enough for a nice flat white, a nice lamb pie, or maybe even half a jug. 

So yeah…New-Zea-Land, New-Zea-Land.

The Nearly-mid-trip Point

May 10, 2012, 10:30am Sydney Time (12:30 pm NZ time; 8:30pm May 9th Ontario time)

Usually when I travel I’m ultra organized; my bag will be pre-packed weeks in advance, I’ll plan and replan the contents of my carryon over and over again. At the airport I’m generally efficient and organized with my documents, passport, a pen, gum and snacks all in their place and I rarely find myself lost or confused.

Today however, I’m a disaster.  My bags were packed last minute.  My carryon is a mess and is lacking basic things like a change of shirt or snacks.  I managed to get confused at the check-in gates and mistook the Virgin Blue desk for the Air New Zealand one (to be fair, the Air New Zealand logo was on the VB screens).  Once in Sydney, I completely missed the international transfers hall (which was partially hidden by plywood due to construction, so it wasn’t THAT big of a cock up, right?) and ended up in the wrong line.

I have no currency of either of the two countries I’m passing through in the next 30 hours , nor of my final destination.  I’m a mess.

May 10, 2012, 11:30 Sydney  (1:30 NZ, 9:30 Ontario)

I’m almost at the half-way point of my trip.  Basically every half hour is 1% of the trip.  I’m now at the 23-1/2 hour mark, so 47% done.

I’ve been in Sydney’s nice airport since 8:30 and my flight leaves at 1:50, so nearly done.  I’ve been whiling away the hours wandering the chic shops (Armani and Coach have shops here, to give you an idea of what’s on offer), watching Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (which I highly recommend), and endlessly sampling creams and lotions at the duty free. So far I’ve tried an organic oil, a sheep placenta-based serum, a “wrinkle plumper” by one of the big cosmetic companies (can’t remember which) and even dared to take a few squirts of this one night cream that’s selling at $495 AUD.  I don’t think my face has ever been this moisturized.

I really wish I could go outside.  It’s gorgeous and 24 degrees.  And my best friend who’s been living in Sydney is a mere few kilometres away.  Unfortunately my layover was just too short to organize a visit.  Hopefully on my way back I’ll be able to connect with her.

May 10, 2012, 12:00 Sydney  (2:00 NZ, 10:00 Ontario)

Ugh.  I'd been craving asian noodles and was happy to see a noodle bar here.  I reluctantly forked out $17 for a plate of Singapore noodles and they were nasty -- salty, heavy on the curry, fatty chicken and just all-round disappointing.  Need to get rid of this taste.

May 10, 2012, 12:30 Sydney  (2:30 NZ, 10:30 Ontario)

Made three nice discoveries at the airport -- discounted Easter chocolate on sale at one of the shops, $2 massage chairs and coffee-flavoured vodka.  Niiiiiiiice. 

The long long long trip home

Just a quick note to say I'm on my way.  I've been in transit for a little over 10 hours now (^bus from Wanaka to Christchurch, and have been waiting at airport for three hours), and have a further 40 hours to go. 

I'm approaching this like I approach my runs - mentally breaking it into manageable chunks and ticking off the time (or distance) covered.  At this point, I'm 20% done. 

Usually this tactic works, but that 80% ahead of me is looking pretty daunting right now.

Since my flight leaves at 7:00am and my bus arrived here at 10:00pm, I decided to forego accommodation and am instead bunkered down on the floor of the airport. It's far from comfortable, but at least I'm here and not in a dorm room stressig about whether I'd wake up at 3:00am to make it here for 4:00. 

OK.  Wifi about to run out.  Best be going.

Why I will gain weight during my trip home

Ask anyone who's been living overseas for an extended period of time and undoubtedly there are two things they will say they miss: family/friends and food they can't get anywhere but home.


Way back in December 2010 I was heading home after a three-month-long trip to the antipodes and wrote a post about my gleeful anticipation of a few of home's delights.  I just had a look over said post and my list of things I miss hasn't changed much. 


Though I've been spared the joys of sleeping in dormrooms and been enjoying access to a bathtub and a popcorn popper for most of this past year, I still miss poutine, mom's granola, La Botega's sandwhiches, good pizza and everything else edible on that list.

In case you were wondering, here it is again (with a few added notes):

• Tim Horton's hot chocolate and coffee  I will very very likely be scratching this itch within an hour of landing in our fair country.  Sweet. (After working in cafés on and off for the past six months, and thus enjoying free, delicious NZ coffee, I can safely say I'm no longer craving Timmie's double doubles. Kiwis do some things really well, and coffee is one of them.)
• Marshmallows  It's not that I'm a huge fan or anything, but the marshmallows here are just odd and fake nasty tasting. 
• Poutine  It is a crime that this has not caught on elsewhere, but to be fair, no one makes cheese curds like Quebec (actually, does anyone even try?) -- acutally, haloumi cheese is fairly close, but you have to grill it before it's really palitable, and I haven't tried it with gravy...yet.
• Air popped popcorn and Kernels  I don't think my love of puffy deliciousness is a secret. It was generally the main component of one meal a week in Canada. I think I'm suffering from withdrawal.  I'm suffering from withdrawal. (Not anymore since Dave kindly bought me a popcorn popper which I've been using from time to time. Nice. I do, however plan on splurging on some movie theatre popcorn the first chance I get.  The stuff here, though just as expensive as in Canada, just doesn't compare.)
• Butter tarts  yet another delicacy that hasn't gone global for some unknown reason. Shame.
• Maple Syrup  self explanatory.
• Chips of the all dressed and cheddar variety  They have lots of very good chips here (or crisps as they say in NZ) and in flavuors we don't have in Canada -- Lamb and mint, chicken, balsamic vinegar and onion, sweet and tangy, etc.  But no all dressed or plain cheddar (or dill pickle for that matter, but I don't like them anyway, so I'm OK with that)
• Sandwhiches from La Botegga in Ottawa  Take the best sandwhich you have ever had and throw it to the ground, stomp on it, spit on it, and turn your back on it and walk away to La Botegga and get yourself the most mouth-watering square of cheese, meat and bread you will ever have.  mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
• Pizza from either Picollo's in Lafontaine, or Lorenzo's or Collonade in Ottawa  This part of the world has tons of great Thai, Indian, Japanese, Turkish and Cantonese food.  But for some reason, pizza eludes them.  The crust is dry and bland.  the sause uninspired.  Cheese is woefully scant. Oh, the humanity.  I want a slice (or 5) of pizza dripping with greese and tastiness.  (Goodness me is this still true.  I've resorted to trying to make my own pizza of late, but it's never as good as what I can buy at home.)
• President's Choice fizzy water  It's so good, so healthy, and so cheap.
• My mom's granola and soup
  (not together, obviously).  My mom may not know how to glaze a ham to perfection, or how to braise a lamb shank (she's a vegetarian), but the woman makes the best granola and soup.  Bar none. 
• KFC I don't eat there more than once a year, but I had a craving some time ago so I bought home here.  Turns out the Colonel's secret recipe is so secret that he didn't bother sharing it with the kiwi franchisees; It was bland, greasy and supremely disappointed.

Of course there's delicious stuff here that we don't have in Canada either, like haloumi cheese, the aforementionned coffee, bacon-flavoured chips, FergBurger, and some pretty fantastic wine and beer. I'll look forward to sampling those again come July.

What I've been up to...

I've already been back in Wanaka two months, and time has flown.  Amazing how the passage of days, weeks, months, can move so much quicker when you're not miserable.

Since being here, I've been mostly in a state of limbo waiting for another work visa to be approved.  Luckily, the long-awaited message was delivered two weeks ago and I am now officially employed, and working, at Tangos café on Wanaka's waterfront.



This waterfront...ah

So far, it's been good.  Obviously the view is amazing, I like the girls I work with, my bosses are nice, and I actually get breaks (imagine that!).
But there is one snag; Wanaka becomes rather ghost-townish during May and June.  There's not much to do over the coming seven weeks, so I guess I best come home for a visit.

Did I slip that in too subtly? 

I'm headed to Canada in less than three days.  By late Thursday night, I'll be back on Canuck soil for the first time in a year and a half. 

I haven't told many people yet, since it was rather last minute planning, and I have some vague idea of surprising some people (nobody tell Bumpa, OK?).

I'll be home until late June, and hope to see as many people as I can, and hopefully the weather will cooperate and I'll get at least a few beach trips in before heading back here for winter (brrrrrrrr).

Yay!

Why I don't polar bear dip

I went for a swim today.  First thing in the morning. In the middle of fall.  In a river.  A river that's fed by a glacier. 

As you can imagine, it was cold.  Extremely cold.  And unpleasant. It was so cold and unpleasant that my ability to write long sentences has apparently been affected (as long as you ignore the current one, apparently).

As such, I'll just direct you to someone more verbose who already wrote about it : http://wanakalakeswimmers.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/matukituki-river-whats-next/ 

There's even a picture of me.  I'm the one in the wetsuit with white stripes on the arms.

Exodus!

I am happy, nay excited -- scratch that -- EXTATIC to announce that I am out of Middlemarch and back to civilization and sanity.

I am back in Wanaka where I'll be working at a café as a Barista (stay in school kids!).  Luckily I found a place willing to sponsor my work Visa thus allowing me to say Sayonara to the terrible existence I was living down in rural Central Otago.

Not to say it was all bad (it was mostly bad).  I managed to save a fair bit of money, I got to go to Dunedin and actually be in a real (albeit small) city every once in a while (Wanaka is a good 3 hours from anything resembling a real city).  It was nice being somewhat part of a community again. And most of all, many of people there were great and I’ll miss them:

My former co-worker Christine and her boys were extremely generous, welcoming and a riot to be around.  My neighbour Shannon was always great for a visit and was a hoot to talk with. A few of the shop’s “regulars” were good fun and seemed genuinely sad to see me go.  Lynette, Holly and Hilary were fun to work with. And in my last 10 days in the village I got to start to get to know Norma, who was funny, charming, and pretty much all-round awesome (former journalist from South Africa, married to one of the country’s most respected brewers), and her two cute dogs.

But as great as those people are, I’m happy to be out of Middlemarch – being there was killing me from the inside out.

So here I am back in Wanaka, back where I can walk to a grocery store, or an Indian restaurant, or a pharmacy.  Back where there’s a bank, and a shoe store, and a lake. 

And best of all, I’m back where Scruff is!

Scruffles!