High School

So I know that I graduated high school awhile ago but through talking to some Kiwis I realize that high school at home and high school here are entirely different. A question that I have been asked more than once by traveller's from all over the world is if high school and college are really like the movies they see. I thought about it for awhile and I have decided that for me they were like the movies. Albeit the movies glorified and made a happy ending to all of the experiences, ie everyone realizes cliques are stupid and new found friendships and peace resound throughout the high school by the time the credits roll up, but all in all there were cliques and stupid fights and crying and dreaded gym class and that terrible teacher who told us we all had head up butt syndrome and by the time I got to college there were keg parties and frat parties and nights I would rather forget and other nights that I would love to live over and over again. There were all nighters and lots of coffee and all of us thinking we were extraordinarily deep people with these amazing ideas about changing the world. And all of these experiences can be seen in dozens of very popular movies. Just look at John Hughes and the Brat Pack and I think most of my experiences are covered.

Here high school is called college. It seems that college is about as far as most people go. A lot don't attend University, there are only a handful of them around New Zealand. Since the drinking age here is 18 they go out to bars instead of throwing house parties. Also there are no open container laws here so there is really no need for the sort of sneaking around that happens in the US. It's weird though talking to travellers from around the world and that they can relate to my past experiences because they have seen the movies. I, on the other hand, have no idea what their high school or college experience is like because movies aren't made about it. There is no media coverage about a Kiwi college. The more time I spend away from the US the more I realize how ego centric our country is. I have never really taken the time to look into other countries' cultures or media output. Other countries, however, are constantly bombarded with US culture. Hollywood is worldwide.

Ed, my co-worker, asked me a very surprising question. He said, "I'm not racist or anything but what is it like living with black people?" I then realized that since I have been in New Zealand the number of people that I have seen that don't have the same skin tone as me and that aren't Maori is close to zero. I hadn't really thought about (if this were an intellectual paper I would start talking about white privelege but luckily American Diversity class is over and done with). The problem with Ed's question is he wants to know what the entire US thinks about desegregation. I find it daunting to think that the answers I give are going to be taken as the answers that any American would give.

A little deep compared to my last blog but this is what this experience is about. Having some fun and learning some more about myself.