American married to a Kiwi. I’ve got a Kiwi Terminology Quiz that I’m happy to send over, if you want. Budgie Smugglers, Jandals, Togs… and that’s just the beach section.

Be prepared, Americans talk way too much for most Kiwis. The kiwi accent can be monotone/robotic, so you might be getting a compliment, but not realize it is one. Yeah naw and naw yeah don’t always mean what you think. My family and Kiwi mates don’t like how hyperbolic Americans are… if you say something is awesome, it better be literally awe inspiring. You’ll learn not to exaggerate too much. Don’t boast on your resumes, like we have to do in the States, or you could be looked over.

If you use the ratio of housing expenses to income, Nurses are not paid well in the big cities. My friend was making about that, as a nurse, and until she got married to my husband’s best friend, who’s a farmer; she was in her 30s and still living with parents.

If you use over the counter medications like melatonin, cough drops, vitamins, ibuprofen, bring it yourself. Healthcare might be inexpensive, but the cost of stuff you’d find on the shelves at a CVS are RIDICULOUSLY priced, compared to the USA. Do not bring any cough syrup. Pack ibuprofen… get costco sized ibuprofen to bring with you. Trust me. It’s called Nurofen and it’s so so freaking expensive.

Be prepared to have yourself and your stuff thoroughly searched, inspected, and sprayed. Your cat will be quarantined for a few weeks (on your dime) to make sure it’s safe. NZ takes their environment and ecosystem VERY seriously and you WILL be fined if you don’t declare every single food/seed/dirt/drink/fur/weapon you have. If you get an apple on the plane, dispose of it before you get to customs or you WILL be fined. If you’re bringing any shoes, camping equipment, hiking gear, etc., make sure it’s clean and free of dirt/mud. Your stuff will be secretly sprayed with an insecticide. It’s normal, safe, and happens to everyone.

Be prepared to learn to garden in whatever space you have. Stacking pots that can be indoors or out on a patio, are your friends. The costs of food and produce are an EXTREME culture shock to Americans. A basket full of food at Aldi might reach $150. That same basket in NZ is gonna be about $500. Learn to take kitchen scraps and grow food from it. You can’t have seeds from other countries imported, so you get creative.

It’s a beautiful place, the people are kind, and the weather is pretty mild. It’s home, but the financial aspects are still jarring. Be prepared… the minimum wage is higher, but so is the cost of almost everything else.

Edit: only small farming communities will be upset by LGBTQ people. There’s so many queer people here, and it’s a very accepting country… the first to give women the right to vote.

The deceased person’s body will turn splotchey and cherry red. A lot of people go via nitrous or carbon monoxide. The blood vessels don’t like it.

I have one of these stereoscopes! It came with a bunch of nature scenes, but a few slides had 1800s 3D porn too!

I was wondering why it seemed inverted to me. I saw crevasses instead of mountains, but it didn’t make sense

This is the epitome of why I love science. It’s all about keeping an open mind, because things WILL change as we gather more evidence and study it. I was sharing paleontological facts with my family (who are politically conservative), and because the data is different from the first time they learned about raptors, they refused to believe me. It made so many things make sense. We literally have proof that dinos had feathers, but they didn’t want to believe it.

If someone’s favorite subject in school was science related, I want to be their friend. Everyone here, you’re awesome. Let’s keep learning, growing, and making silly memes about it 😁

I’m a postmortem scientist and one of the scariest things I learned in college, was that only 85% of gun suicide attempts were successful. The other 15% survive and nearly all have brain damage. I only know of 2 painless ways to commit suicide, that don’t destroy the body’s appearance, so they can still have funeral visitation.

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My neighbor HATES me because I’ve been converting my backyard into clover. We have fireflies, Butterflies, bees, bunnies, all sorts of wildlife. It smells beautiful, but we are an oasis amongst upper-middle class lawn zombies… Mowing, edging, pesticide spraying, weed killing zombies.

Meanwhile, I have milkweed, clover, chive, snapdragons, black eyed susans, grapes, raspberries, lilac, echinacea, chamomile, lavender, hydrangea, coreopsis, and salvia. I welcome wasps that eat pests, I buy bags of ladybugs, I compost… I’m really trying. It’s only 1/4 an acre, but I’m trying.

They look like a type of Grey mold, to me. Spray it with some neem oil, and it’ll go away

I’m terribly confused and would like sources for this statement. I have a medical science degree; and none of my main sources, peers, or anyone in the Endometriosis community mentioned statistics remotely close to that… and I researched it thoroughly because I also had severe PMDD.

It was a wonderful, easy, low-pain, and simple procedure, which gave me my life back… and I was on my feet shortly after. I swear by it, and am severely immunocompromised, so anything healing related that can go wrong will go wrong; yet I’m great, years later, and so so happy.

The main risks mentioned: Periods coming back, bleeding, infection, harder to detect cancer, and (ironically) sterilization.

Could there be another medical procedure that was in mind?

During the huge fires in Australia in 2019/2020, the Kangaroo Island “Pelican” Assassin Spider vanished because their entire habitat burned. Only 2 have been seen since the fire… but none in the last 4 years.

But no, no, climate change isn’t real… humans totally aren’t the problem…

Assassin spiders have been here for 135 million years, and now they’re being annihilated in the only 3 places the entire planet they still cling to life.

I don’t even like most spiders, but I saw scientists risking their lives to try and save insects and arachnids that only existed in those parts of Australia, because no one would try to help them, like they would a cute Joey. No one cared. I knew I needed to spread the word, so every time posts like this come up, I mention the Pelican Spider. It’s absolutely HORRIFYING to look at, but it deserves to live and be safe

Yes please cause FUCK the “women don’t have pain receptors down there”… IUDs and Cervical Cancer cancer biopsies are the 3rd and 4th most painful experiences I’ve ever had.

#2 is spinal tap, #1 is a labiaplasty… mine was medically necessary, but I want to scream at everyone who feels they need a labiaplasty to feel beautiful… 1 year of pain, 6 months without orgasms, so many complications, I screamed so loudly they had to sedate me again because I was TERRIFYING people in the hospital. It hurt so badly I thought death was preferable.

Wtf?! My doctor suggested Endometrial Ablation and it was PHENOMENAL. Yeah, they put an electrical net inside of my uterus and burned the shit out of me, but it was a one time thing and it stopped my periods, PMDD, mood swings, and lessened the chance of my Endometriosis coming back. More women need to do this. I’m so so happy.

I really hope it’s still Lord of the Rings related …

And now I’m reminded that I will forever be teased by the New Zealand side of my family… 😅

I found a photo showing how large Kiwi can get, before we went to see them at the Te Puia Geothermal Park, and I was SHOCKED.

“Shel, how big did you think they were?”

I put my hands up🫸🫷to the size of a robin

“I don’t know… bird sized”

“Bird sized? … you’re gonna lose your shit when you see a ostrich”

😐😑😐🙄😮‍💨

I don’t think you’re old enough to remember Neopets, but the Neopets community is the most wholesome, friendly, accepting, and generous forum I’ve ever been a part of. It’s on reddit, but is the only reddit community I’m a part of. The website is still fully functional with all the original 2000/2010s elements and its my happy place.

I make nipple pasties as a hobby and love it! I specialize in blacklight reactive ones 😁

I don’t know why people are still surprised by this… it’s irresponsible to be giving birth, right now, unless someone is in a good place financially. Healthcare costs are ridiculous, houses are too expensive, jobs are basically all automated or outsourced to save CEOs money, and the world in general, is going to shit.

I got my fallopian tubes removed. If I change my mind about wanting kids, I’ll adopt a teen whose been in the foster system for a while. Someone already on this earth. We don’t need more new babies. There’s hundreds of thousands of children in our current foster system who would love a home.

I’m happy to be an auntie… I’ll never “grow up”, so I’m happily going to be the one that will play video games, watch scary movies, put together Lego sets… but the oldest is only 4, so I’m impatiently waiting.

Don’t give them any ideas