Before we came to NZ I imagined that we would have the opportunity to meet different people from all over the world. I'm very happy to say that my expectation was apt and now we know and work with people from Germany, The Netherlands, France, Brazil, Columbia, Korea, China, Belgium, Indonesia, Sweden, South Africa, Canada, US and of course NZ.
As we've been preparing to travel in Europe I've absolutely loved the fact that if I have a question about a locale, language, or custom there is someone close by that I can ask. Amazing! For example, we're going to spend a week or so in France and while Timmy knows some of the language my knowledge of French is completely lacking. In an effort to learn a few words and phrases I've been talking with one of our lab coordinators, Joyce, who is from France. She referred me to a language tutorial online course via the Wellington public library and its turned out to be a great resource. While I have no delusions that I can actually speak French I know a bit now. It was great being able to ask her about usage of phrases depending on who you're talking to or how pronunciation changes depending on spelling and letter order. I found it funny that when I was trying to recall the phrases when prompted by the course narrator I was easily able to provide them in Spanish but had significantly more trouble with the French equivalent. :) Since I've recently started speaking Spanish again my brain is having trouble sorting multiple languages - it's a good problem to have. I just have to remember that it's oui and not sí!
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