Kiwi Fried Chicken

Winter has set in. Well, maybe not real winter, but in my books, it’s cold enough, dreary enough and simply icky enough to classify under the category of winter. But this ain’t no wonderland.

Ain’t?

I suppose if one had to actually put a definition on it, we could call this autumn. But it’s not like the autumns from back home, no sir. It’s colder. And wetter. And the leaves are just not the beautiful reds and yellows, oranges and near-purples that they are back home. It’s just much too dry. Yes maybe there are a few bright yellow trees and I think I saw a deep red oak or something the other day, but most of the trees are brown...and crispy. In fairness it’s not like that everywhere though. During our travels I saw spectacular colors down near Wanaka but...hey come to think of it, we just saw a horrible snow storm from somewhere down South on the news tonight. Maybe winter has come. Or is coming. Either way, it was sleeting this evening. Yum.

And for whatever reason I’m listening to country music. I usually entertain myself with these sort of songs during the summer. Maybe it’s because it SHOULD be coming into summer and my subconscious is telling me to play Brooks and Dunn. I mean, this is the first cold weather I have experienced in nearly a year. Maybe my heart just needs to be a bit warmed from the sounds of Texas twang.

So what does country music and a backwards autumn/winter mish-mash have to do with... anything?

I’m not too sure. But I’m bound to suss it out in this entry.

I still miss home...but not as much as I used to. I still miss my family, probably more than I used to. I do miss my friends, but my friendships here are finally becoming...more concrete. And I’m realizing that the world continues to move on back home, with or without me. So there is no point in me sitting back just waiting to get home to “life”. “This is life right now, you’re living it!!!” -Mommy Knapp

And life is kind of fun in this brilliant, gorgeous place. We’re watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy because Craig hasn’t seen them all. (Funny, I thought every Kiwi showed up for the premieres. Guess I was wrong.) And it’s strange to be watching them here, in the very place of their making And to be watching them in THEIR winter, when I usually saw them in OUR winter back home. I often find myself saying “Oh I was there...and there...and I’m going to go there...” It would be like watching a movie about, oh say, Hamilton College that was filmed at Hamilton College...oh wait. That’s been done. Ha.

Now there’s that...but what’s with the country music? Well, I think that no matter which you slice it, country music always has been and will always be inherently American. And when I hear it, I think of home. I think of the summers spent driving the back roads to work and singing the songs while sitting in the lifeguard chair. Dancing around my bedroom with all the windows open, sheer white curtains blowing slightly from the breeze, preparing for an evening of drinking and bbq. The warm nights with clear skies, bonfires behind the house, bike rides through the park and pretty much every other wonderful thing that we used to do when we were...younger. Eek. How dare I say that?!

So when I hear country music, no matter how many people may scoff at it, I just feel...home. And maybe that’s good. Or bad. But it tells me one thing for sure. There is no way I could ever live away from home. Not for forever at least. Two or three years, maybe even four. But despite the negative attitude placed on country music, the misconception that it represents all that is bad and conservative and republican in the United States....I don’t think I could ever live in a country that doesn’t have a country music station. That doesn’t have that horribly wonderful fried-chicken-southern-belle-texan-drawl attitude. I mean, I don’t have to have it...but it’s nice to know it’s there. Because, let’s face it, it’s part of our culture.

And I know that many of you are saying “it’s the crappy part of our culture” but I disagree. It’s just a different part. And every place you go is going to have something you don’t understand or agree with. New Zealand even has bits that could be paralleled with American’s country western lifestyle...but they don’t have the great, fun, summertime music to go along with it.

So yeah, country music, cold weather--In the end I think this entry really is just a jumble of thoughts and feelings with no cohesive ideas. But isn’t that a lot like life? Regardless I plan to listen to my country music in this winter of summers. And I’ll enjoy my time here with every bit of my person....

...but I’m still dreaming of home.

-NMK

ps while we’re on the subject of country music...Keith Urban (for all your fans out there) is actually from New Zealand, not Australia. And I went to his home town. But I didn’t know it until after I had left. So yeah. Poo on Australia.