Omg sheep! :D
I'm going to the University of Canterbury in New Zealand for my Student Exchange Programme in Feb 2012! 8D I am shocked that I could get a place in, actually, because there was only 1 place available for student in my course. (The news came 1 day after I decided to give up hopes on it, lol.) But omgosh, I'm gonna burst into fizzy bubbles now! X
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I know absolutely next to nothing about New Zealand (it being on the other side of the planet for me, haha) so I am excited about you going to explore it!
But what I really want to chime in about is what you're saying about western food... huge chunks of meat? Daily?? I don't know how different NZ is from here (of course it differs by country, even in Europe there are great differences) but I am glad to reassure you that's really not the case, at least not here. :) Actually I am a vegetarian so I wasn't raised with any meat around me to begin with, which might not make me the best representative... But I think generally, people eat a bit of meat most days. It depends on the individual and their beliefs how much meat and whether they have "vegetarian" days (which they are generally very proud of having).
Are you going to cook your own meals or will you eat on campus somewhere, do you think? If you're the one in charge, of course you can decide what to cook. Of course there are many more ways to make a meal without resorting to a huge chunk of meat :D
I do think they sell rice... I mean, I have no idea whether they do, but why would they not? Europe is so much further from the East and we eat a lot of rice as well :)
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Hehe, I guess I have too many weird ideas. :P (But, um, that's what they sell here as "western food". Mentioning these words make me think of fish & chips or beef steaks immediately, lol. As in, the main dish is the meat itself, hence "huge chunk of meat". XD omg, I'm ridiculous. And my big sis fed me stories like you guys think that only anorexic people eat tofu, which is my absolute favourite food. Is that true? D:) I forgot you guys have lots of vegetarians too!
I was contemplating between staying in the on-campus apartment, which will entail me cooking my own food, or homestay, which provides all 3 meals (which my parents prefers, as it feels safer).
Hahaha, I'm nervous about not having my rice. :P Rice is like the main staple we eat in a normal meal.
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I don't think it's weird, seeing as you're met with such stories, I'm just glad to tell you it isn't that bad, well here anyway.
In some countries I do think people think of the meat as the main component... For example in Germany it's much more common to eat huge chunks of meat. Of course there are also German vegetarians to balance it out :D, but they eat a lot more meat than we do, and we're neighbouring countries!
In the traditional Dutch meal there is 1)meat 2)potatoes 3)vegetable of choice. But that's changed so much over the past decades :) People eat food from all over the world now, and I'm sure that's also the case in NZ. And we do it a little differently as well because we don't eat meat. Our usual main components of meals include potatoes, rice (I love rice!), pasta, or specifically spaghetti. My mother (who does the cooking) usually thinks of the vegetables as the main ingredient :D And there are so many things you can do with vegetables, often our meal consists mostly of vegetables. I think the people around me who do eat meat, eat a little less vegetables :D
And I love tofu too! It's seen as a meat substitute here. I don't like the "vegetarian burgers" that are made to look/taste like meat, but we eat tofu quite often. I've never heard the anorexic-food story, but again I don't know about New Zealand :)
I can imagine it'd be safer :) If you're okay with the food they serve! Surely they won't make you eat things you don't like :) I should think it very strange if anyone were to judge you negatively if you wanted to eat less meat!
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Oh yea, now that I remembered, the "stereotypical" Western meal has lots of potatoes and bread too. (We have this phrase in a Chinese dialect that literally meant something like "potato-eater" but actually used to describe someone who isn't a Westerner but behaves like one or speaks only English. LOL!)
Yea, the more I think about it, the more I'm leaning towards the homestay idea. The apartment idea pulls me only because it makes me feel more independent, hahaha!
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