You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

After listening to all of the hype for the movie "Inception", my flat mates and I decided we just might have to go see it.

We get a student discount at a cinema that is way far away, but still the same price for bus fare. So we headed off into the unknown, all the way there we were worried about missing our stop and riding the bus in a full loop around the city. However, it turned out this was just silly- the cinema was an unmistakable giant building all lit up in blue lights.

When I first arrived in New Zealand, things didn't look that different. But I'm starting to realize that it's not the obvious differences, it's the little things that make you stop and ponder. A couple examples from last night; the cinema felt very proper. Everyone had seat assignments, and there were ushers all along the way to help you find your seat. The seats themselves felt more like armchairs and less like the generic movie chairs we're used too. It was much more acceptable to bring in your own candy and goodies-which is good, the price of a bag of M&M's was $7.10! Also, while this screen seemed normal sized to me,abet with much fewer chairs, Ruth told us that in the majority of cinemas in NZ the screen is about 1/3- 1/4 of the size, with the seating about the width of a bus. Whoa, crazy!

The movie was mind blowingly awesome. But I'm not going to discuss the amazingness of the movie here. So.Just.Go.See.It.

After the movie we walked to the bus stop, only to find we would have to wait 20 minutes for the next one. No big deal, Ruth was hungry so we went to BurgerKing. Apparently all of their BurgerKings are all done up in 50's style and play 50's music all the time. Ruth was shocked that it wasn't like that in the states, and we were shocked that they all were like that here! Ruth explained to us that fast food here is called fast food RESTAURANTS because people actually sit down in them vs. in America where most people just grab n' go.

We make it back to the bus stop with plenty of time to spare when Brittany realizes that we're on the wrong side of the road, and we need the bus going the other way. Alright, however, at first glance there wasn't even a stop on the other side- turns out it was waaay down the road. So we walk. This time there's a 13 minute wait, which isn't too terrible. When the bus finally comes, it's speeding along, getting closer and closer.. and then it passes us right by. Apparently, way out in the middle of no-where you have to signal the drivers if you want to be picked up. Drat, well, we don't really want to wait another half hour for the next one so we walk all the way back to the first bus stop. The bus we want goes in a loop, we'll eventually find our way back no matter which bus we take. The other bus is about 18 minutes out.. great, more waiting. This time I'm determined not to miss it, so I stick up my hand and wave like a madwomen when the bus finally appears. When it stopped, I couldn't help but do a little victory dance- well, that is until I realized someone was getting off and the bus had to stop anyway. Oh well, at least we managed to get on a bus, even if it was two hours after our movie had gotten out.