Run! The American Girls Are Coming to Attack Us!

Last weekend, I had the opportunity of participating in New Zealand’s version of Relay For Life. Mags spent all day walking and by the time she dropped home for tea, Stefanie and I were convinced that we wanted to go back with her and Carol that evening. So we did! From about 9 to midnight, we walked around Rugby Park. That’s right, midnight. We had to drag those ladies home too! I was exhausted after a day of cleaning cemeteries and the walking in circles really put me over the edge somehow. I was glad to be able to go though. I still don’t really understand how the whole thing works. Like, I get that the whole point is to raise money for cancer but how walking around in circles correlates to the amount of money raised I haven’t quite mastered yet. However, I have decided that I want to get involved. It’s something I’m going to try and do when I’m back in Provo. I remember I did it in high school once and loved it. Time to Relay For Life again!

Walking around a track at that hour of night, one is bound to see many humorous things but the best one by far that we caught was this man. Nothing comes between a kiwi and his rugby--not even cancer. We followed this devoted fan around the stadium for a couple of laps attempting to nonchalantly capture the best picture of his commitment. At one point, the live band started playing “American Pie”. Stefanie and I, being American, got excited and ran over to the stage. Upon arriving, we noticed a group of about 12-year old girls who seemed to share our enthusiasm for the song as they were dancing wildly. We decided to go over and dance with them. No sooner had we arrived that one of the girls yelled, “Go Americans!” Suddenly excited that we were being thus praised, Stefanie and I both starting yelling, “We’re American!” The girls got pretty excited about that and we danced together for a few minutes.

Being American in a foreign country definitely has its pros and cons. The title of this post comes from one of Mags’ grandsons. We went outside to play with the kids and one of them yelled to his brother as Stefanie and I followed them out of the house, “Run! The American girls are coming to attack us!” That was a new game to me, but evidently one that kiwi children enjoy quite a bit. Unfortunately, when you get past the little girls screaming for you and little boys wanting to play games with you, there’s also some downsides to being American in a place where Americans have quite the reputation. Mostly it just involves people making fun of our accent, looking you over with that knowing “you are an American” look. Nothing we Americans can’t handle. :)