It's been four months…

This is how the sunrise looks from my house. I may count it as one of the reasons for

… And the freaking "kiwi accent" keeps far away from becoming friendly. But I'll get there.

Needles to say New Zealand and Uruguay have nothing to do with each other, but as it happened with Sydney I'm already used to the good parts. I can't deny the fact that there will always be things that I'll miss, but at the end of the day it all does worth it.

I can't say this without feeling highly cheesy, but to be honest is the everyday things that are making my life and the one from my partner better. It's just details that you actually don't think may improve your day to day, but that end up being the difference between a nice way of waking up and the praying for it to end.

No "tuna can" buses

Where I come from, rush hours are just the most annoying thing you can ever imagine. If you have a car, you'll probably have to cope with the hidious traffic, that has become impossible to deal with since at a certain point everyone found it appealing to have a car and so they did.

But if you do not have your own mean of transportation, then you are in for a body-odored-can't-breath-without-exhaling-onto-someone-else's-face treat.

There's not clearer way to describe the public transportation experience in Uruguay. From the people that work on it, who are far away from any kind of politeness, up to the fact that the cleanest bus would not have been put under a hygiene check for at least a couple of weeks, everything gives you the idea that there's no real interest on keeping the service users happy.

Obviously, there is a limit on the amount of people that can go up on the bus, but since you usually get to read inside of it signs that state something like:

Maximum capacity 30 passengers on their feet

It's hard to believe this would not need an udpate, too.

But let's say you have a car and you would not care about the people that face the let's see how much your nose can stand challenge, but still would like to enjoy a lovely picnic at some of the beautiful parks down in Montevideo.

Well, they are different from here. Keep reading to find out why.

Dog owners take care of their puppy (let's call them) residues

Yes, here in Wellington, green areas do not host any brown friends and you don't get forced to be walking as if you were trying to make it through a mined field.

To be honest, since I got here I can confidently say I only spotted one of these disgusting buddies in the street. Just to come to find out the nex day a sign stating:

Dog owners must take care of their dog poo.

And the amount of the corresponding fine, if not done so.

Obviously, the gross particularity never happened again.

But let's focus on what actually makes a real difference, since I'm almost an expert on the dog shit avoidance technique.

People tend to be empathetic to each other

You won't find one single person in Wellington that will be rude to you for no reason, neither indifferent to the fact that his actions may somehow bother you.

Actually, when I first arrived I'm pretty sure I was being secretly insulted by most of the people that I interacted with, since I kept my south american manners until I realized nobody behaved as I did.

Yes, I'm certain that I was seen as the rude idiot for a while. But then I learnt that you should not say when you get close to a counter in a shop:

Give me a coffee

Unless you are aiming for the barista's response to look something like:

Could you be slightly polite and then I'll try to not spit on your coffee?

But at the very beginning I did not thought I was doing anything wrong, since that's how I've always asked for things.

Now, I have incorporated the may I have prefix whenever I want to ask for something. The interaction is way smoother and I almost seem to have been living here for a while (up until the moment they reply quickly and it all falls appart due to the bloody accent, but as I said: I'm getting there).

Wrapping up

As with any other circumstance, there are bad things to be as far as 12000 kilometers away from home. But at the end of the day these are the things that give me the feeling that we took the smart choice.

I'm already used to hearing people saying "thanks, driver" when getting off the bus, dog owners not taking his dog for a walk without a bag at hand and people asking me how my day's going meanhwile I'm paying for something. And instead of odd, I think it's just the way things should be.

I really don't think people is actually thankful to the guy that drives the bus, neither cares wether if I had a nice day or not, but empathy (even in a small talk format) will never do anything else than good.