June 24, 2007

The Little Things

I've noted some of the bigger differences that we've noticed here in NZ - the language, politics, personal interactions - but there are small differences too. Lightswitches are "upside down" - this one is in the 'off' position:

and all outlets have an on/off switch (these are flipped to "on"):

There is even an on/off switch for the stove:

And finally: the toilets. No, the water does not flow in the opposite direction here, contrary to popular belief. The toilets here are different from American toilets in two ways: (1) there is a two-flush system and (2) the water level is very low in the toilet bowl. The two flush system is quite a popular topic on American ex-pat blogs, so I feel a need to cover it too. ;) As you can imagine, the first flush button - less water - is for "#1" and the second button - more water - is for "#2".

The toilet bowls are smaller and deeper, with less water. I can only guess this is because all that water is just not necessary:

1 comment:

Kevin said...

That's weird that the switches are upside down. I've always heard that our switches here are supposed to be off in the down posistion, so that if the spring, or whatever holds it in it's current posistion fails, and it falls down by gravity, it defaults to off (safe). Not sure if that's true or not, but then again according to the map, you guys are upside down there :)