The view from the Eiffel Tower looking up the strip.

We flew into Las Vegas at about 5.30pm on a Saturday night. The view from the plane was stunning. The lights are amazing. After we checked into our hotel we decided to hit the strip to check out Vegas on a Saturday night. For the first two hours at least we were completely overwhelmed. So here are some tips for visiting Vegas.

The best thing to do when you get there is just walk the strip. The strip is about 6km long so be prepared for some serious walking. A lot of the major stuff is a bit closer together but it’s still a good walk. Dunno how those girls do it in massive heels – good on them.

Hotels in Vegas are soooo cheap. We stayed in Circus Circus which was pretty cool. It’s one of the older hotels but the rooms are comfy and clean and they have free circus acts throughout the day. It’s towards the north end of the strip and is a little walk from the main area of the strip but a pretty good place to stay all around. Food in Vegas is a bit more expensive though so be prepared.

It’s well worth seeing a show while you’re there. There are hundreds (well not quite but you know) of half price ticket booths down the strip so make sure you go there and check out the deals they have on offer. You have to buy them on the day of the show so make sure you get there early to get tickets. They open about 11am (as do most things in Vegas. It’s definitely a night city) so make sure you get there by about midday.

There are heaps of Cirque du Soleil shows on and they are AMAZING. Definitely worth the money to go to one of them. But there are magic shows, concerts, comedians, you name it. You can even go and see Cher or Donnie and Marie (sad I know. It’s where the has-beens go to make a last few bucks).

The fountains at the Bellagio with the strip behind them.

Almost all of the hotels have some sort of free show so make sure you get a bunch of free visitors guides when you get there and check out what’s on offer.

The fountains at the Bellagio are amazing. I could watch them a million times! There are performers by the canal inside the Venetian during the day, there’s the Sirens of TI show at Treasure Island and the volcano that erupts outside the Mirage to name a few. Oh and the circus shows at Circus Circus are pretty cool.

The Eiffel Tower is definitely worth going up. Do it at night. The strip is nothing special during the day. It’s about $12 per person but there are two for one vouchers in some of the tourist guides so if you get one of them it’s cheap as chips. If you time it right you can watch the fountain show from above which is pretty cool too! But it’s cold up there – take a jacket.

Make sure you get downtown at some stage. There’s a massive screen at Freemont St and they have a big music and light show thing there every hour from dusk till about midnight. There are also some cool places to wander around down there and the food is cheaper.

M&M’s world and the Coke shop are good things to do during the day. There are usually free samples at the M&Ms shop which is always good. And if you go to the Coke shop, spend $7 and get a “tastes from around the world” tray. You don’t need one for yourself. There’s enough drink for at least six people. They give you 16 different Coke drinks from around the world and trying them all out is heaps of fun.

Esther and I at Eagle Point lookout on the west rim of the Grand Canyon.

Also, if you have time a day trip to the Grand Canyon is well worth while. It cost us about $100 but it is so amazing. We left our hotel at 6am and got back at about 7pm (and lunch is included). The west rim is only about a three hour drive away so you have plenty of time to spend there – and believe it or not there is plenty to do and the time flies by.

So that should give you some ideas hopefully. The place is insane. Take a couple of gambling lessons if you’re as oblivious as we are. But try and make sure you come out alive and not completely broke. If you’re a recovering alcoholic or gambler…this ain’t the place for you. But enjoy it. There’s so much just to see.

Esther and I at the Golden Gate Bridge. Make sure you walk it if you're there!

If you’re trying to do it on the cheap a hostel is a good way to go although you never quite know what you’re going to get (yes there are hostels in most cities in America). We stayed at Globetrotters Inn on Ellis St and had a great time. The place is cosy and pretty clean but most importantly the people are great and there’s a great atmosphere. And it was really cheap! Some friends stayed at the USA Hostel and said that was really nice too.

If you’re going to San Francisco the Golden Gate Bridge is a given! We did a cruise out under the bridge and around Alcatraz Island which was good and cost us just over $20, but better by far was walking over it. It is a decent walk so be prepared. It took maybe an hour and a half to walk there and back – we weren’t walking fast and we took a LOT of photos. The bridge is 2.7km long (1.7 miles) but well worth the time. Wear a jacket – it can get ridiculously windy!

While you’re at the bridge, take the time to check out Fort Point. This is a fort just under the southern side of the bridge. If you can work out how to get down to it (San Francisco signage isn’t the best) it’s worth a wander around and is a nice place to relax in the sun for a bit if the weather is kind to you.

Esther during our trip to Alcatraz - military fortress, Army prison, federal penitentiary, site of Indian occuation and now national park.

Alcatraz is also well worth a visit if you. It does cost you $26 but you can make a day of it if the weather is good. It’s a beautiful island in the middle of an awesome bay with perfect views of San Francisco city. Probably what made it an even worse prison to be in. As for the prison itself, they give you a headset that takes you on a tour of the facility narrated by inmates and prison guards which is fantastic. If you like stories (like me. I’m a journo nerd. I have to like stories.) you’ll enjoy hearing about the prison. Us journo’s are also a bit twisted, or maybe we just more readily admit it, so I really enjoyed hearing about the unusual and admittedly horrid life of those who lived on Alcatraz. Make sure you book the Alcatraz trip a few days in advance. It’s quite often sold out on the day.

Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf are also lovely places to hang around so long as you don’t mind the touristy nature of them. There were plenty of street performers to keep you entertained also, although I’m not sure if that was because we were there over a holiday weekend.

Those are a few of my favorite things but there are plenty of other sites to see. There’s Golden Gate Park, the Victorian Houses at Alamo Square (the full house houses), Chinatown, Castro (the gay district), North Beach (the Italian district), downtown, the view from Twin Peaks or Coit Tower and of course, rides on the famous cable cars!

That’ll do for now. Vegas is looking good for my next post. Plenty of info waiting to be shared there!

Feel free to ask questions or suggest other places I missed – not just in San Fran but anywhere in the states you think is worth a visit. I’m all ears!

You can play the dumb tourist and not tip for a few days but if you intend on going back again I wouldn’t suggest it. It’s not like they earn a heck of a lot either so I’d feel bad not tipping.

Let’s start with restaurants. Unless you never intend on going back again, 10 per cent is usually the minimum you should tip. 15 to 20 per cent is a good amount. If the service was really good tip 20 per cent, it it was average try 15. Somewhere in that range is what you’ll find most people giving. And if you’re out with American friends, don’t be afraid to ask them what they would usually give.

Sometimes a gratuity is added onto the bill. This makes working out what to tip much easier but always check so that you’re not paying twice. And remember, if the service was terrible you can ask them to take it off.

Now fast food joints and coffee shops is where I get confused. You don’t need to tip at fast food stores Which I picked up on pretty quickly. Coffee shops confused me a bit more. A friend said to me she doesn’t tip if you have to go up to the counter yourself and that seems to be a pretty good rule to go by. There are still tip jars there but it’s not expected so much.

It seems that this rule doesn’t apply at bars. From what I’ve read it is expected that you tip the bartender at least a couple of dollars for each round of drinks you buy.

I wasn’t sure whether to tip the shuttle driver that took me to the hotel the first day I was here so I played the ignorant foreigner card and didn’t (I was too tired to try and work it out too). It seems like I probably should have given him a couple of bucks, especially since he carried one of my bags up to my room for me. For help with bags the generally accepted amount is $1 a bag.

Here's a funny cartoon I found that you New Zealanders might enjoy. A different take on cow tipping.

Taxi drivers are usually tipped about 15 per cent but one piece of advice I have found is to ask them questions and try to get as much out of them as possible. You might want to add in another couple of bucks if they are particularly helpful.

A lot of websites also suggest tipping tour guides/ tour bus drivers. The suggested amount is about $10 or 15 per cent. It’s also suggested you tip your hairdresser and maybe even the person who washes your hair. These are all suggestions. You can work it out as you go. And tip according to the service you get. Even Americans tip differently so there’s no set way of doing it.

I could be here for hours explaining tipping in a million different situations, most of which you’ll never be in. Since I got a lot of the information from other websites I’ll just leave you a few links to check out if you want more specifics.

As one website said, “the best tip is to tip”. Do that and you’ll be fine.

For more info try:
The Original Tipping Page
The Sydney Morning Herald’s 10 Tips for Tipping in America
Absolute Beginners Tips and Tipping

This time around there’s no theme. It’s simply whatever words I can think of at the moment that are used differently. This week we’re starting with the Kiwi words and working back the other way.

An almost extinct, nocturnal bird that can't fly and is almost blind. And it's our national animal??

Kiwi - how could I have missed this one. It really should have been my first post I guess! The first thing people think of when you say Kiwi is the fruit. I have had to explain to almost everyone that a Kiwi is also our national bird and the nickname for a New Zealander. When you call yourself a Kiwi be prepared for some strange looks. Here‘s an ad that was used as an example in one of my classes – it’s a guaranteed laugh!

Dodgy - a lot of people will know what you’re talking about but not all. This was one of the first words to catch me out. Sketchy is more commonly used in the States. You should have seen me fumbling to explain what dodgy meant before someone asked if it was like sketchy.

Jandals - no one knows what a jandal is. Stick to flip flops if you want people to know what you’re talking about. And no, we don’t just call them sandals because they are a specific type of sandal (yes I’m talking to you. You know who you are!).

Gumboots - So this is how one conversation I had went down:
Me:”Nice gumboots.”
Friend: “What??”
Me: “Gumboots…your shoes.”
Friend:”Ohhhh…my rainboots. Or Galoshes.”
Much laughter ensued this conversation as I proceeded to explain that we call them gumboots or gummies.

Togs - again, no one has a clue what you are talking about, although most people think it’s quite cute. Swimsuit will help you make your point. I can’t get it right. I invariably say togs and then have to correct myself.

Boot - you’d be surprised how many people have never heard the term boot before (as in boot of the car). Over here it’s trunk. Same goes for bonnet – here it’s hood. This one’s not quite so bad. Most people figure it out.

Car park – This isn’t a major but an American friend who studied abroad in New Zealand develops a nostalgic smile every time I use a word they don’t. If you want to blend right in call it a parking lot.

Indicator - continuing with the car theme, indicators are called blinkers or turn signals.

So that’s all I can think of right now. Never fear, there will be more. In fact I can guarantee that before the day’s out I will have thought of more and my friends will have reminded me of a bunch.

Since summer’s on its way for all of you in good old New Zealand, get your togs and your jandals and put them in the boot, as we would say.

Money is a big issue when you’re going to another country, no matter how long for. I thought I’d fill you in on how I’ve done it so far – it’s worked out pretty well if I do say so myself.

Before I left I got myself a bunch of US cash. I think I got out maybe around US$700 (because I knew I had to pay $500 for housing as soon as I got here). As well as being very handy, getting foreign cash is super exciting. Every time I looked at it I got excited! (Lame I know. But hey!)

I also got a travel card which has been really helpful. You can get them from ANZ and National Bank I think. Basically you pay about $10 for the card and can load as much money on as you like in a variety of currencies (make sure you watch the exchange rates and pick a good day to do it).

The card works just like an EFTPOS card. It’s a Mastercard card so it works any where that accepts Mastercard. Just swipe and put in your pin, or sign (or in a lot of cases in the states you don’t do either which kind of scares me). The best part of it is there are no transaction fees. It costs you to withdraw cash but other wise it’s free. I highly recommend it.

Before I left Mum was very concerned about how difficult it would be to open a bank account here. She had heard horror stories from friends about how long it took for them to get a bank account and how they had no money for months.

It turned out to be a piece of cake. Just make sure you have your passport (I forgot that the first time I went to open one. For those of you in Columbia, I live in South Hall and went to the Bank of America downtown. It’s a fairly decent walk and I had to wait in pretty decent queues both times too).

So long as you have a couple of forms of ID (a passport has to be one of them, my student ID and NZ driver’s license sufficed as the others) you can have an account open in minutes. I opened a checking account and a savings account – both without fees since I’m a student. It was all free. I had to deposit something into them to open them but you can take it out or move it around after a day or so.

I was given a temporary checking card (EFTPOS card for you Kiwis and Ozzies reading this) and some cheques to hold me over until I got the real ones. About a week later I had my checking cards and a huge box of cheques. Who uses cheques anymore, really!?? Well obviously they still do in the states.

While I have yet to actually write a cheque, to set up automatic payments and things like that you need the numbers that are on the bottom of the cheques. The number on your card doesn’t suffice.

American cash is an interesting one. Dollar bills are the best things out. So handy! I love them. And I’m not quite sure why. It’s different to having a dollar coin. Maybe it’s just the novelty, maybe it’s because you can buy so much for a dollar. Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure you’ll learn to love singles if you’re ever in the US.

Quarters are also really handy. Unless you want to charge your laundry to your student account, you need quarters. I gave up hunting out quarters and have taken to putting it on my account instead. A load of washing costs a dollar and the machine only takes quarters (same with the dryers). So hang onto your quarters if you can! They’re like gold! Seriously…

Urgh...pennies!

Oh, and don’t get me started on pennies. They are so insanely useless! Honestly! What good is a one cent coin. Especially in the states where they don’t include tax on the labeled price. So you can’t get your money sorted before you get to the counter because you don’t know how much it will be. So you either fluff around for ages at the counter trying to get rid of pennies or don’t bother and end up with a handful of useless copper coins in your wallet. Shesh.

Dimes (10 cents) are fine and nickels (5 cents) are bearable. But coming from a country in which the smallest coin is now the 10 cent piece, pennies should be dumped! NOW! I’m calling for a nation-wide penny boycott. Who’s with me? Ok, so maybe it’s not that bad.

Wow I thought that was going to be a shorter post. Obviously not! But that’s the most important stuff covered.

This week I’ll delve into the nutritional content of American food. Well maybe not quite. But I’ll give you a few handy hints on what to avoid and how to eat healthily.

Pizza is a sometimes food! (This is two pieces but you get the idea of how big they are.)

Another warning I got before I left New Zealand was regarding the availability of fresh food. The conversation went something like this:

Friend: “I’ve seen you munching on fruit.”

Me: “Yeah…”

Friend: “You’ll never find fresh fruit over there. You’ll have to hunt out fresh fruit and veges. Enjoy it while you can.”

This has not been a problem since I arrived here. As you saw in my last post, the first meal I had was a salad. Yes, the cheese and chicken were more processed than plastic but the vegetables were fine.

When you go out for dinner you will see a lot of burgers, pizza and Mexican on the menu (I love Mexican so that’s fine by me!) and very few of the types of meals you’d expect in a restaurant in New Zealand. I have yet to see a roast of any kind and the typical meat and veges dish that is the norm back home is a rarity here. Admittedly we tend to stick to the cheaper restaurants but this still came as a surprise.

Most restaurants do offer salads, which are a good option if you feel like you’re turning into a burger (or a pizza for that matter) and you can often choose vegetables or salad as a side rather than fries. I know, choosing vegetables over fries is a hard call, but sometimes it’s just necessary. Balance, my friend, is the key.

The dining halls are another story all together. On the University of Missouri campus there are five dining halls to choose from (and a Mexican takeaway joint that you can use your meal swipes at). The options are limitless and it’s easy to get carried away the first few times you go there. On the first few visits you tend to forget you’ll be eating here everyday, a couple of times a day, for as long as you live on campus.

My advice is to survey the options before you start filling up your plate. Check out what’s on offer and pick whatever sounds most appealing. But beware! The sheer amount of food and the excitement over being able to eat burgers and pizza everyday is what leads to the dreaded Freshman 15 or the Mizzou 22 (basically students put on a whole lot of weight when they first start college – sometimes 15 or 22 pounds as the names suggests).

It’s not too hard to avoid that though. All it takes is a little self-discipline. Make sure you eat some salad or veges every night (I personally recommend the salad bar. Most of the veges are not great unless you like mushy broccoli. And the vegetables that do taste good have been made unhealthy. Think beans and corn mixed with a creamy sauce and served like a casserole. Tastes great but hardly counts as veges!). And don’t forget, eating too much is just as much of a problem as consuming copious amounts of pizza.

Visits to places like IHOP (the International House of Pancakes... it's not very international) are a must while you're in the states. Just don't eat stuff like this every day. Duh.

For breakfast you have the option of bacon and eggs, waffles, pancakes, omelets, hash browns, biscuits and gravy (biscuits in the US are more like scones and the gravy is a white, creamy, lumpy sauce. I haven’t yet brought myself to try it.), cereal, toast and fruit.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to work out that unless you do loads of exercise or have a body that’s used to it, you are probably going to pile on the pounds if you eat waffles or biscuits and gravy for breakfast every morning.

Even the cereal can be dangerous! Reece’s Pieces cereal (chocolate and peanut butter), Crunch Berries (flavored sugar) and Lucky Charms (it has marshmallow in it!) are more like dessert than cereal and I would not recommend regularly eating them for breakfast. My personal favorite is Special K Red Berries. It’s still sweeter than Special K back home, I think, but it at least looks semi-healthy and tastes good.

You will find that everything is sweeter over here. The fruit juice is at least three times as sweet as most juice in New Zealand (I recommend watering down all juice except maybe the O.J). Even the yogurt and stewed apple is sweeter. You will soon learn what to steer clear of.

Basically, the key is balance. Try and stick to eating the same sort of thing you would back home. Have cereal and toast for breakfast most days and treat yourself to waffles once a week.

Eat lots of veges and salad and avoid eating fried food everyday.

And yes there is ice cream available at any time of day but try to avoid having dessert everyday.

Enjoy the food. Try all the American stuff but try to make sure your eyes aren’t bigger than your stomach and balance out the rubbish food with some healthier options.

We get enough American TV back in good ol’ New Zealand to have no trouble interpreting American English most of the time. I have however had many a blank stare when I’ve inadvertently used Kiwi slang (most of the time I don’t even realize that they don’t use those terms until I see the glazed over eyes, tilted head and puzzled frown).

I figure since we’re on the topic of food this is as good a place as any to start.

Biscuits and gravy

Biscuit – Ok. I’ve stuffed this one up a few times now and had people look at me like I’m crazy when I offer them a biscuit and hold out a pack of cookies. Cookie and biscuit are not the same thing here. A cookie is what we, in New Zealand, call a biscuit. If an American says biscuit they are referring to a food that resembles a very crumbly, dry scone which is usually eaten for breakfast – often with gravy. Be warned!

Lemonade

Lemonade – When you ask for a lemonade in New Zealand, you expect Sprite or something of the sort. Here, lemonade refers to an un-carbonated lemon cordial type drink. If you want Sprite that’s what you need to ask for. That or Sierra Mist which is the Pepsi version. Americans will tell you that calling it lemonade is WRONG because Sprite is a lemon-lime drink. Whatever.

Coriander – On a less useful but very interesting note, we yesterday solved the ongoing puzzle of what cilantro is. Turns out it is nothing more exciting than coriander. It took a focused, ten minute conversation between an American, a Scot, a German and myself to work out what it was. Deep.

Hot dog and chips (there's another one. These are chips. Hot chips are fries.)

Sausage – This is an interesting one. Even as I write this I’m not a hundred per cent comfortable with its usage. Yes they use sausage for what we call a sausage but they don’t tend to eat many plain old sausages. At a BBQ they cook hot dogs. Hot dog refers to the sausage as well as the final product of bun, sausage, ketchup (there’s another one. They laugh at you if you say tomato sauce. If they even know what you mean), mustard and pickle. And you get sausage pizzas which basically means little meatballs on the pizza, not actual sausages. Also, think sausage and egg McMuffin. The meat patty you get in a sausage and egg McMuffin is called sausage here. Oh, and they never say meat patty. It’s called a burger. Just like hot dog, burger can mean the patty or the whole thing – bun, patty, sauces, salad and all.

Miranda watches as Allan tucks into a foot long corn dog. They don't do things by halves!

“It’s impossible to find a small meal. I wanted a light meal so I ordered a stuffed tomato – it was the biggest tomato I’ve ever seen.”

“You’ll put on at least 10kgs.”

These are just some of the comments I heard before I left New Zealand for my American adventure.

More than anything else, friends, family and acquaintances warned me of the perils of American food. They put the fear of God in me – or more correctly the fear of returning with some excess weight. And it was food that was one of my first experiences in the States.

After spending over two months in the land of excess, and eating with exchange students from France, Spain, Argentina, Germany and Scotland to name a few, I have uncovered many of the truths and myths surrounding food.

Size is perhaps the most obvious difference.

After a 12 hour flight from Auckland to LAX my stomach was rebelling against the aeroplane food, so I decided to settle for a Coke while I waited for my connecting flight. I stood in line at Burger King wondering how big a small drink would be. Sure enough, the smallest size drink would at least classify as medium back in New Zealand. Was this a sign of things to come I wondered?

When I finally arrived at my hotel in St Louis, about 24 hours after I left home, I decided a light meal before I passed out for the night would be a good idea. I was directed to the nearest diner, The Golden Pancake. Once I had finished marveling at the fact that the diner was just like a scene from a movie – a slightly rotund, very overworked waitress was valiantly attempting to remain cheerful, the menu features hundreds of types of pancakes and the diner consisted of rows of booths – I decided I couldn’t go wrong with a chicken salad.

The ridiculously large salad I was confronted with on my first night in the States.

What came out was the largest salad I have ever seen, topped with insanely orange cheese and the sort of processed chicken I eat when I can’t be bothered cooking something decent for dinner. I’m not going to lie – it tasted good! But twenty minutes later, my still queasy stomach could take no more…I’d eaten about a third of the mound of food in front of me.

Basically what I’m trying to point out is that food portions are often quite large. When you’re asked what size you would like, small is ALWAYS a good answer.

A small ice cream I bought at Andy’s the other day was enough to leave me vowing to not eat ice cream for a month – now that’s not going to happen but so far I’ve been about five days without it. Not a bad effort when it’s available at the dining hall everyday, but that’s for another post.

And when you are standing in line wondering how big a pizza is (because inches mean nothing to you) a small one will almost always be enough for you to share. The biggest pizza I have ever seen appeared before me on my second day in Columbia. Our wonderful study abroad adviser ordered three 16 inch pizzas from Shakespeare’s (and they were really good), that’s about 40 centimetres! Ok so that’s the biggest one I’ve seen but even the regular Domino’s pizzas are bigger here.

All that said, it is possible to get small portions if you really want to. Ordering from the appetizers menu or asking for half size always works. The cheapest way is often to share a meal with a friend.

I don’t know if you were told to eat all the food on your plate when you were a child, but here that’s not always a good idea – or even possible. As wasteful as it sounds, don’t finish a meal just because it’s in front of you. That’s a sure fire way to go home a whole lot heavier!

Yes the food is larger, and yes you have to exercise some self-control. But it is possible, and not particularly hard, to eat a tasty, balanced diet. That’s a topic for next time.

As for me, I’m still the same weight as when I arrived and I plan to keep it that way!