{Guest Post + Giveaway!} Getting Rooted in New Zealand by Jamie Baywood

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Welcome, Jamie, an "accidental author" ... who just couldn't not share her hilarious New Zealand capers. You need to read about models and dog collars. Then you need to join in a GIVEAWAY -- there are 5 e-pub copies of her new book up for grabs (open worldwide). Go, go, go ... 

Getting Rooted in New Zealand by Jamie Baywood

It was always my dream to live abroad when I was growing up in California. I had bad dating experiences in California and read in a New Zealand tour book that the country’s population at 100,000 fewer men than women. I wanted to have some me time and an adventure. New Zealand seemed like a good place to do so. Although I intended to have a solo adventure I ended up meeting my husband in New Zealand.

I consider myself an accidental author. I didn’t go to New Zealand with the intentions of writing a book about my experiences there. I had funny experiences that I had trouble believing were true. I wrote the stories down to stay sane. I wrote situations down that were happening around me and shared them with friends. The stories made people laugh so I decided to organize the stories into a book and publish in the hopes to make others laugh too.

One of the first people I meet was Colin Mathura-Jeffree from New Zealand’s Next Top Model. I had no idea who he was or that he was on TV when I meet him. He is friends with my former flatmate. We had a steep staircase that I kept falling down. Colin taught me to walk like a model so I wouldn’t fall down the stairs.

In New Zealand, I had a lot of culture shock. One of the most memorable moments was learning the meaning of the Kiwi slang word “rooted.” One night I was brushing my teeth with my flatmate and I said, ‘I’m really excited to live in this house because I have been travelling a lot and I just need to settle down, stop traveling and get rooted’. He was choking on his toothbrush and asked me if I knew what that meant because it had a completely different meaning New Zealand than it does in the States.

I had the opportunity to write and perform for Thomas Sainsbury the most prolific playwright in New Zealand. I performed a monologue about my jobs in the Basement Theatre in Auckland. The funny thing about that experience was Tom kept me separated from the other performers until it was time to perform. I was under the impression that all the performers were foreigners giving their experiences in New Zealand. All of the other performers were professional actors telling stories that weren’t their own. At first I was mortified, but the audience seemed to enjoy my “performance,” laughing their way through my monologue. After the shows we would go out and mingle with the audience. People would ask me how long I had been acting. I would tell them, “I wasn’t acting; I have to go to work tomorrow and sit next to the girl wearing her dead dog’s collar around her neck.”

I love making people laugh more than anything else. I feel very grateful when readers understand my sense of humor. I plan to divide my books by the countries I’ve lived in. My next book will be about attempting to settle in Scotland.

About Jamie Baywood
Jamie Baywood grew up in Petaluma, California. In 2010, she made the most impulsive decision of her life by moving to New Zealand. Getting Rooted in New Zealand is her first book about her experiences living there. Jamie is now married and living happily ever after in the United Kingdom. She is working on her second book. 

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Giveaway Time!

Jamie is giving away 5 E-Pub copies of her new book! Open worldwide!



Buy This Book from Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide


About the book Getting Rooted in New Zealand: Craving change and lacking logic, at 26, Jamie, a cute and quirky Californian, impulsively moves to New Zealand to avoid dating after reading that the country's population has 100,000 fewer men. In her journal, she captures a hysterically honest look at herself, her past and her new wonderfully weird world filled with curious characters and slapstick situations in unbelievably bizarre jobs. It takes a zany jaunt to the end of the Earth and a serendipitous meeting with a fellow traveler before Jamie learns what it really means to get rooted. 


14 comments

  1. This looks like a fun read. When I moved to Canada from Scotland almost 20 years ago I discovered on a number of occasions that there are certain words or phrases that have a totally different meaning here than they do there. It made for some fun times that's for sure!

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    1. I had to go find out what "rooted" meant in NZ -- oops :)

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    2. Hi William,

      I love Scotland. I had to learn new words when I was there as well. Some may say I'm trilingual in different forms of the English language; American,Kiwi and Scottish. I didn't know what hogmanay was. I'm proud to say I enjoy eating haggis and cullen skink now. They are surprisingly delicious.

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    3. I know what haggis is (and we have a variation of it in our cuisine) .... what the heck is cullen skink?

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    4. Cullen skink is a creamy fish chowder. It reminds me of clam chowder that is very popular where I'm from in the San Francisco Bay Area. I think the Scottish didn't have enough food to go around when they were inventing the names of their food. My guess is they probably didn't want to share their yummy food and gave it unappetizing names.

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  2. Oh I love this. We've been to NZ a few times and am going again next year. I am making a list of books set in NZ as a personal challenge before we fly there in July. This is SO going on the list even if I am unsuccessful at winning a copy

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    1. Hi Sally,

      That's wonderful that you've been to New Zealand so many times. I would go back if I had the chance. Just a warning, my book isn't a travel guide, it's a silly,and hopefully funny diary of a confused twenty-something. I hope it makes you laugh.

      Jamie

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  3. When I was a young child we lived in Paris France...I remember a man coming and singing French songs in the school...I always had a difficult time remebering the French words, he was so kind but I continued to fumble....we all got a big laugh...Memories...

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  4. I have been to Ireland twice but can't say I have ever had any embarrassing moments.
    Thank you for the giveaway!!

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    1. I lived in New Zealand for over a year. It gave me a lot of time and opportunities to fall down, put my foot in my mouth and embarrass myself in many ways. It's a different experience to international move than to go on a holiday. It would be nice to be a tourist again.

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  5. Yeah, I've had some embarrassing experiences in another country. I went to Europe with my parents and it was embarrassing because we were always fighting, haha.

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  6. I didn't have anything too embarrassing happen in Mexico when I went ;)

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  7. I've never been to New Zealand but it's somewhere I'm determined to visit at some point! I love the idea of reading a book that's based there. :)

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  8. Jessica - Where did you go in Europe? How long were you there with your family?

    Bobbye - What part of Mexico were you in? Where you living there or on vacation? I've always wanted to go to the Yucatan peninsula.

    Georgina - I highly recommend visiting New Zealand. It's a beautiful place and safe for females to travel alone there.

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© guiltless readingMaira Gall