What I think of America

This blog post will be about what I associate with America and what pops into my head when someone says the word “America”.

Although I’m aware of the fact that America is a whole continent and not just one country, the first thing I think of when someone says America, is the USA. I have already written a paragraph of what I think of the USA (http://idangv.blogspot.no/2012/11/the-usa.html), but Barack Obama isn’t the only thing I associate with the US:

Junk food. Maybe the most common thought associated with the USA. It is no secret that the Americans eat a lot of junk food.

Gossip Girl, one of my favorite TV-shows. If I don’t picture an American person eating junk food, I picture them as rich and good looking, but devious and ruthless.

If I’m asked to tell you what I think of America round the USA, I think of Canada and then I think of bears.

I’ve been to Canada once, we spent five days in Calgary and then five days up in the mountains. My family and I really love to go skiing, and we got to see great parts of Canadian nature while we were doing that. So that’s why I think of a bear: because we saw one up in the mountains while we were skiing. The bear is also my favorite animal.

So that’s what I think of America: the USA, junk food, Gossip Girl, Canada and grizzly bears. Quite an interesting mix, I think, but that’s what makes America so exiting: a great diversity of things typical for this big continent. 

New Zealand: The kiwi bird

The kiwi bird is the national bird in New Zealand, and can only be found here. It can’t fly, just like the ostrich. Unfortunately, the kiwi birds are endangered, as it’s an easy target for other animals, and it’s often killed by cars.

There are five different types of kiwi birds: the great spotted Kiwi, the little spotted kiwi, the okarito kiwi, the southern brown kiwi and the north island brown kiwi.

Picture

The kiwi birds eat bugs and insects, and use their long beak to search for worms and other insects in the ground. It has a very good sense of smell, and the kiwi bird’s nostrils are located at the tip of its beak.

As the kiwi bird’s wings are very small and its skeleton isn’t hollow like other birds, it can’t fly. But the kiwi bird’s legs are very strong, and it sure can run!

A very cute thing about this strange bird is that when the kiwi male and female comes together, they will most commonly be a couple for the rest of their lives. They will help each other protect the egg or chicken, that’s the most important task for the kiwis, the kiwi bird only lays one or two eggs per year. A kiwi bird’s egg is actually the largest egg in the world according to the bird’s body weight!

Sources:

http://www.norea.no/malsider/artikkel/article/83262

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwi_bird