No Shoes ... Service!

What's wrong with this picture?

If you said that the boy in the white shirt isn't using the scoop to pick out his dried fruit mix, you're wrong.

HE ISN'T WEARING SHOES.

Yes, no shoes. Oh and his friend also is not wearing shoes. Luckily, Chris had his camera with him while we were food shopping at the supermarket. I've been itching to post about this barefoot phenomenon, but I had to gather photographic evidence so that you would believe me.

It's quite a conundrum. It seems as if the style in New Zealand, well at least in Dunedin, is for young people to abandon their shoes. It's still quite warm outside, so it's perfectly reasonable to wear flip-flops (or jandals as they call them). I can't figure it out, really.

And it's not just the bright young men who are walking around sans shoes, it's the young women. I can't quite distinguish whether it's just the Kiwis who go shoeless or if it's a phenomenon that spans nationalities?

What's even more disturbing is that the shoelessness is not only reserved for supermarkets. You can walk down the busy city streets on any given day and see people without shoes. In my opinion, it's a) gross, b) dangerous, and c) gross. There are bits of glass, gum (or chuddy as they call it), trash, cigarette butts, you name it in the streets and yet the shoeless do not seem to notice. We even saw some guys running the GutBuster (see previous post) without shoes!

Even more funny is that it's not forgetfulness or like there was an emergency and you had to leave your house so quickly that you go shoeless. These people are walking around for long periods of time without shoes. How do I know? Their feet are stained black with dirt! Take a look:

Okay, so this isn't the best photo of dirty black feet. But at least you can see that a third shoeless boy has decided to join his mates in a leisurely day of food shopping. Magic! (ETK)