Aussie Aussie Aussie --

The Yarra River and the Melbourne Skyline and Luna Park in St. Kilda



Things I've Come to Appreciate/Love/Notice about Australia:

** When I listen to the radio in the morning, I get traffic reports for Adelaide and Perth. (This would be the geographic equivalent of living in Chicago and getting the traffic reports for Dallas and Seattle)

** There seems to be higher percentage of lefties here. Ethan first noticed this when he was visiting, but i went to the driving range the other day and I saw so many people swinging like Phil.

** You cannot make a left turn on red.

** No squirrels. Some rather fascinating looking birds, as well as possums and pigeons, but no squirrels.

** They love beets (the vegetable, which they call beet root) They even put them on hamburgers.

** One of the fast food chains (which I haven't been in) is called Happy Jacks - it's the Aussie equivalent of Burger King. They also have taco bills.

** They are crazy about sports. Last night the Tour de France and the first round of the British Open were on network TV. Can you imagine that in the US? Also some Australian rider is now wearing the yellow jersey, the country is going crazy over him.

** They love word plays. I think I've discussed this before. But they rhyme and joke about everything and use heaps and heaps of puns.

** They love the word heaps.

** They have incredibly intense border partrol. One of the most popular show is a show called Border Security which tells about people trying to smuggle drugs/animals/people/etc.. into the country. It is an awful show. Remember this is an island.

** In the supermarket kangaroo meat is included with the deli meats.

** 1. Thongs are flip-flops. Grab your thongs and head out to the beach has a very different meaning than it would in North America. 2. Your planner is your diary. I was asked to check my diary and I laughed, me keep a diary. 3. Telephone Tag is Telephone Tennis.

** Linda Kozlowski, star of Crocodile Dundee, went to my High School in CT.

** This was a cheap blog. Almost as bad a top ten list