The First Post

Welcome to my Australian blog! I had wanted to start this blog as soon as I got here but of course I would procrastinate until my first day of classes to get it started. I may be in another country but its the same old me. I wanted to start the blog off with some of the random thoughts and lessons I have learned through my first week here so here we go:

1. Just like people drive on the wrong side of the road here, they walk on the wrong side. I am constantly thrown into awkward face offs with people who are keeping to the left side of the street. 20 years of conditioning is making this a hard thing to change.
2. No one has said G'day to me yet. (I also have yet to see a kangaroo) ALSO: the toilets do not flush the opposite way. These are American misconceptions of Australia that I am sorry to have to break to you.
3. Everyone here is your mate. "Mate" has to be the single most uttered word by Aussies. I love it as a title because we don't really have an equivalent that works for everyone. In the US we kind of have to sidestep over "man, dude, or bro" after considering who we are talking to. I'm bringing mate to the States.
4. The birds are crazy here. There is one bird who sits outside my window and screams his heart out every morning. His call sounds like a woman screaming which really threw me off the first morning.
5. It's winter and it's gorgeous. With the seasons swapped, we are transitioning into spring here but every day has been in the 70's and up. The weather has been wonderful (we've gone to the beach 4 times already) With this being the worst the weather gets, I may never leave.
6. Unlike at SLU almost none of the buildings have names. I live in building 9 and go to class today in 6. SLU would never allow this to happen considering they would name every bathroom in the library as long as the donation money was there.
7. Unfortunately, everything here is expensive. Just walking through a convenience store you can notice the differences. My student card has flex points similar to SLU, but you are lucky to make it out without running up a 10 dollar lunch.
8. Things Aussies don't have/have never heard of: sunflower seeds, dryer sheets, sausage on pizza, forward passing.
9. This reminds me, rugby and Australian Rules Football (Footie) is really cool but sort of confusing. I'm still working on the rules. Cricket seems awesome. I'm in need of a bat.
10. Vegemite is disgusting.
11. We surfed yesterday for the first time. It was awesome and easier than I would have thought. We are thinking about buying a couple used boards and going as much as possible.
Finally 12: Words that are different here that I find humorous: elevator=lift, garbage=rubbish, breakfast=brekky, flip flops=thongs, beer bottle=stubby, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some great ones.

This was a long post. I'm sorry.