Am I bi-lingual??

More and more I am realising how we Americans seem to have created our own language. Whether it is with the way we spell things or the way we communicate things, it's usually very different not just to other non-English languages, but to pretty much every other English speaking country.

I now find myself fighting over whether it is organisation or organization, realize or realise, center or centre.... honestly I could go on! So now I am beginning to think that I should be able to consider myself at least bi-lingual.

To take it a step further, it's not just the spelling. I can interpret things like "Ta" which to an American would be an irrelevant grunt, but to people in the UK or here in OZ it means thanks. Or even being able to better understand (and sometimes even copy) our neighbors to the north and their use of the word "eh". (I blame Nicole, Brent, and Steve mostly for this) This seemly innocent two letter word can be "right?" or "what?" as well as many other meanings.

All in all I can say I am beginning to speak like a local (sans the accent), with one very distinct difference - I do not (and will not) use the word "reckon" which seems to be at the core of the Aussie language. I might have used the word a couple of times in Virginia, however the visual I have of someone saying that word is someone in flannel, overalls, and chew in their mouth.

My last comment will be toward the word "root" which in the US or Canada means to cheer for or support a sporting team, as well as represent a very good winter cloths brand... here root means to have sex. So for those of you who are planning on watching a sporting event down under, please do not ask "Who are you rooting for?" because it will put an entirely different spin on the game (not to mention earn you a few strange looks).

New Layout & Features

So in my procrastination of studying for Operations Management I have made some changes to the site... Including a new layout, added a slide show and some links to my friends' blogs. Specifically, for those of you who know Meg Nelson (my little little sis from DGs) she has a blog of her travels in Europe which is worth checking out.

This week is as insane as always, however we are taking a wine tasting trip next weekend so there are sure to be some great blogs to come out of that (including pictures). I'm going to try to see if I can hijack a friends camera and take some really good pics... however I will understand if he doesn't let me considering the amount of wine which will be flowing. :D

All this Sunshine and So Much Work to do...

The weather has gotten better here (thanks to the end of the La Nina which has ended) with sunny skies and relatively warm days. Unfortunately we've been so busy with school I haven't had time to enjoy it. :(

However we did go out on a harbour cruise this weekend for a girlfriend's 30th, so was able to have a great time on the water. Other than that life has been very mundane here... am working on changing my flight back for Christmas (need to talk with Kevin & Kirby to see where/when I can possibly crash) so will keep everyone posted.

In the mean time, here is a beautiful picture taken w/ one of my friends camera's which shows the views from the water.

The Australian Hamburger/Hot Dog

Us Americans think of the hamburger or hot dog as the cornerstone food for our ballgames, when we want to grab something to eat on the go, and generally as one of our every-day foods. Here in Australia, they have something a bit different. It's the meat pie.

Now when I first arrived here I was anticipating that it would be something like the Cornish meat pies that I had in the UK... they aren't. The meat pies here are miniature pies that fit in your hand and are filled with minced meat, sometimes steak, chicken, or other mystery meat. The meat is accompanies by gravy, onions, fungus, and other veggies. They are usually topped with tomato sauce (their equivalent to ketchup) and are much like a chicken pot pie.

Another version of the pie is a sausage roll which is a popular breakfast food as well as party snack. When I heard of these I was actually quite excited - in my mind I anticipated they'd be a sort of egg McMuffin rolled in pastry. Once again, I was wrong. They are merely a roll of sausage in pastry, which is typically smothered in BBQ or tomato sauce to give it some flavor. (Don't get me started on the different bacon and sausage

I have tried a couple different types and will be honest and say I'm not too impressed. True, the party pies can be quite good if you are looking for something small to eat. (Party pies are bite sized versions with a completely mysterious mixture of meat and ?) However the larger ones that I have had definitely have not met expectations.

To give you some statistics... Australians eat 12 meat pies a year on average. They are topped by their neighbors to the East who consume 15 pies a year. Now consider that these things have an average of 15 to 35 grams of fat per pie, and you might begin to see why Australia is the fattest country in the world.

Jenni - I'm dedicating this blog to you as you gave me the idea. I hope the pies shown on the Food Network are a bit better than the ones we have here!!

Blue Mountain Day Trip

So as this session is has been keeping me busier than I ever expected to be, it is always nice to be able to get away and forget about everything sometimes... I was able to do this last Saturday when a few friends and I took a quick road trip up to the Blue Mountains.

Now, for those who don't know - the weather has been complete shit here. It's been rainy and cold (I even brought out the wool coat today), so I was very excited to wake up to a sunny day on Saturday.

At around 1 we jumped in the car, and after a couple wrong highways, found our way up to the 'mountains'. I put mountains in quotes because in the states they would be more like a plateau or hills. You basically drive uphill for a bit then it flattens out. However while there is the plateau there are also beautiful valleys and gorges. The best comparison I had was the Grand Canyon - only less grand and covered with trees.

This is a popular area to visit and is somewhere I plan to visit more once the weather warms up. :)

Bachelorette Parties - Aussie Style

My good friend Nicole recently eloped to Fiji, so while a bit out of order, we threw her a bachelorette party last night. We started out with fantastic dinner at a pub in Surry Hills called the White Horse. The food was amazing and it started the wine flowing for the next part of the evening... which was pole dancing lessons. :)

Now I must say it sounds bad, but we had a private studio with 7 of our good friends and a teacher. The studio had fun costumes to put on to help the occasion. We learned how to swing around the pole and do some things I never thought I'd be able to do. In a sick and twisted way it reminded me of swinging around the swing set when I was little..

After our lesson we headed to a cool local club for some real dancing and general bachelorette activities (making her do embarrassing things, ask random guys weird questions, etc.). We ended the night dancing at a gay bar, which was quickly followed by a very large greasy slice of pizza.

Today I am surprisingly not too hung over (thanks to the pizza), however am beginning to feel the effects of the pole dancing and am not sure if I'll be able to lift my arms tomorrow. I also have a new optional profession should I ever get really desperate.

My Coaches Would be Proud...

Many of you know that I've been playing basketball in a rec league with some friends here. What you can't imagine is the level of refs... if you've ever played in the states and though your refs were bad - these are worse! To make things more frustrating our team does not have an offense and most people have never really played before.

Now to our credit we still do pretty well, however the league has combined with the bracket above ours and so the competition has gotten better... which means trouble for us. Our games recently have culminated in the refs not calling anything and players becoming more and more aggressive as fatigue and frustration set in. Today was the low point in this as we lost to a team which we could have beaten.

So I've dusted off all my old memories from the days of playing for Steve and Steve, and have recreated our offense. I am quite proud of this, especially considering I did a quick search of offenses which are listed online and couldn't find this one.

For those of you who don't play basketball just think that it has been almost 10 years since I have run this offense, and even though I probably ran it for at least 5-6 years I still think it's an achievement to remember it... now we'll see if I can teach it to my team.