A girl from a rather small rural town in tropical North Queensland. In 2009 I was on exchange in Texas and I'm currently studying Journalism and Arts in Brisbane!
Last night I went to my second Spurs game with John Dierksen. It was great fun, it was a really close game, 107-106 to the Spurs (hellz yeah). The atmosphere was all tense and stuff and everyone was sitting on the edges of their seats for the entire last quarter. And then we woooooon! xD Love me some Tony Parker :D
And today I went with my host father to the San Antonio Zoo. We had to get up early to be there by 9am when it opened and all the animals are still alert. There were some really cool animals there; they have this really big African section which they are expanding on. There were rhinos, a giraffe, a zebra, lions, tigers, hyenas, gazelles amongst others. They also had an alright Australian section. I had to laugh though, in one of the aviaries they had plovers :P They looked just as evil..
1.You’ve had an argument with your mate over whether Ford or Holden makes the better car!
2.You’ve done the “hot sand” dance at the beach while running from the ocean back to your towel.
3.You believe that stubbies can be either drunk or worn.
4.You think it's normal to have a leader called Kevin.
5.You waddle when you walk due to the 53 expired petrol discount vouchers stuffed in your wallet or purse.
6.You believe it is appropriate to put a rubber in your son's pencil case when he first attends school.
7.When you hear that an American "roots for his team" you wonder how often and with whom.
8.You pronounce Melbourne as "Mel-bin".
9.You believe the "l" in the word "Australia" is optional.
10.You can translate: "Dazza and Shazza played Acca Dacca on the way to Maccas."
11.You believe it makes perfect sense for a nation to decorate its highways with large fibreglass bananas, prawns and sheep.
12.You call your best friend "a total bastard" but someone you really, truly despise is just "a bit of a bastard".
13.You think "Woolloomooloo" is a perfectly reasonable name for a place.
14.You're secretly proud of our killer wildlife.
15.You believe it makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that's twice as big as its $2 coin.
16.You believe that cooked-down axlegrease makes a good breakfast spread.
17.You believe all famous Kiwis are actually Australian, until they stuff up, at which point they again become Kiwis.
18.Hamburger. Beetroot. Of course.
19.You know that certain words must, by law, be shouted out during any rendition of the Angels' song Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again.
20.You still don't get why the "Labor" in "Australian Labor Party" is not spelt with a "u".
21.You believe, as an article of faith, that every important discovery in the world was made by an Australian but then sold off to the Yanks for a pittance.
22.You believe that the more you shorten someone's name the more you like them.
23.You understand that "excuse me" can sound rude, while "scuse me" is always polite.
24.You know what it's like to swallow a fly, on occasion via your nose.
25.You understand that "you" has a plural and that it's "youse".
26.You know it's not summer until the steering wheel is melting and you can’t touch the seatbelt.
27.Your biggest family argument over the summer concerned the rules for beach cricket.
28.You shake your head in horror when companies try to market what they call "Anzac cookies".
29.You still think of Kylie as "that girl off Neighbours".
30.When returning home from overseas, you expect to be brutally strip-searched by Customs - just in case you're trying to sneak in fruit.
31.You believe the phrase "smart casual" refers to a pair of black tracky-daks, suitably laundered.
32.You understand that all train timetables are works of fiction.
33.When working on a bar, you understand male customers will feel the need to offer an excuse whenever they order low-alcohol beer.
34.You get choked up with emotion by the first verse of the national anthem and then have trouble remembering the second.
35.Your red cattle dogs name is ‘Bluey’.
36.You find yourself ignorant of nearly all the facts deemed essential in the government's new test for migrants.
37.You know, whatever the tourist books say, that no one says "cobber".
38.You stop greeting people with "hello" and go straight to the "how ya doin' ?"
39.You have a story that somehow revolves around excess consumption of alcohol and a mate named "Davo".
40.You call soccer soccer, not football.
41.You realise that lifeguards are the only people who can get away with wearing Speedos and you know that the proper name for Speedos is “budgie smugglers” or DT’s.
42.You pledge allegiance to Vegemite over Promite.
43.You understand the value of public holidays even if you don’t understand why it's a public holiday.
44.You firmly believe that in the end, everything will be ok, and have told a mate in tough times that "She'll be right, mate".
45.You've been on a beach holiday and have probably stayed in a caravan.
46.You understand all words can be shortened adding ie or o to the first syllable.You’re familiar with Neighbours, Home and Away, Playschool, A Country Practice, Norman Gunston, Barry Humphries, Blue Heelers, Ray Martin, Bert Newton, Lisa McCune, Jon Burgess, Number 96, Molly Meldrum, Kerry O’Brien, and of course, Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch.
47.You know that Burger King doesn’t exist. It’s Hungry Jacks.
48.It’s chips, not fries!
49.You know that snow is a memorable and freakish occurrence. Sometimes it’s even fake.
50.You know the difference between thongs and a G-string.
51.You know if someone in trouble they’re in “strife.
52.You know how to abbreviate every word, all of which usually end in -o: arvo, combo, garbo, kero, lezzo, metho, milko, muso, rego, servo, smoko, speedo, righto etc.
53.You know that there is a universal place called “woop woop” located in the middle of nowhere… no matter where you actually are.
54.You know that while we call our friends ‘mates’, we don’t use terms like ’sheila’ and ’shrimp on the barbie’, contrary to popular belief.
55.You know that none of us actually drink Fosters beer, because it tastes like shit. But we let the world think we do. Because we can.
56.You’ve seen Gallipoli, Crocodile Dundee, Young Einstein, Muriel’s Wedding, The Castle, Beneath Clouds, Strictly Ballroom, 40,000 Horsemen, and maybe even WolfCreek.
57.It makes you happy when someone in Hollywood is actually Australian… Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Baz Luhrman, Elle MacPherson, Olivia Newton-John, Midnight Oil, ACDC, INXS, Greg Norman, Cathy Freeman, Dawn Fraser, Pat Rafter, Ian Thorpe…
58.One word: Skippy.
59.You know our country has never been conquered by a foreign nation (you don’t count 1788).
60.We know that the Metric system will always be better than anything inches, feet, pounds and fahrenheit will ever offer.
61.You drive on the left-hand side of the road.
62.If you’re a pedestrian and cars are stopped at a red light, you will fearlessly cross the street in front of them. ‘Hit and runs’ just aren’t cricket. Because Aussies stick together.
63.You know that New Zealanders are basically our naive country cousins, who have a weird fush-and-chups accent and, for some bizare reason, think that they invented pavlova. They are to be pitied. They have no hope of gaining the upper hand in the endless sporting rivalry between our two nations.
64.You know that you can’t eat Fantales alone… Otherwise who will you play the ‘Who am I…’ game with when you’re reading the wrapper?
65.You know that Sydney should be the capital, because Canberra is a hole.
66.You know that Americans think we’re all Steve Irwin clones. And crickey, they couldn’t be more wrong.
67.You know that lawyers wear wigs and gowns. And we make it look good.
68.You have some time in your life slept with Aeroguard on in the summer. Maybe even as perfume.
69.You feel obliged to spread salty black stuff that looks like congealed motor oil on bread… and actually grow to like it. You’ve also squeeze Vegemite through Vita Wheats to make little Vegemite worms.
70.You believe that democracy means the freedom to draw caricatures of good ol’ Johnny Howard.
71.You have the ability to compress several words into one - ie ‘g’day’ and ‘d’reckn?’. This allows more space for profanities.
72.You’ve ever used the words - tops, ripper, sick, mad, rad, sweet - to mean good. And then you place ‘bloody’ in front of it when you REALLY mean it.
73.You know that the barbeque is a political arena; the person holding the tongs is always the boss and usually a man. And the women make the salad.
74.You say ‘no worries’ quite often, whether you realise it or not.
75.You know what fairy bread tastes like, and you can’t imagine your childhood without it.
76.You know the first verse to the national anthem, but still don’t know what “girt” means. And you’re ok with that.
77.You’ve drank your tea/coffee/milo through a Tim Tam.
78.You know that backyard cricket is a nice way to bond with family and the rubbish bin. And the ‘one bounce, one hand’ rule always applies.
79.You know that we are home to the just about all of the world’s deadliest of animals. That’s why if anybody messes with us we’ll get some funnel webs on their asses.
80.You see people walking bare-foot on the sidewalk and don’t scorn…. because you’re doing it too.
81.Sausage rolls and meat pies. End of story.
82.You own a Bond’s chesty. In several different colours.
83.You’ve ordered a steak the size as your head and only paid $5 at your local RSL.
84.You know that Italy should never have been granted that fateful kick in the 2006 Soccer World Cup.
85.You know how to slip, slop, slap like it’s nobody’s business.
86.You’ve heard the Prime Minister dismiss anyone who disagrees with him simply as ‘un-Australian’, and that’s enough to make us sit down and shut up.
87.You know that the value of a public holiday is measured in terms of alchohol. God bless the queen and her 4-day birthday.
88.You know there’s no lbw in backyard cricket, and over the fence is out.
89.You know Drop Bears exist. Positively.
90.You know you that roo meat tastes pretty good, but not as good as barra. Or a meat pie.
91.You know Australia IS the best bloody place on earth. Bar none.
I haven’t been quite as busy as usual lately (perhaps thankfully) but I’ve been staying with another temporary host family with limited internet access.
Last weekend was one of the other exchange student’s birthday party, which was held in the San Antonio area. It was great fun and really good to meet up with some of the other kids from our district. We just hung out, ate, did silly things, ate and did more silly things :P Oh, and they had a piñata!!! Heee xD candy :)
So then on the Wednesday I got dropped off at my second temporary host family as my hp were going to Florida for a wedding. I stayed at Tom and Chrissy Clark’s; they have three daughters Sydney (16), Kirby (11) and Dani (6). It was interesting to have siblings, and especially two quite young ones. That Sunday night we went to a fundraising dinner for Chrissy’s work, she works in a local school in a counsellor type position with underprivileged kids. It was so much fun! There was a Rock n` Roll 50’s theme, which of course means playing dress ups! :D I got to invite a ‘date’ to come along with me so Tulio, the Brazilian staying in the town only 15 mins from NB was able to come in and hang out. Sydney also bought a friend along, so there were four of as all dressed up. We decided that we should definitely make the experience more authentic by getting some milkshakes :P It was an excellent night and luckily for me Tulio doesn’t mind dancing so we did so for most of the night, in fact, I’m not going to lie, we basically showed everyone up :P We tried to do that thing they do on Grease (which Sydney and I watched that day :P) where they guy like lifts the chick up and then she like goes through his legs and back again. We weren’t too bad although my skirt thought it would deceive me so, I opted against any more of that. :P
I also went through a bit of homesickness last week but it only lasted a day or two. My oldie (Perle) is very good at comforting :) And I’m starting to feel more comfortable/happy at school, making more ‘friends’ and that sort of thing. My favourite classes are by far and away psychology and sociology, not un-coincidentally I have the same teacher for both classes. He is so funny, a little too enthusiastic sometimes, but entertaining. I took some vegemite on toast (done the right way) to school the other seek and gave it to him and some of the kids to try, it went down quite well :) Apparently though he has been talking about it in some of his other classes :P He also put a question on our last test referencing me, or well my situation, it was like ‘You have just moved from Queensland, Australia to New Braunfels, Texas :P It made my day.
So right now I’m at the lakehouse chilling out with Caroline, a previous exchange student from Germany who has come back for a visit. The Barr’s are having a party for her here tomorrow night and another party tonight for some friends who’s kids are getting married, so a full weekend I guess :)
