Wild Ways in OZ

So, its been a whole month since we moved down under!  It's gone by so fast but also feels like yesterday that we left.  The last month has been a crazy whirlwind of new experiences of being in a new country and I thought I would share some of the things that I find strange :)

1.  Louie driving-- Brian coined the phrase for left side of the road driving haha!  It's weird but not as bad as I thought, Im still nervous to get a car and actually have to drive around!  On our roadtrip Brian tried to get in the passenger side for the first few stops and when I was out with the real estate agent I tried to hop in the driver side!  Not quite used to the steering wheel on the right.

2.  Food-- The menus are tricky because they call things different from what Im used to.  First, they call appetizers, "entrees" and entrees, "mains".  Second, they even change the name of food!  Hot Chips and Tomato Sauce = Fries and Ketchup- whats really weird is when you see a bottle of tomato sauce (ketchup) and a jar of tomato sauce (for pasta) next to each other at the grocery store, Capsicum = Bell Peppers (I have no idea where this came from...), Prawns = shrimp- I already knew what that was but whats weird to me is why everyone thinks Australians say "shrimp on the barbie" when I have never heard it called shrimp (when I said it they even corrected me and said "prawns?")

3. Speaking of barbie... They shorten soooo many words!  For example: brekkie = breakfast, bikkie = biscuit, arvo = afternoon, sunnies = sunglasses, uni = university, garbo = rubbish bin :) , bevy = beverage, chardie= chardonnay... seriously the list is endless and I think people keep thinking of new ones!

4.  How are you going? - I am assuming this means "How are you doing?" so I answer "good... "  Nobody has corrected us yet so we're going to keep going with it!

5.  Measurements- kilo, kilometer, kilojoules (for calories), celcius, meter UGH Im sick of having to think so hard to convert these!!!!

6.  We have had to fill out forms for different things so far and whats really weird to me is they ask for your surname instead of last name and everytime the date is written it is day/month/year which is constantly confusing me, especially when its 10/5/11 -- sure seems like October 5th but its actually today May 10th!!

7  Nobody says ANYTHING when you sneeze!  No: God bless you, bless you, gazuntite- nothing, and its weird

8.  Toilets- I don't want to call it a toilet, so far I have refused to but I know it wont last forever.  If I ask where the bathroom is, they look at my like "Ma'am, why in the hell would we have a bath at this restaurant!!!" haha but seriously the word toilet is gross and I dont want to have to ask the waiter where the toilets are-- it might ruin my appetite!

9. Why change the name?
           

10.  Take away- For some reason that I still can't understand, restaurants have to have a certain license to be able to take food to go (or take away as they call it)  We found this out after we ate all of our "chips and tomato sauce" and saved most of our food which would have heated up wonderfully, then we were thoroughly disappointed when we couldn't take it home, something about how they dont want us to get sick from reheating food?! (needless to say I ate way too much- the thought of throwing away our delicious food was rough)

Ill update more strange things later-- I should start writing them down so I dont forget :)  I just found out they have Cadbury Eggs year round and Iv'e been getting one everyday-- see, new things all the time!!!