Journal for hvietmei

These are some of the differences (from completely superficial to maybe more interesting in no particular order) that I've noticed between Australia (or at least the Sydeny metropolitan area) and the US (or at least the Seattle and Salem areas).

- Track and field is called "athletics" and athletics as a general category the way we use it at home is called "sport"
- Athletics and cross country are way less popular and much less formally organized here. My university of 30,000 students doesn't have its own cross country or athletics team, and my teammates say this is because no one university in the area would have enough interested students to put a team together. My athletics team is made up of sprinters, jumpers, and distance runners aged 18-25 and is the only team for a pretty large area. There are about 10-15 people at practice on any given day. We also work out on a grass track because it is the only track in the (not huge, but not tiny either) city of Ryde.
- Things you hear every day in Australia but no in the US: How are you going? G'day; Mate; You'll be right; "Fillet" pronounced the way it's spelled; "Kabab" used I believe to mean any kind of grilleld food in a tortilla; Quite as in "it was quite difficult actually"; Have a look; different to (instead of different from)...
- Most espresso places will make you an iced late, but you often have to explain what that is first
- Australians add "r"s to the ends of words that end in vowels ("idear" is the one I hear the most, but they even do it just a bit when they say "Australia") but leave off or swallow the "r" from the ends of other words ("lecture" sounds something like "lectu-a")
- Of course, there's the whole day before month when you write dates (I've been trying to always date my lecture notes this way and am getting used to it)
- And the other side of the road driving
- Personal bubbles are smaller. I first encountered this when I grabbed some food at the food court at the mall durring my first week here. I looked around for quite some time to find an empty table, and the one I finaly found was the kind that up to four people could sit around, one on each side. Pretty soon, this older guy comes and sits across from me. It surprised me how uncomfortable I felt, and I kept feeling like I needed to make conversation or at least catch his eye, but he was just eating his lunch and had no interest in being friends. He finally left and I felt much better until a mom and two kids came and joined me! I'm finally starting to get used to this a little, but I have to admit I usually create a space by setting a bag down in the seat next to me, etc. if I'm going to be sittnig in a public place for long.

That's all I can think of just this moment and it is way past time for dinner. Hope this is at least a little entertaining!