2 weeks

Things I have learned after 2 weeks in Australia:

1. Australian money is made of plastic.

2. $5 camel lasagna is actually very tasty. I ate the whole thing.

3. If you ask a Korean how old they are an approriate response can be "where?" In Korea, you are 1 year old the day you are born and so when I asked Max who old she was, she said "In Australia I am 23, but in Korea I am 24, and 2 weeks ago I was 22."

4. Holland and the Netherlands are the same place. Holland is not part of the Netherlands, it IS the Netherlands, and at least one Dutch citizen has no idea why their country has two names.

5. Ghan is the name of the Australian train traveling between Darwin and Adelaide and also the Manderin word for "fuck".

6. One way to add an extra element of difficulty to the card game "bullshit", is to play with people of all different accents. Then, not only do you have to figure out who might be lying, you have to figure out what they are actually saying.
"two keens"
"is that queen or king?"
"keen."

"three ahce."
"ace or eight?"

you get the idea.

7. Australian animals are surprisingly trusting of humans.
--The butcher birds (for whom our buffel grass removal efforts doubled as a breakfast discovery service) would hang out as near as about 3 feet from us to snatch up skinks and legless lizards.
-- I fed wild rock wallabees... right out of my hand... like I had wallabee spit on my hand.
--That emu I saw in the liquor store parking lot(or "car park") last week was strutting around poking its head into circles of people, like he was just another one of us, hanging out, hoping someone might have a snack to share.
--The kangaroo we saw at Kata Tjuta allowed us with in about 6 feet of him before he backed away.
--But oddly, the least trusting animal I have encountered here, was a dog who wandered into our CVA living area and was so scared but yet so hungry that at first he kept about a 12 foot distance. Coaxing and food eventually brought him closer, but no one was ever able to get close enought to touch him.

8. They call it backpacking for a reason--you should only have a backpack. I decided that my suitcase was limiting my options so I threw out some stuff, gave away some other stuff, and left my mostly empty suitcase with Tina at the Alice Springs CVA office. She will pack up her things in it when she returns to Melbourne at the end of October and I'll get it from her when I get there in December. I owe her!

9. I am 149 centimeters tall.

10. In England and Australia, in order to be a doctor you only have to do 3 years of "uni" and 2 years of med school. That's a bit frightening.

11. Australian electrical outlets have little switches to turn each socket on or off.

12. It is possible to go 11 days without using one single paper towel or paper napkin. Sometimes gross, but possible.

14. Australia is an arid country as a whole but right now there is a drought which has put the Melbourne reservoirs at 40%. I assume that this is the reason that laundry is so expensive at $4 a load.

15. It takes a long time to remember to get into a vehicle on the other side.

16. I should have done this 3 years ago.