Things I have learned whilst living in Oz...

         Every now and then as I am going about my life here in Australia something funny comes to mind and I have always thought, ok I really need to do a blog post about that... Well I have put it off, and off and off again, big surprise right, you all know me so well...  Well finally here I am, in a pretty great mood ready to share these helpful and handy bits of information with you.  Slowly, but surely I am falling in love with this funny place, and finding more than one thing pretty great...  It certainly helps that the man of my dreams calls Australia home and spent his days as an adorable little boy and handsome young man here on these very shores becoming the man I was destined to love...  But enough of that sugary, lovey lovey stuff... Here are some things I have learned so far...

1.  Australian men are VERY comfortable, and see absolutly NOTHING wrong with wearing very short shorts... And this does not take away from their rugged manliness... no not at all... Infact the most manly of them all from the legendary Steve Irwin to their idolized footy players like Darren Lockyer wear them.  I don't think american men would get this concept, or be ok in something so short... but somehow, these Aussie men pull it off...

Steve Irwin

Darren Lockyer doin' his thing...

2.  No matter how much I think I have become used to driving on the wrong side of the road... and having the steering wheel on the other side of the car... when it is pouring buckets of rain outside and I am running to the car I ALWAYS suddenly, and completly forget which side to hop in at...  And I think this problem will probably follow me to my grave... sigh.

3.  If you are in a large group of people and someone shouts, "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!"... if you want to fit in and not look like a TOTAL moron... be ready to shout back as loud as you can, "Oiy!! Oiy!! Oiy!!"... just do it, trust me.

4.  Sweet chili sauce + Sour cream + hot chips = Heaven...

5.  Round abouts... hmm... they work.  I like them quite a bit actually... If you don't know what you are doing though... you might die, and take some others with you... 

6.  Don't go outdoors in the summer at night time... unless you want to be greated by creatures of all kinds, usually two the three times bigger than what you are used to.

A huge moth I think...

A big cricket...

7.  While cooking... I have now unfortunatley become dependent on a myriad of choices of sugar that Australian grocery stores provide:  plain white sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, caster sugar, icing sugar, raw caster sugar, raw icing sugar, dusting sugar... and the list goes on and on... I'm SURE I've forgotten some.  And when I find myself back in the states... I don't know what I'll do when the only two choices I have are white or brown sugar! Ah! hehe...

Ah... Sugar! Dun.. dun.. dun.. dun... dun.. dun Ah Honey! Honey!

8.  To talk Australian, simply cut every word in half and add an "o" at the end... including people's names... "We'll see you this ARVO", "AVO'S only 1$ per KILO!!", "I need to renew my REGO", "Hey, how's it goin' Dame O?", "When's the GABO commin?", "Hey Brook O!", "How's the RENO goin?"... IT.  IS.  HILLARIOUS.  And yes... I have started doing it without realising...

        Well... there ya have it... some delightful little tid bits and observations from this american girl...  I'm more than sure that I will collect more as the days pass on... even remember ones I wanted to write in here and forgot to.  But for now, I hope you all enjoyed those little hints, tips, clues, and humorous observations!  America is my country, but Australia is quickly becoming my hometown... :)