Ok so I’ve adjusted to using Celsius for the weather, I’m getting
used to all the different Australian lingo, I’ve got public transportation
down, and I’ve even adjusted to getting into the left side of the car for the
passenger seat, but what I still can’t seem to understand is some of the food
choices Australians make. For the most part their food is very similar to what
you’d find in the States. They have McDonalds, Subways, and KFCs, and for
dinner my host mom makes various types of pasta or chicken with rice and every Friday
makes spaghetti. But then you walk into the grocery store and you can find some
of the oddest things. Let’s take chips for example, you walk to the chip isle
and you find nacho cheese flavored and barbeque and sour cream and onion and
honey baked ham. Then you stop because not only do they have honey baked ham,
but they have bbq rip, chicken, and sweet and sour chili flavored. And at first
I was like ok that’s interesting maybe they taste similar, they taste like you
have just bitten into whatever meat that is. Try explaining that to your mouth
that this thin potato product has the same flavor as a hunk of meat. Needless to
say, it’s just too weird for me. But I think the most unusual thing I have
found in Australia is Vegimite. Vegimite is a spread that most of the time is
only put on toast usually with butter which sounds normal, but vegimite is
made up of salt, and yeast extract. That’s it. When I tried it plain, because I
didn’t know how to eat it “the right way,” I felt like gagging. And I even
tried it again on a piece of toast with butter and it has almost a bitter taste
and then an overwhelming amount of saltiness attacks the tongue leaving you with
a why me expression on your face. The crazy thing is Australians love it, and
are willing to defend it against any critique. I have yet to meet an Australian
who doesn’t love the stuff.
Regardless of our differences, I’m having an incredible time
here. As some of you may know I just got back from a trip to the outback with
my American class and then ended the week off of school by going to a town in
North Australia called Cairns (pronounced Cans) to snorkel in the Great Barrier
Reef. It was an awesome week, probably one of the best spring breaks I’ve ever
had. I was struck over and over about the vastness and beauty of our God. In
the outback it was incredible to be driving through a red dirt road and look
out the window to see wild kangaroos and emus running/jumping through the
grass. And then at night to look up at a huge sky covered in thousands of stars
was really really amazing. At the Great Barrier, there were 9 of us total who
went and we got on a little cruz boat and went to two different locations on
the Reef to snorkel and I literally swam with the fishes for hours! And talk
about seeing God’s creativity, there were so many different kinds of fish and the
Reef was made up of so many different living organisms. I wish I could have
gone out and snorkeled every single day. We even found an anemone (this one was
green) that had different colored clown fish in it so yes, we found Nemo too. Just
an incredible week to see God in a new way and to build great relationships with
good people.
So for those of you praying, thank you. I feel the support
and love from thousands of miles away. Continue to keep me and the students
here in your prayers for good health and strengthening in character through God’s
continual pruning. For me, just to seize the moment here in Australia and take
in every minute for the next month and a half that I’m here. Also to not let
financial concerns become my sole focus but to rely on God that He will provide
like He always has.
May the peace and love of Christ be on your minds,
comforting you in whatever stage of life you’re in.
Ps just for the fun of it, here are just a few of the
differences I’ve found. There are probably more but I’m now already used to it
so I don’t think of them as differences:
·
Instead of yield signs they have Give Way signs· They call baby strollers Prams instead
· There is no such thing as a garbage can or having garbage, everything garbage related is called rubbish
· When someone is in the Carpark, they are in what we know as a parking lot.
· They have mateship and men use the word mate all the time but I have yet to hear anyone referred to as Sheila.
· When using the term biscuit, they could be meaning a small cookie or they could be meaning a specific type of cracker. But then they also have crackers that they call plain crackers that you put cheese on and they also have cookies but those are the big and soft cookies that usually are chocolate chips. (yeah this one has taken me a while to understand)
· You can’t refer to a kiwi fruit as a kiwi because that is what people here call someone who is from New Zealand, when referring to the fruit you have to say I am eating a kiwi fruit (adding the word fruit at the end is necessary here).
· Then there are some that are little differences like a holiday is a vacation, someone can ring you up not call you, and they have hen and buck parties not bachelorette and bachelor parties.
