Random Info and Thoughts about Australia

So the conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius was not the only change I've had to get used to. The entire metric system is confusing to me, only because I am not used to using it. Centimeters instead of inches, meters instead of feet...We had to do some measuring out at the site yesterday and I was having a bit of trouble! I felt like I was back in elementary school. Also driving here is completely reverse--right side of the car, left side of the road, and the right side of the highway is the passing lane. I can't tell you how many times I've almost gotten in the drivers side when trying to get in the passenger seat. And to answer everyone's questions about the toilets flushing backwards...it's not true. Every toilet I have encountered does not spin at all when it flushes; just goes straight down like in an airplane bathroom. But there are two different buttons at the top of the toilet-the pee button and the poop button. One releases more water than the other to flush, I'll let you guess which one that is. But anyways, what a great way to save water! It makes me think of the whole, "if it's yellow let it mellow..." bit.

This is the team working on site a bit before the festival...such a great group of people.

Fact: Australia is the biggest island in the world. It is also the only island that is a country and the only country that is a continent. How bout that!

I spoke tonight at the Rotary Club of Gympie. It was very last minute, but Brian whom I am working for and staying with is a member of the Rotary Club and also in charge of booking guest speakers. The speaker for tonight's meeting canceled and he asked me to fill in! I had no idea what to talk about, but threw a small presentation together about where I come from, what I studied in school and what brought me here. I knew all that experience making presentations would benefit me some day! Anyways, I was nervous but the group of about 50 or so were very welcoming and very excited to speak with me. After my presentation there were all sorts of questions about America. Gympie is a smaller town and they don't get many Americans through here. I am like a foreign exchange student here....the refer to me as "the American". I think it's funny. They asked me about Obama and I was happy to find that they are all very supportive of him, apparently much more than Bush. One guy caught me off guard and asked me about the black communities in America. I didn't really know what to make of this question, but did the best I could. I realize that there are none here, so to them it is just the unknown.

A Little about the Food: I have yet to try vegimite...I know i'm going to have to soon. And also kangaroo, althought I have not met many people who actually eat it. It seems to be like our deer meat; you either love it or hate it. And several people I've talked to won't eat it because kangaroos are too cute! Understandable. It's like eating Bambi...except more like Roo from Winnie the Poo. Awww. I have discovered pancakes for desert! How awesome is that. They don't eat them for breakfast here...only desert- with chocolate and ice cream and strawberries YUM. And cookies are called biscuits or "bickies". And breakfast is called "breakie". So no bickies for breakie! They've also got me started tea time. I never used to be a big hot tea fan, but I am starting to love it! If they are asking you if you want tea, they just say "would you like a cupa?". And I say "yes, one with white"...which means a cup of tea with one sugar and milk. They've been teaching me all the lingo and I am finally starting to catch on.

Brian had me go tour the AICM (Australian Institute of Country Music) today because he figured I would be very interested, which I was! It is a school for music business, but is geared towards country music. They are in the process of trying to become a University and that would make them the only university in the world that studies country music! They have a while to go, but they are making great progress. He gave me some great ideas of places to visit that are music related while I'm here. Tamworth is a place I'll definitely need to visit.

Random question: How do you pronounce "Vehicle"??? Because the more I say it, the more I cannot remember how I say it. I said it today and pronounced the H in it and got picked on big time. The more you say it, the more it just sounds like an odd word. I think I'll stick with car...