Dec 2006

the culture here is different from the U.S. There's not really a way to describe it, but I'm going to try.

Meribeth and I have been noticing that as a culture here, well the younger culture anyways, it is more feminized here than in the states. It is very European.
We were out at a bar/club one night hanging out watching people dance. Guys are so much different over here. There were a bunch of guys out on the dance floor dancing and doing all these weird girly moves. There were barely and girls on the dance floor, guys were dancing around together in groups. I have never seen anything like it in the states. not the way these guys were dancing anyways. Guys here just aren't afraid to look gay I guess.
Their haircuts are absolutely ridiculous here. not all, but some. guys have fo hawks, which are little mohawks down the middle of their hair. Guys in America do it too, but they look so much more feminie here than they do in the states. Some even have a like a blond fo hawk down the middle and then brown hair everywhere else, or the other way around. Some guys hae little tails. It just looks ridiculous. I don't know if it just because I am accustomed to normal haircuts or what but I hate it.
So in my opinion guys are a little bit more feminine here than in America. Not all, there are some stereotypical Australians, that only drink beer and eat kangaroos. most of the guys i have met and actually associate with have been in the middle, like Americans. But there are quite a few guys with girly haircuts and funny clothes.
The girls here are pretty typical I guess, but it doesnt' seem like very many of them are into sports. One guy I work with started laughing and he came over to me and said that group of girls is talking about going to a cricket game. I was like ya what's so funny. he was shocked that a bunch of girls were into sports. It's funny.
The typical person here is not into politics or anythign at all like that. Most of them don't even realize they have troops in Iraq or anywhere else. but I gues you can say a lot of Americans are like that as well.
Well I had a ton of things to say, but of course when I go to write I can't think of any, so I'll leave it at that.

I decided to fill you in a little on the bugs here in Australia. Probably the biggest thing I have had to get used to is people just live with the bugs here. They are everywhere. It is something you just have to get used to here. They are huge! the cockroaches are as big as a bite size candy bar! I have had a few encounters with the bugs and small animals here. SomeI have already written about.

The first major encounter I have had was at the softball field on our first game. On our way to the game we were coincidentally talking about spiders, and our friend Brewster had mentioned that there is an extremely rare white spider here that bites you and the poison kills of the skin cells around the bite. It's a pretty nasty spider bite because it just keeps killing off the skin. So we get out to go play softball and after the game I grab my bag and a few other things so my hands are completely full. I'm walking by a ton of people, some from our club, some not and I see a spider on my hand! So I scream bloody murder, throw everything off my arms, and start into a sprint that would have won most olympic races. Once I got everyone's attention I stopped and said sorry there was a spider on my hand. A friend of mine decideds it's a good time to let everyone know that I'm American. So I walked back over grabbed my stuff and continued on my way. I just wanted to make an impression on the people at the field so they wouldn't forget me.

Another encounter I had was at home. I was making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at the counter when this gigantic spider came running after me. (This was probably the biggest spider I have ever seen. It was probably the size of a peanut butter lid.) The spider was about a foot away from me so by the time I realized it was there and running faster than the wind I had to jump over it to get out of the kitchen. I swear once I was out it started chasing me. It kept coming towards me and I was screaming and telling Meribeth to kill it. so she grabbed a shoe and killed it! She's my hero! 10 minutes later I caught my breath and things went back to normal. After that I did not feel very safe in my home because I screamed for a good 2 minutes and not one of my neighbors came to check on us.

I was at work when I got to meet one of the giant cockroaches. There was a girl that worked with us but she was off duty and she spotted a cockroach making it's way into the restaraunt. She says go kill it before anyone sees it. I looked at her for a second like is she really talking to me? I decided I would give it a try, or give it a go as they would say here. I casually walked over to it so I wouldn't bring attention to it and picked my foot up, then the thing decides to move a little and I turned around and yelled I can't do it I can't do it! So by then I managed to get the attention of the whole restaraunt and I turned back around to see what happened and it dissapeared so I started yelling where did it go? so the girl that originally saw it jumped up and ran after it to kill it. It was pretty embarassing but hey I tried.

Probably the worst one for me so far is when I was sitting at my desk on the computer. I had pants on and I felt a tickle on my toe, so I leaned over to pull my pants up a little and a cockroach ran out. It was on my foot!! I screamed and did laps around the house. then Meribeth came to my rescue again and tracked it down and killed it. I felt like I had a cockroach on my toe for the rest of the night. that type of thing haunts you.

I will spare you the rest of my stories, but these bugs are everywhere. They're not just everywhere, they are on steroids. It is one thing I will not miss when I leave.

One of the biggest differences here in Australia is the weather. It is so unpredictable. About a week ago, it was one of the hottest and humid days I have ever exprienced in my life. It is so uncomfortable and you just sweat. It's so humid you practically sweat in the shower. The house we live in is very old so there is no air conditioning and the house next to us is so close that it blocks any wind coming in from the windows. So Meribeth and I were sitting around the house with a fan in our face all day long. Well later that night it stormed for about 10 minutes. Apparently, when it gets that hot and humid rain rolls in to cool it down.
So the next day after that the day was horrible, it was windy and overcast and actually really cold. It was a nice break from the heat but not so great when you dress for 100 degree weather.
On Sunday, it was very hot and humid again and then we went to work and it stormed even harder. It sounded like someone was throwing rocks it rained so hard. Some people also mentioned that there was a possibiltiiy it could hail. Now, how it hails in 100 degree weather I have no idea, but they seem to think it is possible. I have yet to see it, but apparently it hails like golf balls sometimes.
No matter how hard it rains here, there is always someone there to say, "oh that was nothing." Well I don't know what is something then because these last couple of storms have almost knocked out our power and the wind is hard enough to knock over the barristers that we have around the restaraunt.
So the weather is out of control and very unpredictable. This country is in a major drought, but so far since I've been here it has rained about twice as much as I have seen all year in San diego. so they need to reset their water systems or something.
The storms usually only last about 15-30 minutes and they are absolutely amazing to watch and hear. The thunder strikes sooo hard and it is right above us usually. After the storms the sky is absolutely amazing. The way the clouds look over the sun or moon is just indescribable. I'm not sure if I pay more attention over here or the sky just doesn't change the way it does here, but the sky is just beautiful to look at here during the storms.
The weather is really cool and I enjoy it but it is so unpredictable that it is hard to plan things, especially when you don't have a car.

I haven't been writing lately because there are no major things going on for us right to write about.
I realize now though that every day is a major even or great experience. I experience something new everyday and I always forget to write about it because I take so muchf ro granted here. So I am just going to write about random things that I can think of. This will probably be very unorganized and random so be prepared.

[/b]Ashes[b]
Meribeth and I both had a night off so we decided to go out on the town on a Thursday night. Well this one particular Thursday was special because it was he beginning of Ashes. Ashes is an event that happens I think every year. It is a 5 day cricket match. ya I don't get it either, who in their right mind would want to play cricket, let alone for 5 days! If you have never watched cricket, you aren't really missing much. So anyways, Ashses is a special game, Australia versus England. Well, we decided to go to a bar that we heard was pretty popular. The place was packed and it was retty much all guys. So we met a few old guys first and he told me that ashes began hundreds of years ago when England and Australia were playing against each other and a wife of the Australian captain stuck an urn into some ashes and said here play for this. Well funny thing is I just looked it up on the internet because I wanted to make sure I had the facts straight before I wrote about it and that is not what happened at all! The internet says that in 1882 England lost at home and the local newspaper wrote a mock obituary saying that the England Cricket team has died and their ashes can be viewed at a certain place. This became the "ashes" they were playing for. so all in all I have no idea whatsoever the truth. haha. It was a very fun night and there were all kinds of people out and many of them were from England. Apparently, this is a huge event and a ton of people come over from England to watch. We will have to get out and see a cricket game just to say we went.
As for going out after the game there were guys everywhere, in every bar, so it was great fun. =)