1 Month Anniversary!

Well, it has officially been one month since we have left the states...and to celebrate the milestone we have come up with a list of what we have noticed, however, not gotten used to, in the land down under.

WARNING: Some of these differences may seem shocking, in need of the fashion police, or just plain disgusting. We have been taught to react by saying "it's not wrong, it's different".

Observations on Australian Life:

--Jean skirts are in style again for grown women

--People don’t jaywalk; they actually stick to the pedestrian crossings…AND cars stop to let you pass!
--No courtesy wave when you cross the street

--You don’t have to tip. Ever.

--There are lots of Asians here and they all carry umbrellas…rain or shine they’re out protecting from the elements.

--Australians really like Thai food & kebabs.

--No one knows what an enchilada is...tragic.

--Mostly all uni students live off campus with their parents or grandparents

--It’s completely normal to refer to your professor by his or her first name

--Movies are reallllly expensive. As in $18 a piece.

--Baked beans and spaghetti are normal breakfast dishes. Yum.

--Each class we are enrolled in only meets twice a week for one hour. We have a lecture portion where a lecturer stands at the front of the room and prattles on with a slideshow. Then we have a tutorial portion with a smaller group of people that is more interactive and usually involved group work.

Aussie Words:

--Brekkie = breakfast

--Dodgy = sketchy

--S’arvo = this afternoon

--Cheers = goodbye

--Pash = make out

--Root = have sex

--Dag = adorably nerdy

--Olds = parents

--Mob = cell phone

--Uni = university

--Shel’ll be all right = it’s OK

--sms = text message

--whats doing= what are you doing

As for our lives...

We have settled into our dorms and decorated the space as creatively as possible using as little money as possible. This means our decorations for themed parties (such as wings) hang above our beds, and wrapping paper adds color to our bulletin board. Thanks to Becky's perfectionism, we both have hearts on our walls made out of pictures of our adventures and of back home. In case you were wondering, we do have pictures of Chipotle burrito bowls developed and on our wall.

We have learned that if we expect horrible food, then we tend to be pleasantly surprised with what we are eating at our dorm. Our favorite dessert night is ice cream sundaes because it's pretty much impossible to mess that up.

School is going well...lectures are basic and we are expected to do a lot of reading for each class. We are thankful that our grades are more determined on essays rather than tests. We don't get bored in class thanks to the casual relationship between teachers and students. Our favorite examples would be our teacher constantly snapping at us (the whole class) to focus and a student blaming a teacher for saying something that he didn't.

We are both really looking forward to the constant flow of visitors coming up in the next few weeks! Amanda will be arriving on Sunday, Becca's parents arrive on Friday, and Emma and Sophie will be getting here on Saturday! We have been mentally preparing for lots of fun.

Besides school, we have filled our free time with cupcake making, painting to fill rainy days, and some movie watching. This past weekend, we decided to go to the biggest Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in the world, simply because, this is the only time in our lives to see it. We went there with a group of friends that are also here from the states. We got to Mardi Gras about 3:30 and the parade wasn't until 7:45. We filled our time by enjoying a glass of wine while people watching (there was plenty of it). There was lots of boas, glitter, and bright colors, and it was all on the opposite sex than you would expect. We were pretty exhausted (people watching wears you out) by the start of the parade and figured that if we saw one float, then we would be happy. We had a long walk back to the train station since a lot of the closer stations were impossible to get to because of closed streets for the parade. We made it back and were both in bed by 9:30 pm.

That is about all that is new in our lives! We talk about you and miss you all everyday! We love to hear from you so keep emailing us, and skyping us!

Lots of love from your aussie girls!

Picture hearts by Becky Long! Aren't they amazing?!

Sunday was a rainy day, which called for a trip to the dollar store. We found these paint kits and had a relaxing afternoon of painting...Becky found paint in Becca's hair the next day...a sign that it went really well

Becky and Becca at the Macquarie train stop getting mentally prepared for Mardi Gras...of course we brought out crowns, and they were a huge hit.