Fun Factoids from Oz

This post was originally posted on Wednesday January 3, 2007, however due to some technical difficulties was removed. I have been attempting to repost it for days, with the original pictures included, but Blogger has not been letting me put up the green knot pic, so here is the remaining post, minus the "big green knot." Be sure to look for aforementioned knot in a later post.
Love, Jen

Here are some l'il tidbits that are sure to put all y'all ahead in Trivial Pursuit:

- The paper size here is A4, which is slightly longer than our 8.5 x 11 paper.

- Melbournites really like public art (see below).

- The Docklands YMCA (our gym) has a 25 meter pool with salt water, which the gym-guy seemed to think made it somehow better than a fresh water pool. The gym-guy also did not seem to get my sense of humor.

- You drive on the left side of the road.

- Keeping in mind the driving on the left, in order to make a right turn, you must pull over to the left hand side of the intersection, and wait for a "safe" moment to turn, which requires you to clear both lanes of traffic. Ostensibly this is in order that cars waiting to make right turns will not be plowed over by the trams.

- It is not customary to tip waiters, bartenders, cab drivers or other service-industry employees because they are paid a good wage already.

- Australia's confused identity has resulted in their legislative house being called "Parliament," which is split into the Senate and House of Representatives (think on this a minute). The state, Northern Territory, is part of Australia the country, but not Australia the federated states. They are nonetheless allowed to vote and send representatives to Parliament, but these reps have no real power to influence law.

- The capital of Australia is not Sydney or Melbourne, or even Adelaide or Perth. It is Canberra, the Washington D.C. of Oz.

- Starbucks does not know what a regular iced coffee is, it's only either iced cafe latte or hot coffee.

Now some fun public art pieces (plenty more where these came from, I'll be sure to continue shooting and posting them):




This lovely piece is a cubist interpretation of a dairy cow that has somehow gotten itself wedged in the fork of a leaf-less tree.

Today's recap: Woke up absurdly early (6:27 A.M. due to 1. sunshine blinding me and 2. possible jet lag), coffee on the balcony proved to be a failure due to scortching heat at 7:45 A.M. Orientation and our first Secured Transaction class was fine. Curious to see how the program portion of this trip pans out. Also, if you smile nice and make silly jokes, the older gentleman at the deli will throw an extra topping on your "mix your own salad" free of charge.

Today's Updated Statistics: Fly* Kill Count - 3. Number of Waiters I have befriended - 2.

*Flies in Australia are ridiculous. They not only find and stick with you, but while swarming around your head, they attempt persistently to enter any available orifice - nose, eye, ear, mouth. Jay claims to have eaten one today.

Oh yeah, P.S., leave comments! I love comments! Otherwise it feels like we're the only ones reading the blog, and that's sad.