Most of the time it seems like just your average place . . .

America is a big country. There are so many different areas, cultures, and climates and I cannot hope to visit them all in my lifetime. Except for the 30 hours of transit it took to get here, Australia actually seems a lot like America. I feel like it might just be a place in America I have never visited before. It's just that for some reason, people speak with Australian accents here.

But then you get hit with something completely different and you realize that you are indeed in a different country. For this reason, I have compiled a list of differences between America and Australia. Some of them are spelled differently, but they are pronounced the same.

1.) A Waapa (pronounced like Whopper) is not a sandwich you order at a Burger King. It is actually a student at their equivalent of Juliard, a lot of which live in my housing complex.

2.) Cole's is a food store, not a clothing store.

3.) Grocery stores are inside of the shopping malls.

4.) There are Targets and Kmarts, but they are not affiliated with the US stores, even if they are spelled the same, have the same font and logo as the US stores.

5.) There are about 100 different kinds of butter or butter spreads to choose from.

6.) Milk does not get refrigerated until it is open.

7.) They have Rice Bubbles and Frosties, but they are still represented with Snap Crackle and Pop and Tony the Tiger.



I'm sure the list will continue to grow as I stay here longer, but those are the main differences now.

When I take more pictures, I will post them. For now I don't have enough, so I will have to describe it.

I spent the other day at the beach, and it was amazing. We took the bus to get there. I intend on spending nearly all of my free time there. We are going again on Saturday, followed by a girls trip to see Valentine's Day. Today we went grocery shopping and are about to go play volleyball. Yesterday Becca and I taught them how to have a "lazy American day". It was miserably humid out, so we sat inside and watched Glee for 7 hours. We didn't mean to, but that is what happens when you keep putting more disks in the computer.

Friday is when I finally start all of my orientation stuff. I have some on monday as well, and then next Thursday, then classes start the week after that!