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This week held lots of excitement: I received my first piece of “real” mail and phone call from the states followed by several outgoing calls on my end. I also celebrated Australia Day on the 26th. A fellow American (co-worker of Amber’s) invited us all over for a barbie near the beach. We spent most of our time inside watching cricket and tennis before grilling snags due to the excruciating heat. When I say excruciating, I mean it! Temperatures reached over 100 degrees with slight humidity. I felt like I was melting! We actually finished our Australia Day celebration on Saturday over at Ossian’s flat where we watched a 20 minute firework presentation from his balcony.<br />Earlier that day, Amber and I had the chance to visit the Tandanya (a name given to Adelaide by the indigenous inhabitants that means the place of the red kangaroo). Tandanya is a National Aboriginal Cultural Institute that is home to many Aboriginal exhibits and displayed works of art. Our visit also included an introduction to Eddie, a Torres Strait Islander who exposed us to certain aspects of his way of life. He presented a couple of dances and chants in addition to teaching us a<br />few moves as well.

Another week in Oz...

Tanya
2006-03-10 20:46:41

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see in Tasmania. Unfortunately, one was sleeping in a hollow log and we could only catch a glimpse of his face. The koalas were also sleeping when we walked passed. It was a challenge to find the Australian animals awake and moving. One exception to this was viewing the greater bilby in the nocturnal house. These little fellows were very active and very
difficult to keep up with in the dark but I managed to snap a few photos. On our way out of the zoo, Amber and I decided to stop back by the Australia display. We were fortunate to find that one of the tassie devils awake for a quick five minute trot around his home before returning to sleep. At which time, Amber and I took *heaps of pictures. She commented that we looked like the paparazzi. I could not have put it better myself. I think the Tasmanian devil was quite aware of this and soaked up all of the attention! I don’t think that the koala was quite as thrilled, however. One of the Koalas took a brief moment to change positions for a quick snack before returning to sleep. The zoo had so many species of birds both encaged and encased in walk through rainforests. I found that I was not as interested in animals from Africa, America, Asia, etc. I was typically excited about the animals from Australia (see The Adelaide Zoo blog entry). However, I did manage to enjoy my first look at the Red Panda (unfortunately, that photo did not turn out very well).

Culture Shock 101

Australians like Texans like to have everything larger than everyone else.
There have been a couple of instances where individuals have made sarcastic comments about everything being bigger in Texas, in which case I find myself agreeing. However, I find that these comments suggest that Australians typically really do have very large displays of random items just like Texas. This is how I find myself feeling right at home!

Word Bank

Good Onya-good for you or well done
Tea-a dinner meal
Battler: Underdog
Chook-chicken
Crook-sick, ill
Heaps- much, lots

Travel Tips

If you ever find yourself in the area, the Falafel House would be a great choice for a meal. I made a stop there this weekend to see why it is such a legendary landmark. You wouldn't want to miss out on the falafels or the collage of photos mounted on the wall! They say that if your photo isn’t on the wall then you don’t exist. For now, I still don’t exist but I think that it’s only a matter of time before I do...