Aussie term of the day…
“Ta” – another way to say “Thank you.” Initially invented, if you will, for
children who couldn’t say the phrase “thank you.”
Wednesday is my big “gap day” where I have one class
earlier in the morning then a good 3 hours to entertain myself before my next
class at 1:00. Today I spent it hanging out with friends from the lodge mostly
and I even got to see the other Julia! That was good fun!
Later on we went to one of the Bible talks that Christian
Union puts on every week from 12:00 to 1:00, though I had to leave a little
early to make the trek half way across campus to my final class. Not a fun one
to make in a haste while it’s raining I must say! When that class ended, I
still had another hour to hang out before Michelle, who was my ride home, was
to get out of class so I tagged along with an Australian acquaintance from
class who was meeting up with a Canadian friend of hers at Jamaica Blue, a
coffee shop on the edge of campus.
On the way there we got to see the tinniest toad I have
ever seen! Still cute despite the fact that the Cane Toads are incredibly
invasive…
And another wallaby spotted in the middle of
campus!
Once we got to the coffee shop I got a nice rundown of
what the Australian version of some of the coffees are here and learned that
basically the only difference between a cappuccino and a latte are that the cappuccinos
have chocolate on the top while the lattes do not. Needless to say I got the
chocolate option on that one!
I thoroughly enjoyed getting to hang out with those two
gals and when the Canadian had to get up and leave for another class, the
Australian and I got to have a nice talk.
When close to three rolled around we headed off together towards the Med
block where I was to meet up with Michelle for the ride home. I’m excited to see where that friendship
goes!
On the way back, Michelle took me by the Woolworths to
show me how to recharge the minutes on my phone, since I had run out, and
apparently you can do that at the self checkouts super easy! Oh, another thing,
the whole time I have been here I have never once used a physical person
check-out line. It’s always the self
checkout. It’s so much easier and they
have a much more prominent presence here I find. Some stores don’t even have
cashiers which I thought was interesting.
And though this isn’t Australian, Michelle told me this
one on the way home as we were talking about different languages…
“Vinaka Vakalevu” - Fijian for thank you. Now THAT is fun to
say!
To end off the day, Michelle, Shane, and I headed up to
the top of Castle Hill to see what we could see as far as a sunset over the mountains.
Unfortunately it was a little too cloudy to
really see all that much, another evening perhaps, but it was still fun making
the trek (the driving kind) up the hill with them. I'd say these are some pretty darn fun people to hang out with!
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