One Wanka, two rubbers, and a trip to the toilet....

In coming to the land down under, Alex and I both had exciting (at times unrealistic and silly!) terms/lingo/phrases that we thought the Aussie's would say. We did not, however, estimate the AMOUNT of different sayings/cultural norms etc. We thought, we're going to a commonwealth country...how different can they be from us? They, as do we, have aboriginal issues pertaining to assimilation in their history, a national sport, schools....grocery stores...and the list goes on! I mean come on, these people are practically us!!!!
Not so much.
Our first encounter with some Australian linguistic screw ups (aka awkward sayings that Alex and Amy have no idea what they're saying) was on the way home from the airport. Our "mom" and "dad" for the trip told us that they were just going to stop off for some morning tea. Cool! I mean, Alex and I like tea...we don't drink it a lot, but sure, you go right ahead! We stopped off at this bakery and they asked us if we wanted anything. Croissants, muffins and danishes later we left with the food to indulge on their deck at their house. We noticed Heather and Ralph had not picked up any tea...we thought maybe they didn't have what they wanted or something, and brushed it off because they made some when we got back to their place. So we enjoyed the little snack, and a chat! Next day at school...my co op teacher Tim told me we have "morning tea" at 11...hmm....everyone has morning tea??? I didn't ask questions cause I didn't want them to think I was ignorant...haha, which I was! I realized quickly that morning tea was just "recess" because the kids had a snack and then a playtime....us foolish Canadians...
This brings me to my next point...not asking questions like, "what does that mean?" "oh, you say what when you need to go to the bathroom!!!!????"
For a few days, I was hesitant to ask questions...and then Alex and I would talk about things they said in the day that we didn't understand..."can I please go to the toilet" "That should go in the rubbish" "I reckon we could fit that in there!" and the list goes on. Not asking questions can get us into trouble sometimes though children, it really can!!! I don't know if anyone else does this, but I do....I sometimes pretend I heard what someone said, but didn't..and just sort of smile and nod, or laugh. Well...this doesn't work so well when someone asks you a question, and your response is a chuckle and nod....note: happened about three times with Tim and I. I quickly realized that anything that was said, and I didn't hear it or needed clarification...I would ask.
This can work the opposite way as well. Sometimes they don't understand Alex and I. Another note: do not give a spelling test if you are a Canadian to an Australian class of year 7's...unless you are prepared to repeat the word in a sentence several (10?) times.
In our particular class, I had them spell the word "worry." Seems simple enough doesn't it? "oh, Ms. MacPherson...is it warry??"
"yup, worry"
"ok, is it warry? or warried?" (this is what worry sounds like in their accent)
now...when they said that, I didn't hear the -ed on the end...so I thought they were asking if it was worry, or worry....I was like...um....YES it's worry!!!!
"so it's warried????" they asked...
"worry, yes" I replied...feeling badly and still thinking they said worry, not worried "I did worry a bit when I came here...worry"
"ohhhhh ok, so it's warry!!!!" a few of them said...."not warried!!"
"well..what's the difference...it's the same word!!!" I said...
"no no no" a girl said trying to be really helpful "warry with an -ed on the end, or just warry"
hahaha ok, I know what you're all thinking...geeeeeeezzzz! how long did this take! um...yea..quite a bit
we all chuckled...got it all down pat..and moved on...but I felt rather silly after that...friggin Aussie kids...get it together! Kidding, they're seriously the best ever!
Some other fun things that have happened are hearing stories about differences in the weather! It only goes down to like 15 degrees here in the winter...so they don't have any cold really...well..they think 23 is cold, telling Alex and I to turn off the AC when the temp outside is less than 23-24...ahem, excuse me!!?? Do you know where we're from??? we will saturate our clothes in sweat if we turn these off! Kids these days...
My co op teacher enlightened me with a story the other day about his adventure to England for a few months. He was staying at a friends house who he was also house sitting, so he had access to his friends car. It had frozen over the night..and my teacher didn't know what the hell to do with a car where the windshield was frozen! He tried putting the wipers on really hard, didn't work...so he stuck his head out the window the whole way and back. The next time, he tried pouring warm water over the windshield..only to have it freeze on...haha, so he drove to the store with his head out the window and back. The next time he tried he found some anti freeze in the garage...poured it over...it did better!! But it still clouded the shield and didn't know how to get that stuff off....so put his head out the window there and back. hahaha, by now, you're probably saying...seriously? and yes...seriously. He finally bought a scraper! YEAHHHH!!! He asked me what we do...."oh, well we just usually heat the car up for ten minutes or something on a really cold morning...everything just melts off really"
"ohhhh" he said.."Never thought of that."
haha, just to put it all in perspective a bit..these types of stories happen all the time! It's just so different that there is no need for them to know anything about winter really...funny eh?
I really enjoy the fun stories though, and figuring out what their customs are and stuff...it really is wayyy different than I thought it would be...very heavily influenced by the Brit's.

Some lingo things:

They spell tires-tyres...weird!
reckon=think
rubbish=garbage
wanker (wanka)=an idiot
biscuits=cookies
markers=pylons
sunny's=sun glasses
the boot=trunk (apparently we say this home too...but I have never heard it)
rubber=eraser (this one catches me off guard!!! "um, can I borrow you rubber" sick...)
hockey here=field hockey
ice hockey=hockey to us
can I go to the toilet=bathroom...this one's weird still
Have a go!=give it a try
Heaps=lots (they say this heaps)

A few facts:

The peanut butter IS different...but it IS Kraft...and tastes pretty good!!
Reese's is basically non existent..only in a few shops (cadbury rules the roost down here!)
Only about three of my students have ever HEARD of Sidney Crosby (no one knew what he did when I asked)
None knew who Wayne Gretsky was
Cricket is their national sport....it's really boring!!!!
Rugby here is the equivalent to hockey in North America, Soccer in Europe
have AC in houses/schools...no heaters!
Light switches...you flick up for off, and down for on
Drive on the left side of road+pedestrians have no right of way...ever really...=Alex and Amy scared for life!!

Still...such a good time here...we're having a blast..enjoying it all, and will have tons more stories soon as well!
Keep on reading!
peace and love