Aussies & Goon

So, the thought of blogging and actually keeping up with it is much easier than it seems… I’m terrible, I know. So let me fill you in.

I moved into my “college” on campus yesterday! I was eating in the dining hall yesterday (which reminds me of the big Harry Potter dining hall) and was talking to some Aussie students about random things I needed to buy for my room and asked the best place to go. The boy across from me said I’d probably have to visit a couple different stores to get everything, saying, “We don’t have stores with literally everything you would need in one place. There’s no Walmart here. Americans have taken consumerism to a whole new level. It’s incredible…. And most stores close at 5pm so you’ll have to go during the day.” I’m going to have to get used to this. It will definitely be an adjustment away from the 24-hour American lifestyle that’s all about convenience. Even restaurants close earlier here, and everything on campus shuts down at 5pm. At UT, dining halls and little convenience stores on campus don’t even close till like midnight or 2am… McDonalds (or “Maccas,” as the Aussies call it) isn’t even 24 hours here! Going out is quite different here as well. People leave around 10pm or so to go into the city, whereas in Austin, MAYBE the pregames start at 10pm. It’s neat to travel the world and see all these little differences. From the U.S. to Hong Kong, Thailand, and Australia…everywhere is different!

Another one of the boys I met at dinner is studying abroad at UT Austin next spring. When he asked where in Texas I was from and I said Austin, he excitedly asked if I go to The University of Texas. I said yes and he asked me if he will like it there. I smiled and said, “You’ll LOVE it!” So that was pretty cool, and I guess I’ll see him around next year in my part of the world!

Let’s see, some other Aussie slang… Goon. Goon is what they refer to boxed wine as, like our equivalent to Franzia back home. Goon is also what they call pillows, so I’ve been told, and they call the wine ‘goon’ because when it’s finished, you can blow up the bag that it was in and use it as a pillow. Australians…