Same Same But Different...

I'm sure you all have seen the movie Crocodile Dundee. But have you seen The Man From Snowy River, Kangaroo Jack, The Crocodile Hunter or Australia? If you have... then you, like me have a mental picture of what the country of Australia looks like and what the typical Australian would wear. I know I did.

Okay, so I walk out of the doors from customs expecting to see a bunch of men wearing Akubra hats and crocodile skin boots OR at least a handful of drovers (you know rough and ready cowboys) but all I notice is regular people in mostly U.S. fashions... Levi's, Converse, Nike, Rusty, Ralph Lauren... even American baseball team caps!  Why weren't they all saying, "What a ripper of a flight!" or "Crikey, I've lost my luggage!" I was so disappointed! For all I knew I was in just another American airport except that they were all walking in the opposite direction.

The first thing that I noticed when I went out of the terminal was that it was a metropolis. I was expecting to see dust and dirt roads, big cattle trucks and again, cowboys! We got into our ride which was a Holden ute. Holden being GMC and ute = utility vehicle. Note: From this point on I will refer to trucks as "utes" since that's what the Aussies call them. After we got out of the airport parking area we went through a number of unusual circular roads called "roundabouts.' I don't know why we don't have roundabouts in California! They are brilliant! Basically, there is no stop light, you just get to the roundabout and whoever gets there first has the right of way. You travel around and use your turn signal to "indicate" which little exit off of the roundabout that you intend to take. You never miss a turn because if you mess up, you just go around the circle again and there is no traffic build-up. I was surprised because our driver said we would probably hit the Brisbane traffic at this time of day. We did. He obviously has never been to L.A. There were only about 50 or 60 cars on the whole drive home!

An hour later we stopped off at a gas station or "servo" as they call it to get a snack and I only had one pack left of my Big Red gum. As Dad waited for the driver to gas up the car with "petrol," Mom gave me a orange and red piece of paper to go and buy something to eat. I stared at the money and gave it a tug between my hands because it felt like plastic. It was plastic. So I tried to see if I could rip it. Nope, it was plastic all right. Another brilliant idea by the Australians... You don't know how many times my U.S. dollars have gone through the wash. I walked into the servo shop and eyed the candies on the shelf. For all I knew these could have been from some far away Middle Eastern country, I mean one of the bigger boxes did have a candy bar called "Turkish Delight." Where were my Reece's Peanut Butter Cups, Sour Patch Kids, Junior Mints and Cracker Jacks? Oh no, I had no clue what to choose. So I safely settled on a "Milk Chocolate" bar since I didn't know what a Violet Crumble, Rocky Road or a Wizz Fizz would taste like.

I went to the register after grabbing a mini-sized can of Pringles that cost me $5.00 and a Pepsi. I handed my money to the man not after he had already greeted me with his nicest "G'day, fella. Whatcha got theh?" He handed me back five gold coins each about the size of a nickel for change. I looked at the man and then I looked at the money and then back at the man... "Ummm how much is this?" I asked him. "Ahhh you're from America aren't you?" I thought to myself, did they give the Americans different money than the Aussies? And then he spoke again "Hey, little Mate, you speak "American" don't ya?" I thought about that for a moment and said "I do? I don't know... I think I speak English." The man laughed, "Of course you speak English, we all speak English, but could you say something in "American" for me?" I had no idea what he was talking about. Did he want me to say, "Uncle Sam" or "Coke" or just a simple "Dude?" I wasn't sure so I asked him. "What do you want me to say?" "Okay, Mate, let me think... say "cah" I love that one!" So I said very slowly and clearly, "Car." The man butted in, "No, No, not like that, like an American, with an "ahhh." An ahhh? I laughed, It took me a second to figure that out, "Oh, you mean carrrrrrrr, don't you? Do you have any cold waterrrrrrrr? How about Melbourrrrne do you like that one?" By now he was cracking up, "That's great, I love Americans, you guys are fair dinkum!" and with that he gave me a wink and a smile and said "See ya round, Mate!"

As I walked back to the car I realized that even though I was on the other side of the world, some things are the same no matter where you travel. Jeans, shoes, people with a friendly laugh and a smile but definitely not candy.