Spaghetti for Breakfast and Other Oddities

So, the workload is picking up. Everything is due at the same time (either right before or right after the lecture recess) and the relative laziness of the start of the semester is slowly giving way to the hectic schedule that I became accustomed to during my first two years of college. Well, that's kind of a lie. It's not like Swarthmore. I can take breaks.

Anyway, that's why posting has been sporadic for the last few weeks. Not much is going on that's worth telling. Natalie and I are planning our lecture recess trip to Melbourne and Sydney, buying plane tickets and booking hostels and whatnot. I promise, though, if something interesting happens, you'll hear it here.

You didn't think I would end it there, did you? Me? I may not say much out loud, but give me a pencil or computer, and I'm good for a short novel. This post will be about some differences in Australian/American culture. For example, Australians enjoy eating spaghetti for breakfast. Why would you do that? Also, the existence of Vegemite perplexes me. Although I haven't yet taken the plunge (which will be a whole other post when it happens, surely), I can't even imagine how something made essentially of yeast extract and salt can be worth eating.

Other things that I have noticed:

• Most of the men's rooms do not have individual urinals, just a large, square, metallic area with a drain at the the bottom and water nozzles that turn on every few minutes or so. They're big enough for several people, but I've never seen more than one person at one at a time.
• You know how Americans say "lots" and the British say "loads" when they're talking about a large number of something? Well, Australians say "heaps." I like it.
• One seemingly minor difference that still throws me is that where Americans would say "How ya doin'?" Australians say "How ya goin'?" That one letter makes a huge difference, I guess. It just sounds weird. Oh, and if there's more than one person, it's "How yas goin'?" AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! I think that might just be a Queensland thing though.
  
• Something that happens a lot on my hall is that someone will leave their room for a meal, or to go to class and will leave their door open and music absolutely blasting, or their TV on. This country's got a water crisis already, people. No need for an energy one as well.
• The fruit we all know and love as cantaloupe is called rockmelon.
• A lot of cars have little shields on the top of the passenger and driver's side windows so that you can have the window down even when it's raining. Maybe we have those and I'm just ignorant, but I've never seen one before.
• Spelling differences (tire = tyre), opposite driving, etc.
• One thing that is not different: soccer. You might have thought that the US was the only nation in the world that didn't call soccer "football." Wrong. Australians have their own football (which I do not understand, but that's mostly because I haven't tried yet), and so they join us in the soccer name-minority.

Well, that's about all I can think of right now. When I come home saying "How yas goin'? Anyone want some rockmelon? I've got heaps!" and then accidentally drive into oncoming traffic, you'll know why.