Crazy Weather and Other Comments...

Well, today was a pretty normal day as far as work was concerned. A few highlights though; the cafeteria here at the Graduate House opened up today. So now I can eat breakfast and dinner just downstairs with the other folks who live here. The meals are included with the room, so it's nice to have food that is made by someone else and paid for by someone else. The experience today was okay. It's not quite as good as some of the food I have been eating recently, but it is certainly not bad.

Today I experienced perhaps some of the craziness of Melbourne weather. I must say that this week is probably going to be a good week, because luck was certainly on my side this morning. I had pretty much just stepped onto Anita's covered porch when the skies unleashed an enormous amount of rain and hail. Thank goodness it hadn't come about 5 minutes earlier when I would have been walking between the train station and her house... Anyhow, it was pretty impressive. They day continued much in the same way; ferocious rain, hail and wind separated by pleasant sunshine and bright blue skies. I guess it's nice that the whole day wasn't rainy, but I feel bad for anyone who got caught in the rain.

I did laundry for the first time today. I finally managed to find some detergent (or washing powder as it is called here). I probably spent more time picking out that box of detergent than I ever have before. I spent quite a bit of time making sure that I was buying something that would be suitable for colors, and clothes in general. It's amazing how much brand power really exists in society. I do not think that many people realize how programmed they are when it comes to common household brands. Even little kids in the states probably know that Tide is laundry detergent. But here, many things are different, so I find that I need to spend more time making sure that I'm buying the right stuff. I also learned that people here apparently don't use static dryer sheets...oh well.

A few other things worth mentioning from recent days. At the cookout the other day, I had the opportunity to eat part of a whole fish. I had never actually been served a whole fish (i.e. where the whole fish is literally laid before you and you have to pull the skin off, de-bone it, etc.). It was an interesting experience. The fish was baby snapper and it was pretty good. But it is a little weird when the fish is just kind of sitting there looking at you - haha. Also we had corn on the cob, but in Australia it is apparently not common to put butter on corn on the cob. Rather, folks squirt lemon on the corn and then salt it. Maybe people do that in the States too... I'd never seen it before, but it was surprisingly good.

I also think it is interesting to note some of the differences in how people say things here. For example, I went into a restaurant a week or so ago and ordered a fillet of something. The waitress looked at me funny and eventually she figured out what I wanted. Later, after talking with Anita and others at this cookout (with the baby snapper) I learned that fillet is always pronounced here with a hard 't' sound. This is in contrast to the way that I have always pronounced it - with a long 'a' sound at the end. It made me wonder whether that is a British remnant (or maybe a British snubbing the French thing) - who knows.

I suppose that's about it for now... I'm going to go head to bed and get ready for another day!