Alien and awesome

I’ve been in Australia for almost a month now and I am getting more and more used to living down under. I especially enjoy the moments when I encounter something completely new or weird down here.

First of all the wild life. There are birds everywhere. The carry names like Magpie, black kite, kookaburra and the brush turkey. White Ibis in every park searching for food. Loorakeets, parrots, ospreys and eagles. All with their own unique weird ass sound. One sounds like an alarm clock, another sounds like a goat! I have now idea which ones make which sound, but I think it is amazing. Just walking though the Arakwal National Park I hear the birds warning their mates as I approach. It is like an orchestra that moves with you, like every tree has his own musician.

In the morning when I go to work I see these white birds with grey wings, long legs and a short yellow beak. No one I’ve asked so far seems to know what they are called. When another bird of the same kind approaches a standoff takes place. They size each other up, flap their wings and slowly walk in a circle around each other. I don’t know how they decide who the king of the lawn is, but it looks awesome.

What freaks me out the most I guess would be driving on the left side of the road. I’m really struggling with that. I look the wrong way when crossing a street, when there is no other traffic I tend to keep right and the roundabouts are just mind boggling to me. I hope I get the hang of it soon, because I feel I’m an accident waiting to happen.

Also a good thing to know is they don’t have regular coffee here in Oz. It took me about 5 minutes arguing with this lady to figure out what a ‘regular coffee’ is. To me regular would be just coffee. No milk or foam or any other additive. Just coffee. Sounds logical right? But no, normal would be a cappuccino or a Latte with soy milk. If you just want coffee order a Long Black. It is not really a ‘regular’ coffee, but an espresso which they add water to. Don’t get me wrong it taste great, it just doesn’t make any sense to me.

Aussies like to abbreviate everything. Woolworths becomes woolies, sunglasses become sunnies, afternoon is abbreviated: arvo. I is so funny to whenever I end up not understanding someone because of slang or abbreviations. I thought I understood English, but I’m learning every day here and I love it.

Apparently there is quite an alcohol problem in Oz and one of the laws in Byron Bay is that they can not serve shots after midnight. It turns out that a nice glass of whisky is considered a shot. I was flabbergasted when the bartender told me. I guess I just have to resort to a nice bottle at home instead of enjoying some scotch on a night out.

Busking (street performing) is a legit way to make some extra cash in Byron Bay. So on every corner there is live music. Some are more talented then others, but live music everywhere nonetheless. Usually they are weird and colorful characters. It makes the entire town so much more alive and it I joy just strolling down the street.

I can go on and on about all the stuff that seems weird to me. I don’t recognize the night sky for example and yes the water does swirl down the drain in the opposite direction. Every day I learn something new, see something new and meet new weird people. Everything is very alien to me and I think it’s awesome.