Days 2 and 3

Happy Australia Day to all!

January 26 is Australia's national holiday, so today Lauretta and Dave took us to meet their "mates" and have a cook-out. By the way, I have yet to eat kangaroo... contrary to popular belief, it is not a regular dish here. Lauretta has lived in either Sydney or Brisbane her entire life and never tasted it. So today we went to a little park with Cricket "fields" and cooked out and played cricket all day. I have also now experienced my first Australian sunburn-yes Mother, I was wearing sunscreen, as well as a straw hat, the sun is just that brutal here! So turns out that Australians are excellent cooks, and that Americans are awful at Cricket. It's very similar to baseball in that you have fielders, a batter and a pitcher, which they call a bowler. Instead of running bases though when you hit the ball, there are two batters who stand at opposite ends of the field, which is just a narrow strip, and however many times they can run back and forth, that i show many runs you get. Striking out doesn't actually get you out, you just lose five runs, and each team of batters gets twelve chances to score as many runs as possible. So when Dave and I teamed up, we ended up with -28... Pretty embarrassing! My only redeeming quality was that I was able to tag three people out while I was bowler! Also, you are supposed to keep your bat with you when you run, but George and I are so used to baseball we kept throwing ours, so we lost some points that way.

George and I found out last night that there is another girl from the States (Ohio, specifically) who is also in COST and staying with Brisbane, she just lives about ten minutes away. So today she came with us, and I think she is going to start traveling and sight-seeing with us as well.

Dave took George and I to the beach yesterday, and it was quite amazing. The rip tides get really bad, however, so they have about 20 ft -although they measure in meters- areas blocked off where you can swim every mile or so. Apparently, and this should make Hannah rest easier, more people die from rip tides than sharks and jellies combined.

A couple odd things... it isn't popular here to have air conditioning. In San Fransisco, I understand this, as it never gets above like 65. However, in this 85-90 degrees, it's brutal. I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes because the heat is so suffocating. Apparently at the school I'm at, some of the classrooms have air conditioning, but poor George has none anywhere in his school. At night the air is pretty cool though, so its nice to go sit on the back porch and have dinner. I would definitely take the heat any day to be able to be here!

Also, people in Australia don't tip. When you go out to dinner, you pay for your food, and that is that. I have never felt so awkward in my life getting up from a table without tipping, but Lauretta said that if you leave more than just your extra change, it can almost be considered an insult to the server, because its as if you are saying that they are poor. She and Dave met in Ireland, and she said the same holds there. She worked as a bartender for a while, and she said some of the only people who tipped were Americans, and it was usually an absurd amount.

One last thing... if anyone ever offers you beetroot dip, I suggest strongly that you decline.