Monday, September 6, 2010

you live, you learn 3

- Spelling is optional.
- Things change.  (Like my 3-digit luggage lock combination, randomly one morning without being reset... while it was securing my bag.)
- Sometimes the hardest sign to find is the one for the road you're on.
- All peacocks are male.  The female is called a peahen.  The generic term is peafowl.
- Rainforest smells can range from rotting vegetation to refreshing.  You never know which one you'll experience next or how long it'll last.
- People here tend to say "double _" to spell things out.  Of the dozen or so people that have read my last name as K-W-T-A-N when spelling it out loud, only one has noticed that this actually forms a different name.
- The great barrier reef is actually made up of over 2900 individual reefs.
- Crocodile tastes like chicken with the occasional hint of fish.
- During the Australian election campaign, the Prime Minister candidate debate was moved because it conflicted with Master Chef, a reality TV show that's a cooking competition.
- In Sydney, you need to hail buses in order for them to pick you up from the stop.  You also need to pay every time you switch buses - they don't have the concept of transfers.
- Female butterflies mate only once in their lives.
- Some species of turtles breathe through their anus.
- Over 90% of people who get bitten by snakes in Australia were trying to capture or kill it.
- Swimming in water with crocs is considered normal for some Aussies.
- The Sydney Opera House tour was delivered live via poor quality headphones.
- Even though he lived for 25 years after construction was completed, the architect who designed the Sydney Opera House never saw the completed building.
- Wollemi pines were thought to be extinct for millions of years until a bushwalker found some near Sydney in 1994.  (Prior to that, people knew they existed only from fossils.)
- Kangaroos like wasabi peas.
- Some things are worth repeating.
- Happy hour is fabulous at any time of day :)

1 comment:

  1. G'day Aili! The blog is great! Sounds like y'all are having a great time. Keep livin' the dream!

    Cheers,
    Matt Payne

    ReplyDelete