Happy Halloween!!

Hello everyone! Erynn says "BOO". See I told you I would be updating again soon!! So we've been in Sydney for almost a week now and we have found a place to live in north Sydney... its not right on the beach, but thats fine, its a nice house, and at a great price. Now we are going to try looking for some work again...
Anywho, since its the halloween season and today is exactly 2months we've been here, we thought we would share a few of the 'strange' things we have noticed about australia.

• Toilets

- First off, I know everyone is wondering which way the toilet swirls... well you will be shocked to know that it doesnt even swirl at all!! Every toilet has two flush modes, half flush for 'light' jobs and full flush for... um #2. Basically the water just jets down the toilet and its full again in like 2 seconds, its all quite dramatic, no time for swirling. And restrooms are not called restrooms or washrooms, its just straight up TOILET.

• Things that are the same, but with different names.

- a green pepper is a Capsicum. they call pepper spray Capsicum spray...
- Burger King is called Hungry Jacks (same burgers, whoppers... etc),
- Wal-Mart is called Big W (same logo's and sayings... "we sell for less")
- Ketchup is called Tomato Sauce - oh and its not free, you gotta pay for each little packet
- kebobs are spelled and said KebAbS
- Root beer is called Ginger beer, and only one company makes it.
- Rice krispies are Rice Bubbles, even with snap crackle and pop on the box too!

We have quite a big list of things we have notices so I will just ramble off what else we have come up with.
-All their sport teams are roo-something. for example the hockeyroo's and socceroo's.
-Magnums are not like the magnums back home... they are like giant revelles.
-Its Drink Driving, not drunk driving. You dont get drunk here, you've just had too much to drink... thats all. And to order a round of drinks at the bar is called a 'shout'.
-Almost all students wear uniforms and boys and girls are separated.
-Movies and TV shows are about 4 months behind North america. They still have the first season of prison break on!! and sadly no episodes of 'Lost' for another 3 months...
-The Mailman rides a dirtbike to each house. Such a cool job.
- You dont have a can of pop, its a can of drink.
- all the shops close at 4pm, food courts close at 3pm, cause thats when the pubs open!!
- You can buy Kangaroo meat at you local grocery store. mmm kangaroo babs.
-There are no pennies here. everything is rounded to the nearest 5 cents. Thier coins go like this - 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, $1, $2.
-The price you see is the price you pay. Tax is included in the price.
- Snacks cost way more!!! a small bottle of pop is $3.00, a bag of chips or a chocolate bar is $2.50 each

A few other things we have noticed is the way they say some phrases... for exaple:
- when you as the time at ten thirty, its said half ten.
- when you ask the price of something its said 4 dollars 20 (usually with the last bit mumbled)
- thank you is 'ta'
- hi is 'How ya going'

Well thats about it for now. We are just going to head downtown and see a 3D Imax movie at darling harbour. I guess its one of the biggest screens in the southern hemisphere. We'll let you know how the job hunt and new place goes!!

Happy Halloween!
Nate and Erynn.