Some Australian Slang

Landing in Darwin was fantastic because, due to technical difficulties with our walkway, we walked straight off the plane onto the tarmac.  I was finally truly on Australian soil, and here to stay.  My professor here, Lorraine, picked me up from the airport to take me  the home I’ll be staying in.  Here I met Ross and Belinda, and their two little Staffys.  Their home is built up on stilts and the “basement” which is actually ground level, has been converted into another living area.  This is where I am staying, and have the entire area to myself for the first month of my stay.  After they showed me around their home we went to pick up some groceries.  It was quite interesting trying to pick out foods, you get so used to certain brands of yogurt, cheese, orange juice and cereals that you know you enjoy.  Now I get to try more!  They also insisted on buying me some Australian “Chokkie” to try, and well I’ve never been one to turn down chocolate :)

After our excursion to the grocery store they took me down to the actual shipyard where parts of the movie “Australia” were filmed.  It is also one in the same where Darwin was bombed in 1942 during WWII.  Now it is a hang out.  You have all these Thai and Fish-Fry restaurants alongside alcohol stands.  You walk up to one order and then find a table alongside the dock.  Here you watch dolphins, fish, sharks and alligators show themselves.  Literally every single waterway here is filled with alligators.  If you happen to not see an alligator then it is almost certain you will encounter jellyfish.  

Darwin is also full of “boozers”, pubs.  They are lining the streets in downtown Darwin.  Belinda and Ross gave me a tour of downtown Darwin and showed me all the interesting places to visit.  One of them being The Parliament House, which I will actually get to take my students on an “excursion”, field trip, to next Friday.  Australia is still ruled under the Queen and therefore partakes in parliament.  

It is fantastic to listen in on conversations here.  Today was my second day at school and the first thing one of my students said to me this morning was “Miss, do you like my thongs? They’re rubbers!”  Translated this means “Miss, do you like my flip-flops.  They’re erasers!”  If you’re enjoying something, such as your “biscuits” (cookies) with your “afternoon tea” (snack) you might say “Oh, that is so yum!”  My students use “texters” (highlighters) and most have these fantastic erasable pencils, pens, and texters.  Much better than any that I’ve seen in the United States, as they erase without leaving any residual markings.

The school I am at is quite interesting.  Mara, the teacher I am working with, has a year 3/year 4 split room.  This is the 7th week of school and already this has changed twice.  She begun with 4/5 split, then a 5 room, and now she is with 3/4.  The entire school is open.  There are no doorways between classrooms just dividing walls that don’t divide the rooms completely.  Much like some American schools have removable walls that you could slide partially open.  If you have to be absent, often times there wont be a substitute teacher, instead your students will just get spread out throughout the rest of the rooms and either do work you leave for them, or jump into whatever lesson is being taught.  We start at 8:30 and work until “afternoon tea” (recess).  This is a half hour recess with a snack break starting around 10:30.  We resume and run class until our hour lunch at 12:30ish and then finish the day at 2:30.  They do a lot of cultural learning, have gym class once a week for an hour but also do dance, yoga, and drama once a week for an hour each.  There is music and art as well.  

Today, instead was “Pancake Tuesday” (Fat Tuesday).  So we all had pancakes at home for breakfast, made more pancakes at school as a part of a lesson, and then some students even had more pancakes for lunches!

The weather here is quite interesting as well.  I am coming at the end of the wet season so it is quite humid until it rains.  We usually get a heavy rain first thing in the morning, followed by hot, sunny days and then a evening or night time rain.  The rain is always a welcome relief because it gets rid of some of the humidity.  

Darwin is also home to the largest population of aboriginals, and they are everywhere!  We have many in our schools, but they also choose to have their own schools where they teach more of their history, language and culture.  It is interesting to work with students who are ESL (English as a Second Language) here in Australia as well, a lot of the school practices follow over!

Darwin is also one of the lowest violent crime states in Australia.  There is almost no violent acts (besides the random bar brawl), however because of the large amount of transient backpackers traveling through there are a few home break-ins.  All non-violent, but the backpackers and some of the aboriginal people break in while the homeowner is away to get some spare change or electronics to sell for cash.  

Adjusting to the time change is a bit odd, thankfully the night-flight helped a little but I am always ready for an afternoon nap here around 4 o’clock (1:30 a.m. back home).  So I will apologize for the vast amount of information put on here, I feel like there is so much I am learning and would love to share with you! (For example in Darwin: Pancakes with maple syrup = fantastic... pancakes with lemon juice and sugar = even better)  Hopefully these next few days I will be able to get more organized thoughts down, but for now I’ll leave it at G’day :)