Day 68 (LaTrobe University) - Bendigo, Victoria Australia

It's the little things. I need to get groceries so I have food to cook this weekend. Make a list, plan when the bus is going to arrive, take the bus, walk to the store, and try to find what I need/want. For the life of me I could not find contact solution at Big W (equivalent to Wal-Mart except they don't sell groceries). After spending 20 minutes looking in the personal hygiene section I decided to give up. Walking through the mall to Safeway (the place to get food) I saw this pharmacy store, surely they would have contact solution, and they did. I'm not used to having to go to a variety of stores for things…Then it's time to go to the food store. The place is always busy and people are everywhere, which agitates me. I get these ideas of what I want, and I can picture what it is in my head along with where it is in the store, but then I realize I'm in a foreign country so they could not have it or it could be packaged differently than at home. I long for the days where I got in the car, drove to Meijer at 10pm on a Sunday night, got a real close parking spot, and had the whole store to myself.

Next, trying to set up the mobile phone (they don't call it a cell phone, it's a mobile phone) - another big adventure. It took me over an hour in my first attempt, between trying to do it online, then having to make phone calls to the service provider, it was a mess. While waiting over 30 minutes being placed in a "queue," I finally got a human to talk to me. He was more entertained by the fact that I was from America than trying to get my phone to work.After talking to the man on over the phone, it still didn't work, so I gave up. In my last attempt I gave the phone to one of my flatmates and had him activate it. That worked, yeah! For mobiles here very few are on a plan like in the States. Most do pre-paid, and very few actually make calls - everything is communicated via SMS - or texting.

The rice krispie story…I got inspired to make rice krispie treats.While searching for the rice krispie cereal I found "rice bubbles." I assumed they were the same thing based on the fact that they were made Kelloggs, it's in a blue box, and had three knock-off Snack, Crackel, and Pop characters on the front. I couldn't find just plain white large marshmallows, I had to get a mix of strawberry and white marshmallows. Not having the right utensils, I used the stove to melt the marshmallows, which created a disaster. The treats turned out very hard and crunchy. I assumed that they wouldn't come out the right way on my first attempt, so I used all of the strawberry marshmallows on the first batch. When I do it again and use all the white ones hopefully they'll taste better.

Other interesting stories of the day - I had to explain what a high school varsity jacket is when Sam saw one on One Tree Hill. I think I found the equivalent to Prom here: the "Deb," or Debutante, is the formal dance at the end of the year. Of course details range school to school, but from my source girls all wear white dresses (purchased at a Deb dress store, while guys all wear the same suit/tie). Professional ballroom dances are learned and performed at the Deb. At some schools a couple (girls ask guys but their just dance partners - not a date per say) gets a table and can invite family to attend and watch as they perform their dances. Usually only year 10s and 11s go. Year 12s have a formal which can be more like prom, except you don't take dates and it's more of graduation awards/recognition gathering - I'm still trying to figure it all out. And I learned that high school graduates don't wear cap and gowns at the graduation ceremony, just suit and tie.

Lingo Learned:
Queue - Line
Munts - Vomit