Christmas with kangaroos
Christmas and the days preceding were a blur. Spent some time with Cori while she took care of last-minute errands and did some final shopping myself. Cori had a coloring and haircut scheduled for Saturday and since I was in serious need of a cut they squeezed me in. Was finished way before Cori so took a stroll around the shops and picked up a few things from the chemist (a.k.a. drugstore, adopting entirely too many Aussie words in to my own vernacular, I'm going to become a pretentious American using foreign slang, the spelling is bad enough). Later that night was Christmas with Paul's family. Felt very lucky for them to include me on the festivities and everyone was incredibly ingratiating. His family has more younger members than I'm used to at my own family gatherings, so the vibrancy was great. Several kids under the age of 10 and most of his cousins were in their 20's and early-30's. I've always found my family's holidays to be relatively sedate (when there aren't a dozen people trying to talk over each other) so this was a welcome change. Dinner ended up being a more “American” meal with Turkey and ham rather than cold seafood selections like I was led to believe a few months prior to arriving. Apparently Paul's mother decided to change the menu after hearing I would be there.
The next day we went to Paul's grandfather's house in a more rural area of Victoria north of the city. Here we had a seafood lunch and I found myself indulging in a few more prawns than I would normally back home. Wonder if there's something different about seafood here that is making my taste bud palate do a 180. Will have to conduct further experiments in to this sudden change. While out in the country observed some native Aussie animals such as the kookaburra, which were in abundance in the backyard. Their call is very distinctive and sounds similar to a laugh, almost hyena-like, and I recall something from my childhood where I learned a song about it. A line kept running in my head and then someone sang it briefly so I know I'm not crazy. Also drove by a field of kangaroos! The roads there have kangaroo crossing signs not unlike we have deer crossing signage. All of this was very exhilarating for me and resulted in a lot of picture-taking but not so much for the natives. Paul's brother equated it to them getting excited seeing squirrels (which don't exist in Oz) when they were in the states. A valid and understandable comparison.
The next day we went to Paul's grandfather's house in a more rural area of Victoria north of the city. Here we had a seafood lunch and I found myself indulging in a few more prawns than I would normally back home. Wonder if there's something different about seafood here that is making my taste bud palate do a 180. Will have to conduct further experiments in to this sudden change. While out in the country observed some native Aussie animals such as the kookaburra, which were in abundance in the backyard. Their call is very distinctive and sounds similar to a laugh, almost hyena-like, and I recall something from my childhood where I learned a song about it. A line kept running in my head and then someone sang it briefly so I know I'm not crazy. Also drove by a field of kangaroos! The roads there have kangaroo crossing signs not unlike we have deer crossing signage. All of this was very exhilarating for me and resulted in a lot of picture-taking but not so much for the natives. Paul's brother equated it to them getting excited seeing squirrels (which don't exist in Oz) when they were in the states. A valid and understandable comparison.