How to speak Australian - part 2

Aus - sounds like Oz, short for Australia

Aussie - sounds like Ozzie, short for Australian

hossie - pronounced hah-zie, short for hospital

ute - pickup truck

lolly - a sweet or candy, could be a chocolate bar or a gummy candy or anything other snack-sized sweet

jelly - jello

Aussie rules - soccer similar American soccer, but with different rules, in case talking about ball sports wasn't confusing enough

net ball - looks deceptively like a basket ball court, but don't be fooled, you're not allowed to bounce the ball in this game

bum bag - fanny pack, if you are still willing to walk around wearing a fanny pack, never, ever, refer to it as such.

fanny - it's not the part of the human anatomy that you think it is.

bar (ie. a bar of music)- measure, don't use measure, no one will know what you're talking about

quaver - eighth note

crochet - pronounced the way it looks, not the fancy French way. This is a quarter note

minum - half note

semibreve - whole note

Sydney - Day 1

I got to visit Sydney the second week of break. Unfortunately, it rained most of the week. Fortunately, there are a lot of things that you can do inside in Sydney.

I arrived late in the evening on Monday and climbed a massive number of stairs while lugging my suitcase. Having not gotten my bearings, I went to the pizza place next door for dinner, which, luckily, was delicious and ended the night with a movie.

Here is a picture of the hostel from when I arrived:

Here are some views from the balcony outside my room:

some nearby buildings

the Sydney Opera House

the Harbour Bridge

As you can tell, I was right there in the center of things. I did get better at taking night photos later on.

Sound the alarm

This is what wakes me every morning:

And this is what it sounds like:

Only longer and louder and more of them. The first morning when I woke up, I thought that it was an alarm going off to wake up all of the boarders. These birds are everywhere. They kind of remind me of squirrels on the Mall in Washington DC, creepily acclimatized to people. Think Children of the Corn with wings and you're on the right track.