Aussie Slang

I have been making a list of australian slang terms and what they mean in english. for your amusement (and because i really can't be bothered to start writing papers that are due in over 2 weeks), here's what i have so far:


australian..................................american
in hospital..................................in the hospital
mum and dad..................................my mom and dad
tea..................................dinner
arvo..................................afternoon
goon..................................boxed wine
get pissed..................................get drunk
brekkie..................................breakfast
poo..................................poop
ta..................................thanks
tomato sauce aka dead horse (because apparently that rhymes)..................................ketchup
crook..................................sick
bin..................................trash can
to chunder/spew/yack/munt..................................to throw up
no worries..................................it's okay/you're welcome

they also pronounce some words differently. here are some of my favorites
australian pronunciation..................................american pronunciation
tom-ahh-to..................................tom-ay-to (tomato)
a-dii-das..................................a-dee-das (adidas)
nike..................................nike-eee (nike)
p-uuu-ma..................................p-oo-ma (puma)
aluminium..................................aluminum (they even spell it differently)


sara

even though i consider myself technically savvy, i can't figure out how to rotate this picture. sorry. the BRA (Burwood Residences & Associates) Ball was on Wednesday night and it was tons of fun. it was just like prom, but better!
better because 1. there were drinks, 2. i am in australia (still hard to believe, i know), 3. i wore a dress totally out of the ordinary (at least for me!

it was totally an 'adult' evening. everyone was dressed up and looking super fancy. as people were arriving, we were being served fancy little appetizers and drinks (vodka orange, vodka rasp, bourbon and coke, champagne [ooh la la], and beer). the main room was then opened up and we all sat at our assigned tables. i sat with roommates megan (pictured above), phoebe, jacqui, next-door neighbor jane, jacqui's friends jacqui jen and alice, phoebe's friend megan, and a couple other girls i hadn't met before but were very nice. we danced and danced and danced, then ate a nice dinner of steak (or) chicken (i had the steak), danced some more, then had a nice dessert (chocolate tart, ice cream and raspberry puree).


i received a very nice present from my parents in the mail for Rosh Hashana. It was the first thing I have gotten in the mail during my 2 months here and, needless to say, i was very excited to receive it. Inside the beautiful box (pictured to the left) was:

• peanut brittle
• chocolate covered macadamia nuts
• chocolate covered coffee beans
• belgian chocolate shells
• nougats
• white chocolate covered popcorn (which is surprisingly very tasty)
• macadamia crunch (which is basically caramel covered popcorn)
• chocolate chocolate chip cookies
• milk chocolate
• strawberry yogurt butter cookies
• macadamia butter shortbread bites, and finally....
• lindt milk chocolate truffles (my favorites!)

since receiving the box of sweets on tuesday, my roommates and i have shared the peanut brittle, white chocolate covered popcorn, nougats, chocolate covered macadamia nuts and chocolate covered coffee beans. tonight i am going to a barbie and i will bring the strawberry yogurt butter cookies and macadamia butter shortbread bites for dessert. i will not share the lindt chocolates with anyone.


tonight's barbie will be followed by watching the footy game on tv. we're in the second round of finals and the collingwood magpies are playing the west coast eagles. collingwood is the team i support since i got to see some of the players up close and personal.

the past couple of weeks have been full of schoolwork. i have written a 2000 word essay on whether cognitive therapy is an effacious treatment for depression (it is), a 1500 word essay on the social and economic importance of australian rules football based on my experiences, and a 500 word essay on australia's multicultural policy in conjunction with a presentation on the topic. i have a 600-700 word assignment due on monday that will outline my final paper for my reading children's literature class. that's the work i should be doing now, but instead i am using my blog as a productive tool for procrastination.


as i mentioned before, if i liked the essay i wrote about the AFL i would post it here. well, i don't hate it so here it is. if you want to see my list of references i will be happy to provide them:


Australia is a country that is well known for its enthusiasm for sport. Therefore it is no surprise that Australian Rules football, a sport that is unique to Australia, has a significant impact on Australian society (Alomes & Jones 1994). Families flock to the games, which take place every weekend during the regular season. My experience at an AFL football match has given me insight on the social and economic importance of the game.
The truth of the matter is that I have been to two footy games. The first game was an afternoon match between St. Kilda and Fremantle and the second was an evening game between Collingwood and Sydney. Having experienced the huge amounts of children and their families at the early afternoon game, I expected a more adult-oriented crowd when I went to the evening game. This was not the case at all as children were almost as highly represented as adults at the evening game. This surprised me since the game lasted until almost ten in the evening. The fact that parents take their children to AFL games that most likely occur past their normal bedtimes is a sign of the value of tradition and family bonding that is an integral part of the experience of a footy game.
The feeling of family at the footy game was ever-present. Not only were there families with small children, there were older family units with their adult children. What stood out to me even more than this was how spectators addressed the players. In America, we call our football players by either their last name (“What are you doing McNabb?”), or their numbers (“Come on number 5!”). As a foreigner trying to follow the game and who’s who on the oval, the use of nicknames confused me. Spectators yell out to players using names that I assume come from the fans, such as Pebbles and Bucks. When I finally caught on to the game and started yelling out these nicknames myself, I felt an immediate connection to the players and even more so to the fan base.
The halftime ‘show’, unlike the extravagant programs in the United States, consisted of children playing footy on the oval for the entirety of the mid-game hiatus. The kids, from ages five to twelve, were participating in the Nab AFL Auskick program, a program focused on teaching young children the skills they need to play footy (Australian Football League 2007). In comparing the AFL’s halftime events to those that are familiar to me in the United States, it is clear that the values of the AFL and the sport of Australian Rules football are geared towards their youth and not just the entertainment importance of the game. I am sure that the enthusiasm of the children during their twenty minutes of play on the footy oval was sure to make them, if they weren’t headed in that direction already, avid fans of footy for life. In my opinion, the implications of these programs for school-aged children are significant as the proliferation of the game into the future is of utmost importance. In addition, children’s views of footy players as role models aid in the economic benefits of the game, seeing that players endorse certain projects
One of the first things I noticed at the start of the game was that the Australian national anthem was not sung. In the United States, this is a customary practice and it is often an honor to sing the national anthem at a sporting event. What was sung, to my surprise, were the clubs’ songs. Both clubs’ songs were performed before the game and the winning teams’ club song was performed after the game, and repeated an indefinite number of times. It seemed to me that the club songs were the major factor that unified the fans from each side, who were scattered throughout the stadium. At both games I went to, I spotted every age group, from young children to old men and women, singing along to their clubs’ ‘fight song’. The singing of clubs’ ‘fight songs’ is an important social aspect of Australian Rules football.
One of my footy experiences was on an excursion with Deakin’s Study Abroad Club. The heads of the club obtained and distributed many copies of an activity book designed for school-aged children concerning the multicultural nature of the AFL. Players Brazilian Heritier O’Brien, Polish David Wojcinski, and Italian Daniel Giansiracusa, to name a few, were featured to put an emphasis on the international diversity of the Australian Football League. The diversity within each and every club has served to attract more of Australia’s culturally diverse international public (Alomes & Jones 1994). Having learned about Australia’s multicultural policies in class, I noted that the football clubs, in a way, mirrored the principles of Australian multicultural society in today’s ‘global era’ of sport (Alomes). Individuals, some from different cultures and countries around the world, worked together on a team and shared a common goal.
Both of my experiences at footy games have given me many opportunities to spend my money. Whether it be an overpriced (but delicious) meat pie, a Collingwood scarf, a face painting, betting on the outcome of the game, or drinks at one of many bars throughout the MCG and Telstra Dome, going to a footy game can be financially demanding. I haven’t been in Australia for very long, but I have seen it all when it comes to fans dressing up for the footy. According to Sport and Recreation Victoria, Victorians are Australia’s most avid sports fans (1997). Being among sports-crazed Victorians, I was tempted to jump on the bandwagon and buy a mass amount of articles of clothing with a club’s insignia. I did not purchase random memorabilia at either footy game since, as an international student, I do not have a team to support. This logic conflicts with that of locals, who support football clubs for the entirety of their lives and pass their love for the sport down into future generations (Murray 1998). This undoubtedly guarantees the future success of Australian Rules football in not only the proliferation of the game itself, but of its economic benefits from merchandising. Even though as an international student without ties to any particular team, I plan on buying Collingwood gear to wear around Melbourne and, more importantly, at home amongst the gridiron fans.
Australian Rules football has a great importance on the economy of not only Victoria, but also Australia as a whole. The large amounts of jobs provided accept all skill levels. Jobs range from servers at food stands to commercial lawyers for the entire corporation, from part time and volunteer to full time positions. Another economic aspect of Australian Rules football is that sport is the most sponsored activity in Australia, receiving more monetary income than any other cultural activity from a wide range of sponsors (Australian Bureau of Statistics 1999). Sponsorship of football not only benefits the AFL but also benefits the sponsoring company by providing it with a wide market of potential customers to advertise in.
It is safe to say that even before stepping into Telstra Dome and the MCG, I have experienced the marvel that is Australian Rules football. Through vast media coverage of the AFL in television, radio, newspaper, magazines and more, the sport has certainly made its way into the daily lives of most people living in Australia (‘AFL and the Media’ 2002). Independent of socioeconomic statuses, anyone interested can experience the footy through one of the many media outlets that the AFL belongs to.
All in all, Australian Rules football has a significant impact on Australian society. Socially, footy brings a diverse group of people together to support a common end and is also an activity the entire family can enjoy. Economically, media sponsorships not only support the Australian Football League but also aids in making the game more popular. In the same vain, footy provides sport enthusiasts with many opportunities to purchase merchandise. My experiences at an AFL football game have been very special and I look forward to following the sport in the future.

a lucky week in the lucky country

hello! as the weather gets nicer, the work load increases! don't you just hate it when that happens?

this week was my lucky week. it started last wednesday night and i believe it will end tonight (wednesday night). i don't want to press my luck, the universe doesn't like people who are greedy.
so last week i went to einstein's (the campus bar where everyone goes on wednesdays) where they were having a raffle for various prizes from a ski resort. prizes ranged from ski goggles to lift tickets and the best prize, a snowboard. well, i won the snowboard! i wasn't paying attention and didn't claim it, so they ended up picking another name. when someone told me i won, i didn't believe them but then i started walking around and people kept saying, "SARA!! where WERE you?!" i found the whole thing hilarious. i ended up having a really good night and i am still laughing about that snowboard.
after big wednesday nights out, people usually drag themselves back to res and go to sleep. i am not one of those people, i like to continue to hang out, hear stories from the night, and let my energy slowly fade. the past couple of weeks post-einey's i have gone to my next door neighbor's unit and sat around with them. they invited me to go to the Hard Rock Cafe (one of them works there) and then the Crown Casino on friday night for some dinner and gambling. At the casino, I won $10 from the 2cent slot machines (mom would be so proud!) and i turned $6 into $37.50 at the craps table. I probably came out about even in the end, after I lost $20 on more slot machines and spent money on the taxi home.
My luck continued on saturday night, which was a Study Abroad Club outing to the footy game- Collingwood Magpies vs. Sydney Swans. Australian Rules Football is unique to australia- i'm writing an assignment about the importance of the game, if i'm happy with it i might post it on here. the game was SO much fun, my friends and i got really into it and, since it was our second game, we knew more of what was going on than some of the other internationals. one of the australian girls who organized the outing had connections and we went to visit the players after the game!! we walked for what seemed like forever, and we finally made it under the Melbourne Cricket Ground (the MCG- a footy and cricket arena) and waited around as players came out of the locker rooms and left. A couple australians who were with us at the game filled us in on the players we were meeting- some big names in the AFL! This guy is Dale Thomas, a 19-year-old player who is a huge star for Collingwood. I won't bore you with more pictures of australian football players.

We had a formal 2 weeks ago. Dinner was at a golf club down the street from res. it was a really good night. here's a picture of me and roomies all dressed up. from left: jacqui, emma, alyce, me, megan.













hope all is well with whoever's tuning in. lots of love,
sara

i'm alive!

i am truly sorry for how long it has taken me to write another post. days turn into weeks...and all that good stuff.
let's get to whats going on in my life;

• went to phillip island yesterday and saw the smallest penguins in the world... even though it was raining, umbrellas were blocking the view, and we were rushed- it was good. i also got to feed kangaroos and talked to a bird!
• this week i had dinner with the greenbergs (my aunt mary's friends). they welcomed me into their home (and their family) and i really had a wonderful time with them.
• my friends- jesse (pronounced 'jess') and franci (pronounced 'frankie') and i are planning what we're going to do for spring break (which is september 21-30). at first we thought new zealand- too expensive and without a car it would be a hassle. then we thought Sydney and Brisbane- too expensive. Then Sydney and Gold Coast- also too expensive. So now we're thinking about just doing Sydney and doing it RIGHT. What that means, i'm not sure.

franci is to the left, jesse is to the right

• This wednesday night is the Burwood Student Village Formal Dinner! This means i get to dress up with all of the ressies, have a 2 course meal at some golf club, then be chauffeured to the after party. I am VERY excited, especially because am now the owner of a very cute (and inexpensive) dress!
• every other week of the semester, 2 people from my unit pair off and cook dinner for each other. my roommate megan and i are cooking this week (on tuesday)! we're going to make a stir fry, vegetable fried rice, and MY KEY LIME PIE for dessert!!!
• I've had to watch Robots and Fern Gully for my Reading Children's Lit class- during the rest of the semester i'll watch the lion king and mulan!
• went to st. kilda region of melbourne, enjoyed an aussie burger (with bacon, an egg, lettuce, tomato), enjoyed a mocha in one of the awesomely trendy coffee shops, and posed for a picture in front of the famous entrance for Luna Park (melbourne's amusement park)
  

here is my schedule...
monday 9:30-12:30- Studio Art: Painting and Drawing
tuesday: 2-4-Reading Children's Lit
wednesday: 11-12- Australia Today Tutorial; 12-1- Australia Today Lecture; 2-4- Psychopathology
thursday: 1-2- Psychopathology Tutorial

Tutorials are the same things as recitations... smaller groups that review or put into practice what was talked about in lecture.



I can't think of anything else right now... what i'd really like to know (if i don't already...cough.parents.cough) is whats going on in your life?

hey everyone,
sorry its been so long since the last post, sometimes i can be a huge slacker (gasp!).

some stuff has happened since last week...
i got sick. i got better.
i had my first day of class.
i went on a party bus to a pub and had a wonderful night with my roommate, meg, and other friends from Res (student residences, the on-campus housing for deakin).
i made key lime pie for my roommates. none of the aussies had ever heard of it, but they all loved it!
i hung out some more with my 'pommy' (=british) friend franci.
i made some friends in my art class.
during art class we went outside to Gardiner's Creek Park to draw landscape. I saw 3 dogs jump into the creek to cool themselves off and continue walking with their masters.
i wear skinny jeans and (knockoff) chuck taylors (gasp!)... together!! i am such an aussie wannabe
i watched my first few episodes of Neighbors (famous aussie nighttime drama) AND went to ramsey street to see the actual houses that are on the show! (it's very close to campus)
i experienced harry potter mania from this side of the world


now, i would like you to meet my suitemates...
phoebe was the first roomie i met. she is so friendly and energetic. we like the same music. last night we went to trivia night at the rec room and our team lost badly. she loves harry potter and even woke up early on saturday just to get the book. she is a law student.
tom was the second roomie i met. he lives downstairs and isn't around much, so i don't know too much about him. i think he's an exercise science student.
cruicky is a footballer and gets paid to play, so he isnt around on weekends. he is really funny and also very nice, in a big-brother-who-teases sort of way. he has a car and has taken me to run errands and took phoebe and i to see the Neighbors street. he's studying to be a PE teacher.
meg is also into exercise science. she works as an aerobics instructor and has offered to give me a free pass to one of her classes- which i am definitely going to do. she likes country music and cooking soup. she also has a car and has taken me places. we're both dressing up as 'gangstas' for our unit lock-in tonight (basically, we all get together by unit [i'm in grevillea 3, there are 4 grevillea units so the 10 people from each unit will be in one unit together] and dress up as something that starts with the first letter of our unit [all of res is doing this]. then we will all drink and go to einstein's, the bar on campus).
jacqui is also exercise science. she is really nice, i'm still getting to know her though. she is dealing with a massive breakup and we've talked about that stuff. i like that she feels as if she can trust me and ask for advice (since i've been there), and i sort of feel like we've bonded over that. she's leaving today to go back home for her sister's wedding- jacqui's the youngest of 6!
scott also lives downstairs and is an exercise science student. he is dressing up as Gandalf (from lord of the rings) tonight for the lock-in! he is a nice guy, and even nicer for bringing all of his guy friends over to cook dinner during the week!
emma is a country girl. she lives on a farm with something like 30 acres, tons of cows and sheep, and 10 or so cats and dogs! she is very friendly, and always smiles. she's a nutrition and health student and wants to be involved in product development for a company like Kraft to make foods healthier. she works at einsteins, the bar/restaurant on campus. she also has a car and has given me rides.
alyse (pronounced 'elise') and i share first names and middle names. i'm sara elise and she's alyse sarah! she is a health/nutrition student and is very health-conscious. she goes to sleep early and leaves on the weekends to be with her boyfriend at home.
stan is my fellow american in the house. he's from a party school in california and acts like it. he's goofy and likes sports. we're taking Australia Today together and sharing the study guide/readings. good guy, sometimes a bit too goofy (but he knows that).

those are my roomies! everyone but tom and scott shares the toilets and showers upstairs, and we all share the kitchen and refrigerators.

hope you enjoyed this post as much as i did!
xoxo sara

my digs

if anyone wants to send me things, this is my address:
Sara Zachmann
Room Gr303
Grevillea
Student Village
Deakin University
221 Burwood Highway
Burwood VIC 3125
Australia

my email address at deakin is szac@deakin.edu.au, but all mail received there is forwarded to my gmail account (which if you don't have, you should get so we can chat... hint hint padres). so if you're going to email me, do it at sarazachmann@gmail.com.

my cell phone # (from within australia) is 04 24 38 6292
and my room phone # is 03 927 8795

my skype name is sarazachmann but it hasnt been working lately since the internet here is so slow.

i've also tried to post pictures on picasa, but the internet has stalled me many'a'time but i still have some on there that you won't see here. the site is http://picasaweb.google.com/sarazachmann/AUSTRALIA


be patient with me, i'm trying to post as much as possible but i don't want to sit in my room on my computer for hours doing it. i will post, i just may give you highlights and not a play-by-play like my first post.

also... make comments! i want to see who's reading this and what you think about my travels!



anywho, this is where i'm living
i dont know why the picture is sideways, but that's my room


look ma! awesome closet space
communal bathroom- shared by 6 people (4 girls, 2 boys)
kick butt kitchen- shared by all 10 people in the unit... my fridge and freezer spaces are shared with 4 other people


dining table/living room with 3 suitemates- emma (the blonde), cruicky (his nickname, short for his last name), and meg (who you can't see cause she's on the couch)

outside area... yesterday it hailed and that hill looked like it was covered in snow

since i've been lacking in the updates, here are some highlights of my time in australia so far
-driving along the Great Ocean Road in a huge tour bus
-feeding cockatoos and parrots in Lorne
-being able to go to bars! (don't worry mom and papi, i'm a very responsible young lady)
-having a cafe latte in melbourne's Royal Arcade
-seeing a family of kangaroos hanging out in a family's garage
-not so much a highlight, but on the beach in Lorne i saw a dead penguin that must have come from Phillips Island
-checking out campus- which is AWESOME by the way. all of the buildings are architecturally super interesting and new
-meeting australians !!... yesterday, while enjoying my first meat pie, i met an aussie whose dog has a myspace! (www.myspace.com/sampson95)
-navigating the city on melbourne's great tram system.
-while in Lorne, taking a hike with other international students to Teddy's Lookout. Papi, you would have been so proud. (the guy on the far left is my suitemate, Stan)
-spending time in my unit with my suitemates Stan (california), and aussies Phoebe and Daniel (people call him Cruicky)... the other 6 will be coming back from vacation tomorrow (sunday)
-getting free stuff from deakin (so far ive gotten a bag and a water bottle)
-the 12 Apostles. Beautiful and a truly amazing sight.



Oz vs. US
-they are way more environmentally conscious here... maybe it's because they're in a huge drought right now but serious efforts are made to conserve water, electricity, and heat
-driving on the other side of the road. it freaks me out to see a kid in the front seat where i expect the driver to be sitting.
-portions and sizes! smalls here are pretty much the same as kiddie sizes in the states. its wild.
- greetings here are "g'day" and when someone says 'thanks' they say "no worries."
-people are much friendlier here. and papi, they wear lots of sunscreen.
-everyone has a dog!!
-you c
--they have hair straighteners avaliable in women's bathrooms!
-burger kings are called hungry jacks

Saturday July 7, 2007, 8:20 am

Today is my first official day in Melbourne. Yesterday was spent exploring with a girl named Brittany that I met at the airport who is also studying at Deakin this semester. Even though we were exhausted and it was cold and rainy outside, we decided to go downtown, a 35 minute tram ride away. We walked about 10-15 minutes through a residential area until we approached Wattle Park, an area with a bakery and a “milk bar” and a pharmacy and a salon and some other small restaurants. We got our tickets and got onto the tram- nothing special, except for the whole steering-wheel-on-the-other-side-of-the-tram thing.
About 15 minutes into our trek, an older man came over and asked Brittany why her foot was on the seat in front of her- something I could have easily done without realizing- and proceeded to give her a ticket. I asked the man nicely where on the tram it says that you will be given a fine if your foot is on the seat, and he told me the rules were clear, on their website. The man got off of the tram at the next stop and another man approached us saying “man, what an asshole.” We ended up talking to that guy, who was from Memphis and trying to stay in Australia to work and be with his 5-year-old son, for the rest of the ride into the city. He gave us various pointers on living and traveling around the city, like the way to remember the order of major streets in the city- King William, Queen Elizabeth Swanston- a way to remember that King Street is a block away from William Street which is a block away from Queen Street, you get the point. He also mentioned that laws around the city are based on common courtesy- like not putting your foot on the seat in front of you.
We arrived at Flinders Street station- one of two major train stations in Melbourne- lost and hungry. We found our way to Melbourne’s visitor center, which was right across the street, and got some maps and a good sense of what to expect from the city. Despite having received all sorts of information on where to eat, we wandered for about 25 minutes until we found ourselves in the Royal Arcade- a beautiful walkway between buildings with shops and high ceilings and two statues named Gog and Magog. We enjoyed lunch and a cafe latte in a prime people-watching location. After a long afternoon of wandering in and out of shops, we got onto a tram to go back to Wattle Park. The tram was packed and going smoothly until BAM! Everyone thought we just hit an orange cone until the tram driver stopped the tram and got out of it. It turns out a person was a little too close to the tram when it passed and got knocked out. Police cars and ambulances rushed to the scene. This incident caused the trams on the same route to stop for about 20 minutes. When the trams started working again, we got on another one and headed back home. What an eventful day!
Today I woke up around 4:30 am, read some magazines and snooped around the kitchen for some tea (which I found and drank outside). Brittany and I are planning to go to a supermarket and get some food so I don’t have to steal a tea from one of my suitemates again.