How to Speak Australian

Aussie Lesson

I'm back in Bangkok or Bangers as the Aussies call it.  Is there nothing they won't abbreviate?  I learned a lot of Aussie lingo during the trip because I was roomming with Andrew Ross.  His family lives in Canberra and he went to Uni (University) there, but he doesn't say he's from there.  He grew up in some small towns in the state of New South Wales.  So now I can speak a little Australian. 

-G'day mate.

-How ya' goin' mate? 

-What's on the salvo? 

-Gonna drink a few frostys. 

-Fairdinkem!

-Hey, I gotta run to the dunny.

-Ok. Cheers mate.

Translation:

-Hey, man.

-What's up?

-What are you up to later?

-Gonna drink a few beers.

-True.  Right on! 

-Hey, I gotta go to the bathroom.

-Ok.  Later man.

By the way, don't tell an Aussie that you are rooting for a team.  I said my friends were rooting for Brisbon during the Australian Football Grand Final.  Rooting means having sex.  My friends were definitely spirited, but they were only cheering for their team.   Supposedly, Aussies and Americans speak the same language.

We met an Aussie expat in Hanoi.  He'd been there for four years and he'd been married to a Vietnamese lady for two.  Between him and Andrew I got I nice informal lesson while we were sitting on kindergarten chairs on a street corner buying drinks for about ten cents each.

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Traveling Problems

Most of you have probably seen the movie The Terminal.  I can't imagine being in the same situation, but I can relate to unforeseen problems at the airport.  I didn't get stranded, but if I had been traveling alone it could have been a different story.  I ran out of money.  More accurately I ran out of baht.  I had 170,000 Vietnamese dong which is about $11 US, but there was no place to exchange dong.  I had almost no baht in my Thailand account.  My paycheck hadn't cleared the bank yet.  I had been counting on that money to be there.  I had one traveler's check left, but I had mistakenly signed it already.  Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.  I should have changed some of my dong back to dollars at my hotel in Hanoi.  If I hadn't had friends with me then I would have had no way to pay for the taxi ride home.  But I was fortunate enough to be traveling with generous friends.  I've learned a lesson.

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Voting

I received my absentee ballot.  I'm looking into how to send it the quickest way.  I sent for it twice.  There might be a problem with my residency since I filed it differently the second time.  But I'm still in Texas so I should be able to vote.

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