Another list

Here's a bit of information about myself: sometimes I hate not having smooth transitions. Other times...eh, not so much...but today is not one of those days. Therefore, I am once again using list form for today's blog.

1. Last Tuesday, the 22nd, Cameron Diaz was in Sydney for the premier of Shrek III. I just thought it was interesting to see an American celebrity on TV in another country and know she's only a few hours away. Now that I type it, it doesn't seem so exciting...

2. Exactly a week ago, the New South Wales (Blues) and Queensland (Maroons) rugby teams played in the State of Origin. It's almost as big of a deal as the Superbowl, but maybe not quite that. A few less jersies and chip plates.

Basically, it's called the State of Origin because it involves teams from different states and players are determined by the state they first played for. I figured that out all by myself...Alright fine, I read the first paragraph of the Wikipedia definition, hush.

3. Big Brother is a huge show over here. Of course there are those, like me, who could not possibly care any less, but in general, it's a big thing. The "Big Brother voice" creeps me out, too.

4. You know how you ask a cashier "Do you take cards?" meaning credit cards? Usually when I ask that, the response is "Excuse me?" Here, it's EFTPOS (pronounced just like that). If you ask someone what it stands for, no one knows or remembers, but it's Electronic Funds Transfer Point of Sale. That's a lot of words. I don't blame people for not knowing.

5. Last Thursday, I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean III. I was a little confused by the multiple Johnny Depps at first, but overall I liked it more than the second one. Have you ever seen a movie, thought it was decent and then see previews for it on TV and think, "Hey, yeah, that was pretty good. I wouldn't mind seeing it again"? Maybe not. Well, that's how I felt about it.

6. Last night, we had a dorm dinner. There were about 20 or so of us who went to Waratah Bar and Grille for a couple of hours and it was a lot of fun. I ate for $6 because I got the kids meal, which was plenty. I'm the only one who got a sucker with my meal. Some people got meals with prawns and they still had eyes. I touched one and took a picture. We also got to play pool and apparently my partner and I won, but I swear I thought we lost.

7. Thanks to the overload of criminal justice this semester, I've learned that "gaol" means jail. It's the British way, but everyone pronounces it like jail.

8. So in a little more than 5 weeks, I head home. I'm more excited about it now, but I'll still miss things here. It really doesn't feel like I've been here for 3 1/2 months. I will definitely want to come back.