Aussie aminals!: For the first time since I got here, I saw real, live Australian-only animals! Sure, I’ve seen some cockatoos flying on campus, and a pair of pretty lorikeets that live near the uni train stop, and lots of spiders and bugs, but on Saturday I saw koalas and wallabies and kangaroos, oh my! Sigrid and I spent Saturday seeing some of the Newcastle sights (more on that later). In the late afternoon, we went to the Blackbutt Reserve, a nature reserve in Newcastle. We saw a wombat butt (silly thing was turned around in his hole—I didn’t take a picture of it), some cute little wallabies, and then, my favorite Aussie animal, the koalas. I took lots and lots of pictures of them (only a few made it to the pbase website). They were actually awake and eating while we were there. I could have stood there watching them for hours.

Brutal heat at the Wetland Center: Sigrid and I went to the Wetland Center from about 10:30-noon. Not the best time of day to go, since it was 42 degrees Celsius (that’s 108 in Fahrenheit, or freakin’ hot!) at noon, but somehow we survived. You can tell from the pictures that we’re pretty overheated—check out the red faces! The area is rather nicely landscaped, with lots and lots of waterfowl. I enjoyed seeing everything, but I definitely got overheated, which was a main reason for lunch and shopping at…

Charlestown Square: Charlestown Square is the large mall south of Newcastle in Charlestown (go figure). When I say large, I really mean small by American standards. But then again (warning: digression ahead) everything is smaller in Australia than the US. Food is sold in grocery stores in smaller amounts with fewer preservatives. People buying smaller bottles of shampoo and cleaning products. Many of the cars are smaller, too. Portion sizes at restaurants are manageable, rather than super-humongous-biggie-sized (although you can still supersize a Value Meal). But I’ll return to my discussion of the large mall. Sadly enough, I was comforted by the presence of such common American retailers as Target and K-mart. Sigrid was happy to go with an American (she’s German), because I actually knew what stores would sell the things we wanted, at least of the American-based retailers, which were quite prevalent. I was very happy to sit in the air-conditioning out of the ludicrous heat.

Is that savings, checking or credit?: I swear, in the US I don’t remember retailers caring what type of bank account you were using, but when you hand over a credit/debit card, they ask if it’s credit, savings or checking. I don’t understand why it matters what type of debit card it is. Another interesting purchasing fact: the Australian Retailers Association (of which most stores are members, I think) has a policy that if something you buy gets rung up at a different price than the one posted, you get the first one of the item free and the rest of that item (e.g., if you’re buying a few boxes) for half-price. The stores here are also very particular about carrying bags because of a fear of shoplifting. I’ve been asked to open my small purse on occasion, to make sure I didn’t sneak anything into it.

More for the foodies out there: Milo: Another Aussie favorite, Milo is a chocolate powder made by Nestle, an energy drink with heaps of protein and carbohydrates. I bought a bottle of the premixed variety to give it a go. I think it’s a bit bitter, but not too bad. Milo is definitely not as sweet as hot chocolate. Elizabeth told me that the best part of using the powdered mix (just like a container of Quik) is the crunchy bits of Milo that don’t dissolve in but float on the top.

My first Mac attack: I had Macers (pronounced Mackers, known to us Americans as McDonald’s) Monday night after training. It was my first Macers trip since I got over here. I was craving the fries, as I often seem to do. They weren’t quite up to US standards (probably don’t use beef tallow on these), but they were still pretty tasty.

Off to a good dinner someplace other than Macers. -Michelle