A Day at the Zoo

It's so great to be with the Starkowskis. It's wonderful to have a family again, albeit just for the weekend. Like how Jola (pronounced Yo-la for you non-Polish folk) makes me breakfast and lunch and offers me everything. It's like I have a Mum again, which is wonderful because I was really missing being a daughter (I love ou Mum AND Jola). And Max, Peter, and Beata treat me like a sister, and I haven't seen them in forever except John and Max. Seriously, last time I saw Peter, he was three. Three!! Of John and Jola have been wonderful hosts, and I hope I've been a wonderful, gracious guest.

Last night after a great meal of chicken fajitas with homemade guacamole, we all had decided what we would do for the weekend. I watched The Boat That Rocked" with Maxuś, Piotr, and Beata. In the morning, we got to a late start since it was pouring!! I mean by the end of the day, the rivers were flooded because of all of the rain upstream, but luckily for us, the rain stopped in Melbourne around 10:30 am after everyone Skyped with me and Mum. After breakfast, the kids and I went to the zoo, which was AWESOME! Seriously, I love zoos, and this one was incredible and lush and had animals that I've never seen before in zoos. Please go on Facebook and look at the photos, since there are about 100 of them.

In the zoo, there was this really cool butterfly exhibit where thousands of butterflies flew around freely. They even landed on my head and hands as you can see from the photos. It was fun, we had a blast making fun of each others' accents. They were impressed on how much of the culture and lingo I've picked up, and I know that when I go back to the States everyone will think I'm a snob with my Australian words. Really, it's easier to pick up the lingo since it causes less confusion. For your pleasure, words, phrases, and Australian things I will sound silly saying or using in America because I've started incorporating them a lot: cheers (for thank you), mate, bloke, bogan, thongs (for flip-flops), swimmers/cossies (for bathing suit), bloody, uni (for college/university), temperature in Celsius (it's so much easier than Fahrenheit, the metric system, spelling things the Australian/British way, people understanding my British TV/film references, Milo, Tim-tams, muesli, fifty billion tea-time breaks during work, tea with obscene amounts of milk and sugar, the fact that swearing ridiculously is morally accepted as a fact of life, no corn syrup in ANYTHING!, fresh cage-free eggs (that are always found in the baking section of store and NOT in the fridge), flat white coffees!!! (and that all coffee is espresso-based), brolly (umbrella), ranger (for redhead/ginger; comes from the word "orangutan"), the fact that Australians create a nickname for everything or shorten every word, British/Aboriginal names of beaches, towns, and streets, brekky, seafood, prawn (for shrimp), G'day, potato wedges with sweet chili sauce and sour cream, finally getting down the hot chips vs. crisps thing down, fair dinkum, grouse, how cars, houses and other things aren't overly giant like they are in the States, "good on ya", how are you going? (instead of how are you doing?)everyone at my work!!!!, esky (instead of cooler),whinge, hi and people saying that I have a lovely accent. I'll probably have more later, but that's all I can think of for now.

Things I will not miss: hamburgers, beetroot, steak, reapplying SPF 30 every 45 minutes, jellyfish stings, evening rush hour in Sydney, people asking me if I'm from Canada (they get a lot of Canadians here), slow internet, forgetting that lemonade is actually lemon lime soda, calling peppers "capsicum", and the ridiculous (as in not good) cheese selection (tasty is not a flavour or type of cheese).

So after the zoo, we walked around for a bit to find the train station. Once we were there, we were downtown Melbourne. It was cloudy and about 19 degrees Celsius, which is really cold for summer. Everyone was cold, but once again, it was warm for me! I bought the kids some Starkbucks because their parents of course won't let me pay for anything, so I have to find ways to sneakily return their absolute hospitality and generosity. After that we hopped a tram to St. Patrick's Cathedral which is just massive (Oh, I'll miss the adjective massive, since they love that word here). We went to church today since tomorrow we have a big day of driving and visiting on the Great Ocean Road, which is supposed to beautiful. I might even see some penguins :D. After dinner, we all watched 30 Rock, but we're turning in early since tomorrow we have an early morning.

It's great to see the Starkowskis and see the kids' personalities again. Max is the Max I know and love; witty, cynical, fun, hilarious. Beata is a beautiful, free-spirited, outgoing, bouncy doll with a smile on her face, a song in her heart, and great comedic timing. Peter is so mature for his age. He's a fantastic drummer with a brilliant taste in music, and he's extremely outgoing. The family is so loud, loving, affectionate, and boisterous that I feel right at home. It reminds me how much I am missing my brothers and their silliness. It's awesome to have John around too. The look on his face when Jeffrey Skyped him my extremely messy room was such a priceless Dad face. I know my own Dad wants to take a trash bag to my room because it's that bad... lol. All in all, I'm having a wonderful time, and I don't want to leave Melbourne because I am adoring every minute.