Hey guys,
As I’ve been saying, I’ll update my blog more regularly once I get an easy internet connection. Currently, I’m just working out of labs, which are only open during the day… which is when I want to be exploring places.
But I know you guys are probably wondering what’s up, so I’ll give you a quick update. First- how this blog will work. I’m going to be writing up blog posts from when I was on my roundtheworld trip which I sort of wrote in my notebook, which are going to be pretty dated. (The most amusing ones are reflections on US politics, like my prediction that the Democrats were going to go after Palin’s squeaky clean image, and that those attacks weren’t going to have any effect… boy was I wrong about that). But I’ll also post blogs about what I’m currently doing… having a blog that’s constantly 2 months behind is a tad odd. And I might post the occasional stray thought, who knows.
Ok, an update on my situation: I arrived in SD on Sept 9, but my college wasn’t open, so I caught a plane up to the Silicon Valley where I lived for a few days before my uncle drove me down to SD. We went via Yosemite National Park, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. I arrived Sept 17th, and have been wasting large amounts of money furnishing my room. Like $60 in Ikea, then $80 at Target, $70 at Marshals plus food etc. Wow. And $100 for my phone plan. Insane. Also been catching up with the other I-House guys/gals. They’re all great- my theory is that exchange students are the types of people who create their own opportunities so they’re a really interesting bunch of people. I tend to avoid overviews of exactly what I did in this blog (its sorta dull), but I think in this case it brings a sense of perspective to what I’ve been doing.
So now to actual experiences… the most amazing thing is the incredible similarities and the incredible differences between Syd/SD. The climate here is exactly the same as Sydney. They have beaches, they have sand and wind. The campus is covered in gum trees, and they even have that slightly burnt feel to them that our forests have after bushfires. Its ridiculous really how similar they are.
The biggest difference hasnt been culture like I expected, but rather language. I expected culture to be very different, but you know aside from a few curiosities (like the tipping habits), its the same. And language I expected there to be a few curiosities (like removing the i from aluminium) but no actual, substantive differences which would inhibit communication. But there are. Some range from the minor, like me saying “ok, I’ll prank you, hang on” (prank just means prank calls, not what it also means in Australia), or saying peppers instead of capsicum at Subway. But then I discovered I don’t speak English very well.
I went shopping for a blanket (not supplied) and mysteriously I had no clue what to do. I spent ages looking for a “single” size blanket, and couldnt find one. There was nothing in a single size- only “twin”, “full” queen, king and cal king. So eventually, I converted the inches into cms and got a twin. But blankets… they have no such word. There were comforters, which look a bit like thicker bedspreads, like you get in hotels. There were bedsheets. No blankets per se.
The reason is Americans don’t use blankets. They have bedsheets, then a comforter on top which is icky cause you can’t wash the comforter and you’re obviously going to touch it whilst you sleep (ignore whatever innuendos your disgusting undergraduate minds come up with). Its barbaric what they do. As you guys know, in Australia, we wrap our blankets up in a sheet like a pillowcase. But what is that called. It was then I realised I had no idea. Its really seldom that I don’t know a word for an entire field of stuff. My vocabulary makes Zeus quiver on his golden throne. But I dont know any of these words, and the blankets are all wrapped up so I can’t open them and see what they are. There was this massive translation gap that I just could not bridge without slowly interrogating one of the staff members at a different store. Its because I never had any need for these words before so I never learnt them. Mum always bought them, and referred to them in Chinese, so I never had any problems. So there you have it, I can’t speak English. I cant speak any other languages either, so I guess I’m adrift withot a home
In the end, it took an hour for me to buy anything. I ended up paying $50 for comforter covers at Linen N Things (the expensive place) because Marshals or Ross didnn’t have them. Ridiculous. I’ll probably go to Macys to see if they have it there, and if they do I’ll just return it to Linen N Things.
