Seasons, slang and patatra

Lovely spring evening in Perth. The days are getting longer and warmer. It makes me happy but nostalgic a bit. It reminds me the feeling I had back home in Quebec years ago already when the spring would finally arrive after the long and cold winter; when the snow was gone and the air was starting to smell good, the birds would sing and the patios would open for a few hours on nice days. I miss the seasons! I guess that no matter where you are and no matter how many times you have done that before there is indubitably a moment where you feel home sick. And to had to it, I found in my boxes all the episodes from 'Les hauts et les bas de Sophie Paquin" a great Quebecois TV show filmed in Montreal... Cath, it makes me think of you especially!

I love my job here, much more than I did back in Canada. I'm more challenged and I see a lot of amazing options in front of me. For the first time in my life I made a decision to move somewhere for work. I moved here to get to learn the tools I need to learn to get where I want in life, job wise. Now that I'm here, loving my work, I am missing my friends and family on the other side of the world, and the ones I made in Malawi too. I know you make a life everywhere, that it eventually happens, but finding friends, real good and close friends takes a while. So value the ones you have around for me. I am starting to get there slowly. I found activities and great people to do them with.I got back into playing soccer, rugby and volleyball. But I miss my girls (you know who you are, where ever that is you are). I miss snowboarding a lot too and with your winter coming soon, I can't help but dream of snow. Maybe I'll go to Japan or New Zealand to hit the slopes at some point, but it won't be the West Coast.

Western Australia is a nice place to live. I miss my friends, the season and snowboarding but don't get me wrong, I love my life here!

To end this post on a fun note, here are a few fun facts and expressions I have learn and came to love:

Afternoon : Arvo
Gas station : Servo
Tank top : Singlet
Toilets : Donies
Accommodation : Donger (go figure how this is spelled)
Paved road : Seal road or tarmac
Side walk : Footpath
Ute : Pickup truck

The use of the words 'mate' and 'I reckon' is overly frequent and it makes me smile. I am definitely trying to incorporate all of the above in my day to day vocabulary.

The national sport here is Footy, a mix between many violent sport like american football and rugby. It's played without protective gear on a huge cricket oval. I'm not sure I get the rules yet, but Australians are crazy about it. Ahh, I still enjoy watching it as the players are wearing tight shorts and they are quite athletic! I went to a game with Anne-Marie and a few other friends from work, a laboratory we use gave us tickets.

A pint of beer in most pubs in Perth and its suburbs is 10 Australian Dollars. A burger with no fries is about 20. A cheap plastic water bottle is 10-20. A coffee, 4 or 5. Life is much more expensive here in general, but our salaries are too, although be aware if you plan a visit! Petrol is between 1.37 and 1.50 $/L. And a hair cut is ridiculously pricey... I learnt that after I had my hair cut obviously, so I will go back to having long hair. Normal grocery stuff have similar prices though, so if you want to save and not be too offended by the prices you have to cook, invite friends home or go drink on the beach and make yourself lunches. Wine, from Australia or New Zealand is not so bad, but don't plan on buying a nice Riesling D'Alsace cause you can expect to pay 50 dollars for it... I started drinking Chardonnays from Margaret River instead! And I must say they are growing on me.

Driving on the other side of the road is starting to feel normal. I quite enjoy it actually. I had an off road/4WD training in the bush the other day cause I'm heading to site shortly and the client is requiring this, but it was quite awesome. I'm surely getting better at driving manual.
Drivers here are terrible though. They are not really looking around them or if they see you as a pedestrian or a bike, they make sure to cut your way or get in side of you as close as they can form the footpath to prevent you from passing on the road. When you are driving with them it's actually not better. They can't merge properly and they are super aggressive in their driving. Many streets don't have stop signs, so they are optional, or so it seems! Although they are really quite organised in their round-abouts.
There are so many car-pickups (remember 'ute')here, it is ridiculous...very boggan (or BS in French).


The kangaroos are effectively everywhere as soon as you get out of the city, but a lot of the ones you get to see have been hit by cars and left on the side of the road ;0(. They are very cute and kind of weird: a mix between a dear and a rabbit.

All right, enough for now.

Cheers,
Ge