Marathon Symposium
Thursday means architecture! And this week, that meant eight straight hours of a symposium about urban development in Sydney. While some of the speakers were interesting, the lack of adherence to the schedule, a few overzealous speakers, a 100 year old lecture hall with quite possible the most uncomfortable seats ever, and the sheer amount of time the day took seemed to wipe everyone out by the end of it all.
I did befriend a few people around me, so I can call it a mildly productive day nonetheless. I did get to enjoy a quick (late) lunch with a few of my new acquaintances at one of the dozens of cafes scattered around the campus. I had a delicious chilli (yes, spelt with two 'l's...) chicken sandwich with sun dried tomatoes and cucumbers on focaccia, giving me the strength to make it through the last few hours of the lecture.
This evening I made dinner, coincidentally chilli chicken with veg, and we had a nice evening sitting around the tiny tv Hannah's parents brought down with them. Their news here is entertaining, showing a lot of highlights of the heated debates (and namecalling) that occurs in their legislature. At one point the Prime Minister was yelling at someone and then another Minister got ejected for calling someone a name (stupid-face, I think). While American politics can be entertaining, it seems Australian is a three ring circus which plays out on tv!
The forecast for tomorrow and the weekend is looking a bit bleak - hopefully I can make some plans around the weather!
While I don't have words for you today, I do have some fun Aussie phrases that I find a bit entertaining.
Phrase of the day 1: ______ as (eg: "cool as")
Usage: "as" can be affixed to seemingly any adjective to intensify its meaning. If something is really cool, it is "cool as" - if something is really great, it is "great as". Get it?
Phrase of the day 2: How are you going?
Usage: A standard greeting, I still find myself answering I am "doing" well. They just don't use that here, for some reason. They will ask "What's doing?" (remember my word of the day a while back, sdoon?), but when it comes to How you are doing, it is how you are going to the Aussies.
I lied, I guess there is a word of the day...
Word of the day 1: inverted commas
Usage: quotation marks. Which is really quite silly if you ask me - quotes are hardly inverted commas, but rather just elevated. I suppose you could say that if reflected across the center line of any given line of text they might be inverted, but that is assuming you are using a sans serif font... So I am sticking with my handy American "quotes." (also, they seem to defy all rules of written English - they would have put the period after the "quotes".)
Also, just for fun: Aussies pronounce the letter "z" as "zed"
I did befriend a few people around me, so I can call it a mildly productive day nonetheless. I did get to enjoy a quick (late) lunch with a few of my new acquaintances at one of the dozens of cafes scattered around the campus. I had a delicious chilli (yes, spelt with two 'l's...) chicken sandwich with sun dried tomatoes and cucumbers on focaccia, giving me the strength to make it through the last few hours of the lecture.
This evening I made dinner, coincidentally chilli chicken with veg, and we had a nice evening sitting around the tiny tv Hannah's parents brought down with them. Their news here is entertaining, showing a lot of highlights of the heated debates (and namecalling) that occurs in their legislature. At one point the Prime Minister was yelling at someone and then another Minister got ejected for calling someone a name (stupid-face, I think). While American politics can be entertaining, it seems Australian is a three ring circus which plays out on tv!
.JPG) |
| The leftovers of our dinner. |
While I don't have words for you today, I do have some fun Aussie phrases that I find a bit entertaining.
Phrase of the day 1: ______ as (eg: "cool as")
Usage: "as" can be affixed to seemingly any adjective to intensify its meaning. If something is really cool, it is "cool as" - if something is really great, it is "great as". Get it?
Phrase of the day 2: How are you going?
Usage: A standard greeting, I still find myself answering I am "doing" well. They just don't use that here, for some reason. They will ask "What's doing?" (remember my word of the day a while back, sdoon?), but when it comes to How you are doing, it is how you are going to the Aussies.
I lied, I guess there is a word of the day...
Word of the day 1: inverted commas
Usage: quotation marks. Which is really quite silly if you ask me - quotes are hardly inverted commas, but rather just elevated. I suppose you could say that if reflected across the center line of any given line of text they might be inverted, but that is assuming you are using a sans serif font... So I am sticking with my handy American "quotes." (also, they seem to defy all rules of written English - they would have put the period after the "quotes".)
Also, just for fun: Aussies pronounce the letter "z" as "zed"
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