22 months and still strange...

We're coming up on two years in Sydney. Most of the time, Sydney feels like home. We have got the public transportation system down, we have some circles of friends, and things like going to the grocery store or driving aren't scary adventures anymore.

But every little bit, something will happen that reminds us that we are still living in a strange place. This past week was a good example, with three separate incidents that left me scratching my head. Usually these incidents stem from Aussie slang, which is often impossible to decipher, even if it's in context. This week was no exception.

First was running into some people from work while I was out at the markets. I started chatting to a friend and asked him what he was up to. He said "We've been out op shopping at the Salvos at Tempe." Now, if I'd seen that written down, I probably could have interpreted it. But having it come out in a fast, accented stream during the conversation, I was absolutely baffled. It made me feel stupid, but I asked him to repeat what he'd said more slowly so I could understand (something that I have to do occasionally, even though everyone is speaking English). After a couple of exchanges, I understood that he'd been to the suburb Tempe, where he'd gone to the Salvation Army for secondhand shopping (op shopping). Not such a leap once you know, but hard to catch on the first go!

The other slang-related incident happened at a meeting at work. We were discussing some issue that had come up, and one of the Aussie born and bred attendees said "Well that sounds like a bit of a furphy." Since about half of the people in the office are expats, there were enough puzzled faces that he looked up the wikipedia entry to explain what he meant. It turns out that "furphy" means an erroneous or not-quite-right statement. It comes from the name that was written on water carts that were pulled out to soldiers in Australia during World War I. The soldiers would gather around them and share gossip - which often turned out to be incorrect - and hence the word "furphy" came about. How obscure is that!? We non-Australians really don't stand a chance!

The last thing that happened this week was learning to boil water in an electric water kettle. The hot water tap near my desk is temporarily out, and since Australians really can't be expected to work without their tea, they've replaced it with a temporary water kettle that plugs into the wall. Having never seen or used such a contraption, I got one of my Aussie co-workers to walk me through how it works (basically you fill it up like an iron and then push a button) and the common courtesy for using it (you look around for other tea drinkers and add additional water based on how many don't already have tea). He found it pretty humorous that an American didn't understand such a basic societal behavior. But he was nice in instructing me. And it's one more thing about living here that I am mastering!