Adventures of the Steedos: February 2012

I'm here in Brisbane Australia.

Its been a month since I arrived in the land of poisonous insects, dingos, kangaroos, kola's and driving on the left side of the road. Oh the adventures, ok well nothing too exciting, yet. The first time I got in a car, I tried to get in on the drivers side (passenger side in canada) and to my surprise I found a steering wheel, so I obliged the driver and went around to the other side. I felt a little awkward sitting on the left side but not driving, and going down the “other side” of the road. Then we hit an intersection, I about lost it, grabbing at the crash handles as my life flashed before my eyes. By the time I knew what was going on we were through the intersection without incident. I haven't repeated that skeptical, but I do feel edgy when going through intersections. I think that it will pass in time, I hope. Even passing people on the streets or stairs is throwing me off. I go right and so do they. It has ended in a few collisions and awkward moments.

Once I calmed my nerves from being in a new country and the overload of sensory information I began to make observations of my new environment. First off, the wildlife. There are these funny creatures called “blokes”. They come in many forms but the most prominent form is the one who wears short shorts (footie shorts), flip flops (thongs), jersey (singlet) and sunglasses (sunnies). There are also a few lizards. The really big ones are on campus and just hang around the lake, “Swamp Dragons” as they are known to the locals. Partially because they swim too. As I took the bridge over part of the pond I was surprised to see a turtle, then two and three, the number kept growing till there were about 10. I couldn't believe that they would swim up to people like that. I guess everyone feeds them or something. Then amongst the turtles there was what seemed to be a snake swimming, so maybe an eel. Well your guess is as good as mine, because I have no idea what it is.

With all the abundant wildlife around they seem to even get into the house. In the first week I found a spider that was looking for a new place to call its home. It hung around the bathroom for a few days then left. The geckos seem to stick around. There is one that hangs out by the light switch and I almost hit him every time I flick on the light (they are backwards to, you flick them down to turn them on). One thing that I am still investigating is the toilets. Apparently they swirl in the opposite direction, most of the ones I have seen/used just go straight down. This may take some time to affirm the claim.

One thing I have had trouble getting my head around is with their trucks, or lack of. They claim that these el camino (utes) looking machines are their version of the good 'ol pickup truck. Ok they do have toyota tacoma, chevy colorado, like small trucks but nothing that resembles even a half ton. I guess they just do things differently over here. Thats ok, it just takes some getting use to.

So I decided that public transport was way too expensive but the city cat (river public transit) is pretty cool. in place I got myself a roadie (road bike to the lay person). I am still getting the feel for the city and the bike.