Happy Mother’s Day

It’s the cultural differences that makes traveling abroad exciting. From the exotic foods foreign to your palate to the innocent faux pas – like sticking your thumb out to hitchhike in Greece – getting out of your element is both fun and necessarily awkward. The Ozzies have no shortage of opportunity to embarrass, even for a culture so Western.

The groceries are not allowed to directly sell alcohol here, so every grocery has a ‘separate’ liquor store on the side with doors leading to both on the outside and inside the store. The door leading into the grocery isn’t so much a door as it is a wide passage, leading one to assume that you simply grab your alcohol, finish your shopping, and checkout in one go. The grocery checkout assumes you paid for your alcohol before entering the not-so-well-delineated food section of the store, so one can just walk through with their now stolen alcohol completely unaware. It seems the only people who are paying attention are the security guards, who make sure to wait until you’re half way across the parking lot and surrounded by customers so it looks like the scraggly climbing kids are trying to steel booze.

By far the most prevalent cultural difference is the language, and that’s only because they supposedly speak English in Australia. I continually entertained myself with the vernacular, despite the frustrated Ozzies who felt their statement to “grab the slab of stubbies out of the boot and toss them in the Eskie” was perfectly legitimate and commanding of action not a blank stare and a grin.

The Ozzies never fail to disappoint. I almost fell over laughing when I walked past this window display in Melbourne. Evidently lace panties and camisoles are common gifts to give to Mum. Granted, perhaps chocolates and flowers aren’t the most sentimental way to say “Hey mom, thanks for raising me, I love you”, but it sure as hell is a lot less awkward.

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So as you can tell, I’m finally back from Arapiles. I ended up extended my trip several times, for many reasons. I have heaps of pics to get through, and four weeks of adventures and experiences to try to publish in something easy and readable. So I thought I’d put up this little post in the mean time, let people know I’m alive, and wish all the moms out there a Happy Mother’s Day. I’ll be back with some tales from Araps soon.