burgers, walking on Lygon, mouth guard, Chicks Footy

Some things that are different in AU: they drive on the other side of the road, right? Well, they walk on the other side too! They say “take away” instead of carry out or to go. they call coffee drinks all different – like, I like a latte – I need to say a flat coffee white. (hunh??) their accent is sooo nice – even at the airport, when the announcements come on. In America it’s so annoying, those announcements, but here it’s so nice. But, I have trouble understanding them sometimes – and you don’t say “What?” if you didn’t understand – you say “I’m sorry” or “Excuse me”. They’re very polite, good manners. Very friendly.

Friday evening we went to this burger place called Grill’d. It was not Red Robin! Enjoy the before & after photos. Mine was a mustard pickle burger – yum! And the ‘Chips’ (fries) were seasoned with herbs & dipped into a sweet pepper mayo. Yum Yum!

so big my mouth could not open wide enough for a bite!

After dinner - & we were too stuffed for dessert – we made our way back down Lygon street through the restaurant guys trying to get us to come in, not taking no for an answer. But there WAS  a woman – I didn’t get her picture, She was very intense & trying to get us to eat there, her mother is the chef etc. but I was happy to see a woman doing that.

nice italian guy - very inviting - we felt bad to say no thanks

We got back to my room with the plan that Danielle would go back to her room since she had to get up early for the Footy game – but she remembered she needed a mouth guard. Like they wouldn’t let her play if she didn’t have one. So we went off on a search for an open ‘Chemists’ which is a pharmacy. We walked up this one street to find one closed, then tram-ed down to this HUGE mall in downtown called Melbourne Central. I mean, I’ve been to malls in Ca but this place was HUGE! We found the Chemists, found the mouth guard & went back to my room where we had a good time laughing our heads off at how it looked in her mouth. Pictures to enjoy follow. I laughed so hard my face was wet with laughter tears, I even woke in the night chuckling about it.

Last night it started raining (luckily after we were in – oh, & Danielle stayed with me!) and it rained all night & drizzled / rained hard all morning. This made the field for the Chicks Footy games nice & muddy – I mean muddy like you sink into the mud as you walk, you slide if you stop suddenly or if you walk down an incline…

The Chicks Footy games: photos can only partially explain what these Australians enjoy! This game is very popular (with everyone, but mainly guys play it – like our football with fewer rules, more hockey-like behavior & tons of mud). And today the different ‘Colleges’ girls played one another – the ‘colleges’ are like dorm groups: Danielle’s in Queens College, others are Newman College, St Marys College etc. Mainly it was good fun, mud sliding, lots of mud wrestling, mud face paint, mud play fights. Oh, Queens didn’t win.

doesn't do her mud-covered face justice but this was pre shower

Our plan now is to eat, go to the Aquarium, eat, and tonight go to this Fashion Show put on by the fashion students at RMIT University (we don’t know what that stands for) & their show is titled “Dangerous Goods” with a warning to be ready for anything… I’m ready! I hope I can take pictures.