What they REALLY mean....

I thought I would try and give you a fun/funny post to read about Australian lingo. I can honestly say I have been TOTALLY American in my response to some statements that Aussies have made; I really have no clue what they are saying sometimes! But, before I do that, let me show you some pics (that really should have gone with the last post).

Here's our bedroom. Forgive the clutter but we are living on "functionality" 

and I'd rather not "accessorize" when our money needs to first go to bills 

and then to traveling :) 

Our back patio

Mal and Jenna (two of our roommates) 

My (Laura) first time sitting on the passenger side in Australia.

 (Doesn't this just feel wrong?) 

Just for kicks: our first visit to Harbour Bridge 

the night we arrived.

Sydney Opera House (Sorry for the blur.) 

Ok... so the lingo... haha! I am even chuckling just thinking about it!
So, Josh forgot to clue me in on some of these sayings but the scenarios make for great story telling. :)

The first one I heard was "no worries, mate!" Now upon reading this, I am sure you can easily figure out that this means "you're welcome" or "no problem" but within the context I heard it, I immediately though and then responded with the most serious face... "Worried?! Who's worried?! I'm not worried!" Ha! Josh just had to laugh at me.
Another one my housemate said to me was "Oh, good on you!" Of course, at first, I look down at my outfit and think that she is referring to what I was wearing... I smiled, taking it as a compliment until I realized that she was definitely NOT referring to my outfit (as I am CLEARLY out of style here) but rather meant "good for you!" (Encouraging me on the productivity of my day.)
That same roommate and I had a later exchange, after saying hello to each other, where she said, "How you going, Laura?" Now, at this point I am thinking, "How am I going? Well, let's see, I don't have a car quite yet so I probably will be going by foot around here for a while... but what does that have to do with anything!?" BUT, I was smarter than that and didn't respond with that answer! Ha! Of course I asked her to clarify what that meant and it means "how you doing?"
Perhaps you are all a bit smarter than me and don't take things quite as literal but I can honestly say I am sitting here laughing hysterically as I recount these stories.

Here's a few other words that are a bit different (some took me a little while to figure out.. sometimes I had to ask):

Chips-- french fries (Potato chips are called crisps here, much like England)
Footy-- Australian football (I'm not quite sure what this is yet but it's not rugby and it's not American                football)
the boot-- the trunk of your car
a bludger-- a slacker or someone who doesn't give a lot of effort
uni-- the term for university or college
rego (hard g)-- the term for your car registration
Ute (pronounced you-T): a pick-up truck
Postie-- a postman (here they drive around on these 50cc motorbikes...kind of funny to watch)/ or a piece of mail that you want to send out
Spit the dummy-- get angry (a dummy here refers to a pacifier/binky)

Also a "fun" fact here... damn and hell are not considered swear words here and so, therefore, are used quite often... I quickly figured this out! :)

I am also finding myself saying certain Australian things so as to not stick out like a sore thumb as an American. These would be: toMAto sauce instead of ketchup, cutlery instead of silverware, liT-Trally instead of liTERally, and capsicum instead of peppers.

I definitely have many more culture shockers to tell you about but I will space them out for you so you aren't spending too much time trying to get through my blog posts.