Australians are a fantastic people with a wicked sense of humor. By the end of my senior year, I was the best rugby player in High School. Sadly, after years of training, I found myself stranded. Not one university in my state had a team, so I applied to attend university in Sydney, Australia. What could go wrong?<\/p>\n
I made travel arrangements for a visit and before I even set out, the University accepted my application. They also assigned a fellow footy teamate, named Steve-O, to assist me with fitting in Down Under.<\/p>\n
An uneventful flight brought me to a view of the sheer sanstone cliffs of the national park just south of Sydney. Steve-O kindly met me at the airport on a dreary grey day. \u201cG\u2019day Joe. Welcome to Oz.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I asked him if this weather was typical for Australia, he assured me that it was. I soon discovered that most Aussie days are clear and sunny. This should have prepared me for what was to come.<\/p>\n
As we headed through the airport, we chatted about the differences in our cultures. I asked him if Australians had a hand gesture to signify that you wish good-luck towards someone. He said, \u201cCrikey yes! It\u2019s just like the peace sign, but instead you turn your hand around and face your palm inwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
We loaded my lugage into his Ute and headed towards downtown Sydney. We had just hopped on the M5 highway when a hot-rod cut us off. I thought I\u2019d help to deescalate the situation by gesturing as I\u2019d been instructed. An angry woman wearing an Akubra gestured back with her middle finger. She also shouted loud curses that I couldn\u2019t understand. I was surprised that she would do that after so rudely cutting us off. I wondered if many other Aussies were such hot-heads.<\/p>\n
My friend laughed and said, \u201cAhh, no worries mate. She\u2019ll be right. The yobbo\u2019s just taking the piss. I\u2019m gonna take you straight to the field to meet the cobbers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parking at the university sports stadium was sparse. We headed under the arch and went through the turnstiles. A whistle blew and immediately grunting and clashing echoed across the stadium. On the field, two teams pummelled each other in a scrum.<\/p>\n
Steve-O came up behind a brawny guy with a sports jersey. He roughed up his friends sandy blond hair and said, \u201cHey Nick-O, we got a fresh Yank to school in footy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nick-O turned and smiled broadly. \u201cRippah, we got a Joey.\u201d He reached out and turned a girl with long hair around to face me. \u201cHey, Carol, watcha think?\u201d My heart stopped. This was one of the most gorgeous women I had ever laid eyes on. Her green eyes were wide, her nose was upturned, and she moved with the grace of a dancer.<\/p>\n
Carol turned back to the sports field to watch as a play was ending with a pile of arms and legs poking out at awkward angles.<\/p>\n
I wanted to talk to her, but barely knew where to start. \u201cHi, I\u2019m Joe.\u201d I gestured the good luck sign and said, \u201cWho ya rootin\u2019 for?\u201d<\/p>\n
She turned with a flushed face as storms appeared in her green eyes. \u201cRack off! How dare you!\u201d She slapped me and walked off in a huff.<\/p>\n
Nick-O shouted at Carol\u2019s back. \u201cHey Carol, ya Sheila, stop throwing a wobbly.\u201d She marched on as if she didn\u2019t hear.<\/p>\n
Nick-O turned to me but said to Steve-O chuckling, \u201cWell our gobsmacked Yank\u2019s not the full quid.\u201d He put a hand on my shoulder and said seriously, \u201cLook, ya dag. I\u2019ve never seen Carol spit the dummy with a king-hit. Why\u2019d you do that?\u201d Meanwhile Steve-O was rolling on the ground laughing hysterically.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what happened.\u201d I rubbed my jaw. \u201cI just gave her the good luck sign.\u201d I again gestured as Steve-O had taught me. I did it slowly as I began to feel I\u2019d been conned.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood Luck? You Galah!\u201d He began laughing uproariously while my face went red. \u201cThat gesture to us means what the middle finger means to you.\u201d He laughed some more and caught his breath. \u201cAnd the word root?\u201d He tried to contain his laughing, \u201cAlso, means exactly the same thing!\u201d<\/p>\n
That was the day I learned an important fact about Australians. The meaner they are to you, the more they like you. Through fun adventures with my new friends, I eventually learned forgiveness.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Australian Dictionary<\/strong><\/p>\n Arvo :<\/strong> afternoon<\/p>\n Barrack :<\/strong> to cheer on (football team etc.)<\/p>\n Beaut, beauty :<\/strong> great, fantastic<\/p>\n Bloke :<\/strong> man, guy<\/p>\n Blue, make a :<\/strong> make a mistake<\/p>\n Cobber :<\/strong> friend<\/p>\n Come a gutser :<\/strong> make a bad mistake, have an accident<\/p>\n Corker :<\/strong> something excellent. A good stroke in cricket might be described as a ‘corker of a shot’<\/p>\n Cut snake, mad as a :<\/strong> very angry<\/p>\n Dag :<\/strong> a funny person, nerd, goof<\/p>\n Dummy, spit the :<\/strong> get very upset at something<\/p>\n Fair Dinkum<\/strong>\u2014 Kosher, the real thing – as in “Fair Dinkum Aussie” (true blue Aussie original). Often used by itself as a rhetorical question to express astonishment verging on disbelief … “Fair Dinkum, mate?” (you’ve got to be kidding, haven’t you?)<\/p>\n Footy :<\/strong> Australian Rules football<\/p>\n G’Day :<\/strong> hello!<\/p>\n Galah :<\/strong> fool, silly person. Named after the bird of the same name because of its antics and the noise it makes.<\/p>\n Gobsmacked :<\/strong> surprised, astounded<\/p>\n Joey :<\/strong> baby kangaroo<\/p>\n Kangaroos loose in the top paddock :<\/strong> Intellectually inadequate (“he’s got kangaroos loose in the top paddock”)<\/p>\n King hit<\/strong> \u2014 A punch delivered without warning<\/p>\n Larrikin :<\/strong> a bloke who is always enjoying himself, harmless prankster<\/p>\n Mate :<\/strong> buddy, friend<\/p>\n Mug :<\/strong> friendly insult (“have a go, yer mug”), gullible person<\/p>\n Narkie<\/strong> \u2014 Someone who is negative or short-tempered<\/p>\n No drama :<\/strong> same as ‘no worries’<\/p>\n Not the full quid :<\/strong> not bright intellectually<\/p>\n Rack off :<\/strong> push off! get lost! get out of here! also “rack off hairy legs!”.<\/p>\n Ratbag :<\/strong> mild insult Root (verb and noun) :<\/strong> synonym for f*ck: “I feel rooted”; “this washing machine is rooted”; “(s)he’s a good root”<\/p>\n Seppo :<\/strong> an American<\/p>\n Sheila :<\/strong> a woman<\/p>\n Spewin’ :<\/strong> very angry<\/p>\n Spit the dummy :<\/strong> get very upset at something<\/p>\n Sprung :<\/strong> caught doing something wrong<\/p>\n Stuffed, I’ll be :<\/strong> expression of surprise<\/p>\n Too right \u2014 <\/strong>Definitely!<\/strong><\/p>\n Ute :<\/strong> utility vehicle, pickup truck<\/p>\n Whacker, whacka :<\/strong> Idiot; somebody who talks drivel; somebody with whom you have little patience<\/p>\n Wobbly<\/strong> \u2014 Disturbing, unstable behaviour, as in “to throw a wobbly.”<\/p>\n Yank <\/strong>\u2013 An American<\/p>\n Yobbo :<\/strong> an uncouth person<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Australians are a fantastic people with a wicked sense of humor. By the end of my senior year, I was the best rugby player in High School. Sadly, after years of training, I found myself stranded. Not one university in my state had a team, so I applied to attend university in Sydney, Australia. What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2132,"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions\/2132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanborns.org\/word_press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRaw prawn, to come the :<\/strong> to bullshit, to be generally disagreeable<\/p>\n