Yield in the name of love

A funny thing about driving in Alice:

There are only a handful of stop signs in the whole town. Seriously, I have only actually had to stop at maybe 2 intersections in the past 6 weeks of driving around. Instead, most intersections have yield signs, only they don't say yield. Yes, they have the familiar triangular shape and lively red outline, but instead the say "Give Way." I suppose this is still perfectly descriptive of what you should do, but it is not the only time I have thought that Australians tend to use more words than necessary to communicate a point. Darned if I can think of another example right now, but you will have to trust me on this. Australia can be verbose.

A side-effect of this culture of Giving Way is that you actually have to pay attention at all intersections. Like, to the max. Rolling through an intersection is perfectly acceptable because all of the intersections have bloody yield signs! I've narrowly avoided being broad-sided a couple of times now.

Even though I've been here for a while, I still get confused a little bit about the direction of traffic, especially at intersections and when crossing the road on foot. First of all, it is hard to wrap your head around right and left turns being opposite from the States. (Left turns are the tight ones and right turns are the wide ones.) Secondly, when crossing the street, I have a really hard time figuring out which direction to look for traffic. Back home, you look left to see the traffic in the lane closest to you, and then look right to see traffic coming from the other direction. Not so Down Under. More than once I have stepped into the road convinced that there was no traffic, only to here some vehicle or another approaching from behind me. Very disconcerting. But it's all part of the experience, eh?

A little idle talk of this and that

Life continues to go well here in the Alice. Today was a pretty long day at the hotel. I worked a 9.5 hour shift in laundry, surrounded by mountains upon mountains of white bed sheets. I felt rather like Mr. Bumble and kept expecting to find Little Orphan Annie buried at the bottom of one of the linen carts trying to make an escape from Miss Hanigans.

In related news, I spent a lot of today impersonating Carol Burnett.

I have been watching a lot of the Olympics lately. Who hasn't, right? But let me tell you, it is a lot and a lot of fun watching them in a different country. First of all, it increases the number of countries I get to cheer for; clearly, I am routing for the good ol' US of A, and I am exceedingly proud of Canadians and Mexicans when they do well, too. Continents gots to stick together, friends! But I have developed a sincere devotion to Australia in the games, as well. It's probably due to the fact that all of the coverage I'm watching is heavily biased towards Australians, but it's still fun to get behind the country that I'm living in. Right now, for example, I'm watching a men's rowing event and both the US and the Aussies are in this heat, and I am cheering for both. (Update: the Aussies placed 2nd. Go team!) I guess if I had to pick just one, it would be the States, and I am 100% behind Michael Phelps, but I do love me some Aussies! And I have a big ol' friend-crush on Stephanie Rice.

We have 4 channels at this house. Considering how few there are, it's amazing how much time I can waste flipping through them.

I have yet to determine what is "Australian for beer", but I am quite partial to Toohey's Black Ale.

Unrelated to Australia, I finished readin Pride and Prejudice last night for the umpteenth time, and I still cry at Darcy's second proposal. Every time.

I miss everyone terribly, but I'm still haing a blast! More stories to come!

Peace.