My good Aussie friends down at the local dive shop have dive instructors from all over the world come to Vanuatu to gain experience. The guys I’ve met here so far have been Kiwi, American & English. Having experienced a few too many seaside drinking sessions with all of them, pretty early into the night you start asking yourself – How do 4 English speaking nationalities speak English but not understand each other? And no, it has nothing to do with the alcohol!
These nights always remind me of my USA travel experience.
I had wanted to travel to the US for sometime but the opportunity never came up. I either never had anyone to travel with, there were potential terrorist plots or I wasn’t in the right financial state to travel there. Finally 2010 was my year to do it. I planned and booked my trip trying to squeeze as many of the key places in as I could in my 3 weeks. And once again to the dismay of my parents, I happily set out on this journey alone.
I started my travels in LA. What a great place. I could easily see myself living there for an extended period of time. Leaving the airport and arriving at the hotel was problem free and I was surprised to see as many Aussie and Kiwi’s at the hotel in Beverly Hills as I did. Step up to the reception desk to check-in and this is where things got interesting.
I offer my name and employee card and get asked for a charge card. A what? OK so reflecting on my 8 years reception experience I quickly realise I was asked for my credit card – standard procedure. It makes me wonder how the other poor souls from my part of the world knew what she was talking about. I receive my room key and ask the girl where the lift is. The shoe was on the other foot this time around as she looked at me puzzled for sometime before I jumped in with ‘elevator’.So I drop my bags and jump on a tour bus to take me to the most cliché places of LA and I just loved them! Muscle beach, Kodak Theatre, Hollywood sign, Rodeo Drive and Walk of fame where there are more stars than the Milky Way. I teamed up with a lovely guy from somewhere in South America who was also travelling alone for this tour. English wasn’t his first language so our hilarious and sometimes confusing conversations will be left out of this blog due to fairness. The tour guide on the other hand has no excuse. For a nation that is its own continent, that flaunts the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, that has one of the seven natural wonders of the world (Great Barrier Reef for any Americans reading this) and for a country that gave America Crocodile Dundee I would have never thought I would have to explain where my beautiful country is located in the world.
The rest of my time in LA was amazing and I seeked out the Aussies and Kiwis to converse with. I visited Disneyland, Universal Studios, was an audience member of Drew Carey’s ‘The Price is Right’ and travelled to San Diego to visit Sea World. Before I knew it my time was up and I was on a jet plane headed for New York City.
NYC was great. I stayed on Manhattan Island in Soho and visited Ground Zero, the Empire State Building and took a cruise past the Statue of Liberty as the line to actually go there was 3-4 hours wait. I walked through Central Park, went to the museum of American History and did a 3 day bus tour that took me to every corner of Manhattan and into Brooklyn. I also saw Chicago on Broadway!
My experience there was a mixed one. On one hand you are in the fashion capital of this part of the world which to some means something but nothing to me. You are seeing iconic streets such as Wall Street and Broadway and you can say ‘I’m in NYC!’ But on the other hand the streets are dirty and always packed of taxis beeping at each other and somehow making a 4 lane street into 6. People just push you around if you just want to look up and try and see the sky through the concrete jungle you’ve entered. And for the purpose of this blog in my experience I’d say 70% of people that I came in contact with didn’t speak English anyway. But throw in the ‘Jersey’ or ‘Queens’ accent and the last 30% spoke a language not recognisable anyway to my native tongue.
So then I was off to Washington DC. I visited the Lincoln memorial, the place where Lincoln was shot, Arlington cemetery and JFK’s grave. I never thought I would have the opportunity to educate Americans on their own history but here I was on a tour bus answering their questions about how and where Lincoln was killed. I walked past the FBI and IRS buildings and ventured into the National Archives, feeling like I was in one of the National Treasure movies, to view the Declaration of Independence. Here I met a lovely young family whose kids were mid-late teens. They wanted to know everything about Australia and seeing as the line to get in was about an hour long we had plenty of time to talk. We talked football, tennis and soccer. I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to explain cricket and eventually just gave up moving onto topics like how I don’t have kangaroos in my back yard nor do I have koalas in the trees in my garden. I must say DC was such an amazing experience full of history and culture. I’ll say this for the people of DC, they were easy to understand just watch out for the tourists!So this brings me to my last stop – Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Here I met up with good friends of mine – Tonia and Derek. I met these two in my home town of Innisfail when they moved down under a while back. Poor Derek had to work so Tonia and I played the tourist role perfectly for my week long stay. We travelled to Hershey and went to the world famous Hershey chocolate factory, visited Armish country and went back in time while experiencing their way of life and took a day trip to Philly to see the Liberty Bell while also fitting in a duck tour through the city and the river.
Best of all I spent Easter with their families and enjoyed an American holiday experience. At brunch I found myself having to describe cricket (again!) so I quickly moved on from that and found myself talking about fast food and beer. I mentioned Maccas and it was as if I had said the worst swear word in history because of the silence that caused. Mention XXXX and you’ll get blank stares that make you want to hide under the table. I was having a conversation with a family friend one day and when I had finished answering her question she said to me ‘just keep talking. I love your accent’. So strange to be the one with the accent. Finally they took me to one of the best restaurants in town and I loved it! – The Outback Steakhouse. Tonia’s grandpa convinced the waitress that I was part owner as I was from Australia. So sad to say it looked like she believed him! With Alice Springs Chicken, Gold Coast shrimp and Kookaburra Wings this place was a very small taste of home.So back at the dive shop on the other side of the world we are continually learning and understanding each other while taking the piss wherever we can. I couldn’t resist a small list of examples -
· Double fisting – Americans say this means holding & drinking from two drinks at one time. Hmmmm we don’t think so!
· Drinking piss/On the piss – to our Northern Hemisphere friends this means drinking alcohol
· Taking the piss – making fun of you
· Tomato sauce – this might be called ketchup somewhere in the world but not down here
· I reckon – Aussie for I think/I believe
And finally for my Kiwi friends here are some of my not so favourites – Chilly bin, jandals and All Blacks (couldn’t resist!)
