February 28th
Differences: money, cars, crossing the street, plugs

I walk everywhere because Harlan and I don’t have a car. Sometimes I do take a tram*(or bus or train) but mostly I walk and walk which I love to do. There are so many things to look at and I enjoy the feeling of being in the open air. Now I do take care not to get too much sun, I walk fast in the sunny areas and go slow in the shade when it is hot. And it often is hot here, not like in Maine. So I saunter. Isn’t that a good word, you might want to look that one up! I also wear a hat, a white hat with a wide brim, to keep the sun off my face. I slather on sunscreen everywhere my skin is exposed and often. I don’t like sunburns!

Teachers often tell students that you never stop learning and that is very true for me right now. Every country has their own money system and it is different from the money in the United States. So I have to learn the different coins and bills in whatever country I am in. Here in Australia they have:

$50, $20, $10, and $5 dollar bills(they have bigger ones, but I don’t use them!) The coins are $2, $1, 50¢, 20¢, 10¢ and 5¢. They tend not to use pennies and round up or down so they don’t have to use pennies. They don’t have a 25¢ coin like we do. Sometimes I still get confused by the coins! Here are links to Australian money pictures.

http://z.about.com/d/coins/1/0/u/1/-/-/Australia_money_coins.jpg

http://www.aussie-info.com/tourist/coins.jpg

http://community.kaboose.com/files/64601_64700/64646/file_64646.jpg

I also have to be very careful when I cross the street. Now I am always careful when I cross the street back in Maine because I want to be safe but here, I really need to watch the traffic!
Look at these pictures and see if you can tell why. Do you notice something different about the cars?





(Hint: Look at the steering wheel)

And now look at this picture with the traffic.



They drive on the left hand side of the road in Australia and in the States, we drive on the right. So I have to make sure I look the correct direction every time I cross the street. I am very careful! I often stand on the wrong side of the road when I want to catch a tram, I feel very silly when I do that.

Australians also have different shaped plugs as do many countries around the world. Here is a picture of the wall and a plug. I have to make sure I have the proper attachment for my computer otherwise I can’t plug it in!














*Trams are like buses but they run on tracks and are powered by electricity. So they can only go certain places, unlike buses which do not run on tracks. Here is a picture of the tram.