A-Z of Australia

I thought this would be a fun way to share a bit about Australia.

A is for Australia
Greatest country / continent / island in the world! Pronounced by most as something along the lines of 'Straylya'.

straya!

B is for bindi
No, not that Bindi. Bindis are these little burr type things that are basically in every single patch of grass and the reason no Australian is stupid enough to walk on their front lawn barefoot. Oh hells no. The worst part is that you cannot see them in the grass, this is the best photo I could find of them.

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C is for chips.
As in what you all call fries, but they are very rarely thin shoestring fries, they are normally fat and delicious. Or chips, as in what you call chips or as I say: chippieeees.

D is for drop bears
I don't know who made this up, but it wasn't a very nice thing to do. The number one thing I get asked is how did I survive with all the deadly animals etc etc, but that is normally followed with something about drop bears. Sorry to disappoint you, but they are not real!

E is for Esky
Which is what you all call coolers. Esky is just a brand, and technically I guess we call them coolers as well, but I have never in my life heard someone refer to it as anything other than an esky.

target

F is for fairy floss.
That's what you lot call cotton candy. Isn't our name way better?

G is for Great Barrier Reef
You've probably heard of this. It's the biggest coral reef in the world. It's actually the biggest living thing in the world and is visible from space (or so I'm told). It's 2300km long, which is just under 1500 miles.

H is for Harbour Bridge
It is the sixth longest spanning-arch bridge in the world and the tallest steel arch bridge. There are 6-8 lanes for traffic, plus train tracks, plus a bicycle path, and a pedestrian path. It was opened in 1932. Oh, and you can climb it.

I is for I Still Call Australia Home
Because I do. Also, it's a song.

J is for Jacaranda
Which is a purple tree. What is cooler than a purple tree?

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K is for kookaburra
Kookaburras (pronounced exactly like it looks, kook-a-burra) calls sound like human laughter. Kind of. It's a very unique sound that you have to hear in real life. Or, I guess you could go on youtube.

L is for L plates (and P plates)
Every state is different, but as far as I know, all of them have this in common: L plates for learner drivers, P plates for provisional drivers (meaning they are new to getting their license).

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M is for Mozzie
Which is short for mosquito. Because we really like to shorten things, you guys.

N is for No Worries
While we still say 'you're welcome' and the like, no worries is definitely a part of (dare I say it) every Australian's vocabulary. When I was a teenager, saying 'nurries' was popular, like smooshing the two together. Nurries also means something else that I suggest you do not google.

O is for Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a performing arts centre. It actually has multiple venues which together are among the busiest performing arts centres in the world. The venues host over 1,500 performances each year attended by over 1.2 million people. I'll tell you a secret, I think it's kind of ugly.

P is for prawns
Prawns and shrimp are different things. As far as I know, you can get shrimp at home, but it's not as popular as in the US. We eat prawns. We rarely put them on the barbeque -which, yes, we do call barbie. So at least that part was true, thanks Paul Hogan. Also, yes, we do spell it with a q for some odd reason.

Q is for Queen!
I love the Queen, and the Royal family. In fact, I love all the royals, even Denmark's (because she's our princess, you see). But we'll just chat about the English lot for now. I'm not gonna lie, I don't know too much about which powers she does or does not have, though I do know that she is represented by a governor general. Also, Australia doesn't pay any money to the Queen (or any of the family members) unless she is in Australia or acting as Queen of Australia abroad.

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R is for Rugby
Which I know nothing about. Sorry. My favourite thing to tell people when they ask about the differences between our footballs is 'I'm still a girl'. While there are some women who know lots about sports and enjoy them, I'm not one of them, regardless of which country I'm in. I'll watch it, but I don't know anything about it. Here's a picture anyway.

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S is for State of Origin.

Which is when NSW plays QLD in one of our football thingys. It's pretty serious, people go nuts over it. If you are in NSW and you're wearing maroon, you better be in the airport flying to QLD. Go the Blues!

T is for Tooheys
Which is a hell of a lot better - and more popular - than Fosters. I used to work in a bar (or 3) and Tooheys is very popular, along with VB (which is above on the NSW side of the origin picture). Extra dry is very popular as well. Well, I mean these things were popular like 8 years ago what do I even know anymore. But at least you'll know not to order a Fosters if you go to a bar, k?

U is for Uluru
Also known as Ayers Rock. We are hopefully going there next year and I am SO excited. Basically, it's a very, very big rock. It's also sacred (so no climbing!), and apparently 700 million years old.

V is for Victoria
I was born in Victoria, it's where my family still lives - except for my mum, we moved to NSW when I was like 2. I love NSW and of course it's better than all the other states (in my biased opinion), but I will always love Victoria more. I call myself 'Victorian' at home and there is a slight difference to my accent than a normal Sydney-sider's. Also, we say a few words differently than the rest of Australia, because we are weird like that. Also, fun fact, NSW peeps call us Victorians 'Mexicans' because we're south of the border. I'm sure the Queenslanders call the NSW people the same. We're an odd bunch.

W is for Waltzing Matilda.
Most Aussies know the words to this song over our anthem.

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X is for 4 X
Because I can't think of anything else. It's the Queenslander's beer. There's a joke that it's XXXX because they can't spell beer. Well I didn't say it was a good joke, did I.

Y is for Yanks
Which is what most of us think most of you are called. Which apparently is not true. See, we all get things wrong, don't we?

Z is for Zed
As in, that's how we pronounce that letter. You say 'zee', we say 'zed'.