ORIENTATION

There has been a lot of orientation to our new life in Australia; we have noticed there are a few differences.  I am grateful for the wonderful missionaries who are willing to help us with anything that we need orienting with.  I have especially needed help pronouncing the missionary's names (coming from all around the world, there are some unique, hard-to-pronounce names, especially the missionaries from Tonga, Samoa, and New Zealand). 
I love listening to the new ways to say things, I have learned the Australian people have figured out that they can say things much quicker by shortening words:  instead of saying sunglasses, they say sunnies and instead of saying swimming suits, they say swimmies.   The four words I discovered today that needed some explanation were:
Crockery: We were having an orientation of the kitchen and I was asked where my crockery was?  I realized I was being asked where my kitchen dishes were.  I have always known it to mean:  foolish talk; nonsense:
Give way: That is what a yield sign says in Australia
Nappy:  I always thought this was a term used for a "little nap" or little sleep, but here a "nappy" refers to a baby's diaper. (BTW: You don't want to ask for a "napkin" in a restaurant)
Air Con:  I had a maintenance man come over to fix our heater unit in our home and when he arrived he asked where the air con was....I had to ask him to repeat that word several times before I finally figured it out.  (Unfortunately a little gecko got inside and zapped the unit causing it to burn up.  Poor thing....I was excited to meet a little green gecko in Australia after seeing the cute gecko on the Geico commercials in the U.S.)          







 
The people are extremely happy here and the way they talk even sounds happy with the end of their sentences ending on an "up" influx. We are learning and experiencing so much every day...WE LOVE IT!