8 March 2005

I never thought it could happen, but after all of our travelling and excitment in the last few months, this past week "at home" in Sydney has actually been a little boring. Can you believe it, Sydney boring?

Okay, maybe "boring" is too strong a word, and if I use it to describe this lovely shiny city that is our adopted home for the moment, I mean it in the best sense of the word.¹ Now that I think about it, I guess there has been a good deal of excitement since our return to Sydney last Wednesday. For one thing, Chad's computer committed hara-kiri² to show its contempt for its extraordinary age³. Alas, the loud clicking noise emanating from the hard drive was not to fix itself this time,⁴ and a new hard drive had to be bought. Fortunately, they seem to be of standard enough construction that an off-brand component fit in the slot. Still, there is much reinstalling and reorganizing to be done now.

So, for almost a week we were a one computer family, which, for us American academics living abroad did not work out so well. We use our computers for email, for writing, for research, even for reading, since we scanned all the books and essays we needed to have with us before we left in order to lighten the load. We use the internet to make international phone calls, to update the blog, to do our banking and pay our bills. We have stored all of our photographs on our computers, and all of our music. D's recipes are kept electronically. Chad's access to the New York Times and to Barron's is online. In short, when one of us was using the computer, the other had not much to do.

Outside the house, on the other hand, there is plenty to do without our computers (and not much to be done with them, since the wireless access we've grown dependent on back in A² is quite rare indeed over here). On Sunday we met up with friends from the States and went to the Government House, a historical trust site in the middle of Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, for an afternoon picnic with live klezmer/jazz/gypsy music in the yard. We've continued to explore Chinatown and other neighborhoods around us. D attended her first class today, a "special-entry," third-year course on Rehearsal Studies, which will culminate for these students in two weeks of observing a group of actors in rehearsal eight hours a day later this July. This course and the corresponding project are the reasons D has come to Sydney to work with the Department of Performance Studies, so the opportunity not only to observe the class being taught but actually to assist the professor is a particularly important one.

This week, too, we finally had the opportunity to check out the famous Paddy's Market near our house and try our new market-shopping knowledge (from the foodie tour in Melbourne) all in one go. Paddy's Market, for those of you who have not (yet) been to Sydney, is a large stall-based market that runs Thursdays through Sundays underneath what is now a mall and large apartment building. Most of Paddy's Market consists of clothing, touristy souvenirs, a few arts and crafts, electronics, and "Australiana," but we were hoping that some vestige of the original produce and meat market still existed. It does.⁵ We were pleased to discover that the produce was much cheaper than at the grocery store, the range of fruits and vegetables wider, and the freshness more variable.⁶

And now, back at the markets again, it's finally time for what you've all been waiting for, the reason that half of you have been reading this blog at all:

This context was actually a tie between two people: John Hill and Jan Jensen, both of whom earned extra points for teaching Chad and D some extra piece of information about the strange things we were buying in the grocery store. The list, and its translation, follow below:

1. Sultanas = raisins, although really they're golden raisins, and, thanks to Jan, we now know that the name comes from a specific kind of grape called "Sultanas." We can only assume that the sultanas you will find in say, Kellogg's Sultana Bran cereal (not kidding!) are made exclusively from this particular variety of grape and no other. Incidentally, Aussies get very defensive if you suggest that "raisins" and "sultanas" are the same thing; they will insist heatedly that raisins are different and not nearly as good. (If you don't believe me, find an Aussie and try it.)
2. Capsicum = bell peppers, i.e. "green capsicum" and "red capsicum." Chile peppers are usually just called "chilles" and black pepper is called "pepper."
3. Mild, Tasty, or Vintage? = Mild, Sharp, or Extra Sharp cheese. The most common by far is "tasty cheese" which is never orange here, and will appear on sandwiches, on salads, and in blocks. It is sometimes difficult for the Americans to resist snickering when asked if we want "tasty cheese" with something... no, can we have the not-so-tasty cheese instead please? Actually, those of us accustomed to the sharp cheddars of New York and Vermont (and, let's face it, of Kraft foods) will tell you that even "vintage" cheese is not really that sharp. Incidentally, "American cheese" is nowhere to be found here.
4. Sauce = ketchup. Interestingly, no one was able to guess this one correctly, probably because it is shortened slang even here. In grocery stores, the bottles will say "tomato sauce" (that is, by the way, "toe-MAH-toe") but in the restaurants you ask just for "sauce." Except when it's a BBQ place, in which case you have to specify.
5. Desiree, Washed, or Brushed? = varieties of potatoes, Desiree being red ones, and we still aren't sure about the others, just that they were normal potatoes prepared slightly differently.
6. Rocket = arugula, or to be more specific, Eruca vesicaria ssp. sativa, which we now know thanks to John. Shows up on a lot of sandwiches here, and we had a hard time remembering the American name for it.
7. "Flat white" or "long black" = ways of ordering coffee, remembered fondly for their elegant sound by former temporary Australians like Chad's sister Stephanie. The best resource we've found for decoding the funny coffee menus was actually at a McDonald's... excuse me, at a "McCafe"... where they have a picture menu of all the coffee drinks. A "flat white" is espresso with steamed milk and very little foam, while a "long black" is the typical American black coffee, though technically made espresso-bar style, which means it's a shot of espresso with hot water. While we're on this topic, it's worth noting that while coffee is plentiful here and most every place has an espresso machine, the range of espresso and other hot drinks is much more limited than at, say, a Starbucks or similar chain in the States. Those of you who have known D for a while (and Chad, too, for that matter) will be amused by her knowledge of coffee drinks, since she claims not to drink it. I'll note, then, that hot chocolate here, is, across the board, weak, watery, and unsweetened.
8. BBQ Sausages = hot dogs. They come in shrink-wrapped packages of twenty or more in the butcher section of the grocery store, but the straight-up hot dogs don't come in very many varieties. No all-beef, no cheese-filled, no packages of 8 or packages of 10. No bun length, because, well, there are no buns. Sausages ("snags," which refers to any kind of sausage, not just hot dogs) are eaten on sliced white bread.
9. Prawns = shrimp, and I don't just mean "big shrimp." All shrimp, up to and including what Americans call "king prawns" are called prawns. Also, they are commonly cooked and served with head and eyes intact. Eew!

   So, there you have it, an Australian grocery list. Honorable mentions go to Jen Rehm, who was resourceful enough to use Canadians to influence her guesses, and to Pat Warren, who had many correct answers but who got tangled up in time zones. Apologies to those who wanted to play but were disqualified for having lived in or visited Australia at some point... I'll try to find a game that everyone can play sometime soon.

   John and Jan, congratulations, you win a free avocado and five pieces of fruit of your choice from Paddy's Market.⁸ Also, you get to be featured in this week's blog, so here goes:

   
   
   
   John Hill is the last remaining Ph.D. student in Theatre Studies at the University of Michigan, and by some bizarre coincidence also happens to be a graduate of New College in Sarasota, FL, where D did her BA 10 years later. John speaks fluent Russian and lived in Russia for six years, where he studied acting, got a cat, and married his lovely wife Leta, not necessarily in that order. He is currently passing his preliminary exams (yaaay John!) and learning Polish on a FLAS scholarship. John has a five-year old daughter named Lydia who likes to move cats, although not Mityai, the cat in the photo here, because he can be mean sometimes.

   Jan Jensen (sorry I don't have a picture) has known D for nearly twenty years, beginning way back in Rockford, IL, and Jan's sons sort of grew up in parallel with D and her sister. Jan has various outlets to share her many gifts, including many years of playing music and singing with her husband and with D's parents. Jan is now a grandmother of three (Caleb, Adam, and Ellie) and has added the title of "Gifted and Talented" teacher to her job as a librarian. Of course a librarian would look up all the answers to our quiz, eh?
   
   ;)
   - D
   
   

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   NOTES

   ¹That "best sense," to be more exact, is the one in which "boring" means "safe" "homey" "comfortable" or "familiar."

   ²Common language term for the ritual suicide that was an integral part of the samurai code in feudal Japan (1192-1868, though the practice was most common before the 1700s).

   ³3 years and 1 month, which means the extended service warranty ran out last month.

   ⁴It tried once before when Chad was in Beijing last July, but, since it was still under warranty then, it eventually fixed itself until a more appropriate date.

   ⁵Though, it is not nearly as nice as the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne. And it doesn't have a foodie tour, either. :(

   ⁶Although it may sound strange, this is actually a good thing, because at the market you can buy, for example, avocadoes that are not quite ripe so you can make guacamole four days from now, or you can buy avocadoes that are very ripe to make guacamole tonight. At the grocery store, you're limited to having to make guacamole when the store wants you to, not when you want to.

   ⁷The contest, if you're not sure, can be located in the activity "Pretend to Be An Australian" and refers to an Australian grocery list located in the week one blog entry.

   ⁸Only redeemble in Sydney. Offer expires 1 December 2005. Please bring your computer with you to redeem.
   
   
   Back to the GAA page!