Let me tell you about my homestay "family"...

His name is Steve and he turns 39 on Wednesday. He lives in Gollenabah, which is a suburb of Lismore, the city our university ("uni") is. Supposedly, wallabies, kangaroos, snakes, and koalas come up by his palce, but I haven't seem then yet. He has a 2 year old daughter named Annisa who is never there when I am because he only has custody 9-5 Mon-Wed and I am in class during that span.

He is a big burly guy with long, strangly hair. He was in the lead rock cover band in New South Wales called "Crush" but they have since broken up. He cooks some good meals, but I'm unsure of the "pickle smear" he puts on my sandwhiches for lunch when I am at uni.

He has had a couple students from Hong Kong stay with him before and was thrilled I am his first American because he can actually understand what I am saying. His past students were learning English at Southern Cross.

He gave me proper direction on how to say "mate." I guess you don't actually pronunce it, it's just suppose to roll off the tongue and come out something that "made." He really has no justification on what Australian slang means. When I asked him what "bloody" means he couldn't think of an answer.

Oh yeah, everything is shortened here in Australia. University is uni, sunglasses are sunnies, and so on.

His friends are very immature and I often stand out as the well-behaved one of the group. For instance, they proceeded to get into an ice cube throwing fight at a marina type club in nearby Ballina. It was pretty embarrassing. They also swear around their kids alot (which are like 2-7 years old) which I thought is very strange.

I'm pretty nervous to go to his gig on Friday night. Not only will I be hanging with his friends but its in an aborigional club, which he hasn't spoken fond of.