(Laura the Canadian?)
With only 4 days to go until my Toronto touch-down, I’m beginning to ponder exactly how much I’ve changed since I left Canada in September 2008. Having spent so much time in China and Taiwan, I know for a fact that I’m finally as thrifty as my father always hoped I’d be. After all, isn’t $2 what you’d expect to pay for a haircut? I haven’t necessarily ‘become Chinese’ but I can certainly tolerate a whole lot more than I used to. China in summary means noise, dirt and inefficiency and you’ve got to build up immunity to last here.
So far, I’ve only spent 3 months in Australia, but I’m dating an Australian and I live and work in China with all Aussie teachers. It’s frightening when I stop and think about how Aussie I’m becoming. Phrases like, “I reckon’,” “sweet as” and “doing the washing” now come as naturally to me as saying “eh” at the end of a sentence. Parts of my job require me to teach my students about Melbourne (life, culture, costs, etc…) and I think to myself… could I even teach about Toronto? I don’t reckon’ I remember enough!
To really drive the point home, I share an office with a woman named June who is very alert to different accents and pronunciation. She reckons that I’ve got an accidental Australian twang going on in most of my vowels and heaps of specific words. I’ve even learned the legendary Aussie bush-ballad and ‘unofficial national anthem:’ Waltzing Matilda, and I’m singing it in front of a whole theatre full of Chinese municipal government and university administration tomorrow night. Where’s Canadian Laura gone?! Does the fact that I’m madly craving Tim Hortons make all of this okay?
Collus - dressed as a girl for his drama presentation
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