Australia & New Zealand trip

Winding down for the night. Enjoying some Tim Tam cookies and thinking about the Aussie encounters / interactions thus far.

First off, we can get Tim Tams in the states, but for those that haven't had them, they are a pretty good sandwich cookie dipped in chocolate. The mint ones that we got are a very nice blend of a Girl Scout thin mint, and a Grasshopper mint sandwich cookie.

As an American in Sydney, honestly, we stand out quite a bit. Aside from the fact that we like to move to the right rather than stick to the left (insert whatever political commentary you'd like ;-) the accent is certainly a true giveaway.

Thus far, the people we have talked too, kind of light up a bit when they hear the accent. I can imagine it's the same sort of thing we do when we hear a nice accent coming from someone.

They smile a bit more, they like to ask where you're from, and are quite engaging.

It's a lot of fun and really makes us feel like tourists.

At the pie place last night, we ran into a guy that after he heard we were Americans he asked why we were here. "Is it because of The Donald?" he said in a rather thick accent.

"Nope, we're here for the pies!" I responded.

It's been the only time that politics has come up in our discussions with people.

Many years ago when I was on Yahoo Chat, I talked to a group of Aussies and the accent thing came up. They said they LOVE the American accent. When asked why, they said, "All you guys sound like Movie Stars!" Makes sense considering that there is a lot of American films that do well over here, but I wasn't sure I really believed it.

After the experiences these last couple of days and the reactions of people, I can see that it really is true :-)Read more