Esquisitices do lado de cá

Bernarda Maia August 27th, 2009

Inspirada pelo blog de um querido amigo, o Pacha, escrevo este post aqui.

Fiquei pensando nas esquisitices daqui, que mesmo após quase dois anos, ainda acho estranho.

Enfim, nem são tão esquisitas, mas pensando num post que o Pacha escreveu sobre abacate… Australiano come abacate no sanduíche. Tem a opção de colocar ele fatiado com salada ou passar o creme no pão. Eu odeio abacate, não como por nada neste mundo, guacamole é palavra pra sacanear mexicano.

Outra esquisitice é que eles amam salada grega, que consiste em folhas, cebola, azeitona preta, tomate, pepino e Fetta cheese, que é um queijo grego super salgado e que quando cheguei aqui achava uma delícia, mas como eles não são criativos e tacam este queijo em tudo quanto é salada, eu já enjoei. O que eu acho estranho é o pepino, aqui tem vários tipos de pepino e eles não tiram a casca pra comer, ou seja, o pepino que antes eu já não fazia digestão direito, fica na barriga por dias.

As esquisitices não param por aí, outra é colocar leite gelado no café quente. Fica horrivel pois gela o café. Uma vez perguntei para uma colega australiana o motivo pelo qual eles colocavam e ela respondeu, pois se colocarmos quente fica muito quente. Será que eles nunca ouviram falar em leite morno? Enfim…

E mais uma ótima, para terminar este post, é sobre higiene bucal. Certa vez estava escovando os dentes após o almoço e uma professora do meu trabalho entrou no banheiro. Ela perguntou porque eu estava escovando os dentes e eu respondi que sempre escovo após as refeições. Ela ficou surpresa e perguntou: após todas elas? eu respondi que após as principais, café-da-manha, almoço e jantar. Ela ainda mais surpresa disse que só escovava antes de dormir (!!!), argumentando que escovar os dentes demais (?) estraga o esmalte dos dentes. Oh, Lord! Alguém aí sentiu um cheirinho ruim?

Bushfire

Bernarda Maia March 14th, 2009

Picture: Russell Vickery/Herald Sun

Picture: Russell Vickery/Herald Sun

Bushfires are a natural disaster that is very common in Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. They are particularly familiar to the population of Victoria, the state in the south-east of the Australian mainland. This year Australia experienced a record-breaking heat wave—temperatures well above 38°C. This resulted in a serious disaster for towns in south-eastern Australia. With winds up to 130 km/h it has been really hard to fight the fires.

As a result, more then two hundred people died and more than one thousand lost their homes. As I write this article there are several fires still burning out of control.

In the middle of this sad disaster I was amazed to see how people unite in their efforts to fight the fire and help the people who have lost everything. Three days after Black Saturday (as the worst day of fires, with temperatures of 45°C, has come to be known), the Australian Red Cross had raised eighty million Australian dollars for the benefit of Victorians. It is important to point out that the Australian population is only about twenty million. This is a remarkable achievement.

The Australian Red Cross also received so many blood donations that I had to book my appointment to donate blood 3 weeks in advance. Normally it takes me two days to fix a day and time.

Everywhere you can find baskets and buckets asking for money to help people who suffered with the bushfires. You can see it in pubs, supermarkets, schools, bookstores, cafes, and so on. The help is coming from the whole country. On TV the number of a bank account opened to raise funds for the bushfire victims is shown, together with an 1800 number for credit card donations.

My family and friends in Brazil were also worried. Some of my friends called me and lots emailed me asking if I was ok. Most of them did not know that I had moved to Sydney, which was not affected. I am glad to have received this support from people in my country and I want to say that I’m fine.
It’s really sad to hear what has been happening to these towns in Victoria. When you talk to someone from down there, it’s impressive to see how many people have met someone directly or indirectly who was affected by the bushfire.

I would like to praise the firemen’s work as well as that of the volunteers. They are amazing, fighting the fire and risking their lives. It is really good to see the community working together in these difficult times.