"What The Fuck Are Those?"

Since I've been here, I've noticed my own tendency to assume that anything I see: animals, plant, rock, must be foreign. I've looked stupid on a number of occasions because I say things like "What's that?" and someone will say, "Catrina, that's a cow."

But, a lot of the time I'm right...it's a creature or plant that I've never seen before. Chances are I'm seeing it outside of my window at 4 am, and if that is the case, then I know it has never been above the equator. So, I take a couple of dumb ones for the team, but I do usually learn a good bit about this excellent example of island biogeography.

My mate Pete (AKA Yakimus) and I were coming back from a wine tasting the other day (wine faults...ACK!) and we drove by one of the fields I commonly walk by on my long walk up the hill to the winery. Out the car window, I saw these awkward looking off white colored animals that just looked horribly unhealthy and, well, cold. I looked over at him and said, "What the fuck are those?" He pulled the car over (love this kid), put it in neutral, pulled his sunnies off his nose and up onto his head, and said, "Catrina, those are sheep. They've just been sheared." I retorted with, "Well, I didn't recognize them because they looked cold!" He threw the car back in gear and laugh at me, "You Yanks. I can't believe you sometimes."

If you go overseas, don't automatically assume that everything is not what you know. Unless you want to provide the locals with free entertainment.

I've been busy lately with end of term garbage, assignments, revision, tests. Lovely. I took the above picture in a heinous session of paper writing about sensory thresholds. It was obvious mania.

Cheers kids