Sounds for Sore Ears

As much as I love the Aussie accent, it was nice to be able to talk to people today and understand 100% of the things they were saying.  I went to a "New to Melbourne" luncheon put on by the university, for students coming from nations that aren't well represented on campus.  I met some people from all over the Americas, as well as others from Africa, before the people running the event had us all sit down.  Then the name of each nation was called and we were asked to stand up accordingly, so that we could see the others who were from the same place.  There were 6 of us from the US, and after lunch was served, we gathered together to talk.  It was great to hear the good ole Yank accent, though no one else in the group was from the west coast.  There were two from Minnesota, one from Boston, one from Rhode Island, and one from New Jersey.  We slipped easily into conversation, commiserating together about the differences in the culture and the difficulties of moving half way across the world.  It was actually really comforting talking to them, even though they were strangers.  Not to mention that it was a free meal, which I will never turn down.