I forgot to add at the end of my last post that at Teemu's house was a guy from Sweden called Frederik, who lives in my building. Because it was just girls walking home, Frederik got a lot of our numbers, and made us promise to get in contact if anything went wrong. His exact words were, "If you get raped, text me, and I'll come and help!". I'm still not entirely sure how that would work, but hey, nice to know he cared!
Anyway, for those of you back home who had vague hopes of me returning with an English accent, I'll let you know now to avoid future disappointment that this is probably not going to happen. This is mostly because I'm spending a lot of my time with people who aren't English, even though I'm in England. We've started referring to the English as the 'natives' or 'indigenous ones', and seeking out friendships, to varying degrees of success. But that's not really what this post is about.
What I've noticed since being here is that every English-speaking country has totally different colloquialisms. Not that this is entirely unexpected, but especially in the case of my American friends, we've been having fun experimenting with what each other says. I've compiled a bit of a list of terms that I particularly like (some of which I'm definitely going to try and bring back... consider this a heads up!):
Browning Out - not quite blacking out, more like a haze. Browning out is when you're in a hungover state and you keep getting flashbacks to the previous night's adventures.
Hot Mess - someone who's not totally wasted, but definitely on their way.
Shitshow - the step beyond hot mess. Symptoms include dancing on tables, blacking or browning out, spilling drink everywhere (beyond usual clumsiness).
Throwing Down - to have a party. As in, "We're throwing down at our place tonight."
Pre-gaming - pre-drinking.
Sorostitutes - skanky girls (there are sororities in the States, so I'm assuming that this is where it came from).
Fries - count for everything except crisps. That's everything from French Fries to wedges.
Shwasted - a fun way of saying wasted.
"Sorry for Partying" - what you say if anyone gives you a strange look or tells you off for having too much fun. Can be used in pretty much any situation.
"Sorry I'm not sorry" - Kind of like "Sorry for partying".
Mattress - (German). Someone who sleeps around a lot.
Then I made another list of things that I say on a semi-regular basis that my international friends find amusing, that I didn't really realise were Australia-specific.
"I can't be bothered"
"Dodgy" - also dodge. They say "sketchy".
"Seedy" - in the hungover sense.
"Heaps" - apparently we say this 'heaps' and apply it to random things, like 'heaps of people' or 'heaps of fun'.
"Keen" - as in "I'm keen to go out tonight". It's just not used anywhere else.
"Rocked up"
"Stacked it" - to quote a friend of mine, "Why wouldn't you just say fell over?"
"Half past/quarter past/quarter to" - this one kind of surprised me.
And finally...
Some of my friends referred to a couple of things by abbreviations. I like them a lot. Used in everyday conversation, kind of like "FML".
FOMO - Fear of missing out. "I'm not sure if I want to go out, but Ive got really bad FOMO!"
BOMO - Black out/make out. When you've had a few drinks, and then the next thing you know, you're making out with someone. Sometimes as a result of wearing the beer goggles, sometimes not. As in, "So you and Peter then, hey?" "I barely remember. Effing BOMO!"
Then we (mostly myself and Elizabeth) got a bit creative and came up with these:
BOMA - Black out, make adventure. See this entry for background information.
BOMOA - Black out/make out adventure. Yet to happen, but you never know...
Yeah... I'm probably going to come home speaking like an American. Joey and Patrick think they're going to go home speaking like Australians (if they can ever get their vowel pronunciation right!). Which country am I in again??
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