Lingo

In preparation for our trip, I read about certain words and sayings Australians used. However, it was hard to discriminate between bush/outback speak vs city speak vs really cool words that are actually outdated. For example, see http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html.

Here are the more useful things we have learned while actually living in Melbourne so far:

Barrack - Root, cheer: "Who do you root barrack for?"
As our friend here put it "Well, root means, to shag, essentially." Matt already knew this and warned me not to say root, and I think partially because I was so conscious not to say it, I used it in a sentence when talking to locals at the wine bar below our apartment. Nice.

Bogans - Rednecks, 'unclassy', crude, or members of an opposing team that you dislike. "Only rednecks bogans root barrack for Collingwood."
 In America, if you went to UVA you would call Hookies bogans. Matt can specify an Atlanta version, but from what I hear, if you go to UGA, Gators would be bogans. Again per our local friend, saying rednecks here conjures up images of of America as seen on TV.... There are bogans in the city and bogans in outback and bogans in Collingwood, Melbourne (says all the people we've met here who don't like their Aussie rules (Australian Football) team.

Rubbish - trash, refuse. "Only rednecks bogans root barrack for Collingwood, they're absolute trash rubbish."
Also, I've seen trash cans that actually say "rubbish bins" on them. I still haven't figured out if trash is used as well or has some other connotation.

On an unrelated note...

Capsicum - What Americans refer to as Red/Green bell peppers. Chili peppers are referred to as chilies. Apparently they don't have jalapenos here or else they are out of season. Pepper only refers to the black pepper companion of salt.

To be continued....