On Being Australian

I feel that I've assimilated quite well into this country and I'd like to think that I could pass for Canadian in most circumstances, except for one pesky little thing - my accent. Strangely, I often forget that I have an accent, so I'm surprised when I meet someone new and they call me out on it.

Here are a collection of questions and comments that I've received in response to my Aussie twang:

"Oh, I didn't realise you were British"

"There's another girl that works here who's from New Zealand too"

"Oh, you're from Australia? I have a cousin in Sydney!"

"Oh, you're from Australia? I have a friend in Auckland!"

"I love it when you leave me voice messages, your accent is so cute!"

"Do I have an accent?"

"You mean you don't get any snow at all?"

"I wanted to go to Australia, but then I saw 'Survivor: Australia', and I changed my mind"

"Wow, that must have been a long flight over! What is it, like, 10 hours?"

"Do you go walkabout?"

"I'm too scared to go to Australia, you have so many spiders, snakes and sharks!"

"That's so weird that your Christmas is during Summer"

"Australia eh? Shouldn't you be in Whistler?"