Still figuring it all out

• TV: The same shows are on multiple channels, 30 minutes apart... everyday; they repeat the repeats over and over and over again. So what if this country doesn't have Tivo... apparently we don't need it... even though we don't want it. (BTW-- Friends and Scrubs are on 24 hours a day. If there were more hours in a day, I'm sure this country would find a way to put them on TV).
  
• Buying a house: so, apparently no one wants my money. I'm a bad risk despite my much higher than average income and 20% down payment. Because the government limits my work permit terms, banks don't want to give me a mortgage. What is UP with that?!
• Gas (Petrol / Fuel): It's EXPENSIVE. Litres, gallons, whatever way you slice it; $140 to fill up a gas tank is NUTS. And we don't even have an SUV-- we have a fuel-economy car. argh...
• Friends: How do I make them when I work at home and don't go to school? Thankfully I have free calls to the US. But I miss my girlfriends...
• Beverages: Lemonade is 7-up (Beware ordering it as a mixer); lager= light beer; bitters=ales; guiness=stout/all dark beer. "fresh orange"= oj (regardless of being fresh squeezed); most barristas don't know what a cosmo is-- or grey goose, kahlua or most mixed drinks. drinking a "shandy" (beer and lemonade-- err, 7-up) is not considered drinking, and that's what the "DD" drinks.
• Driving: I'm getting better at the right-hand orientation (I no longer have a frightened Mark saying, "A little to the right, darling"), but the roundabouts have me completely befuddled. All of my good left-hand orientation karma goes out the window. So far I'm only good on motorways (highways)... country roads and regular streets (which inevitably lead to roundabouts) are a little, errr... trickier.
• Pounds vs. Dollars: can't help it. In my head, everything here is exhorbitantly expensive. A fish filet meal at McDonald's $14 (I folded... couldn't help it... I needed some American french fries, which is sad b/c i don't even eat them in America)?!? WTF?!?
• America: This is what I find myself calling it, even though it's the U.S. (and other Americans-- e.g. Canadians, Mexicans, Brazilians and other S. Americans are technically Americans as well, and some get a little miffed that the U.S. has claimed both continents).
• Madonna: Remember you people-- I start sounding like Madonna, you start telling me I'm an idiot.
  

That's all folks... TTFN.