What is American?

It is 10pm on Sunday right now.
Yesterday was really wonderful. The three of us all took a walk to Coles/Woolworths/the shopping center nearby. It was another warm day, but definitely bearable. I bought some more sun dried tomatoes and cheese to use for lunches at work. I also got some chocolate since I was craving it. We chose to purchase a cake to bring to Helen's, since they were having us over for supper. While walking back we got into a conversation about possibly cooking an "American meal" for the women at the office before we left. The conundrum we found was that we have no idea what is American. Our heritage comes from so many ethnic backgrounds put together that it is quite a difficult question to answer. About the only food we thought of was a sloppy jo/sloppy jane. I decided that things are more immersed in our culture, like hot dogs/beer/baseball, or pizza/beer. The pizza is definitely originally American. This will definitely be a question we have to continue to ponder. When we got back to Hosanna Heights we had a bit of down time before Helen was planning to pick us up. She called and asked us to bring things to stay overnight as it would be significantly easier to not need to make extra trips. We also brought our laundry as Helen offered that we could do that. On the way to Helen's we stopped at a liquor store to get some wine for dinner, and to meet her son Steven. Steven has worked quite a few odd jobs it sounds like and has ended up at this one for now. He and I talked briefly about Fantasy Football/Baseball leagues, which he said have taken over his life this year. When we got there we commenced washing our clothes right away. Supper was ready rather quickly so we headed into the dining room to eat. Helen had asked what we missed as far as food from the US, and we couldn't really come up with anything in particular. They cut up various vegetables and cheese to put into tortillas. It was very yummy. Peter had made a sort of lemon pudding that was really good for dessert. We decided to watch Muriel's Wedding after supper. Muriel's Wedding is what we have been told is a very Australian movie. I really enjoyed it. It is the story of Muriel who comes from a rather disfunctional family and becomes obsessed with getting married. The true philosophical issues at the movie's center are about the things pointless that we strive for in our lives like popularity and living up to other people's standards. The film is really great, and it has plenty of twists and turns as apparently is common in Australian films. I would recommend it to anyone who can get their hands on it. We were all pretty tired after the movie was over and spent a little time reading before hitting the hay. We were able to sleep in a bit in the morning because church didn't start until 11am. We went to Helen and Peter's church in the city today. It was a very unique service, especially in consideration of the music. The music was very hippie-esque. It was very enjoyable though. The congregation is not very large, which is very common in the Lutheran Church here. There aren't any mega churches like those developing in the US. The pastor was a very good preacher and we were very welcomed. After church there was a lunch that is a community event with a Chinese community that holds a service in another room of the church during the same time. We enjoyed meeting some people from the congregation and getting to meet the pastor. We had a look through their library and I selected a book to borrow on the history of the Christian church in Australia to use toward my RE credit that I am working for while here. We went to have coffee with a couple of the people we met. One was named Tanya and she invited us to come up to her home for the next weekend. She also asked if I would like to possibly help lead the Holden Evening Prayer, which is exciting since it is my first real opportunity to sing here. We decided we would work on it next weekend while we are staying with her. After coffee we walked around the city a bit while Peter and Helen tried to shop for clothes for their Daughter's upcoming wedding. When we met up we tried to work on getting a sim card for the one phone we have acquired to use here. It is going to be used only for work, though. We returned home and couldn't believe it was already 5:30pm. Hilary and I went for a walk to debrief about our day and how we were feeling while Morgan used Skype on one of the computers at Helen's house. She caught up with us as we walked though. We stumbled upon our first really beat up building. It was a many story high building with almost all of its windows graffitied and broken. As we walked into the parking lot in front of it a police officer (in a car) followed us in. We were all startled as he confronted us as to what we were doing there. We assured him we weren't planning to go in and asked him what it was. He told us it was an old part of the surrounding hospital and that it was condemned but obviously people continued to tresspass. We stayed and talked about the building after he pulled away. We asked Peter and Helen about it when we got back to their house. It was the old mental ward as a part of a hospital that is now called SA Disability. It was apparently originally called something like "the home for the incurables." Now, like most institutions in the US, is changing its approach to placing clients/patients into smaller group homes in communities. This was very interesting to me since it is directly related to my job at home. Peter made veggie patties (literally he mashed up various steamed veggies and fried and baked them) for supper, which were great. When we finished eating we finally tried some of the cake that we had brought. We lounged about for a bit until Helen decided it was time to bring us home. It wasn't until we were halfway home that it occured to her that she could have just had us stay the night and brought us to work with her in the morning, which would have made a lot more sense. Plus, it would have meant I could have slept in a non-broken bed one more night. My back was so thankful for her bed last night. As uncomfortable some of the aspects of Hosanna Heights are, I may be thankful for my own space as I am seeming to be have some unfortunate effects from something I've eaten. Hopefully a good nights rest will help with that though.