What do Australians eat?

The school lunch lady just asked me what the 10 high school students who are coming over from Adelaide in October would like to eat for lunch. ... How the hell would I know?? As though every single Australian has the same tastes or something. When I said everyone has different tastes so it is hard for me to say exactly she started asking me specific foods. Will they eat udon? I supposed they would, considering that udon consists of fat white noodles in slightly flavoured heated water and hence could hardly be distasteful to many people. And then she was all "Really? Udon is OK?" Like it was the most flavoursome food in the world and that most people can only eat if they have been exposed to it from birth, like natto, or Vegemite or something. I had to refrain from saying "yeah, udon tastes like nothing" because they love their udon in this area, it's an industry here. But really, if any of you have ever had udon you know what i am talking about - it is practically like eating air. Having gotten this much out of me she branches out into vegetables. Do they eat mushrooms? Buggered if I know, mostly I want to say they will eat anything they are given, but there is always gonna be some fussy brat who'll fuck that up for me by refusing to eat anything except the Fruit Loops his mum packed. When I came to Japan on the very trip that these kids are coming on I ate anything that was put in front of me. Mostly because we were so hungry from standing around waiting to be told where we were going next.

For some reason the middle aged Japanese still seem think that in Australia we only eat potato and meat. The host parents are always heaps concerned about what food to give the Aussie kids. The reason the kids come here is to get a Jap experience so they should just feed them a normal meal rather than try and cater to their tastes. But that would involve being a bad host I guess. It is great that they are so thoughtful, but in the end it just amounts to mollycoddling which I am never a fan of.

Today we got ice cream in the staffroom. Dunno why, but the vice principal just wandered in with a bag full of ice creams and we all got one. Just for being around I guess. All I have done today is write e-mails and colour in the border on my schedule. I did print some song sheets earlier on and took them up to the E room. That made me look heaps organised. I totally deserve an ice cream for that!