h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You don't have to graduate here to do a high-school exchange - it usually takes place some time in Year 10 or 11.
I think I'm just going to stay in Melbourne for uni, and settle here...
But I'll come to the US to see you guys, obviously. Wouldn't miss it for the world.

haha... my bf's mom just got back from Australia... she visited Melbourne... you might have seen her! did you notice and 'fred's-boyfriend's-mom' shaped tourists.... lol

but yeah apparently she's been saving up her whole life to go, and she didn' even have enough to bring her family along... so it might be a while before I ever get to visit you. I'm saving up now though, I have an account and everything

I can't say I noticed her, but tell her I say hi anyway!
*shakes fist*
The Internet can connect people around the world, and then reality kicks in and you realise you can't afford to ever go to those places. Or you need to save up your whole life to go.
I wanna go overseas, but it's so expensive!

I know... money sucks... there is never enough... oh is it true that in australia you don't have pennys or 1 cents, you have to round it up if you ever do get that much or something? it's what my boyfriend told me, but that sound a little weird.. just wanted to know.

yeah my dad told me! its wierd!

Why cant you travel to go to college? but seriously! if they try... I WILL get payments for you.. I have connections :P

I think we should find a halfway point for all of us... lest cost, and yeah.. it would just be fun! OH! you know what? we should go on a road trip from LA to NY!!!
cheers
ford

Actually, that's true. If you want to buy an item that costs 98c, they'll round it up to a dollar at the register. It works better if you buy lots of items that cost some number of cents that needs to be rounded, because then you save money in the long run.
There used to be 1 and 2 cent coins but I think they got rid of them in the eighties. There are heaps of them just floating around - it's sort of like a novelty: money you can't do anything with. I think if you can collect enough of it, you can take it into a bank and get it converted to "real money"...

THAT'S SOOOO WEIRD! ... sorry, you probably think pennies are weird or something.

Nah, not really...
Well, actually, yes...
I don't understand the whole "nickel/dime/quarter" thing with American money though. All we have here is dollars and cents.

haha
pennies: 1/100th of a dollar

nickle: 5/1ooth of a dollar
dime: 10/100th
quarter: 25/100th
half dollar: 50/100th
that clearer?
cheers
ford

nicles and quarters and stuff are actually cents. Their coins that reprisent different amouts of it. But instead of naming each type of coin by the amount it represents (ex. 1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents) we just give them names (ex. penny, nickle, dime, quarter) makes it easier to talk about... or not. I guess it's simple in a complicated way

Hahaha that's smart!

Is it true that in America they don't add the tax on the prices of items? So if you go to buy one, you end up paying more than was on the label, because they didn't charge the tax yet?
In Australia, all taxes are added to the prices, so you pay what you pay (unless of course you pay with cash and then it's rounded up). If you pay with a card, I think you can still work with cents (albiet virtual cents).

yeah... they trick you with taxes... jerks! haha
thats cool! I wish they did that here!
cheers
ford

I wonder why they don't? It seems easier to me...
Then again, that might just be me saying that because I'm used to having them added on.

It seems easyer to me too... I think they do that to trick people into buying the things so the prices seem less then BOOM added price... i donno.. its dumb
cheers
ford<cheers.

oops

i dunno why either... it's stupid, coz I suck at math and can't figure out the tax.

haha same here... whenever I try to do it it always ends up like... 7 dollars offf... I dont get it
cheers
ford