Cheeseburger in Paradise... not quite

So this was just too good of a synapses of what life over here is like to pass up.

I decided to walk down from my uni office to the cafe here on campus to get some lunch. I asked the woman behind the "Burger Bar" for a cheeseburger. She walked to the kitchen and put in my order. However, when she returned I was told that they "didn't do cheeseburgers". I couldn't believe it. She asked if I wanted a regular pre-made burger and I said sure. Just then a bloke from the back walked out and said he would make me one. I was stoked, because as we all know a regular hamburger just isn't the same. More on this story later.

Now let me take you back in time to an earlier episode. This happened up in Queensland a few months ago. I decided I wanted a chicken sandwich from KFC and promptly ordered one. The high school girl, maybe younger because they don't seem to have a minimum age for workers over here, looked at me like I was the dumbest person in Australia. She then told me they didn't have chicken sandwiches. I pointed to the BIG picture on their menu and she said in a very dumbfounded tone that what I was pointing at was a chicken burger. So lesson learned. If something has a burger bun then it is a burger. If it has white sliced bread then it is a sandwich.

Now back to my story of lunch today. You probably already know where this is heading. So after waiting for a while my burger was brought out to me with some chips(fries). I paid for it and went to sit down to enjoy it. Well, after looking at it and thinking, "my they have thin patties here," I opened it to find that on my burger was about two drops of ketchup and one slice of cheese... no meat pattie! I had been given a cheese burger. Of course I went to sort it all out and in the end got my chesseburger with an actual meat pattie. I couldn't figure out if the woman thought it was as ridiculous as I did or if she just thought I was ridiculous.

The moral of the story is even here, where they supposedly speak the same language, what I intend on saying is often lost in translation. I'm just glad I didn't order a garlic burger.

Tim