12. Adoption Day - What Makes Thursdays So Special

Everyone has their own unusual behavior, be it common or uncommon among the population, whether it’s done consciously or unconsciously. I read Andrew’s post on his unusual behavior, and I too do some of those things as well, but I did pick up an unusual hobby when I arrived at Melbourne. While girls like shopping for just about anything, guys don’t shop that much, but still do, I go ‘adopting’ once a week, if possible. I shall try to pen down the origin of this habit as best as I can, and explain a few things as well.

First of all, the place of ‘adoption’ is the department store Savers up in Brunswick. If I’m not mistaken, Savers is actually owned by Salvation Army and what they do is they go around collecting stuff from homes and bring them to Savers to sell them, or anyone can just bring their unused stuff to Savers themselves. I got to know of this place when the O-Weekers of IH (those running the orientation) took us there to pick up outfits for an event. I came back another time later because I wanted to buy groceries nearby and I entered Savers and had a look around. I saw the rack with all the ‘animals’ and I decided to just browse through for the fun of it. As I was digging through the pile, I came upon this dog with a Christmas hat, which looks relatively brand new, and also a white bunny. For the price of $1.49 each, I thought to myself, why not. So as I was walking back home, I contemplated whether I should return one day and have an occasional look for more ‘animals’ to add to my ‘family’. As the idea evolved, I decided that I should go back on a weekday because I’m just too lazy to go out on weekends. Since Thursday is the day when my class starts at 12.30p.m., I declared on my calendar every Thursday Adoption Day, where I would venture to Savers to look out for more abandoned animals (they are second-hand stuff, so they can be regarded as abandoned) and adopt them.

It’s surprising what stuff people discard that’s still in good condition. So far, I have 8 in my family – 2 identical Santa Dogs (what a coincidence, considering I bought them on 2 separate visits), a Dalmatian, 2 Koalas, 2 rabbits, and one squirrel. I talked to Andrew on MSN yesterday, and we agreed that space was going to be an issue. My wooden rack is almost full, I can make some space for one more line of animals, but after that I seriously don’t know where to put them. So if anyone wants anything, they can just ask and I’ll see if I can pass them one way or another. Oh by the way, the Giant Koala is not up for grabs :P

Koala : *stones at you* Nah uh, you're not getting my food *clutches tightly*

Family photo!!! In case you guys noticed, I don't have any teddy bears there. It's not that they don't have any teddy bears in Savers, it's just that I don't really like them. I think they're too 'common'. So that's about it - my unusualness that I picked up in Australia ^_^