McKinlely Answers Your Questions!

Hi everyone I have been receiving some questions from my friends in America. My first two letters were from Gillian and Annalise, here is what they wrote:

From Gillian- what kinds of different food do you have there and what's your favorite? Have you eaten kangaroo?

From Annalise - what kind of animals have you seen and which is your favorite? Have you seen a platypus yet? that's my mom's favorite

Dear Gillian,

Some of the different foods we have here are:

White cheese. Only white cheese. Mozzarella, cheddar, colby, all white!!!!! No orange cheeses here! I’m sure American cheese would be white too, but they don’t have that here. 

Sausage. I know there are sausages in the US, but down here we have sausages instead of hot dogs, so we always have what are called "sausage sizzles” everywhere we go.  We have them at school events, church parties, and even outside the hardware store on the weekends. You have a choice of "with" or "without", meaning onions.  I usually like mine “without” and plain.

Some people eat lamb brains, eww! I'm not kidding they sell them in stores and it's disgusting!

Otherwise most of our foods are the same.  Some foods we do not have here are Pop Tarts, and Runts. Junk food is very expensive, and so is Fast Food, so we usually do without. 

My favorite food here is probably the fruit.  It is always so fresh because they do not put preservatives in it which makes it more natural. You have to wait for some fruits to be in season to buy them so their prices go down. For example, grapes can cost $18.00 a bag, or bananas may cost $10.00 a bunch!

As far as kangaroo meat, no I have not eaten it yet, but my mom has seen it in the stores and she says it looks very lean.

From,

McKinley

Dear Annalise,

I've seen many different animals here in Australia such as, kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, wombats, Tasmanian devils, and emus.

Kangaroos are surprisingly very soft and are sometimes shy when you want to pet them. But not this time (below).

Koalas are also very soft and usually sleep during the day.  Their noses are so oddly flat and their teeth look like hamster teeth! I got to pet a koala a couple of weeks ago.

Wallabies are pretty much mini kangaroos that hop around the outback. Wombats are chubby, small animals almost like a giant guinea pig. 

Tasmanian devils are carnivores (meat eaters) that are black and sometimes have a white stripe across their backs. Below is one we watched at feeding time at the zoo. He was eating a rat!

Finally, there's the emu, an ostrich like bird that makes a drumming noise in its throat. One time I went in an emu pen and the emu almost pounded on top of me when I tried to pet it. They are much more vicious than they look!!!!

My favorite animal would have to be a Tasmanian devil because of their strange roar and lifestyle of fighting and scavenging for food.

Sadly, I have not seen a platypus but I do hope that I see one soon!

From,

McKinley

Keep sending in the letters because I love reading and answering them!!!!!!
(Do you have a question for McKinley?  If so, please send them to fishielish@y7mail.com)