We have wanted a pet for a long time, and during a conversation with our Australian friends, we learned about budgerigars (small parrots commonly referred to as "budgies"). They are native to Australia, but seem to be quite popular as pets here. This sort of pet is friendly but won't take up too much room in our apartment, so we began to learn as much as we could about budgies. We searched all winter and finally decided to purchase one at the market.
We were afraid that the saleslady would tell us very important information (which we wouldn’t understand) or try to take advantage of the foreigners. This morning I went to the market with our neighbor, Nikolai. He is fluent in English because he was in Canada for a year through MCC’s International Visitor Exchange Program. He has been very helpful throughout our six months here and was again today.
We were able to find Petey, the newest member of our household. He is a month-old, yellow and green bird. We bought a male because they are traditionally friendlier and speak more. The average one has around a 20-word vocabulary, but some develop vocabularies in the thousands. Now we just have to figure out what language to teach him.
Dave
