Unlearning American English and Accent Confusion

When I first moved to Australia, I came fully equipped with English. Alas, it was the wrong kind of English. Nowhere was this more obvious than in all the spelling questions I got wrong in elementary school because, apparently, spelling things the same way in English across the entire world would be too easy.

I can distinctly remember the aggravation I felt whenever I was tripped over by yet another word that was spelled differently in Australia, such as humour, colour, honour, metre, centre,...