Comments on Australia

Well, so far I know I have commented mostly on all the crap we've been doing (or lack thereof). I haven't said much about our experience with the country itself, so here we go. Firstly, as I've mentioned before, it's a lot like America here. There are big buildings, the streets are relatively clean, there is graffiti on graffiti-prone surfaces, regular cars, busses, trams, people of all colors, and most stuff is overpriced. It feels very similar to home with a few quirks.

One of the things I like best about it here is they include tax with the price of things. AND the don't use pennies, which is excellent. If something costs $9.99, it's rounded to the closest 5 cents and that's what you pay. So, it would be $10 even in this case. If your sandwich costs $4.50, you pay $4.50. Tax included, no tipping, no pennies - it's great.

I can't seem to get used to the driving on the left side of the road thing. I hadn't realized how ingrained it is in me to expect traffic to be on the right. I approach an intersection and after a moment of arguing in my brain, I look to the left as though the cars would be coming on the right side of the road. Doh! I basically look both ways on every road and tram line always, never really knowing where the cars or trams are supposed to be going. I sat at a tram station on the right side of the road for about 10 minutes before I realized that the one I wanted was on the left side of the road because the trams travel on the left also. I'm surprised how difficult a time my brain is having. It would probably be different if we were driving, because then we'd have to figure it out. But just be-bopping around on the streets makes for slow learing.

I got a tuna sandwich the other day and the girl asked me if I wanted mar-jur-eene on my sandwich. What?, I said. She asked again - mar-jur-eene. I think I asked what one more time before I realized she was asking me if I wanted margerine on my tuna sandwich. No! In fact, get the margerine away from my sandwich! I think they use margerine like mayonaise on sandwiches - gross.

In the bathrooms, they use hand dryers rather than paper towels. In all bathrooms. There are no options for the paper towel, you must use the annoying hand dryer. It actually probably is better, as they don't have quite the abundance of trees that we have, so why waste a precious resource on hand drying. I'm getting used to it, I was just surprised by it.

I have a couple more bones to pick, mostly regarding Australian appliances and ridiculous Australian slang, but I will save that for another rant on another day. Oh and by the way, the conversion is about $1 Australian dollar is $.88 American cents or so, to give you a feel for prices. So, our $2200 AUD a month rent is about $1900 USD a month, still pretty steep!!