It's not that different on the other side of the road

A lot of people have asked me what Australia culture is like. In my Australian Studies class, we learned that Australia doesn't really have a culture. For example, we had a class on Australian pop music where I learned that there's no such thing as Australian music. Basically, Australia really wants to be like the US, so they just sort of copy whatever's popular in the states. The thing is, they CAN have a good culture through the indigenous people here, but because Australia is extremely racist, they don't consider the indigenous culture to be a culture worth knowing. Shame.

But academics aside, I haven't really noticed any big differences between Australia and California. This is mostly because I have been in the wilderness and not around Australian people, just the same 47 people with some professors (which I really enjoy). But even when we are in the cities, I feel more like I am in a different state of the United States, not in a different country. Here's a list of the differences or general observations I've seen in Australia:

1. Australia is great about gluten allergies but TERRIBLE about nut allergies. Things here will have nuts even if the menu doesn't mention any nuts - this DOES NOT HAPPEN in the states. It's really annoying for me, but my friend who can't eat gluten finds it so much easier to eat here just because restaurants are so much more aware of her allergy. Still, though, it's quite easy to ask for things without nuts. It's just interesting because the allergy focus in Australia seems to be gluten, and not nuts, while in the US, the biggest and most common allergy is, by far, nuts.
2. There is no such thing as pedestrian right of way. This is incredibly unfortunate because every time my friends and I want to jay-walk, even though there are NO CARS around and have been no cars around, we still run across the street screaming because cars here drive FAST and they DO NOT STOP FOR YOU even if they are about to hit you. Seriously. Sometimes they go faster when they see you. EVEN AT CROSSWALKS!!!!
3. The lack of pedestrian right of way is also unfortunate because Australians drive on the left here. What's funny about this is that they do everything on the left, like walking. Did you know that Americans walk on the right? Think about it the next time you're in a crowded place. I never noticed that I have a natural inclination to walk on the right, but on the first few days here, I kept bumping into people as I walked. I finally realized it was just because I was going against the flow. Pretty funny! I never thought about that at all!
4. On another note, they even circle swim on the left!! This caught me completely off guard and it's completely weird because I've never had to flip-turn in that direction. When I went swimming here, I kept flip-turning to the right and then swimming over to the left side of the T. I crashed into the guy behind me more than once. It was awkward.
5. Things here are extremely expensive. I'm glad that the AUD is steadily getting weaker than the USD, but it's really not that big a difference. My first exposure to high Australian prices (in an airport public bathroom) is a prime example: feminine products in public toilets are never more than 25 cents in the states; they are $2 here. TWO DOLLARS!
6. Australian sausages suck. They serve them a lot here, but they just taste really weird. I really thought they would grow on me, but I just don't like them.
7. Australia is GREAT with efficiency. They have GREAT public transportation systems. I LOVE Brisbane's combined bus/ferry/catamaran/train system that's ALWAYS ON TIME. AND, if you travel more than once within an hour and a half, you only get charged once, to account for transferring between vessels! It's GREAT! Sydney also had a great Cityrail and ferry system that was so easy to use! Sydney even had a line of free buses throughout the busiest parts of the city! Much preferred to the Caltrain vs. Muni vs. VTA vs. AC Transit vs. Bart. Also much preferred to Caltrain's crazy schedule in general. The public transport system here really excites me, in case you can't tell. I love it. California definitely needs something like this.
8. Restaurants are also very efficient. At first, I thought the service here was subpar after my first week here, and I thought that might be due to the fact that tipping is rare in Australia - perhaps the lack of a tipping culture made the service worse. However, I really like that most restaurants use the cashier method of paying (much like Vietnamese restaurants) so you don't have to deal with arduous splitting of the bills, which is great for us cash-paying students. Restaurant service is just really fast in general. It's great. They also give you a bottle/jug of water per table, so you refill your cup yourself. Yeah. I know it doesn't sound exciting, but it's really awesome.
9. Apparently, waiters singing happy birthday is not a thing in Australia. Shame. We got a lot of weird looks when we asked the waiter to do that for my friend - they agreed to bring out a cake specially for her, but it wasn't free, there weren't candles, and WE had to sing. Which was fine, I GUESS, but it's such a shame.
10. Australia is prepared for rain. It poured like crazy today but as I walked around the city, I never once used my umbrella. There are overhangs everywhere that don't block out sunlight when it's not raining and they curve down so that the water drips down like a fountain into this pool! What a GREAT idea and a great and aesthetically pleasing way to keep everyone dry!
11. Public restrooms are everywhere and they are (almost) always clean. It's great!
12. Australia is very modern, which makes sense because it's a relatively young country, and, as I learned in my class, it loves modernity. The museums here are GREAT.
13. Australia is also very Asian. Obviously, you don't see a lot of Hispanic or black people here (save for the indigenous, but their population is tiny as well), which is interesting because in the US, a lot of workers are Hispanic, but here, they are Asian.
14. Australia is big on heavy food. It has a higher obesity rate than the US. On a side note, it is impossible to come by good Mexican food here. We've tried. Apparently, it doesn't exist, according to locals. However, Australia seems to be big on curry. And laksa soup. And pappadams? And they call bellpeppers capsicums.
15. I have only seen one Starbucks and it was in Sydney.
16. Australia doesn't use ice. Like, ever.
17. And finally, Australia, from what I've seen in Brisbane, Cairns, and Sydney, is super, duper clean.

Basically, Australia is AUSOME!!!!

I realize that most of what I mentioned above is probably not necessarily true of all of Australia and not necessarily different from the entire US, just the Northern California that I know. And also, these differences are pretty subtle. I wish I could say that it's SO WEIRD being in a different country on the other side of the world, but for the most part, it's not. It's really just like I'm in another part of the states. The biggest and most confusing difference? That I am always a day ahead of the states. It makes it IMPOSSIBLE to know what day of the week it is.