This is the last one of these because I'm leaving Australia in only 5 days :( and I'm sure I will have more to say about the idiosyncrasies of New Zealand soon enough!
So yes it is wicked expensive here, but I forgot to mention one of the reasons why. The minimum wage from what I've been told is $16.80 AUD an hour. However, I've met a number of bartenders who have told me they make $25 an hour (which might explain why they seem to have zero motivation to serve at any reasonable speed behind the bar here... they ain't workin' on tips!) and even more when they work on Saturdays and Sundays. Fruit pickers and field jobs can make $20 an hour or more (which is why so many backpackers stick around to earn money). And a guy working on the grounds (maintenance?) of a private school here was happy to share that he makes $30 an hour. And not a single day of college required for these positions. Trade jobs make even more. (And like I said, without shame, Australians talk VERY freely about money, salaries, pay rates, etc.) I met a 23 year old from the UK who came over to Australia solely to work here so he could more quickly earn enough money to buy a house back home because even with the conversion of his money back into GBP he will still come out way ahead of their 6-8 GBP an hour wages.
ALL stores close super early here. To the point where Australians have told me it actually does make it difficult to shop. Many in the city close at 5 pm. 5pm. Imagine if you wanted to take a stroll down any one of the avenues in Manhattan and do some browsing after work one day, but couldn't because they were all closed. Actually as I type this, I guess this explains why I've heard that online shopping is HUGE here. Everyone uses eBay and Amazon. Though they told me this is because they can get items cheaper even once international shipping is included. (see: Australia is expensive post) But I suppose it could be because stores are never open!! A host told me that by law stores in Brisbane used to have to be closed on Sundays up until only 8 years ago. And if you're curious this applies to shopping malls too. Malls close at 5pm every day except for Thursday evenings when they stay open until 9pm. I learned this first hand in both Melbourne and the Gold Coast and I assume it's the same in Sydney and Brisbane.
Side note: Grocery stores are most commonly found in shopping malls here. Imagine a Wegmans in Eastview Mall. Or imagine a Publix in International Mall. Very strange! But there is some logic... they pull sooo many people into these malls. Even me. And I did not come to Australia to shop. I swear :)
These next two will certainly contradict each other, but so be it. My observation has been personally that Australians are fitter than fit! I've seen them race up mountain sides, speed bike around town, and go for 10K runs immediately after shutting down their work computers. And I've generally observed fewer overweight people than in the U.S. However, I have now heard from two different people that Australia is now the most obese country! They have somehow surpassed America? I will need to look for online verification of this when I get back or maybe one of you can just wikipedia it for me :)
If you didn't already know this, American music, TV, and movies are everywhere here. I can recognize 95% of the DVD titles on any of my hosts' shelves (and I'm pretty sure the other 5% are stupid American action/horror movies I don't know anyways) and I can talk to them about all of the TV shows they watch. Well, that's not entirely true ... many watch way more shows than I do! (I even heard a Buddhist nun make a reference to The Voice in a drop-in class I took in Brisbane.) But I do recognize all of the music played in bars and clubs. In fact I have seen a number of cover bands perform here and they are playing covers of Weezer, Third Eye Blind, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and MGMT. Fortunately I was introduced to one amazing Australian artist - Matt Corby. Look him up. He is unreal. In fact, here is a video for your listening pleasure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbsqHiaJjyc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
I can't believe I haven't mentioned Australian slang yet. It's mostly easy enough to pick up, but one of the funniest ones to me is "wanker" for which no one has really given me a definition. I assume it means someone who masterbates and is used in place of "idiot" or "douchebag" I believe. My other favorite "slang" took me several days to hear correctly. Everyone (and I do mean every Australian I have met) talks in half similes. As in they add "-as" to the end of every adjective without ever finishing the comparison. As in "hot as" or "easy as" or "cheap as" all as exclamations. Well, to me, the Australian accent sounds more like "ass" so for the longest time I thought people were, for example, saying "sweet ass" to me when I would do something like agree on a restaurant choice (where they would usher me to the car saying "sweet ass"!) or exclaiming "hot ass" when we would walk outside and discover how warm it had become! "Full on" is another thing they say meaning "totally" or "for real" or "hardcore"...used in a sentence, "They are dating like full on" or "It's full on raining." Another term for redneck is "bogan" and these folk all live in the hot and humid Queensland territory (perhaps, our Arkansas or Mississippi?... zing!). "Stuffed" equates to totally drunk. And to "root for" a certain team or player implies you have had sex with the said team or player!
I do alright recognizing familiar stores and restaurants here in Oz.. They have Safeway here though it has a different logo/signage and isn't too prevalent. Same with Target. The logo and name design is not all in red, but has black in it too. Funny story with Burger King as "Burger King" is technically operating in Australia, but because a tiny burger joint in Sydney called Burger King copyrighted the name first, Burger King is called Hungry Jacks here. Same exact logo though! 7 Eleven's are everywhere... wayyy more so than in the US. McDonald's is here of course, but is nicknamed "Macca's." KFC and Dominos are commonly seen too. And yea, Subway is actually EVERYWHERE. I've seen the women's chain gym Curves a few times, Cartridge World, GNC, Body Shop, H&R Block and a few others too. One thing I am shocked about though is that there are virtually no familiar clothing chains. Not a single Gap, Abercrombie, H&M, etc. Every clothing store I pass is an unfamiliar one. I'm a little surprised because this certainly wasn't the case in Europe.
Interesting "fact" (again, I only heard this from one host): Trees lose their leaves in Sydney in the fall, but not in Melbourne. There are no native deciduous tree species around Melbourne... only ones that were transplanted.
Australia got rid of the penny maybe 20 years ago. So they do this thing on your receipt called "rounding" (no explanation needed I assume). The funny thing here is really just that in a situation like this, what is the point of saying a shirt costs $9.99 when you will actually and literally be charged $10 for it?! There is no saving that one cent to help justify making that purchase! Because the other thing is that it's pretty nearly a cash only society. This was quite shocking to me. I estimate more than 70% of restaraunts I've been to are cash only and the ones that accept EFTPOS as they say for debit/credit, always have a $10 or $14 minimum. Ecuador was 99% cash only I remember, but that at least made a bit more sense to me. Australians have just not taken to the credit cards like Americans. I wonder, how do they build their credit ratings or what happens when a 25 year old wants a loan for a house?
And well speaking of credit ratings and money... Gambling is a problem in Australia. It is very much legal and they have slot machines (they call them "Pokeys" here) in every single bar, small town hotel, and even music venues. Ironically then in every bathroom stall there are posters letting you know that is you have a gambling problem that there is a number you can call. I've learned that there is a new technology called "pre commitment" technology where you have to register at the beginning of a night how much you're willing to lose and then you're held to that value. However, the lobbyists for the pokey machine industry and gambling establishment ran a giant fear campaign and got that voted down. I guess America isn't the only country with lobbyists F'in it all up.
And speaking of lobbyists and politics, Australians are quite involved and educated about their own government ongoings as well as those in the U.S.! Voting is compulsory here (with fines and then eventual loss of your driving license if you don't pay the fines) so that might have something to do with it although I did meet a person who felt that the mandatory voting law was the worst thing ever because it just means that you have every idiot and their neighbor casting an ignorant vote based on slanderous campaign ads. (I do not doubt that.) But I have met a large number of Australians who do follow the happenings in their Parliament and I even got to sit down with 3 housemates who all regularly watch a weekly political talk show called Q&A. And like I said, they know more about US politics than probably most Americans. They know our Speaker of the House by name (do you?), they know in what years certain events happened in our political arena, they are more current on U.S. happenings than I have been in the last 4 weeks, and really much, much more! They watch what goes on between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. and they all say they can't stand American politics. Ha! Can you blame them?
Drug use seems to be fairly pervasive. Even the hard stuff. It doesn't matter that it's all more expensive here too (I've heard this contributes to most of the violence in cities too). Other travelers I have met have commented on this to me too. I've heard a number of stories and it really kind of turns me off to Australians I must say.
On a related note, I have received three different invitations from locals in their 20s and 30s to three different 'bush doofs' (spelling unsure, but rhymes with goof) while here in Australia. What is a 'bush doof' you may ask? :) Why, it is an event wayyyy out in the bush (i.e. countryside/woods/sticks/fields/a good deal away from civilization) where trance-techno music is played (hence the doof, for the onomatopoeia word for the sound the repeating heavy bass line follows, i.e. doof-doof-doof-doof-doof-doof). It goes on all night and there's dancing and lots of drugs. I equate them to an outdoor rave and maybe it's just me, but they seem to be very, very common in many different circles. And if you're wondering, I turned down all 3 invites. My travel schedule and plans didn't align well and I was afraid of the bug bites I would get :)
Kony 2012. It was a big deal here. Was it in the US too? I am still regularly seeing posters up everywhere. And a number of hosts of mine even participated themselves.
I don't much care for the dating culture in Sydney. I have been told that girls truly do break off relationships once they determine that a guy doesn't "earn enough money" and they will even verbalize this as the reason. They are after "stability" and a comfortable life. This may have to do with the fact that these girls might not be going to university or whatnot, but it seems independent women are hard to come by. Further, girls in Sydney ALWAYS wait for the guy to approach in a bar. I was told that girls NEVER make the first move. This therefore means that guys do need to have a certain amount of "game" and on one night I did enjoy having the opportunity to watch my houseful of male hosts and their friends show off their said "game". I was both impressed and unimpressed at the same time if you can imagine. Fortunately, this dating scene apparently only applies in Sydney which is commonly recognized as the most superficial of all the Australian cities.
I have received a bit of an education on the Australian cattle industry. Apparently due to the fact that Australian cattle are grass fed for 90% of their lives and they only receive corn feed pretty much right before they are slaughtered, Australian steak is apparently way better than American steak. Yet America seems to have the larger reputation for steak. (Please note I am not encouraging anyone to eat more steak or to take a trans-Pacific flight to Oz just for the sake of trying it! I just found this to be interesting.)
And if you also didn't know, the game of rugby is huge here. I have also received a bit of an education on the difference between Rugby Union and Rugby League as well as Aussie Rules Football (which is only popular in Melbourne). I've also met two professional players. That's how massive it is. Literally every town has their own team and twice players have been the roommates of people I've met (non CS people). It's a really, really athletic sport (endurance of running in soccer + strength for tackling in football) so I give it props for that, but I'm not really sure I care much for the game.
And continuing on with what else I've learned, there is a good reason for the tight quarantine laws here. As an island Australia has actually been isolated from diseases like rabies. It just doesn't exist here. Same with a lot of agriculture "pests" and therefore Australia doesn't need to use nearly as many pesticides in their fields. They want to keep it that way so they keep strict quarantine laws. They have learned their lesson apparently after allowing the formal introduction of the cane toad into their country. Apparently farms were having trouble many many years ago with a certain kind of bug and the idea was proposed and executed to bring in cane toads from the sugar cane plantations of Hawaii that keep away the same bug from Hawaiian fields. Well that turned out to be a disaster with this incredibly poisonous frog wreaking havoc on populations of native Australian animals. So they do mean business with their quarantine. I heard a story about a famous blind circus performer not being able to return to Australia after performing in Canada with his amazingly talented seeing-eye dog because his dog would have to be kept in quarantine for 6 months. And well without any continued training for those 6 months the dog would forget everything and the man would not risk that so he has just never returned. I joked that well, if it were the President's dog I bet an exception would be made, and everyone at the table flat out said "No, there are no exceptions." Yikes!
[And side note: I hear that I will have to have every single pair of my footwear hosed down at New Zealand customs because they too are worried about me bringing in dirt/soil/organisms/who knows what into their delicate ecosystem too.]
I think this will be my last "did you know tidbit", but did you know that it seems China has quite the large economic relationship with Australia? I did not for one. Apparently, China is HUGELY dependent on Australia for all of its mining resources - metals and coal. Coal is the largest export of Queensland (the territory in which Brisbane, Gold Coast, Cairns are all a part) and it all goes to China. (I think this is the main reason why Australia has largely gone untouched with the recession and their economy is doing well except for maybe their retail section.) This came up as the US wants to build a military base near Darwin and there were some Australians thinking this was a bad idea because in this day and age, Australia might have more to gain from its relationship with China than with the U.S. True story. However, the flip side to that argument is that China is SOOOO dependent on Australia for its own country's basic needs that Australia could pretty much do whatever it wanted and China would still have no choice, but to keep buying its coal.
And I'm realizing now that I didn't really post anything about Sydney other than throwing up photos, so I will just quickly say that Sydney to me felt like a combination of San Francisco or San Diego with all of its hills (some were steeper than the steepest in SF!) and its very, very gay friendliness + Manhattan Beach (in L.A.) with the feel of its beaches + a bit of Manhattan (NYC) in its CBD, though it all felt much young and newer. It was just certainly a "darker" CBD than Melbourne's due to the much higher quantity and heights of its buildings/skyscrapers.
Lastly, to leave you with a rather interesting, travel-related fact I have heard from at least 6 or 7 people here (again, un-fact checked, but 6 or 7 people in different cities is... well, yea, not very reliable still! but hey, go check yourself!) that apparently only 18% of Americans have a passport. Australians are all very puzzled by this as travel seems to be the biggest thing that all Australians have in common! They all travel! Regularly! I don't think I've met an Australian that hasn't been to the U.S. at least once (most have been 2 or 3 times) and I've been told that it's the water cooler equivalent of talking about the baseball game on TV last night... they all talk and share about their holiday destinations, past and future. They are a nation of travelers!
Well wow, this turned out to be much more rambling and much longer than I realized. I suppose it's good because it will need to hold you over! I hear WiFi is going to be harder to come by in New Zealand. More to come soon though!
No comments:
Post a Comment