"It's not wrong, it's different"

Australia is so many things to so many people. One Aussie local (John Organ, my program mentor) told me, out of his entire experiences traveling around the world, that Sydney is the best place to live in the world. Another French friend, Charles, told me that Sydney is freedom and independence compared to his home-life in Paris. My New Yorker roommate says it reminds him exactly like home without the attitude. Other Americans compared it to Florida and California.




My thoughts are Australia is like an urban paradise. Despite living a tropical suburb region of Sydney (know as North Ryde), it’s just so much different than the states. The fresh air and constant aroma of flowers ever turn you make, the cool breezes, the intense, all make this a very different environment compared to Chicago. There are random species of birds roaming around. Just yesterday I seen a flock of Cockatoos taking off from the tree in my front yard of my apartment. I thought to myself, “Gosh. I only see you guys in Pet’s Mart!” Australia is a huge Multi-cultural society.





The point I am making is that there really is no place quite like Sydney, because of all the little differences. Here is a list of differences I discovered thus far in culture and language.

 Trolley = A shopping cart
 Uni = University (people constantly say “uni”)
 Fact: all Australian kids wear safari looking hats to protect their skin. Even in school if they go outside for recess and do not have a hat, the child is not allowed recess
 Schools here are typically K-12
 Sausage Sandwich = Snag
 Capsicum = Peppers (the veggi)
 Upright cookers = stove top
 Cheers mate = “the common” goodbye or talk to you later
 Grid Iron = American Football
 No worries is commonly said instead of no problem
 A building is referred to as a “block.” For example, “my friend is in the next building over” would be said, “my friend is in the next block over.”
 Flatmate used instead of suitemate (commonly used by more than just Australian, I noticed. My European friends say it as well.)
 Volvo drivers = Sunday drivers
 Prawns = shrimp
 Ring me = Call me
 Fact: its illegal is get paid “under the counter” for jobs.
 Fact: $15.00 is the average minimum wage for any job in Oz
 Fairy Floss = Cotton Candy
 Advertisements is pronounced differently
 Learned is spelled learnt
 Enrollment is spelled Enrolment

Some “Foreigners” I Met Thus Far

The second night here, I met Amanda Engle’s roommate from Norway. His name is Vegard Hansen from Norway. He is super nice, and a fun guy. He is living in the “block” (remember that means building) next to me with Amanda Engle and Liliana Acosta. Its very common in the Parklands to have co-ed apartments.
Later that night, we ended up at exploring the area. We found that the only thing cheap in Australia is wine and fruit. Everything else is about three times as expensive in Australia compared to the United States. I ended up back the apartment and some guys on the first floor had their door open and invited us in. The room was occupied be Italians. Andrea (On-dray-a), Luca (Lu-ca), and Jacobo (Yak-o-bo) are all graduate students working for their degree here at Macquarie. They only recently got their four roommate, Ozzie, from Finland. Later, Vinnie a French man joined us. We all sat around having a couple of drinks and really good conversation. Vinnie is hilarious. We literally discussed the our countries perspectives of one another. Vinnie stated in his French accent, “ not all French hate Americans, only the ignorant ones.” We talked about sports, family, and our majors. Every so often myself, Liliana, or Amanda (the Americans) had to fill in a word they did not know how to say in English, but we understood.


(The above Picture is John from Sydney, he is our Study Aboard mentor, guide. He's really laid back and fun. Also, thought I just say he is straight and soon to be engaged. Don't let the t-shirt throw you off)

This fun night really made me think about how sheltered the average American is when it comes to language. All these Europeans speak multiply language, and quite well too. Nearly all of them were raised to learn English in school. Going back to my conversation with Vinnie, I stated the when I visited France and tried to speak French the French person said, “you are murdering our language, lets just talk English.” However when I was in Italy and tried to speak Italian, they stated “thanks for trying, we can speak English.” Vinnie laughed and just stated how growing up French people learn to speak English, and the French are just proud people.

Just the Sites (part 1)

The Macquarie Parklands (my new home)

The shuttle took us to a couple apartment buildings called the Macquarie Parklands, located on the corner of a busy intersection. I was greeted by to lovely Aussie women “Kim” and “Any,” who are conveniently my Resident Assistants (RA’s). We all split off and went to our different rooms. I lived in the “Wattle” building Room 20 on the first floor. I was the first to arrive. Kim showed me around the place telling me all about my new home. Long story short, there are a lot of maintenance requests coming. The apartment consists of two singles and a double room. I live in the double with Brandon Chiwaya from New York. A few days later, my other roommate arrived. His name is Chris. He is from all over the place. His parents travel all over the world, so he said he lived a good couple of years Indonesia, so I guess I’ll say he is from there. The set up is pretty nice. The living space is a good size. The bathroom is set up differently. The toilet is like in a walk in closet and next to it is the bathroom with the sink, tub, and even the wish machine and dryer. This is convenient considering I live with currently three guys and one bathroom.



My other roommate has not arrived yet, nor do I know if he will. I got a nice patio, and the RA’s live across from me. Most International student seems to be living in the Macquarie village. Although, the village more expensive and considerable nicer. However, it so far seems that you have more freedom in the Parklands than the village. No buddy checks up on you, or tells you to be quiet. It is really like living on your own, which is nice change. My building (or what the locals call a “Block,” not building) is very homey. My neighbors are mostly American in my building. However, the next “block” over is mostly European.

Transportation

After a four hour flight from Chicago to San Francisco, I was able to grab a quick bite to eat with just enough time to board another flight to go Sydney. I wish though I would have been able to get a quick stretch in because I had another sixteen hours on flight time to go. After watching multiply PG movies and chick flicks (because that’s the ONLY movies they showed) we finally arrived. I departed Chicago’s O’Hare Ariport on Friday 6:47pm and landing in Sydney’s Airport at 8:10am. Sydney is approximately 17 hours ahead of Chicago. When I finally exited the plane, I was greeting by some HUMID weather. Although sunny and clear skies were enjoyable the humidity was pretty bad.

Macquarie University, the university I am staying at, and a shuttle service that picked me, and a couple other Americans from Marquette University (to my surprise). As we all drove down the roads, I constantly thought we were going to crash into cars and medians because in Australia everyone drives on the left side of the road. I am still adjusting lol. There is a variety of cars here in Sydney. Even more variety than in American. Two brands I was introduced to is the Holden and Petugo brands. Their both European if I am not mistaken. The most popular car I seen driven seems to be Toyota