Do you remember in Pulp Fiction when Vincent (John Travolta) says that it's the little differences that you notice between the U.S. and Europe? This area is a compilation of the great number of little things that make this country different from Canada.
There are a huge number of things that are the same even though it's about as far as you can get from Canada while still being on Earth (it's not like it's some third world country or something). There are also a huge number of little and not-so-little differences as well -- some better and some worse. This section will be added to all the time as I experience new areas of Australia. So far my experience in Oz only covers the state of Western Australia.
G E N E R A L S T U F F
- Everything is a bit more expensive here. The Aussie dollar is worth about 5 cents less than the Canadian dollar, but things tend to be 10 to 50% more expensive.
- Gas in particular is staggeringly more expensive here. 75 to 80 cents per litre in the city, 98 cents per litre in the bush.
- Most of Australia has an incredibly harsh landscape, which makes it both the same and complete opposite of Canada. The majority of Australia is desert, and a massive amount of Canada is tundra.
- Gun laws are thankfully very strict here. Possibly even more so than in Canada. It seems everyone has learned well from the U.S.
- Australian culture is far more British based than Canadian culture is. We've got that culture powerhouse to the South, which has rubbed off for sure.
- I've heard that Toronto is one of the most racially diverse cities on Earth, but having lived there for so long that fact doesn't even occur to me. The racial diversity here is about 95% white European, 3% Aboriginal, and 2% everywhere else on Earth. I noticed this for the first time when I went to buy gas and there was a white girl behind the counter.
- The currency is even more colourful than Canadian currency, the bills are different sizes for different denominations, and they're made out of plastic so you can put them through the wash.
- Coins come in 5, 10, 20, and 50 cent sizes, as well as a dollar coin and a two dollar coin. There used to be one cent and two cent coins, but they were phased out a while ago. This hasn't stopped retailers from selling things for $2.99.
- Australians have no idea what loonies or twonies are.
S U P E R M A R K E T S A N D F O O D
- There's more Vegemite than peanut butter. This I will never understand.
- Peanut butter only comes in tiny little jars.
- Grape jam is very rare.
- UHT milk is very common.
- There aren't any bagels, and many people working in supermarkets have never heard of them. "Bagel. B-A-G-E-L. You put cream cheese on them. It's sort of like a doughnut. They're torus shaped. T-O-R-U-S." Instead I've been putting cream cheese on toasted english muffins. Not bad.
- They don't keep the eggs refrigerated. They just put them on the shelf like cereals and light bulbs. Why do we refrigerate them?
- Food in general is more expensive here.
- Restaurants are very expensive -- nearly double the price for a main course compared to Canada. $17 mains are common.
- Entrees are called Mains on menus. Appetisers or Starters are called Entrees. This makes far more sense to me.
A L C H O H O L , P U B S , A N D C L U B S
- I was somewhat disappointed by the price of drinks here. It's almost the exact same as in Canada, but I totally thought everything would be cheaper. Still, I've heard that a shot of liquor in a German club can cost you $20. Count your blessings.
- There are two standard issue, very popular beers here: Victoria Bitter and Emu Bitter. Virtually any bar or club will have both. They are referred to as VB and EB respectively.
- Two-four's are called slabs here. "Gimmie a slab uh VB."
- No one but tourists drink Fosters, as many people probably knew already.
- Pitchers of beer are called jugs.
- Pints vary widely in size. They seem to be smaller than a Toronto pint in Perth, and other areas have even smaller glasses (cuz the beer gets too warm too fast). Darwin apparently has 1-litre pints, and you must have to down them in about 30 seconds before they just boil dry in the heat. I can't wait!
- Percentages are also the same as in Canada, thank god.
- Pubs are often called hotels, and I have no idea why. Hotels close at midnight. other dance clubs are often open to 6 a.m.
- 1.3 million people (the population of Perth) is not enough people to support any goth-industrial bars.
L I F E S T Y L E S
- Australians are far more physically fit on average than Canadians. I've asked a few Australians why that is, and the consensus is that Australians are passionate about sports participation. Everyone here seems to be involved in at least one sport in some way. It's rare to see anyone overweight here.
- Cricket is the undisputed sport of Summer.
- Few Australians know how to play baseball, and no one cares anyway.
- Strine is the form of slang commonly used by Australians. Strine is short for Australian: 'Stralian, 'Straalyn, 'Struln, "Strn, Strine. There's a really good Strine dictionary at About.com.
- Most Aussies I've talked to refuse to believe that they have an accent, and insist that I have one. I try to tell them that I don't have one because I pronounce words the exact way a dictionary tells you to, that I wish I had an accent, and that I love the Australian accent. No one believes me.
- I can fake a pretty good Aussie accent already.
- Meat is at the top of the food pyramid for many Australians. Australian beef is very good, and they know how to cook a good steak on the barbie. There's a Domino's pizza commercial here that advertises the meat-lovers pizza. We have it in Canada to, but we don't shout "LONG LIVE THE CARNIVORE!!!" at the end of our commercials.
- There aren't very many movie theatres here, but I didn't expect there to be as many as there are in Toronto, which I believe has more movie theatres per capita than any other city on Earth, or maybe even the entire solar system.
- There's 5 television stations in Perth, unlike the 50+ stations in Toronto.
- People are generally fairly sun conscious here, but everyone still has deep tans. Children always wear full body bathing suits at the beach.
- Bathing Suits are called Swimmers.
- Few people outside of the big cities (there's only one big city in W.A.) wear anything but flip flops (thongs) or just go barefoot.
T E L E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S
- You have to pay for outgoing local calls here. Prices vary from 17.5 to 40 cents per call. That really sucks.
- It's about 4 times cheaper to call Canada than it is to call China.
- Internet access isn't nearly as common here. It sucks that Australians have to pay nearly as much to dial up to the Net and send e-mail as it takes to mail a letter. In my opinion this is seriously hurting the rate of Internet implementation in the country. This has to change soon.
- High-speed internet access is virtually unheard of. People are proud of ISDN connections. Some people look like they'll cry when I tell them about the ADSL access I had at home.
- Cell phone plans are ridiculously expensive here. The media has just realised this recently and have pointed out that Australians are both one of the highest per capita users, but also one of the highest payers. Prices in all other countries have been dropping between 20 to 50 percent over the last year. Prices in Australia dropped by 1%.
C A R S & T R A N S P O R T A T I O N
- The biggest difference for sure is the fact that people drive on the left side of the road here. This takes quite a while to adjust to, and there are certain merging rules that are totally not what you're used to. The thing to remember is "Drive left, look right". When stepping out onto the street, the busses come at you from the right. Twice so far I've come very close to getting into car accidents because things didn't happen in the order I was expecting.
- Traffic circles are very common. You yield to people on your right.
- The steering wheel is of course on the right hand side of the car, and everything else is switched around too. I bet every North American or continental European to visit here has turned on their windshield wipers when leaving the car rental parking lot. Shifting with your left hand is weird too.
- Australia allows these trucks called Road Trains here which have 3 big trailers on the back. I think they allow them in Alberta too...I can't remember. Passing these things on the highway is a nightmare with anything less than 200 HP.
- Before coming here everyone told me that all the cars are really old because they don't rust (no need for salt on roads) and cars are super expensive. Car prices to seem a bit more expensive (maybe 20%), but I see tons of new cars everywhere. Older looking cars are fairly rare.
- The number of exotic sports cars per capita (Ferarri's and Porsche's) is definitely greater here.
- Australians have more car manufacturers to choose from, including Daewoo, Holden, Commodore, Mitsubishi, Proton, and several more.
- Subaru WRX's are very common here, and it's totally not fair that we can't get them in Canada.
- Utes are 10 times more popular than pickup trucks. If you know what an El Camino is, you know what a Ute is.
- 4WD Sport/Utility trucks are very common here, and are an actual flat out necessity for about half the roads in the outback.
- Ford is the only North American auto manufacturer I can think of to sell cars under their own name. GM owns Holden, and I don't know if Chrysler has any presence at all.
- Many cars and trucks (about 20% of them) have brush guards on the front (a grid of metal piping just in front of the car that prevents light foliage from destroying your car when you slwly drive through it). Even taxis often have them. This struck me as incredibly wierd because really, who takes a taxi out into the woods? I asked a local one day what the deal was and I was told they're not brush guards, they're called roo bars -- as in kangaroo bars. I found out why you need them when I took the Easyrider bus up to Exmouth and back. We didn't hit any roos, but I saw about 3 times as many dead roos as live ones. Several times roos would just hop out onto the road right in front of the bus like nothing was happening, and would just continue on their hip-hoppity way, without even turning their heads.
W E A T H E R
- The seasons are flipped, because we're in the Southern Hemisphere here. Winter consists of 15 degree highs and 5 degree lows for most Southern areas in Australia, with lots of rain. Very similar weather to a Vancouver winter, but with no snow ever except in the mountains.
- Most Australians have never seen snow. Most Canadians have never seen a desert.
- Summer temperatures can stay in the mid 30's for multiple weeks. Temperatures often hit 40 degrees in the red center and the top end.
- In the nearly 3 months I've been here, I can't remember it raining more than 3 or 4 times. Perth went 9 months without rain once. Every other day is an absolutely gorgeous, beautiful, bright, sunny day with narry a cloud in the sky.
- Water conservation is really big here in Perth, because they ran out of fresh water last summer.
- In Darwin, the rainy season lasts from late November to early March. During this time you can count on a thunder shower 9 out of 10 days.
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