Observations from Oz

Well, I told myself I'd write a new blog post today, and one of my friends suggested a while back that I write about my experience so far in the great southern land. So, I think I'll do just that. Since writing in paragraphs would probably lead to many yawn-inducing digressions, I'll stick to bullet points for your sake, dear reader.

- Australia loves sports with a passion. I found this out pretty fast :)
- At first, I thought gum trees were pretty ugly and scraggly looking. But they're actually quite beautiful. Instead of losing leaves, they lose bark. Their leaves are a really nice colour, especially in the spring.
- I've seen a surprisingly small amount of dangerous wildlife. Unless you're looking for trouble, you probably won't find it. That being said, the relatively harmless huntsman spiders on the ceiling are still a bit unnerving.
- You get used to the accents pretty quickly, to the point where you may not even notice them after a while. Some people have stronger accents than others, which can make conversation a bit awkward occasionally. Asking someone to repeat themselves for the third time starts to make you feel bad, so sometimes you might just nod and pretend to understand. 
- Australia might be a more outgoing country than Canada. People will still sometimes talk to each other or the bus driver on the bus, and making new friends doesn't seem to be much of a problem, especially when you have something like sports in common.  
- Most things are a lot more informal. It's normal to call pretty much everyone by their first names - even nicknames. Took a bit of getting used to, since I still wanted to call them "Mr. ___" and "Mrs. ___ " or "Professor ___" in my mind. Even now it still feels a bit weird and borderline disrespectful sometimes, because of my cultural background.
- The Australian parliament is a lot more rowdy and entertaining than the Canadian one. Creative insults can be quite amusing to listen to on the radio, although it may take longer for legislation to get passed as a result.
- Swear words of any nature are generally considered more acceptable. North American television, for example, is still more filtered than in Australia when it comes to language.
- There are many more cafés than in Canada. On the main road near my house, I'm pretty sure there's three or four on a short stretch. The coffee is almost always high quality, though you pay a little more than Tim Horton's. I get the impression donuts aren't as popular, but there's plenty of other baked goods to make up for it.
- There are far fewer giant companies in Tasmania than Ontario. Hundreds of little shops selling specialty products. Instead of Chapter's, you have little cozy book shops like Birchall's.
- Meat pies are amazing, and I don't know why they haven't caught on elsewhere in the world. It is what it sounds like: meat in a small pie crust. Goes well with tomato sauce (ketchup...)
- Winter is very mild in comparison to inland Canada. It just gets a bit darker and wetter for a month or two. Snow usually only falls in the highlands, where there's a couple skiing places.
- The weather can be extreme at times, with large floods some months, and crippling drought.
- Networking is a lot more important here. If you know people, you'll have a much easier time.
- Shops close earlier here. Places in Canada might be open until I don't know, 9? 10? Many places here close sometimes around 5, which is nice for the workers, but a bit stressful if you need to grab something last-minute.
- Very few large "pick-ups." Instead, they have utes. It's hard to describe since utes can look pretty different from each other at times. But imagine pick-ups from the 80s or 90s, except tougher looking and maybe longer.
- Manual transmission is still alive and well in Australia. Most people I know either drive manual or would know how to if they had to. In Canada, automatic is generally the norm now from what I remember. Manual vehicles were usually older, sports cars, or large trucks.
- Roads in Tasmania are a lot narrower. It's occasionally a bit scary. I'm always a little bit nervous that I'll hit something on my left side like a guard rail or post box. Even the largest highways usually only have two lanes in each direction.
- Speed limits here sometimes seem more like challenges than actual maximum speeds. What I mean is, the speed limit might be 100 on a winding road through a forest, while going 100 on that road would probably be very unsafe.
- That being said, the police are apparently a lot more strict about obeying the speed limit overall. In Ontario at least, almost everyone went 10 (sometimes 15) over the limit without getting into any trouble, especially on the freeways.
- Australia has a vibrant underground music scene that gets very little exposure overseas from what I can tell. Partially because of this, people don't care about foreign artists as much as in Canada.
- Everything is a lot more socialized overall. It sometimes seems you can get government benefits for almost anything, if you're willing to put in the effort to apply.
- University education is a lot easier financially for Australian citizens. There's a system in place where you don't have to pay tuition until after university when you have a fairly high paying job. Then it comes off of your income. There's more to it, but I'm simplifying. As you can imagine, this takes away quite a bit of stress on students, compared to the US and Canada.
- The stars are incredible on clear nights, especially in Tasmania. I think this can be partially attributed to the low amount of light pollution, since the street lights are generally less bright and less dense than in Canada.
- Islamic terrorism hasn't hit hard here thankfully, even in the biggest cities. Launceston feels like a very safe place to live overall - though land slippage could be a concern if we got a crazy amount of rain. 
- Lots of Australians seem to love British Columbia- especially the mountains. If you're ever at Whistler (or some other big ski resorts) and listening closely, I reckon you'd probably hear some Australians.
- I think Australia is probably more anti-American than Canada. They're the subject of a lot more jokes and mockery here. As a Canadian, I feel a bit caught in the cross-fire at times.
- In Tasmania at least, a two hour drive is considered a long drive. In Canada, our family did more than a few 8 hour driving days on vacation. In Western Canada, I've been on 12 hour road trips driving through the night before, taking shifts. Getting coffee at a drive-thru at 2AM is hard to forget.
- Australia seems a lot more connected to China than Canada, which makes sense given the geography. From what I've read online, there's a bit of fear concerning China's economic expansion.
- Way less sugar in the food. I don't notice it anymore, but if I go back sometime it might be a bit of a shock. 

All that being said, Australia's a great place to live and I'm really looking forward to getting to know the place better over the coming years. Every move is a new opportunity to meet new people from different backgrounds and learn about another culture (or sub-culture).