I have started keeping a running list of the little things that I love or that I think friends and family will find amusing about moving to Australia. As we settle in more and more every day I find myself thinking "its the same, but different." Not in a worse or better type of way, just different.
There are a lot of Subway locations. Same. But the add in the window is for $7 foot longs. Different. It just doesn't have the same ring to it - check out the some of the commercials here. The chest tap move does make me laugh.
How would you say this phone # 0499 711 199? Just do it in your head. I say zero, four, nine, nine, seven, eleven, one, nine, nine - I assume most of my American friends would say it that way or very similar. In Australia they say zero, four, double nine, seven, double one, one, double nine. It takes a while to get used to, I've said mine the Australian way a few times, but I'm still not used to it.
You can pretty much buy all of the same things here. Like essie nail polish, its just more expensive ($8 v. $18)! But, the cool thing in Australia is the price you see is the price you pay, tax is already included. I think I already said this, there are no pennies, which I love!
To apply for a job you need a resume. Same. I have converted my 1 page US resume into a 2 page Australian CV. Different. I'd like to think its better than Bone Crusher's resume, which you can see here! Job titles can also be deceiving, I find myself reading every job description to try to figure out what the actual job is. Take Marketing Executive - that to me sounds like someone a few levels in. Wrong, that is the equivalent to Marketing Coordinator, or entry level in the states. Same job, different title.
People here have boyfriends, girlfriends, fiancés, husbands, etc. Same. But they refer to them as their "partner." Different. In the states, generally, partner is used for same-sex couples. From what I understand "girlfriend" is considered a very high school term, partner is the grown up version. The first time it happened to me it was actually an American calling her Aussie BF her partner which throughly confused me. **And just to make sure I am being completely clear, I love and fully support partners of any kind!**
We have electricity here (this one is a stretch). Same. I can't figure out the damn light switches in our apartment. It's maddening. Up is off, down is on, but every light switch has 2-3 buttons and some are on shared switches, I never know which one goes to which light. We are constantly turning the wrong lights on and off, or turing the light on when we want off, grrrrr. I keep trying to get it right, so I pause, look at the light switches, up is on, down is off, which one, which one, and without fail I pick the wrong damn one. And as I finish typing this all I can think of is how silly I sound, #firstworldproblems. But my Mom says she wants to know what is happening in my life, and well this is it.
We also have both plugged something in to charge only to find in the morning it hasn't....you must turn the plug on! See the little orange dot near where the modem is plugged in? Also that is our modem - so stylish!
Internet is connected though the phone, not cable. Different. You also pay by the GB, its not unlimited. Different. We just got internet yesterday and I I have some stories about setting it up. Australia has way, way better customer service than Comcast (and for most things), an actual human answers the phone within 2 minutes of calling!
It took us about 3 1/2 weeks to actually get internet. First the telephone company comes out. Since I used to help recruit field technicians in the states and I asked to follow him around, he obliged. He put a frequency in the phone line in our apartment and then we went into this tiny room in the basement and there as a circuit board of 500+ phone line connections and thousands of wires. He inserted a little tool into every hole until around the 300th hole there was a buzzing noise, bingo that is our phone line. It is a mess of wires and cords, he added 3 more, wrapped them around all the other cords and boom we have a phone line.
Now comes my favorite part. I asked how long until we get wireless internet (which they call naked DSL, tee-hee). His response was, well there is a warehouse in Redfern where this guy Eugene works - Eugene will get the order and then has to find your phone lines and add them to the ADSL service. Wait, like the actual phone lines?!?!?! Yes, the actual lines. Oh and there are too many orders for one person to handle so it will take at least 5 business days. What?!?!?! How about we just hire Eugene 2.0 or 4 of him? I am fully expecting this to not be reliable internet. I kind of want to go find Eugene one day and see this warehouse in Redfern.
Anyway, those are just a few of the things that I've come across this week. Since this post is kind of boring I'll include a photo of the display at Bed, Bath & Table - so colorful.
There are a lot of Subway locations. Same. But the add in the window is for $7 foot longs. Different. It just doesn't have the same ring to it - check out the some of the commercials here. The chest tap move does make me laugh.
How would you say this phone # 0499 711 199? Just do it in your head. I say zero, four, nine, nine, seven, eleven, one, nine, nine - I assume most of my American friends would say it that way or very similar. In Australia they say zero, four, double nine, seven, double one, one, double nine. It takes a while to get used to, I've said mine the Australian way a few times, but I'm still not used to it.
You can pretty much buy all of the same things here. Like essie nail polish, its just more expensive ($8 v. $18)! But, the cool thing in Australia is the price you see is the price you pay, tax is already included. I think I already said this, there are no pennies, which I love!
To apply for a job you need a resume. Same. I have converted my 1 page US resume into a 2 page Australian CV. Different. I'd like to think its better than Bone Crusher's resume, which you can see here! Job titles can also be deceiving, I find myself reading every job description to try to figure out what the actual job is. Take Marketing Executive - that to me sounds like someone a few levels in. Wrong, that is the equivalent to Marketing Coordinator, or entry level in the states. Same job, different title.
People here have boyfriends, girlfriends, fiancés, husbands, etc. Same. But they refer to them as their "partner." Different. In the states, generally, partner is used for same-sex couples. From what I understand "girlfriend" is considered a very high school term, partner is the grown up version. The first time it happened to me it was actually an American calling her Aussie BF her partner which throughly confused me. **And just to make sure I am being completely clear, I love and fully support partners of any kind!**
We have electricity here (this one is a stretch). Same. I can't figure out the damn light switches in our apartment. It's maddening. Up is off, down is on, but every light switch has 2-3 buttons and some are on shared switches, I never know which one goes to which light. We are constantly turning the wrong lights on and off, or turing the light on when we want off, grrrrr. I keep trying to get it right, so I pause, look at the light switches, up is on, down is off, which one, which one, and without fail I pick the wrong damn one. And as I finish typing this all I can think of is how silly I sound, #firstworldproblems. But my Mom says she wants to know what is happening in my life, and well this is it.
We also have both plugged something in to charge only to find in the morning it hasn't....you must turn the plug on! See the little orange dot near where the modem is plugged in? Also that is our modem - so stylish!
Internet is connected though the phone, not cable. Different. You also pay by the GB, its not unlimited. Different. We just got internet yesterday and I I have some stories about setting it up. Australia has way, way better customer service than Comcast (and for most things), an actual human answers the phone within 2 minutes of calling!
It took us about 3 1/2 weeks to actually get internet. First the telephone company comes out. Since I used to help recruit field technicians in the states and I asked to follow him around, he obliged. He put a frequency in the phone line in our apartment and then we went into this tiny room in the basement and there as a circuit board of 500+ phone line connections and thousands of wires. He inserted a little tool into every hole until around the 300th hole there was a buzzing noise, bingo that is our phone line. It is a mess of wires and cords, he added 3 more, wrapped them around all the other cords and boom we have a phone line.
Now comes my favorite part. I asked how long until we get wireless internet (which they call naked DSL, tee-hee). His response was, well there is a warehouse in Redfern where this guy Eugene works - Eugene will get the order and then has to find your phone lines and add them to the ADSL service. Wait, like the actual phone lines?!?!?! Yes, the actual lines. Oh and there are too many orders for one person to handle so it will take at least 5 business days. What?!?!?! How about we just hire Eugene 2.0 or 4 of him? I am fully expecting this to not be reliable internet. I kind of want to go find Eugene one day and see this warehouse in Redfern.
Anyway, those are just a few of the things that I've come across this week. Since this post is kind of boring I'll include a photo of the display at Bed, Bath & Table - so colorful.
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| I love all these little trinkets! |
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