Unexpected Differences (by Anthony)

When moving to a new country, you of course expect many things to be different. I think we did a pretty good job preparing for this fact. We purchased a couple of “How to prepare for life in Australia” type books prior to leaving and we did some other research before arriving. We’ve also kept an open mind throughout the whole process, which has gone a long way toward mitigating any culture shock.

However, there have been many differences that we didn’t expect. We thought we would list a few of the more interesting ones here.

Deodorant – The closest thing I have experienced to culture shock occurred when I realized that the entire country of Australia only uses roll-on deodorant. My first time using it, I thought perhaps this whole international move wasn’t such a good idea. Luckily, I’ve since gotten used to it.

TV times – We did expect several differences in the local TV, but we didn’t expect odd TV time schedules. Just looking at prime-time TV tonight, the shows on one popular channel are listed to start at 7:15, 8:05, 8:55, 9:50, 10:40, and 11:35. Often these listed times are only approximate (the show will actually start a few minutes before or after). One late-night comedian joked at the beginning of his show, “Don’t worry; I forget when this show is supposed to start too.”

Coffee – We’ve had to get used to new coffee styles (eg, “flat white”, “long black”, etc.), but the oddest phenomenon is the widespread acceptance of instant coffee as a genuine coffee option. Nearly every one of my clients (and even my own office) only provide instant coffee in their break-rooms. And often when you are asked if you would like coffee, you should expect that it is instant.

Laundry – Front-load washers are the norm here, which is actually kind of nice. However, the significant majority of households air-dry their clothes. Tumble-dryers are rare (and they are a weaker variety than we are used to in the States). Every balcony in our apartment building has a clothes rack on it. We too are going without a tumble-dryer, which saves space and electricity but requires us getting used to stiff air-dried shirts and towels.

Keep left – We expected to drive on the left. For some reason, we didn’t think that we should also walk on the left. We have nearly bumped into many people (and bikes!) as they are coming towards us and move left while we move right. It’s kind of embarrassing. In keeping with this theme, revolving doors open clockwise (counter to the States) and several door knobs and handles turn the opposite direction that we would expect.

Differences eating out – “Small” restaurant sizes mean really small (US child size) while “medium” is more like a US small (if you can even find small in the US) and the “large” sizes are akin to US mediums (although the “large” McDonalds drink here is the same size as the small at a US Carl’s Jr); You cannot take leftovers home from restaurants; And dinner salads at restaurants are served with the main course – not before.