Both being first-world, English speaking countries, you
might not expect a lot of difference between the US and Australia… And over all
you’d be right. A good bit of the music is the same, clothing styles don’t differ
too much and even a lot of the food is very similar. Yet, with all of those
similarities, I have encountered a cultural faux pas or two to remind me that I
am indeed in a foreign country. Starting with…
Money
Australian
money is actually very colorful and cleverly made of a plastic-like waterproof
material. They also make each bill a slightly different size, making it easier to tell apart. But the denominations have already gotten the better of me. When paying for
a coffee and a biscuit (or cookie, as we Yanks would call it) the other day, I
paid with a $10 note for a bill that came to about $7 total. The gentleman handed me
back some coins and I stood there about another 20 seconds or so, waiting for
the rest of my change. Luckily,
before I made a total idiot of myself, I remembered that they do not use one-dollar
notes. Anything less than a $5 note is in change. On the plus side here, all prices listed already include General Sales Tax, so the price you see is the price you pay.
And that goes for just about everywhere because…tips are also not expected!
Bringing me to another significant cultural difference.
Dining Out
Not tipping
wait-staff may seem like a great 15-20% advantage for the consumer, but I
suspect that you get the service you pay for. Not that any wait-staff we’ve
encountered have been out-rightly rude, but we have so far only been to one
restaurant in Queensland with the standard “table service” to which we
Americans are accustomed, in which a waiter comes to the table and takes your
order and delivers everything to you. And that one experience was at the Hard
Rock Café in Surfer’s Paradise on the Gold Coast…an American Restaurant.
Typical
table service here is rare. Most places that we have been to, even many nicer
establishments, involve you walking up to a counter to order your food and
receiving a buzzer to alert you when to come back and pick it up. Not a bad thing, but it certainly
doesn’t appeal to the lazy American culture of drive-thru everything, including
ATMs and dry cleaning service.
Also, a few
other differences to note in the dining experience—the “entrée” here is
actually the appetizer, not the main course. Drinks do not typically come with
free refills. And most sizes seem a little smaller than their American
equivalents.
As an example,
at McDonalds a large coke is nowhere near an American large. At approximately
12-14oz in imperial size, the drinks we received would more rightly be called a…
“Smedium?” as compared to the 32oz American large. And a medium order of fries was equivalent to our small or kiddie size. At first, I’ll admit I felt a bit
“gypped” especially since these smaller sizes cost about twice what they would
in the US, but, on second thought… perhaps this “portion distortion” has a
thing or two to do with our obesity epidemic? Food for thought…
Cost of Living
After this
trip, I may never complain about the cost of goods in America again. Please
don’t hold me to that, as I am certain even as I type the statement that I am
lying. But the prices of many things that I take for granted at home are nearly
incomprehensible here. Yesterday,
when walking past an American candy stand in the mall, I noticed an 8-pack of
Reece’s Cups. These are the same 8 packs of Reece’s cups that I typically buy
to hand out at Halloween for about $1 a package on sale at Kroger. Here in
Brisbane however, those peanut butter & chocolate delights were priced at
$8. EIGHT DOLLARS!!! And a 6 pack
of Dr. Pepper was $15. FIFTEEN DOLLARS!!! I mean, who even needs to bootleg alcohol?? Next time I visit, I am
bringing a suitcase full of candy and soda to pay for my trip…
 |
| Compare to a 12 pack in the US for about $4.50... |
Also a noteworthy difference, if you are
accustomed to the convenience of central heating and air? Fuggedaboutit. While
most of Queensland does tend to remain within a reasonable temperature range most of the time, the average house does
not come with custom climate controls built in for when extreme weather does
come along. This is an expensive luxury that is reserved only for the rich
and maybe the occasional American ex-pat that can’t adjust to sticking their
head in the freezer during a heat wave.
Driving
Now, still somewhat on the “cost of living” subject, let’s talk fuel prices… Driving around town
here, you currently see signs advertising an average price for petrol (gas) at $1.40.
Wow! Sounds great, right? Until you remember that this is Australia and everything is in metric. That $1.40 is per LITER not per
gallon…. And that translates into about $6.44 per gallon of fuel. That’s only a
tad under TWICE what a gallon of gas was going for when I left the US last
week.
Now, if that
alone doesn’t give you a heart attack, then just ride shotgun for the first
time in an Australian’s car and wait for your driver to turn right at an
intersection for the first time… There is just something about that first turn
into the far left lane that briefly makes an American driver’s life flash
before their eyes. I’m getting used to riding on the left lane, but if I forget
where I am, even for a second, my brain immediately screams “Oh my God we’re GOING TO DIE” with every turn…
And since parking in the city costs an average of $47,656,387,475,728.05
per hour, today we will be heading off on our first excursion using Queensland’s public transit system! I’ll let you know how that goes later. Cheers!
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