The Year of Oz: Culture shock

Culture shock. The everyday little things I'm used to doing without thinking are now making me say, "Wait a second, something is different here....hmmmm." Australia is making the rusty wheels turn in this brain. For example, it took us way longer than it should to figure out how to lock/unlock the door and how to use the elevator in our building. It is an old school "lift" with two doors to manually open and close. Pretty awesome, but still kind of like something creepy you would see in a British mystery movie. I opened my paper today to look at a beautiful sight, the map of Australia covered with numbers in the 20s, but the temp is in Celsius - add that to the list of things I need to figure out! This morning, we went to go get a quick "coffee" and ended up siting down with a "flat white" breakfasting with the locals. I have to say I loved it, but it takes some getting used to! I seriously had to tell myself, "sit and enjoy the coffee" instead of immediately running out to drink the coffee, make a phone call, and multitask. "Flat white" by the way is just a mini coffee with milk, but foamy like a cappuccino.

I can't even tell you how many times we look left, instead of right, to see where the cars are coming. But don't worry, they actually paint it on the road if you forget. They drive on the other side here, and we thought we were getting on the wrong bus and train heading the wrong way multiple times.

Some GREAT news - I got an upgrade from my Blackberry today! A touchscreen smart phone - no more slow as a turtle Blackberry, and now I can actually take color pictures! Australia has got it right on this one. You just buy the phone and pay monthly for the service - no contracts and they have super reasonable prices. Verizon out - Vodaphone in! And the cell phone plans are not based on minutes, they are based on dollars which is way different. A huge thanks to my super patient salesgirl who spoke slowly so I could comprehend this. We also opened our bank accounts today and needed the attendant to walk outside to help us use the ATM. Pretty embarrassing. Wow looking back on it, I guess we did get a lot done today.

To treat ourselves, we took a short train and bus ride to BONDI beach. Bondi is an Aboriginal word meaning water breaking over the rocks. I was super excited to get to this famous surfing spot and people watch (and by people watch I mean, man watch). The Aussie boys have my favorite look down. Flip flops, beachwear, and muscles.