On July 30th at 6AM, a groggy, jetlagged, and mildly confused Cameron landed in Sydney and stepped out of the airport. He was ready to study abroad. He had been waiting for nearly half a year for this day and it had finally come. He thought he knew what he was getting himself into. The very first thing that he did, however, after stepping out of the airport was to almost get hit by a taxi that was driving on the left side of the road. What the heck? Is he driving on the wrong side? He thought to himself, as he quickly scuttled back to the sidewalk.
You see, Australia is one of 75 countries that drive on the left side of the road instead of the right. The majority of these countries were once British colonies, and drive on the left as a direct result of their influence. Of course, Cameron knew that Australia was once a British colony, but hey, so were America and Canada! If we drive on the right side, why shouldn’t the Aussies? Well, it turns out Australia is different. In a lot of ways. In fact, Cameron had not “scuttled back” to the sidewalk, but rather the footpath. If he wanted to cross the street, there would be no crosswalks in sight – he would have to find a zebra crossing. And if in his jetlagged, early morning state of mind he longed for some Burger King fries and a hamburger, he’d be out of luck, forced to go instead to Hungry Jack’s.
It’s these sorts of small changes in vocabulary and the way that things are done that can make a place really feel foreign. I’m sure many of you have heard of the backward-flushing toilets of Australia, and while that is unfortunately just a myth, there are heaps other differences that you’d find if you came down under. One of them is that nobody actually calls Australia “the land down under.” I’m pretty sure it’s just Men at Work who popularized that. Another is that people tend to be shockingly polite; it’s commonplace, expected even, to say “thank you” to the bus driver as you get off, even if you have to shout it from the middle door!
These little differences add up. While I’m mostly adjusted now and no longer fear for my life every time I cross an intersection, I’m still slowly learning all the weird slang that Aussies use. The first time someone asked me if I could meet them in the arvo, I responded: “where’s that?” Arvo means “afternoon”, by the way. By the time I thought that I finally had my slang figured out, I encountered my first drunk Aussie, and it was like I had to start from scratch all over again. But it’s not just the slang that makes you feel like a foreigner. It’s the power outlets that look like a deformed mii character, the birds that fly through the sky screaming like goats, and the 45 mile-per-hour winds that make palm trees dropping branches on you feel like an actual threat. Sometimes you’ll see or hear something that, to you, seems completely outrageous, but to the locals, it’s just the norm.
But, and I cannot stress this enough, you get used to it! However gradually, you shift into your new culture and it becomes a part of you. Small things that estrange and terrify you will amaze you at the same time. Possibly the coolest thing that I’ve found since I got here is that there are parrots in Sydney. No, not outside the city in the wilderness or whatever, in the dang city. If you want to spot yourself a beautiful rainbow lorikeet, just go on up north past the harbor! Or stay put and look out for sulphur-crested cockatoos flying overhead. Besides the spectacular array of birds, I’ve come to love the general positivity of the Australian people and the ridiculous overabundance of public parks in Sydney. I get a good laugh every time I hear someone say Mackers instead of McDonald’s, or capsicum instead of bell pepper. I say thank you to my bus driver, even if I have to raise my voice a bit! I still get a little confused sometimes when I cross the street but I’m getting used to it.
Should you study abroad, wherever you choose to go, you’re bound to run into a similar situation. Even if you never leave the city you’re studying in, every day will be a new adventure and you’ll learn more than you ever thought you could. So please, travel, see the world – as scary as it can be sometimes, it’s the most rewarding feeling ever to finally understand another culture. Just remember to look both ways at every zebra crossing, and I promise you’ll be fine.
