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Student Reflections

Really? This Cannot Be True: Four MORE Things That Surprised Me in Australia

Carolina Ramos
April 18, 2019

As I discussed last week, there are many things that can surprise you when you move to a new country. These things can be sort of like culture shocks, and I definitely have been surprised by some things that are different in Australia compared to the U.S., which I will discuss below. Just keep in mind that these things have been simply my experience, and I cannot speak for everyone that has come to Australia on exchange.

Fines for Jaywalking

In Boston, I feel like there is a strong culture of jaywalking. No one really waits for the pedestrian light to turn green in order to start crossing the street. Around the Northeastern campus, it is rare to find students actually waiting on the crosswalk, unless there are cars coming. Here in Melbourne, most people wait for the pedestrian light to turn green in order to cross, even if the streets are completely clear. I am not saying that jaywalking is a good practice to have, but I certainly did it often in Boston. Now that I am in Melbourne, I have had to force myself not to cross the street when I have the red light. Instead, I just wait with everyone else. I have heard of people who have received fines for illegally crossing the street, and apparently, you can get a AU$60 fine on the spot for doing so. Another thing that I heavily enforced here is biking and running red lines when doing so. I heard of someone that had to pay a AU$200 fine after he biked past a red light. In Boston, many bikers do not follow the traffic rules, but if you ever come to Australia, it is better to do so.

Public Transportation and Its Cleanliness

I have found the public transportation system in Melbourne to be extremely efficient, clean, and truthfully, better than the MBTA. In the public transportation system here you will find trams, which are sort of like a trolley that runs above ground. You could compare a tram here to the green line carts in Boston, except the ones here are more modern. Something that really surprised me was the fact that to enter the trams, you just have to tap your Myki Card, equivalent to a Charlie Card, somewhere inside the tram. The driver of the tram does not check who has and who has not “touched on” and if you do not have enough money on your card, you cannot refill it inside the tram, you have to go to specific stations where they have machines to do so. The way that the city keeps citizens accountable and guarantees that everyone is paying for the transport is by having officials occasionally go around, oftentimes in disguise, to check people’s cards and see if they have touched on appropriately. This is a type of public transportation system that I had never seen before, but it seems like it works well here. The other forms of public transportation include buses and trains. All of the stations here are extremely clean and the larger ones are quite modern as well, featuring many coffee spots and other small shops. The city as a whole is extremely clean, and it is rare to see trash around, as people seem to be very environmentally friendly and conscious.

Can Australia Be Cold?

I am not going to lie, I was pretty naive about the weather here in Melbourne prior to arriving, and did not do my research thoroughly enough. The week I arrived, there was a heat wave hitting Australia, and I felt ecstatic about leaving Boston one day before a snowstorm hit the area. As I am writing this, it is currently 63 F (17 C) in Melbourne and 46 F (8 C) in Boston, so I cannot really complain about the weather. However, I didn’t pack enough warm clothing for the winter that is ahead of me. Surely it will be a lot milder than a New England winter, but I mostly packed warm clothes. A huge difference here is that the buildings are not as well insulated for the cold, rather, they are made to stay cool for the summer months. The apartment where I live can get really cold to the point that it is noticeably warmer when I step out of the building. Luckily, we have heaters to help during the winter, but I definitely was not expecting to need that here in Australia.

Themed Parties

In the United States, you can definitely find themed parties to go to, but I feel like people do not go all out to the same extent as people do here in Australia. Whenever there is a get together at someone’s house, people tend to assign a theme to be followed in terms of a dress code. Nine out of ten times people actually do dress up and put a lot of creativity into what they wear. Op-shops are very popular in Melbourne, so before a party, it is common to go shop at a second-hand store to find affordable pieces for your look. While being here, some themes I have seen include throwback, matching outfits, officewear, glitter/leather/fur/feather, pairs or trios, and much more. It is really fun to plan out fun outfits and see what everyone else is wearing as well since everyone really tries to dress for the various themes.

These were four more things that surprised me about Australia, the cold being the only thing I was not very happy to find out about. It is incredible to visit new places and get to see how different cities work both at a meso level, with its policies, and at a micro level, in the way that people behave.

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