I was surprised to open my favourite magazine -which was 5 dollars more here I may add- and find some of the slang terms used above. One particularly different term, was "lovefriend" – referring to a boyfriend or girlfriend.
The relaxed nature of the Australian culture.
Everyone jokes about the laid back beach style of Australia, but I was surprised to find it to be true. Of course not everyone surfs, but almost everyone is involved in outdoor activities – and I have seen quite a lot of long blonde haired men. Shoes are always optional unless in upscale restaurants or hotels. Timing is casual. Even public transportation runs almost always behind schedule. This usually was not a problem, except for one day when the bus was an hour and a half late. That was a moment when the Australian time was too casual for our transportation needs. In restaurants, service is very slow. Trying to get a quick bite to eat at a sit down restaurant is an impossibly frustrating task. Despite this, we have come to love Australian time (for the most part) and will likely have a rude awakening when we arrive back in the States and are expected to join the hustle and bustle of American culture.
Not only do cars drive on the left side, people walk on the left side.
We caught on to this fairly quickly. In addition to cars driving on the left side of the road, people, when walking in crowds or along sidewalks always divert to the left side. This seemingly simple idea was a difficult task to ingrain in our trained brains. We so wanted to join the normal flow of foot traffic and avoid those awkward back and forth confrontations with strangers. By now we are able to naturally gravitate to that side of the road. But we will have to "un-learn" this when retuning to the States.
Even with just one month left in Australia,
