Year One

I’ve been thinking about writing this for the past couple of months. Today marks year one of being in Australia. In many ways, it still seems like a dream. It’s not the location, or the culture, it’s the lack of familiar faces that make it so unreal. In the eight years I spent in San Francisco I got to know hundreds of people. It was rare to go anywhere in that city and not run into someone I knew. That reality took time to nurture, but it was a condition I had grown very accustomed to. Given another year or two, I'm sure the same will hold true for Sydney.

I recall the day we arrived. After surviving our landing and settling into our accommodations in Newtown, we walked to King Street to grab a bite to eat. The sky was grey and rainy. I remember standing at the intersection, jetlagged and confused by the peculiarity of it all. The traffic was moving in the wrong direction. People whisked by us, obviously annoyed by our obstruction of their stride. I don’t recall what we got to eat, but I do remember the instant I opened my mouth to order the look of surprise on the cashier’s face. It was the accent. Someone told me before I moved that they will be as enthralled with your accent as you will be by theirs. It was true. Never had English sounded so odd.

In the coming months, there was a lot of negotiation when it came to communication. Australians generally speak very softly (unless they've had a few schooners) despite their guttural pronunciations of most words. The hardest thing I found in understanding people was I couldn’t hear them. Part of this has to do with my general lack of hearing, caused by too many nights of dancing to house music in front of large speakers, but it is also due to the fact that Americans are loud people. It is very funny; I can now spot Americans a mile away if for no other reason than the volume of their voices.

My ears have since adjusted and I get along fine most of the time. There are some dialects here I will never understand, especially those with the heavy peppering of slang. In some ways it reminds me of the South in the US with its combination of words and half words and idioms that only the natives understand. For the longest time I read an Australian slang dictionary to amuse myself, which made me realise how sanitised American English was in comparison.

Australians will say pretty much whatever is on their minds in any social context, including work. It can have a unsettling effect on Americans, even those of the non-PC variety. Americans keep their thoughts to themselves until they are put on TV, and then they bust forth, usually with stupidity.

Speaking of TV, I miss the big dramatic news stories that the US media delivers. I can’t believe I’m writing this, but it is true. The news here is boring. The only rise you see in TV anchors is when they are talking about footy, cricket, or the NRL. I struggle to stay on top of news events, mainly US politics. It’s an addiction.

The thing I don’t miss is religious people. Australia is very secular compared to the US, and it is very refreshing for someone like me to be in this environment. I’m not saying it doesn’t have its share of crazies, but they are fewer and farther between and have a lot less influence on the culture. It’s funny; I realize now how neurotic American culture is because of its obsession with religion. It’s incredibly self-absorbed having god on your side.

On the flip side, there are things about Australian culture that send me into a tailspin from time to time. Firstly, there’s a clear line of demarcation between genders. I know, living in San Francisco warped my sense of these things, but it did take some getting used to. Secondly, Australians can be pedantic—there’s always a lesson to be learned in everything. Thirdly, there’s a lack of self-reflection in the culture, which can make discussions about their culture very delicate, which is a contradiction to everything else about them. Fourthly (and most importantly), my home broadband internet connection is slower than my dial-up from 1995, which creates some very very frustrating moments in my life!

Welcome to Australia.