Culture Shock
Have I been living on a different planet for the last 10 months??? Why didn’t anyone tell me? Everything here is so absolutely normal!!! How do I even begin to explain the complete state of culture shock I have been suffering from for the past 2 days since I arrived in Australia?? It’s unbelievable.
People actually speak English everywhere here, what a concept. It may sounds silly, but I have been so completely isolated in SE Asia for the last 10 months and well I just got used to not being able to understand background conversations, music on the radio, local tv, and basically everyone in general. Now all of a sudden I understand everyone again! Even as I write this people are walking by where I’m sitting and I am able to pick up a piece of each conversation as they pass and it’s SO nice!
Then, at the airport in Cairns, I found the shuttle bus into town and when I got on the driver announced, ‘it’s a law in Australia for everyone to wear their seatbelt so please buckle up.’ I’m looking around like WHAT?? I haven’t even seen a seatbelt for 10 months. In most of Asia they cut them out of the car and absolutely NO ONE uses seatbelts. I mean, come one, this is the land where I saw SEVEN people on a motorbike at one time!!!! (one adult, six children) Road safety does not exist.
The supermarket yesterday was another highlight for me – an entire aisle of cheese, a whole section of mustards, pickles, olives – all the things you can’t get in Asia. Ok, you can get Kraft mustard and Kraft singles, but that’s only if you’re lucky. And they had a produce section here with apples, broccoli, alfalfa sprouts – I was in heaven. How did I survive without so much for so long? I have no idea.
Last night in the hostel I was hanging out with some other travelers – a girl from Holland, and a guy and girl from the UK and they’ve all been in Australia for 3-8 months already and they were just laughing at my amazement over everything being Western again. They told me I will be bored of it in a few more days, but I don’t know. I just didn’t realize how hard the traveling I’ve done has been until I landed here. There’s no hassle, no haggling, no people following you saying – you need taxi, where you from, where you go, change money, buy something, want massage, special discount, etc, etc etc. You can actually walk down the street and no one even looks at you!!! I am absolutely loving it.
Yeah so I’m in Australia now. In Cairns, on the coast of Queensland, one of the main port towns for visiting the Great Barrier Reef. The Happy Family is due to arrive on August 8th, so I’ve got another few days to check out the sites on my own.
Today I was meant to go hang gliding (a first for me) with Sanne, the girl from Holland, but there wasn’t enough wind so we’re going to try again tomorrow. It was a relaxing day, hanging out at the hostel with Sanne, the 2 Brits, eating (are you ready?) hummus and pita!! Wow. Very exciting. Finally around 2pm I decided to go out and about so I went down to the waterfront and spent the afternoon walking around the shops and marina. I also booked some diving at the reef for the day after tomorrow. Have I mentioned how much I love being here yet? Ok then. I’m about to go buy a bottle of red wine and some Doritos (hooray!) and go back to the hostel to work on conforming to Western society. Oh, I forgot to mention that yesterday I spent 3 hours in an art gallery because I was so amazed with the beautiful aboriginal art collection there and in the end I bought 5 paintings!! That was my first real souvenir I’ve bought on this trip. Hey I deserved it!
One last kudo for the land down under and that is the weather! There is NO HUMIDITY in Cairns! This is really, really wonderful. I have been living in a sauna for almost a year. I’ve heard that you folks at home are suffering from a heat wave, well imagine 10 months of exactly that in third-world countries with no air con anywhere? You can’t even breathe without sweating. Now I’m here and although the sun is warm, there is a wonderful breeze just like in springtime at home. And at night it gets chilly!!! It’s ALL so great. Life is good.
Getting ready to fly!
Friend Sanne (from Holland) in the air
Me, still happy after the crash landing
Add comment August 4th, 2002