Odd Things I've Observed About Australia

-It's strange to get used to them driving on the left side of the road, but even harder to get used to walking on the left side of a sidewalk. I've pissed off more than a few Aussies by passing them on the right. Oops!

-Books cost a fortune here. Like Twilight, which is $5.99 in the U.S., is 25 bucks here! All their novels are in the 20s, even the cheap paperback ones. And it takes three weeks for Amazon to deliver to Australia.

-There are more foreigners in Cairns than Australians. I have neighbors here from Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands but I haven't hung out yet with any Aussies.

-Malls are bizarre. They look just like our malls, only the stores are completely different, which creates a very eerie feeling walking through the shopping center.

-NBC, CBS, and ABC's websites don't work in Australia. How am I supposed to watch my shows? My TV doesn't turn on!

-There is an entire freezer aisle in the grocery store for frozen meat for your dog. They pamper their dogs with freshly cooked beef chunks. Crazy!

-Seafood costs even more here than it does in Minnesota. Even though we're by the ocean. Prawns are like 25 dollars a bag.

-They call ketchup "tomato sauce" and you sometimes have to pay for it in restaurants. We're going to start bringing our own bottle along.

-The buses, as I've said before, are a nightmare. It takes hours to get anywhere. We're trying to convince our roommate Alex to buy a cheap car since he'll be here all year. That would make life sooo much better.

-The campus bookstore doesn't sell used textbooks.

-If you order a drink from a bar, the prices aren't listed, so it could be anywhere between 3 dollars (rarely) up to about 17 dollars. It's a gamble. Best to stick to on-tap beer.

This place is like a parallel universe. Everything is the same but different at the same time. They look like us, but maybe a little better-looking. They talk like us, only they sound cooler. The weather is nicer and the scenery is way more beautiful, but it doesn't look that different from Florida, if Florida had mountains. It's like taking our culture in the U.S. and tweaking it just enough that you know you're somewhere else.