Australia vs. the United States

I'm truly the worst blogger in the history of the world...never did I think I'd be so busy since I've been here! The bottom line is that Australia is INCREDIBLE and has so much to offer! I've been spending my time studying, practicing, putting in hours at my new internship with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and enjoying time with the amazing friends I've made since I arrived. On Sunday, Shannon and I will by flying to Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef!! Obviously I'll make some time to blog about that!

One major similarity between Australia and the United States is that everyone in the US wants to visit Australia, and everyone in Australia wants to see the US! In light of that, I want to make some comparisons between the US and Australia so that those who haven't had the pleasure of going back and forth can know what they're missing.

1) TIME CHANGE! Australia is separated into three time zones- Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST), and Australian Western Standard Time (AWST). I'm experiencing Australian Eastern Standard Time which covers the states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory. ACST covers most of Southern Australia, and AWST covers Western Australia. A major difference is that each state chooses whether or not they want to inflict the Daylight Savings Time change on its residents- Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia are lucky enough to not fall back or spring forward for daylight savings time, so we remained the same while the US moved forward one hour. So, when I arrived in Australia, I was a full 15 hours ahead of the East Coast. Now, we're only 14 hours ahead! The easiest way to figure out what the time is in Australia from the east coast is simply to add two hours and change the a.m. to p.m., or vice versa! For example, if it's 6am in the US, add two hours (8am) and that makes it 8pm here! We don't get everything first here, though... Titanic in 3D comes out at one time and one time only, making it April 5th here and April 4th in the US. Such a letdown, but I'm betting it will end the same depressing way in both AUS and the US.

2) VALUE OF THE DOLLAR. The current exchange rate from Australia to the US is $1AUD=$1.03USD. So, when you're comparing a small amount of money, the difference seems like nothing. However, when you get up into the big bucks and have to pay, for example, $565AUD for an Australian Student Visa,that equals $583USD! Sadly, in addition to the dollar being worth more, everything in Australia just costs more than in the US. Here's a few examples...
   -mascara: usually around $7 or $8 in America? At least $15 here! most makeup is exorbitantly expensive... my friends pay up to $40 for their foundation and similar products. Unreal! They're the same brands as in the US, too!
   -bottle of Garnier Fructis shampoo or conditioner: ~$3 or $4USD, $7.95AUD!
   -Apple MacBook Pro: $1199USD, $1698AUD. Similarly, Apple iPhone: from $199USD, from $499AUD.

Australian currency- the bills are made of 

plastic so they don't rip!

   -bottle of water: RARELY cheaper than $2 or $3AUD. I've seen them for $4AUD out of vending machines!
   -bottle of Special K Cereal: $3.79USD, $5.50AUD
   -large pump bottle of Purell Hand Sanitizer: $4USD, $6.75AUD
   -on-campus gym membership for students: FREE for full-time students in the US, $339AUD for only a six month membership!
   -gas: $1.55AUD/liter. 1 gallon=3.8 liters, so that makes a 15 gallon tank=56.8 liters. That's $88.04AUD to fill up a SMALL CAR tank of gas!! 
Anyway, you get the point...things are much more expensive here. It is nice, however, that they include sales tax in the price you see on the item you buy. So, something costs $5 both on the shelf and at the register, no adding money for tax! Also, because they don't have pennies in their currency, the Australians round prices up or down so that the final price of any purchase is in some increment of $.05. It actually makes perfect sense- in the US, pennies mean essentially nothing to us. Here, every single coin is truly worth something. I've had a few times that my final price will come to something such as $X.07 and it'll be rounded down to $X.05- although it's small, it helps!!

3) EDUCATION SYSTEM. They do things a little differently here as far as the school system goes. Firstly, there are far more Australians who attend private and boarding schools than Americans. Also, regardless of whether they attend private, public, or boarding school, Australians wear uniforms to primary and secondary school!! They are unlike any uniform you've seen in the US, as you'll observe in these pictures. Also, almost all Australian students take at least one "gap year" after finishing primary school before attending secondary school. From talking to the people on my floor, it seems that most of them work and stay at home with their families for that year. Upon reaching the college level- aka "tertiary school" or, simply "uni!" the students know exactly what they want to do. While in the US we convene for the same class 2-3 times per week, ALL of the classes at Griffith Uni meet only once a week, usually for a period of about two hours. The students spend much less time in class than relaxing or studying, while we could easily have a full day of classes at a university in the states. Also, their GPA ratings are on a seven point scale- that makes having a 4.0 look pretty bad!
   Paying for school is very different here, too. While all of the students at a given university in the US pay the same fee for their education, regardless of major, Australian tertiary students pay different amounts based on their program of study. At Griffith, the most expensive degrees are law, medicine, veterinary science, aviation, and others. There are different "Bands" of study and students, pay an additional amount to government funding, depending on which band their program of study falls into. Also, many undergraduate degrees take longer than four years, but those students that complete the program leave with a complete degree. No need for graduate school! For instance, law students can have a degree in five years in Australia, as opposed to taking four years of undergraduate and three years of graduate courses in the US. Nursing students can graduate in three years! From talking to friends in the nursing and aviation programs, it seems that they are thrusted into the real world of their program of study much more quickly than in the US. While nursing students in America will enter the hospital in their third or fourth year of study, Australians will be in the hospital by their second semester of classes. Aviation students go to an actual all-day flight school in their first few years.
   Another program that Australian students have to take advantage of is CentreLink. This program implemented by the Australian Government offers free money to full-time students between the ages of 16 and 24 who can prove that they have been independent from their families for at least a year and a half and that their parents' annual income is under a certain amount. Depending on how much under the income cutoff the student's parents make, they could receive anywhere from $100 to $600 every two weeks. This is just free money that is handed to them to do what they want with! Also, students who can prove that they have at least 1/8 Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage in their blood can receive CentreLink funding. This money never has to be paid back to the government, it's just yours if you can have it. Amazing!!

4) ALCOHOL. You'd be shallow for judging the Australians based on the amount of drinking they do. It's really a part of their culture! The Australians judge their own alcohol based on the number of "standard drinks" it contains. A standard size beer (15oz) is called a "schooner" and contains about 1.6 standard drinks. A 700ml bottle of liquor that could be easily finished by anywhere from 1-3 uni students on a given night (as I've witnessed...) contains 22 standard drinks. You can imagine what would come out of that! Click here to see a list of the number of standard drinks per beverage as determined by the Australian Department of Health and Aging. On any given day of the week (and any given time for that matter), you'll see Australians of all ages sitting outside enjoying a beer or glass of wine with friends or business associates. Social drinking before concerts is also a trend here. Concert-goers will show up an hour or more before a performance, whether it is in the evening or morning, to enjoy casual drinks and snacks in the lobby before the show.

   The Australians enjoy a fair number of the same liquors and beers we enjoy in the USA, especially Corona (with lemon here, not lime!) Sierra Nevada, and others, NOT INCLUDING Natural Light aka "Natty Light" by my college friends, or Bud/Budweiser anything. The famous Queensland beer, XXXX (if you're over 18, click on the XXXX to visit their website!) does remind me a little of Natty but with a slightly more robust flavor. If you don't like the traditional XXXX Gold, there are a variety of other XXXX beers to try. Another true Australian beer is Victoria Bitter (again, click the name to visit their website. You'll need to be 18+ to view this one, too!) This one is my personal favorite, it has a great flavor! Bundaberg Rum, aka "Bundy,"is another famous Australian liquor. Have fun looking around those websites!


5) MUSIC NOTE VALUES. While anyone who wishes to can read this section, the musicians will probably enjoy/understand it more! I was shocked upon my first lesson with my flute professor (or "tutor" as they refer to him here!) when he told me that I needed to make the "semi-quavers" lighter and lean into the "semi-breves..." WHAT?! I've made myself little tables to carry everywhere, but here's one for you...

              American Terms      Australian Terms

		whole note	semibreve
		half note	minim
	or	quarter note	crotchet
		eighth note	quaver
		sixteenth note	semiquaver
		thirty-second note	demisemiquaver

It gets even funnier when you're down into the sixty-fourth and one hundred twenty eighth-notes and they call them hemidemisemiquavers and semihemidemisemiquavers... those are the real names, yes.

Here's some Australian vocab to leave you with!!

-petrol: gas (for your car)
-singlet: tanktop
-"Hay?": "what?"
-"How're you going?"- "How are you doing?"
-"Good on ya!"- good for you!
-roadie: a drink to take with you for transportation from your pre-drinking location to your final drinking destination...club, bar, etc. How dare you become sober on the trip there!!
-wanker: a pretentious idiot, usually used in reference to a male
-"loose": used in describing something awesome, as in:
   Person A: "Hey, are you going out tonight?"
   Person B: "Yeah!"
   Person A: "Loose."
     The funny part about it is that in the US, we'd say "tight!" I think that sums up the main difference between our culture and theirs...

Also, if you want a good laugh, here's YouTube famous Australian comedian Carl Barron. Here's one of his gems about the differences between American and Australian vocab! He's HILARIOUS!

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed learning a little more about Australia today. I'll be sure to blog when I get back about the GREAT BARRIER REEF!!

Love,
Sarah