It's honestly amazing to me that I have only been here a week because I already feel so at home and like I have learned so much! I would attribute my sense of feeling at home to my amazing host family that has made this huge transition seem practically seamless. They have made me feel as if I am another family member and have helped me so much words can't even describe. I feel as if I have already experienced so much and can't even fathom all that is to come in the next few months! But enough with all this "feelings" business.. time to touch on a few things that I've learned in my short time here and some similarities and differences I've noticed and a little bit about my wonderful host family.
The Living Options: I could not have picked a better living arrangement if I tried. When I first started planning to study abroad I felt extremely torn on what I should do as far as living goes. There were several options to choose from with all of them having their own pros and cons. One option that is the most popular would be to stay in their dorms, or colleges as they call them. This option offers living right on campus with other students as well as all of your meals. This option is a great way to meet people however a major con would be the price and the fact that you're thrown back to freshman year all over again.. these socializing hot spots cost a whopping $330-$390/wk on top of the $200 application fee and $95 airport pickup service.. yes thats right, pricing here goes by week!! Great option but waaay out of my budget. The next would be off campus student housing, this option allows you to live with other international students fairly close to campus with the distance ranging from right next to campus or 20 minutes away. This is also another great way to meet people and the price is a little bit more affordable with it ranging from $180-$240/wk which doesn't include utilities, meals or linens plus the fee for placement and airport pickup. The school could also place you in a homestay with families that have registered with them and been cleared for about the same price and all the same fees.The option that I took was to take my chances and use the good ol' internet and find my own thing. I really wanted to try and find the cheapest thing I could and focus all of my money towards travelling as I'm not sure of the next time I'll ever be on this side of the world again. I was homeless literally up until the week before I left but I really hit the jackpot and found an amazing family for $180/wk which includes my dinner, utilities, linens, laundry, basically everything that I could ask for.
My Home Away From Home: One of my big selling points on choosing a homestay option as opposed to living on campus was my wanting to really get the Australian experience and I figured the best way to do that was to live with an Australian family. However, neither Catherine or Ed is Australian and neither is their family but I would have it no other way, I just like to look at it as a 3 for 1 deal. Not only am I getting to know all about the Australian culture, but I am living with a "mum" that is originally from New Zealand and grew up in England and a dad that is originally from England but grew up in New Zealand. A mug with the queen sits above the sink, pictures from their tea party that they had to celebrate the royal wedding are hanging on the fridge, the kids Aaron,2, and Hazel, 4, dress up as the prince and princess and take their royal strolls through the house. Ed and Catherine are able to fill me in on everything related to the Australian way of life, as well as the Kiwi (New Zealander) and the English way of life as well.
Every morning I wake up around 7ish (my sleep schedule is still off but getting better) to hearing the kids playing and running around and I could not imagine a better start to the day. I have switched from coffee in the morning to tea and usually just grab a piece of toast. I hit the jackpot food wise as Catherine buys all organic foods and everything is super healthy. There is no shower door in the bathroom and it's amazing, I'll have to take pictures later to explain.The toilet is also in a separate room from the bathroom which from what I've seen is quite popular. It also took me awhile to realize that to flush the toilet the button is conveniently on top of the toilet. They have what they call the typical Aussie house. The master bedroom is at the front of the house followed by a corridor that leads to the living room area and the other bedrooms. People really don't have dryers here since the weather is amazing and so everything is put out on the clothes line to dry which is my absolutely most favorite thing. Life is so simple here and its utterly beautiful. I also lucked out and have a regional park right down the street which makes for an amazing path to go running around that wraps around the lake and is full of amazing plants and birds. I am also in love with the form of parenting here. From what I've seen it's very much a "let your child loose in the backyard" type deal instead of the structured detailed planned out day that I see a lot in America. It's amazing to see the difference at a park here versus a park at home. For instance, one child had been going down the slide face first for quite awhile and finally managed to face plant and completely wipe out, instead of the "mum" running over to instantly check the kid out and file a report with the city about the danger of the slide, she calmly told the kid to move out of the way of the other kids trying to go down the slide and move on. After reading an article from the New York Times about our playgrounds being too safe due to incessant complaints from parents, I've been hyperaware I feel like to those kids with overbearing parents. After dealing with parent complaints all summer while being the assistant director at the U of I's youth sports fitness camp, it's amazingly refreshing to see parents that understand that yes, your child will fall down or hear a bad word but no, it is most certainly NOT the end of the world. Sorry, thats my one rant for the day, but moving on!
The Differences: One of the biggest differences that I am having trouble with would be the whole driving on the other side of the road ordeal. One of Hazel's favorite stories to tell people is how I tried to drive home from the airport. My flight had come in earlier than planned and I didn't have a phone coming here so I was already nervous about whether or not I would be able to find Catherine or not but fortunately she was there waiting by the baggage claim with Hazel who was holding a sign with my name on it that she had made herself.. quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen. But once we got out to Catherine's car and I had my bags in the trunk, I walked around to get in the car and sat down in the driver seat completely forgetting that they drive on the other side of the car as well as drive on the other side of the road. I'm pretty sure I look like I'm having a seizure everytime I cross the road because I constantly forget which way traffic is going to be coming from so I'm constantly looking left and right. The whole driving on the opposite side of the street also applies to walking on the street, up and down stairs, and bike lanes. Instead of walking on the right side of the sidewalk, you have to walk to the left of the sidewalk otherwise you are completely going against the grain and might as well stamp American on your forehead. I almost died my second night here when I was out running around the regional park. I was running to the right of the sidewalk around a curvy part and a bicyclist coming from the opposite direction almost took me out as I was technically on his side of the sidewalk.
Another difference would be the language and use of words. Living with my family I'm sometimes completely lost in conversations as I have no idea what they're talking about even though they're speaking plain english. I have also made a lot of friends from the UK so I'm picking up all these great terms left and right and get quite a kick out of hearing new terms. I was completely dumbfounded the first time Aaron asked me if I could help him "put on his nappy for none-eyes". Diapers are calling "nappies" and "none-eyes" means a nap or just sleeping in general. If someone wants to meet at "half six to go get some chips" they actually want to meet at 6:30 to go get fries... potato chips are called "crisps".. if it's cold you grab a "jumper" (sweatshirt), you throw your "rubbish" away, people will throw 'but' on the end of the sentence and thats literally the end of the sentence, no need to wait for the thought to finish..you put your "knickers" on before your trousers.. meeting at a certain spot for "pre-lush" aka pre-gaming.. just lots of little stuff that I get quite a kick out of.
The Food: The tomato soup is NOT the same! I knew when I was packing that I should not have listened to my mother and should have just gone ahead and used up my valuable suitcase space for the eight cans of miracle substance that I had stocked up on in anticipation for this trip. If anyone is reading this, please please please send soup! Other than that, the food here is amazing! After being on my own as far as cooking goes for the past three years, having something other than beer and/or oatmeal or soup is absolutely phenomenal. Usually Ed gets home fairly late so Catherine and I will eat around 7ish after the kids have been put to bed and usually eat in the living room with a glass of wine and just chat and watch TV. The markets and shops are full of meat pies and quiches however there are McDonalds (aka Mackies), Pizza Hut, Dominoes, and your normal American food but it all just tastes so different. The food is also quite expensive, if you have a hankering for a banana you better be prepared to pay the $15 for the bunch. The banana farmers took a huge hit with all the flooding and Australia won't import bananas in order to stay loyal to their own farmers so the prices have been jacked way up.
The Prices: I have never been so glad not to smoke in my life. If you ever wanna quit, come here and the $20 a pack will surely help. Covergirl foundation is a solid twenty bucks and hair spray is around ten or fifteen. Needless to say I'll be looking pretty rough after my makeup from home runs out. Before coming here I was warned about the cost of living being absurdly high and so I tried to pack all my necessities in preparation so that I wouldn't have to shell out once I got here. One thing that I was surprised about was how affordable it was to travel. After never going away on a spring break trip my whole college career with the exception of a mission trip to Appalachia, I think I have earned myself the trip to Bali for their spring break here with a bunch of my new friends.. can't wait for that one :) I also need to figure out how to send all my luggage home ahead of time so I can just backpack across Australia for my last weeks here.. if anyone is reading this and has suggestions please let me know :) One of my least favorite price differences is the amount of money it would cost to support my drinking habits from home. I can't tell you how much I miss the cases of beer Stevo and I would split for the week, I'm fairly certain I would give my first born in order to not pay the minimum $7 it costs to get a drink in a bar. If you go to a bar here you won't be slapped with cover, but you'll be beaten down by the $10 it costs for a shot of whiskey with coke or better yet, the $12 it costs for one can of Smirnoff Ice (it comes in a can.. weird right?)
and last but not least...
The People: I am completely blown away by all the people that I have met since I've been here. Just from taking the bus to and from the train station I have met sooo many interesting people that said they could tell just by the looks of me that I wasn't from around here and gave infinite words of wisdom. I now know which parts of town to stay away from, which bars to go to, which markets have the best prices, what to do if I see a snake or a spider (everything is deadly here apparently so the answer is to run away) and countless other random facts that have made for great conversation. I have also made so many new friends just from the international exchange bunch that I've been going to orientation and registration with for the past week. I've met people from literally everywhere in the world and all of them have been nothing shy of amazing. I've learned about all the great bars that I need to go to all around the world and picked up so many new drinking games that I can't wait to make everyone from home try out.
My first week has been absolutely amazing and filled with trips to the zoo, checking out the bar scene naturally, locating all the coffee shops on campus, exploring the shops in Perth with a couple of guys that doubled as our own personal tour guides, runs through the regional park, playing with Hazel and Aaron, and making lots of friends and memories. I can't wait to see what the first week of classes brings and what these next months have in store. As amazing as this place is, I've been feeling the pressure to figure out what exactly I'm supposed to do with my life after this next semester assuming I graduate on time. The option I'm currently leaning towards is to extend my stay here and take up an au pair job that I've been looking into and let the rest fall into place, but time will tell :) Well I think I've basically written a short novel so this should feed your curiosity for awhile mom and I expect gobs of tomato soup to be delivered within the upcoming week. Much love!
