*** Email entry ***



Life Down Under



Folks in the States ask me a lot of questions about what it's like in
Australia, aka "Down Under," aka "Oz." The short answer is, "wonderful."
This is a terrific country. Here's a short description.



Land size: About the same as the 48 lower United States.

Population: About the same as either Texas or Southern California-i.e.,
around 20 million and growing.

Government: Based on the British system, modified over the years; it is a
parliamentary government headed by a Prime Minister. The current one is
Kevin Rudd. Last night he was a guest on a local news-based combination
quiz/comedy show. The questions were rigged in his favor, so he had to win.
But it was very informative and entertaining none-the-less. Australia has a
much smaller number of states, all large in size, each with a major city and
a state Prime Minister. They are:

Queensland (Brisbane)

New South Wales (Sydney)

Victoria (Melbourne)

South Australia (Adelaide)

Western Australia (Perth)

And Northern Territory (Darwin) ---it's not a state. It's a
territory.

The Capital of Australia is Canberra, located in the A.C.T
(Australian Capital Territory), much as Washington is in DC, the District of
Columbia.

There are some other islands officially connected to Australia
too, but this is enough for one posting.



Living in Australia is much like living in the States. When
Australians say "America," they generally mean the United States. I prefer
to refer to the States as the States since "America" includes many other
countries.



It's hard to find an edition of the daily Australian news that
doesn't include a story about President Obama and often some other key US
figure as well.

Most US movies play in Australia within a few days after opening
in the States.

The majority of the population lives in one of the urban centers
listed above, but there are many, many smaller communities. Most of these
are located within a few miles of the coast. By the second half of the 19th
century a higher percentage of Australians lived in towns of 2,500 or more
than the people living in England or the States.



The time difference between Brisbane and Houston is 16 hours. So
to figure out when to call folks back in Texas, I've learned to count
forward eight hours and skip back a day. If they want to call me they have
to count back eight hours and fast forward a day. Mid-morning Tuesday in
Australia is dinner time on Monday in Texas.



My personal greatest challenge is driving. They use the left
side of the road. On multiple lane highways I'm driving in what feels like
it should be the passing lane. Nearly all exits are to the left. The
steering wheel is on the right side of the car. This works out OK for an
automatic. It is definitely weird driving a stick shift. On a good day I get
the turn signal on the first try. Usually I turn on the windshield wipers
first. These are located on opposite sides of the steering column from cars
driven in the States.



Australians love round-a-bouts. They have them in every little
village and in many intersections in major cities. And they go around them
clockwise instead of counter clock wise as folks to in the States do in the
rare places that have them.



Seasons are reversed. Christmas is always hot, occurring in the
middle of summer as it does. Lent and Easter are in the fall, so all the
imagery of spring and new life doesn't really match the reality of what
folks are experiencing. However, this does not preclude an abundance of
Easter candy available everywhere.



Enough for one day. If you've read all this, "good on you" as
they'd say Down Under.



G'day for now.



Start wherever you are. Use whatever you have. Do whatever good you can. In
spite of all the constant stream of bad news, it's still a wonderful world
filled with terrific people and fascinating places to go and things to see.



Kathy







Posted by Kathy Haueisen Cashen at 2/22/2010 8:32 PM
Categories: uncategorized
 

What did you think of this article?




Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this post
  • No trackbacks exist for this post.
Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Leave a comment

 Name (required)

 Email (will not be published) (required)

 Website

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.