Submitted by Caitlin Goodhue on the 2013 winter session program in Australia sponsored by the Department of English….
If I had to pick one (hyphenated) word to describe Australia, it would be “laid-back.” The people, the cities, the motto (“No worries”) — everything is relaxed — even to the point of stores and restaurants being closed. Yesterday, when our group first arrived in Adelaide, many of us couldn’t figure out why, at around 2:30 p.m., hardly any businesses were open. It was so different from America, where we have access to food basically at all times throughout the day. Eventually, we discovered that the New Year’s holiday lasts a loooong time here in Australia (which is also why our first day in Sydney seemed so empty even compared to the second day) and that many places close early, some at around 5:00 p.m., so that people who work can go home and be with their families. Huh.
Today’s Adelaide was 100% different from the deserted Adelaide we saw yesterday. Instead of staying in the city, we took the tram to the beach.Side note: the Australians are so lax about things that it didn’t even matter if we didn’t have a ticket on the tram for the way there. I bought one for the way back, but even then, the workers were not concerned about it at all. One boy said he didn’t have the correct way of payment — coins — or a credit card, and the worker “collecting tickets” took him aside and was basically just like ‘have it next time, but this time’s on us.’ Again…huh? Pretty great though.
Back to the beach: unbelievable. The mystery of where everyone was yesterday was solved; they all came to the beach. Glenelg Beach in Adelaide has a huge amount of restaurants and shops, is lined with palm trees, and plays tropical-sounding music almost constantly. Today was a perfect beach day (zero clouds in the sky). Also, jumping off the Glenelg Peir = so intense, but so. much. fun.
So, background of where I am right now: I started this blog in the lounge on the first floor of our hostel. A testament to the friendliness of Australians — two strangers started talking to a group of us in the lounge, just out of the blue. The two of them, in addition to being so nice to our group, said that they just met each other today, as roommates in the hostel. Someone listening to their conversation would never be able to tell; they sounded like best friends. They were having a conversation about cattle, but I couldn’t really follow it (something about how many sheep made up the size of some farm somewhere) — I just found it cool that they used “40 kilos” instead of saying whatever-the-equivalent “miles.”
In conclusion, jet-lag is a very real thing, Australia has extremely limited access to wifi, and listening to Australian accents still, after like four days, hasn’t gotten old.
Highlights of the day: “for here or take-away” instead “for here or to-go” and a cashier looking at me like I had three heads because I asked for a “soda” (“Uhhhhh…you mean ‘soft-drink’?”)
