AUSTRALIA - ADELAIDE

I am doing a semester overseas in Australia right now. I certainly love it right here and enjoy the company I have. All in all, I might say that the way of life in Austria and Australia are pretty similar. Anyway, there are still differences.

Lets begin with punctuality. It does not matter if it is in college or if you meet up with someone. Everything begins at least 15 minutes later than planned. While in Austria usually every body is very punctual, especially in Universities and Schools, here no one really cares when you stroll into the classroom. Even the lecturers are usually late. Since I am not the most punctual person either, I certainly like this component of the way of life. Work also starts later than back home in my small city in Austria. Shops will open later round nine to ten am, however they are also open till nine or 10 pm. Opening hours might also be different in a bigger city back home.

In general, I might also say that the Australians engage much more in small talk than we do. Actually, more small talk than deep conversations. Everybody is very nice and is open for a conversation. Compared to Austria, I might say that you have more conversations with strangers you'll never see again in Australia.

Something I observe as well is, that you have a better work-life-balance at the university. I do not know exactly how if the same thing is true in a job situation. But here at the university, the lecturers and college students have another definition of stress. Something which is pretty chill for us, they deifne as stressful. Although you still learn and do things for the university, you have enough free time, and you do no longer have to work unitl late at night.                                                                                                                        

I might also add that, they're not so harsh whilst giving critic. They usually have appropriate words to say, if they do not like something. In Austria we're rather direct, which may sometimes be hurtful . Here they're much more likely to speak across the negative subject. Sometimes this is sterssful for me, especially at the university. I am used that I am simply told what someone doesn’t like and what I should change in a project. Here, the lecturers do certainly not tell me that. Actually, they're much more likely to only have positive comments for a project, which then can be difficult to improve my project and to learn from errors I make. 

Something I have realized as well is that clubs close earlier than in Austria. While I can be in a club until 5 am in Austria, here they close around 2-3 am. Also, giving a tip in bars is not really that common here, I think. Because always I am trying to give a tip, they say several times that they don’t want it and I should keep it. I am honestly not sure if they really do not want to have the tip or if this is just a way of them of being nice, and it is seen as inappropriate if they just take the tip without saying anything.

Before travelling to Australia I was not really sure about the food. I was expecting that they eat more different food than we do. But so far food has been the same. Since Australia is a BBQ country, they have a lot of meat, but they still have enough vegetarian options. That was something I was a little bit scared of, since I am a vegetarian, but they have perfect options for that.

To summarize, I have to say that I didn’t really have a culture shock. There are differences, but it is still quite similar to us, so it wasn’t really hard to get used to Australia. I am looking forward to spending more time in Australia and getting to know the culture even better.

Adelaide, August 2022                                                                                                                             Desiree Gabriel