10 Things I Have Succumbed To

Over at Pond Parleys, Michael and Toni are talking about the things they haven't yet succumbed to in their 'new' countries, as well as things they cling to from their place of origin. I thought I'd take a slightly different angle and write about 10 things that I have succumbed to since arriving in Australia over a year and a half ago.

1. Eating kangaroo and Vegemite. Both are healthy and versatile, and both can be ingredients for chili:)

2. While I'm still learning how to speak strine, I reckon it's heaps good not to resist the local slang!

3. (Some) Aussie pronunciations and spelling. I know pronounce my H's (although only when saying the letter on it's own; herb is still 'erb) and Z is 'zed'. U is added to words like colour, labour, harbour, etc and seems like second nature these days.

4. Mint sauce with lamb. Paula will hate me for this...I tried not to, but I had this amazing homemade mint sauce that was just to die for at an xmas in July party, and then some marinated lamb chops last week that were out of this world. If the mint sauce is made well, there are few things comparable!

5. Another one on the food theme is using both a knife and fork to eat my food. It still seems a bit posh, but it actually works pretty well.

6. Roundabouts, which scared the crap out of me about a year ago, make traffic run so much smoother. I still slow down a bit too much at some times when entering them, but better cautious than crumpled I say.

7. Talking to strangers is at least a weekly occurrence here. Back home, I saw the same people at the bus stop for years on end, would never have thought of saying a word to them, and probably would have thought them nuts and had my keys on my knife as a weapon in the case of them speaking up.

8. Haggling in shops is the done thing, particularly if you're buying appliances or furniture, and I've saved a decent amount this way.

9. I have a clothes line in the basement, which I'm sure I've mentioned before, and hang all of my laundry to dry. I do miss a proper vented tumble dryer, and will probably get one again someday, but it's no longer a necessity.

10. Last but not least, having the toilet in a separate room to the bath/shower seems a perfectly acceptable, and even good, set up!

While most of these things felt strange and uncomfortable to begin with, they're now second nature. Hopefully, in another 1 1/2 years I'll have 20 things to list!

Endless Summer – The Postcards Tour Finale

Michael Harling is a fellow American Expat living in the UK. I believe we met via an expat forum for Americans in the UK, some time ago. (As many of you will recall, I spent over a year living in England.) Michael's been touring the blogosphere, as a guest poster, and has chosen Suzer's Expat Adventures as one of his final destinations. Have a look at his other posts here. And if you have some extra reading time, don't miss Michael's other blog, Pond Parleys, which he 'co-hosts' with fellow British expat in the US, Toni Hargis. By the way, when you do make it to Australia in person Michael, we'll introduce you to our local brew, Cooper's. No one here touches Foster; it's export only I believe!

Endless Summer – The Postcards Tour Finale

I started this tour just as summer was beginning, so it seems fitting to end it just as summer draws to a close and autumn takes over. It’s been fun and I’ve met a lot of great people, but touring is tiring, even in the virtual world, so I’m taking advantage of that magic we call the Internet to round up the Kindness of Strangers Tour by relying on the kindness of several strangers at once. In a way, making my final tour stop to ten locations simultaneously seems the perfect ending for it—one big autumnal burst before quietly fading away.

This tour began as a means of promoting my book, but it soon became an end in itself and took on a life of its own. Very often, I found myself having such a good time “visiting” people around the globe that I forgot to mention the book. To date, my trip has taken me from Britain to Canada, sunny Spain, Tenerife and even back to my own hometown, ending up here in Australia with fellow American expat-Suzer.

This is the perfect place to end my tour because, as summer has drawn to a close back home, it is just beginning down here. Suzer tells me she’s going to put some Fosters on ice and fire up the Barbie (I’m assuming she means she’s going to light the barbeque grill and not set a perky little glamour doll on fire). So as soon as I finish this post we’re heading out back to enjoy the evening, watch the setting sun make the earth glow even redder and listen to the didgeridoos in the distance. I think I’m going to like it here.

I have to say, of all the adventures I might have imagined for my life as a young boy, touring the blogsphere on other people’s blogs was not a contender. But then the idea of leaving my quiet, rural life, moving to England, marrying a foreigner and writing a book about it never occurred to me, either. I’m glad and grateful for having done both, however, and although the tour is coming to an end, the adventure continues.

May yours continue as well.


Thanks and Good-bye from
The 2009 KINDNESS of STRANGERS TOUR?
Visit the Tour Page for the latest Tour updates.

Michael Harling is the author of
“Postcards From Across the Pond – dispatches from an accidental expat”
“Laugh out loud funny regardless of which side of the pond you call home. Bill Bryson move over, there’s a new American expat in town with a keen sense of humor.”
-- Jeff Yeager, author of “The Ultimate Cheapskate”

Visit the Home Page: http://postcardsfromacrossthepond.blogspot.com/

PC or not to be...PC

Living in the US, I always felt under restriction as to what I could express verbally. America is supposedly the land of free speech, but we have more rules about verbal etiquette than anywhere else I have lived so far. One area of conversation I particularly felt I had to watch my tongue on was race relations. We Yanks are so bloody touchy on this topic. I wonder how some of my fellow Americans would react to me calling myself a minority. How would they feel about me saying I have a better understanding now of what it's like to not feel like I fit in with the majority. I often wondered why immigrants in the US tended to surround themselves with other immigrants, and why it was so common for us to also segregate ourselves based on colour. Part of the answer is that it's just easier. It takes work to try and fit into a new/different culture. Also, those who are in the majority typically just don't understand what those in the minority go through. I've been here for almost a year and a half now and I do have some Australian acquaintences and friends, but more immigrant connections. The Australians I do know and spend time with tend to have had more 'wordly' experiences than most, either having done a stint overseas or a foreign partner, etc. As I continue to settle in, however, I do hold out hope that I'll make more Aussie mates along the way. On that note, my stage 2 visa paperwork came in the post this week. My police check application has been sent off, 1 of the 2 main forms I need to fill out has been started, and I'll be spending part of this weekend trying to finish up the rest. Wish me luck that it's a smooth and short process!

Culture Shock and Stress

As I was reading this article today, the thought occured to me that I could still be in one of the stages of culture shock. Recently, a few other expats have mentioned to me that they were having trouble coping, either comparing themselves to others and wondering why they weren't enjoying life in Australia just as much, or admitting that they are seriously stressed out and not really happy at the moment.

Usually, I'm more than willing to admit the stress I am under, but since settling here in Australia, my 4th country of residence in as many years, I think I feel as though I should be just that...settled. I have a full-time job, a husband who I've just celebrated my 2nd wedding anniversary with, a house to call my own, and plenty of new friends and acquaintences that I am able to get together with on a regular basis. The thing is, all of these factors have their own complications. I've pretty much given up what were my career aspirations a couple of years back, due to the fact that there aren't as many pathways in Adelaide into my chosen field. On some level, I've come to accept that I will have to take a step back and re-build my skills, some old and some new, in order to someday create a job for myself that is alignment with what makes me happy. It will happen, but it's hard work and takes a lot of patience in the meantime. My husband is doing very well in his career; so well, in fact, that his average home time is probably about 8pm or later most nights. I hate this and it's caused me to have to re-work my expectations of what married life should look like. While I'm hoping it's only temporary, someday I may have to just accept that having a sit down dinner at the table before 7pm every night is never going to happen. Our house is a serious work in progress, and some of the unfinished projects feel like the physical embodiment of my mental state. This, however, should be alleviated in a few months, fingers crossed, although there are a few things I was very much hoping would be rectified before my Aunt's visit in November. Along these lines, I am dying to be able to reciprocate and invite many of my new friends over to the house for a few dinners, parties and such but I really can't yet because of the undone house projects.

I'm less willing to admit what is causing me stress or unhappiness because I don't want the folks back home to be worried, nor do I want the new people in my life to think I'm not doing well. To be honest, I'm not so sure that I'm not doing well; it's simply that some of things have to settle down at some point, and they will. In the meantime, I'm slightly exhausted! This is the first time in weeks, maybe a couple of months, that I have actually felt inspired and witty enough to write something I feel is worthy and coherent. Perhaps that's a good sign, for now anyway.

Slacker Update

Ok so I've been a total slacker with the blog lately. I am very much anticipating the end of winter and the completion of some more house projects, the lack of both of which seems to suck up my mental energy these days. Hubs and I just had a lovely, and needed, anniversary weekend away in McLaren Vale, where we ate heaps, visited numerour wineries, and spent lots of time sitting in the hot tub and sauna. I think we should do this once every couple of months!

It Won't Be Long Now

Nothing could have made me happier than to see that sing outside of Kmart that read "Kmart hours now, Monday to Friday, 8am to 9pm". Either this is a new thing, or I haven't been paying attention, but I am overjoyed to know that (aside from Thursday nights in the suburbs and Friday night in the city), there is more open after 5pm that just Bunnings and the supermarket. I've never been much for the blue light special, but pickers can't be choosers in Australia. I hope this means Target and Big W will be soon to follow, then the entire shopping centre, and in years to come, all businesses in Oz.

Patriotism and Identity

I've always felt that there was a lot of truth to the supposition that if you don't know who or where you come from, then you can't know (entirely) who you are. To that extent, if you don't know how you fit into your own environment, you can't identify with that culture, and once again, you don't know who you are. A result of misplaced patriotism, racism, and a lack of acceptance of multiculturalism, is the creation of a nation of people who don't know who they are. With each wave of immigration in the US, there has been a corresponding wave of discrimination, and therefore a lack of integration by each new culture into the existing one. America is, to some extent, a nation of teenagers trying to figure out who they are. Australia is quickly following suit.

As mentioned in my last post, I spent some time the other morning reading an article in The Australian Literary Review section of The Australian called Seizing the Sauce Bottle. Tim Soutphommasane speaks to the topic of progressivism in politics, and patriotism as an ideal that should be upheld not as a hindrance to change, but rather the opposite. Too often, we think of patriotism as something that is held as a conservative or racist value rooted in ignorance. As Tim states in his article:

"Loving your country does not mean adhering
to unquestioned myths or mindlessly repeating slogans
but being prepared to contribute to the improvement
of your community or culture."

It raises the questions, what can we, as immigrants, do to contribute, and how have our perspectives on patriotism changed in respect to our views on both oour home and new country, after the move.

The Daily Paper

I never read the newspaper when I was living in the US. The two local papers held no interest, and it often seemed to me that too much emphasis was placed on which paper you were meant to be reading, based on your ethnic background and/or where you lived in the Chicagoland area. I was also young and uninterested in what was going on locally, which seemed to be the focus of those two papers. Even though world events and travel were more of a focus, even if only in a more general sense, god forbid I think about reading anything from New York, which might have provided a larger world view. The first time the newspaper grabbed my attention was when I was living in the UK. I'd often grab The Guardian on the weekend, and sit reading it for a few hours. I was fascinated. This English paper seemed much more interesting, offering a more socially conscious, and less biased view, than anything I'd read before, on a broader range of topics. The problem with the Australian newspapers, according to what Aussie history and political perspectives I'd read about before arriving here, was that all the media in this country appeared to be controlled by one man, Rupert Murdoch. As a consequence, I haven't bothered much with the paper here, until today. The Advertiser seemed too local, and The Australian too gloomy. This morning, however, a caption on the front page of work's copy of The Australian grabbed my attention. The Battle for Patriotism, it reads, with a subheading of 'Rethinking Oz literature'. More to come later, but if you have access to The Australian today, I encourage you to read the article, Seizing the Sauce Bottle, in The Australian Literary Review. It's the best bit of Australian journalism I've come across in my time down under.

Movies for Old White Racist Bastards

Hubs and I decided to have a movie and take-away night on Saturday. Well, actually I'd have to say that I decided and hubs agreed, provided it didn't involve any chick flicks. Usually we end up with at least one horror film, as that genre suits us both, and true to form we got some terrible thing called Quadrant, which I wouldn't recommend. The other film, Gran Torino, we could also agree on 1) because it somewhat revolves around an automobile [hubs] and 2) it got good reviews [me]. This was my first Clint Eastwood film, and will definitely be my last, unless someone straps me down to a chair and tapes open my eyelids, Clockwork Orange style. Gran Torino is about an old white racist bastard living in Detroit, who transforms into....oh wait, he's still an old white racist bastard at the end of the film. Unless you enjoy hearing racial slurs every 5 minutes, don't bother.

There’s a Road Train Going Nowhere

Do any of you Yanks out there know what a road train is, without looking it up? I certainly had no clue when I first got here, just as I have very little clue what Midnight Oil's songs are about, beyond a superficial, general idea. Having just gotten my first Midnight Oil cd (which of course I couldn't listen to on the way to work, as no one has portable cd players anymore!) I think it's time for a bit more Australian education. Happy Independence Day by the way;)