Cultural Adjustments

The Ute, With Protection

My first coherent Australian weekend has come and gone, and since I managed to stay up past 10:30 both nights, I'll count it as a success.  Slowly, I'm adjusting to life down under.  Yesterday I sat on the beautiful Gold Coast, shivering in my bikini, trying to convince myself that any New Englander should be able to conquer the brisk Australian winter.  The water was warm, the sand was soft, and the shark nets appeared to have been in working order, but since the sun was already setting at 4 p.m., swimming wasn't in the cards.

Today I took a major step in Australian adjustment, and began learning how to drive a manual car.  Truck.  Ute.  Lucky for me, Mark's old ute - which has the character of Dad's old Manly Man Van, - was pretty easy to learn on, and changing gears wasn't quite as complicated as I thought.  It's very hilly around here though (it reminds me of pictures I've seen of San Francisco), so I won't be venturing out on the roads for a while yet.  Stalling out on the wrong side of the road would send me in to a bit of a panic. 

Another Australian phenomenon that I'm getting used to creepy crawlies.  They're everywhere.  In the past few days, I'm come into contact with a giant spider in my bedroom, a baby gecko in the bathroom, a massive cockroach in the kitchen (and that's no indication of the cleanliness of the house), and an opossum that came and knocked on the slider door.  Of course there is still some screaming involved when I spot the creature, but I've progressed, and no longer run frantically out of the room.

Tomorrow I am starting a week's worth of work at Channel Ten News.  Tomorrow and Tuesday I'll be researching stories and learning the teleprompters and other equipment, and later in the week I'll be writing for Totally Wild, one of their children's shows.  The job isn't paid and isn't permanent, but I plan on walking in and knocking their socks off, so hopefully something great will come of it.  If nothing else, I'll have a contact and a reference in Australia.  I'll have to tune in to my inner Aussie for the writing though, since colorful words like "wizbangery" are acceptable in this place that is similar, yet so different, to home.