Things I've Learned about America while Living in Australia

"Culture shock" is such a cliché, which is only part of the reason that I'm not going to use that term. Living in Australia hasn't been a culture shock, given its relative similarity to the United States. You know, when compared to like... Somalia or something. They aren't by any means the same, but there are a lot of similarities. When I first got here, the similarities between the US and Straya stood out a lot more than the differences. Hey, I could go to KFC and pick up a Mountain Dew, walk around the city or hail a taxi to get home. I bought some textbooks, walked to lecture, had a nice snack at the university union, and walked home. Friends and Big Bang Theory were on TV. Jurassic World was "coming soon to cinemas." I'm never more than a few minutes from a 7-Eleven. It was less of a culture shock, more of a "hey, everybody's talking with a different accent."

Culture shock? No. The real differences revealed themselves over time, until, finally, a couple of months in, there they were, staring me in the face, challenging me to think about how they compared to my own country and culture.

Here's a sampling of important things I've learned:

America is a police state. Our federal government spies on us. Our airports deem invasive measures necessities. Officers shoot people they could just as easily immobilize by tazing them. I can't even walk through my own neighborhood without being stopped, questioned, IDed, and searched if there's an officer there to witness it. I'll be the first to admit, while I'm in America, I am afraid of police officers. I am afraid of being stopped and accused of something that I didn't do simply because I am young and dress like a much more rebellious person than I am. Why am I afraid of this? Because it has happened to me multiple times. And I have the advantage of living in a community where an officer isn't going to pull a gun on me for making the wrong move-- an advantage that a lot of people throughout america do not have. And then, one day, I'm walking down the street in Melbourne, and I see a police officer standing next to a building. She looks up at me and I think, "Great, here comes the once over, she's gonna look at this beanie and flannel, and then come up to me, ask for my ID, ask where I'm headed, ask if I have any drugs in my pockets, ask to pat me down..." and as this situation was playing out in my head, the officer smiled at me, said "G'day!" and continued going about her business. ...This situation has played out in exactly the same way every single time I have seen a police officer in this country. I guess it's because here, police are actually meant to protect people, not just make money for the state. I'm honestly kind of dreading having to deal with it again when I get home.

High Fructose Corn Syrup has no excuse to exist. I don't mean to brag, but they use real sugar in this country, and things (soda/pop in particular) taste a heck of a lot better. One might say, "Alright, but HFCS is economically feasible because it's a byproduct of corn processing and therefore much less expensive." That's fantastic and all, but it kinda ignores the fact that HFCS is a known carcinogen and is highly addictive. A lot of people will discount those last two points if it's something with perceived benefits, like nicotine or tanning... but HFCS makes the product taste worse, so there isn't even that excuse. We shouldn't be putting up with the corner-cutting.

Sugar has no excuse to be in ketchup. All of that about HFCS being said, much less sugar is used in the food in this country. It's not in bread, or crackers, or ketchup, or really anything that isn't specifically sweet. And you know what? It doesn't need to be. Foods that aren't meant to be sweet taste just as good without sugar, and quite frankly, I'm pretty sure I owe that for some (if not all) of the weight I've lost here.

The drinking age really should be 18. When we talk about lowering the drinking age, people get defensive. We can't do that! People will start drinking even younger than they are now if that happens! We've gotta keep alcohol out of high schools! A lower drinking age, what a scandal! ...Except, hey, as pretty much everybody in the world knows, the legal drinking age has absolutely nothing to do with when people start drinking. Culture, on the other hand, does. Take America, for example. The drinking age is 21, yeah? And most of the people I know started drinking between 14 and 18, because high school parties happen, and everybody at least knows somebody with an older sibling (assuming they don't have one of their own). That's something that's just sort of part of American culture. Now let's take a look at Australia, where the drinking age is 18, and everybody I've asked has said they started drinking between 16 and 18. Did a lower drinking age put alcohol in the hands of high schoolers? The answer is: No more than it already does in America. We shouldn't have to wait to become an adult twice. Adults should be allowed to drink from the moment the state recognizes them as such.

The United States Dollar needs an update-- badly. Dollar bills are easily torn, easily copied, and practically get destroyed when they get wet. But these are just realities of having money, right? According to pretty much every other developed nation in the world: Wrong. Money here (and just about everywhere else these days) is waterproof, borderline indestructible, and is very specifically made to make counterfeiting damn near impossible. Different denominations are also different colors and lengths to make grabbing the right bill easier (with the added bonus of the "you can't pull the whole bleach a 5 and print a 20 on the paper so it passes the iodine test" thing). I looked into why the dollar bill hasn't joined the rest of the world in the future, and guess what I found out: the way it looks and feels now is "Classic." ...Yeah, that's literally the reason.

America exports more than you think... and imports less. They watch American TV. They watch American movies. They eat American fast food and shop at American stores. They drive American cars more than Americans do. That's not just Australia, either. Meeting other exchange students has taught me: that's the entire freaking world. But it's not like they just get everything from the states, they have their own media too. They have their own fast food, their own stores, their own everything. And how much of all of that makes its way to the United states? I'm rounding down a little bit here, but essentially none of it. It's a shame too, Americans are really missing out on some of this stuff (I'm looking at you, Pie Face).

America is beautiful. I know, I know, I'm in arguably the second most beautiful country in the world (just behind the one I'm visiting in three weeks), why am I talking about America? Here's why: America is comparable. Don't get me wrong, Australia is much better, and I'm not by any means calling America third, but... I keep seeing things and thinking "Oh, this reminds me of this place," or "this reminds me of that place," and now that I've taken the time to really appreciate how beautiful another country is, I keep realizing over and over that I have never truly appreciated how beautiful my own is. And now that I've experienced what real traveling is like... there's no way I'm gonna be able to stop myself from taking every opportunity to venture out appreciate that beauty when I come home.

This is by no means an exclusive list, and I'll probably realize a few more when I get home... but hey, it's definitely something to think about.