9 Things We Learned When We Moved To Australia
Making mistakes and being hugely out of your comfort zone are a massive part of the fun of emigrating to a new country with a different culture.
We learned pretty quickly when we moved to Australia to forget everything we assumed to be normal, and leave our assumptions on the plane! There was a new normal coming our way – 6 years on and we’re still learning and laughing at ourselves.
One day we were sitting in a restaurant enjoying our dinner, when we noticed Christmas songs playing…. It was July and we were baffled! We then noticed the Christmas decorations and a flyer nearby about ‘Christmas in July’! It turns out that it’s an additional celebration due to so many of us having European heritage and desiring a cold Christmas! But obviously it doesn’t stop us from celebrating in December also! July is often the coldest month in Australia, hence Christmas in July!
Like many immigrants, when we first moved over and wanted to purchase anything, we would convert prices back to pounds to work out how much everything was costing us. We did the same with km’s to miles and also kg to stone – because without that conversion, we had no clues on costs, distances or weights. We were starting from scratch! We no longer convert anything, as it is our new normal, unless we are chatting with friends and family in the UK.
Ben and I are often met with laughter when we speak (in a kind way!) because of the way we pronounce things – we are often asked to repeat things so that our Aussie friends can check they’ve heard us right and then have a giggle at us! Yoghurt and pasta are two of the many words that our Aussie friends seem to find hilarious. Although we’re not sure that we will ever change that!
In the UK we had grown rather fond of next day delivery and we just took it as the norm… but it’s not – sometimes we might only wait a couple of days for online orders, but more often it takes at least over a week. If you order something locally you might get lucky, but usually you should expect to wait a while if you order something online, oh and you will likely pay for delivery. Some stores do free delivery if you spend over a certain amount.
Prior to moving here, we obsessed over Australia and when we saw people celebrating Australia Day, we could not wait until we could also. However, when we moved here we discovered something… that not everyone feels the same about Australia Day. Many Australians have labelled it ‘Invasion Day’, it is a day that the First Nations people mourn the history of their culture and there have been calls for the date of Australia Day to be changed.
Most Aussies seem super knowledgeable about our environment and how to deal with pretty much everything! You feel pretty safe when you’re in the company of Aussie Aussies! From how to look after your garden, to how to rescue a tractor from floods, just ask an Aussie! We also have noticed just how will everyone we meet is to share their knowledge, and it has honestly been a gamechanger for us settling in.
When you look at a map of Australia, you don’t really think too much, sure it’s big, but it is only living here that really opens your eyes to just how BAM-ing huuuuugggggggeeee Australia is! As in it takes 4 hours to fly from Perth to Brisbane. We drove from our home in the Sunny Coast to Airlie Beach for 11 hours and we were still in the same state – not even anywhere near the state border!
We have learned a whole new language in Australia, and gosh how we love it! To be fair, our Aussie friends have also learned a new language chatting with us! I have on a few occasions accidentally referred to someone as a prostitute, much to the amusement of friends and colleagues – I’m not going to say the words I used, because apparently they are highly offensive here!
