Preparations

Since I left Tulsa, I've been spending some time with family before getting on the plane, which has given me a few minutes to do some research on the "Land Down Under." I figured I'd share a few of those things.

1. Australia uses plastic money.
Yeah, I thought that was strange too. They have the regular coins like Canada and Europe, with dollar and two-dollar coins with no bills. That's it's own problem, since I hate having change jingle in my pockets. But the non-coin money (I can't say "paper money") is made of plastic. Used to be paper, I hear, but they wanted money that would last. I guess I won't have to worry about leaving it in my pockets when I wash my clothes.

2. Melbourne has special traffic laws.
My US license will allow me to drive in Australia, and interestingly, as long as you have an official translation of your license from a non-English-speaking nation, you can often use that license as well. That should make things interesting, since Australians drive on the left side of the road. Good thing Melbourne is a big mass transit city, with trams and buses.



While Australia has some common road rules, Melbourne is set apart from the rest of the nation for having some specific, unusual rules. The biggest is called the "hook-turn." To understand this, first you have to remember that you drive on the left side of the road in Australia. In some areas, to keep from blocking tram routes, you have to get in the leftmost lane to turn right. So, for us Americans, that would be like getting in the rightmost lane to turn left (puts it in better perspective, eh?). It'll be interesting to see how that works; but I guess I'm used to weird traffic laws with Michigan Lefts (and yes, that's a technical term - you can look them up yourself). The rest of you non-Michigan folk are missing out on the best thing since the turnabout (actually, it's better than the turnabout).

3. No shots.
Australia and New Zealand don't require any special vaccines, etc. Okay, maybe that sounds stupid, but it's nice to be travelling to another country and not have to be told by a middle-aged female nurse to bend over while she sticks a needle in your bum that resemebles a turkey baster, and with a name like immunoglobulin, you neve knew what was in it. To any Australians reading, that's not meant to be a derogatory observation - I assumed that I would need some kind of shot anywhere in the world. I almost thought I would need one to go to Texas.

4. The most deadly __________ lives in Australia.
Everyone I have talked with mentions some new animal native to Australia that is the most deadly of its type. Most deadly spider, most deadly snake -- you fill in the blank. Even a kangaroo can kill you. Why don't I need any shots?

5. A power adapter is not enough.
So I went to Radio Shack to get an adapter for my electronics to the Australian plug (why we can't standardize that across the world, I'll never know -- we invented electricity, so everyone should just use our outlets). The salesperson led me over to a set of adapters, and then started talking with me about what I'd want to do with it. When I explained I was going to plug my US stuff in, he said I didn't need an adapter, I needed a converter. And all this time, I thought those words were synonyms. Australia uses 220 volts, vs. 110 for the US (except our major appliances). It's like everything has to be more deadly, so add the most deadly electricity lives in Australia to #4 above. Add to that, a converter is only good up to a certain number of watts, and most won't support a US laptop, which means it will cost extra to get one that will let me use my computer from there - things I never thought about when I packed up all kinds of electronic equipemnt (camera, computer, iPod, etc.).

6. Everything is backward
In addition to driving on the other side of the road, seasons are reversed from the US, so I'm headed into winter. Water in the toilet flushes down in the opposite direction. To you auditors out there, busy season is during July and August, not January and February. The Pacific Ocean is to the east (okay, now I'm stretching).

7. English is more like French.
In the US, with lots of exceptions, words sound like how they are spelled. That allowed this whole movement called "phonics" that I learned as a child. So I figured phonics works for all English. I thought wrong. Upon mentioning the city of Cairns phonetically to a friend from Melbourne, I was instantly corrected. "It's good we're getting to this now," he said. So, it's pronounced "Cans" - like our favorite French city. And that's not the only word whose pronunciation is divorced from its spelling (like most French). Melbourne isn't "Mel-born" like I thought. It's "Melben" (and you have to say it real quick) - check out the pronunciation in wikipedia. I say all that to give Aussies a hard time, but I have to confess I wouldn't mind coming back with a bit of an accent.

Okay, that's enough for now. I head out Thursday evening, so I'm posting a poll for you to help me figure out what to do on the 15 hour plane ride from Los Angeles to Melbourne. Yeah, 15.