Cultural differences

I never talked about my first driving experience when I arrived in Australia. It was scary. Every time the car turned down a new street I thought I was going to die. It really is strange driving on the other side of the road, and on the other side of the car. It took me a while before I could sit in the passenger seat without trying to press the brake. Another thing I noticed is that the roads actually look really nice. There aren't pot holes everywhere and cracks. I guess winter really does take a toll on the roads.

One thing I discovered was a huge difference in the way they run the licensure status for driving.
We went down to the markets the other morning and my host dad said something about probationary drivers and how they can’t afford to get pulled over. My roommate, Kelli, and I became very confused and asked him how he knew that the car pulled over was a probationary driver. He said that in Australia they give first year drivers a P sticker to put on their car when they are driving. After the first year their license plate color gives away their experience. He said that the color changes every couple years or so. The part that I really agreed with is when you lose all of the points associated with your license you have a 6 month suspension and then you have to re-take the drivers courses. I think that is a wonderful system and the US should adopt it. Yes it would cost a whole lot of money, but the strictness that they have regarding reckless and careless driving would scare people into being more defensive and aware when they are driving. I’m sure some points would clash with the fact that MN is a no fault state and it may in fact not work. But I still like the idea of it. This has shown me that road safety is very important in Australia. I’m not sure about the rest of the world. I have heard some interesting stories about driving in India.

For a while the accents and occasional word abbreviation didn't obstruct meaning from a conversation, until I entered the elementary school. The students are always to excited to talk and they don't think about who they are talking to. I have had to ask for repeats on a lot of things! My first day in the classroom I was monitoring the students as they were writing a story about their Easter holiday. I struggled with my handwriting because I was trying so hard to write in the Australian, Queensland way and the correcting was very slow. At one point I instructed a student to place the period at the end of the sentence and they just looked up at me. I repeated that they needed a period but they still just looked at me. Then I realized that is not what they call periods. I just said the dot, the dot at the end of the sentence, you need one. They hesitantly marked their period. I went up to the teacher and asked her what on earth they call periods and she had no idea what I was talking about either. I just laughed and thought, good thing we both speak English and can use other words to describe what we mean! I found out that they call it a full stop.

I have been lulled into the pace of Queensland and I love it. I have always been the type of person to show up a half an hour early so I could just sit there and relax. Here I don't feel like I need to do that because everyone seems so relaxed all of the time anyway! It's always no worries and g'day! Back home I feel like no matter what situation I am in if someone is late everyone is looking at their watches and tapping their feet. People seem to be more forgiving if timelines are not followed or if it rains on you while your walking to school and you have to dry off under the hand dryer and become late for school.