Key eye-openers for a Finn in Australia
Having enjoyed living in Australia for over a month now, I’ll list few eye-openers for a Finn in Down Under. Most of them are personal observations, without any factual statements. Here we go.
What’s with all the chatting, mates?
No, just kidding. Aussies are extremely nice people, and helpful towards others. But there are some really strange things for a Finn with the chatting culture here. Couple learnings to follow.
A nice 5+ minutes chat with the cashier at the local supermarket is more than normal out here. Try doing that back in Finland, and you’ll probably end up in a trouble one way or another. Here it’s nice, in Finland it would just be awkward.
When you meet people during the day, you always ask “How’s the day been?” or “How we doing?” even if you’ve seen him/her before already. Please remember also, that you are not expected to stop and answer the question in great detail (like all Europeans do…). Just keep up the convo mate!
“No worries” — You’ll end up saying this around 10–15 times a day, even if something did annoy you.
Doing sports in Down Under
Well, I didn’t think Aussies play Ice Hockey but I knew that they’re good in a fair amount of other sports. One thing I didn’t expect is that they have so many totally new sports down here. Everybody also talks about sports a lot, so here’s a couple for you..
Footy — Sort of a mix with rugby, basketball and football.
How, you ask?
It’s a sport I’ve never witnessed before. It’s played with a ball which is not round. Passed via slaps of the ball that’s called “handballing”, or kicking. There’s no actual breaks of play but the referee still keeps on whistling all the time. At the beginning, you could think there’s no rules at all. If you would like to see more of this, check the link of footy-game.
Netball — Basketball without the basic functions of basketball.
This might be played elsewhere also, but hadn’t come across before.
Netball is a game where you play basketball without moving or bouncing the ball. You can’t move out of your position or score a goal if you’re not ‘goal shooter’ or ‘goal attack’. Neither you have a normal basketball hoop but goal rings instead. Fun to play, difficult to follow. Check out; netball.
Knowing your way around the place
One thing about distances here must be mentioned before everything else. No-one likes walking around here, and you do day-trips instead of quick visits to viewpoints. Everything is a lot further away than you think. But they are worth it.
There’s also so many touristy viewpoints around, that you shouldn’t expect every Aussie to know them all!
For a Finn it’s normal that people assume I know all the normal touristy places out there since, to be honest, there’s not that many of those. Totally different case with Australia, it’s big!
Handy tips for you mate
1. Adapters are not similar to any other place. Here’s an Aussie adapter.
2. Winter means winter. It can get cold, even in Australia.
3. You will get to know goon. It’s a thing here, check it out.
Thanks for reading!
I could make a proper list later on, so leave a comment if there’s something must-add to this listing!
Have a good one!
— Jesse Korhonen
