People say that you can only make the first impression once. This is not only true for people, but also for countries. And it’s also related to the fact that after about a year in a new environment – a company, a country, whatever – people lose their ability to see things as an “outsider”.
That in turn means they start “fitting in” better after a year – a definitive asset in some types of organizations. However, it also means that there is good potential for innovations to happen in the first year. Hence, people should be listened to especially during their first year in the new environment as they may be able to offer valuable ideas with their genuine outsider’s perspective.
I have no such delusions about the observations in this post, but it’s still good to point out a few things that I have experienced during the first month of living in Melbourne. I’ll save some others for future posts, but to get started:
Debunking some myths
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Prior to moving, we were told by some supposedly knowledgeable people that Australians cannot be trusted to keep on schedule, to turn up at the agreed time and stuff like that. We were also told to expect bad bureaucracy and problems in finding certain products.
I’m happy to report that most of this has been a myth. So far each and every appointment has spot on time. Bureaucracy has been far easier, more efficient and friendlier than it was in the USA for new migrants. Most products are readily available and the selection as well as price is typically much better than in Finland. However, there are two products that are proving challenging to find: first, good-quality children’s shoes. Second, certain types of flour and flakes.
Traffic
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I’ve noticed that people in most countries seem to want to brag how “terrible” the traffic is in their locale. Most of the time, I don’t agree. And if anyone complains how “terrible” traffic is here, I won’t agree. There is obviously lots of traffic in Melbourne, traffic jams are as bad as in any big city and the grid-layout of the streets makes it annoying to travel diagonally, but the drivers are generally friendly and courteous. Often more so than in Finland. Even red lights are obeyed quite well – so well that I occasionally find myself stepping on the accelerator to get through the yellows when the others are breaking..
Weather
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Daytime highs have been around +14 – +18C; most days are at least partly sunny. Now, we traded summer for winter when we came here, so in that respect the weather sucks. But when you think of it objectively and consider that this is as bad as it gets, it’s suddenly quite okay. The winters here are clearly windy and the weather is volatile in the sense that the rain-sunny-cloudy-rain-sunny-cycles can take place about five hundred times a day. However, due to my definition of winter, I can’t agree with the locals’ saying that you can experience four seasons in one day. Two maybe.
Food
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One word: mostly excellent. This is bad news for our weight. Since our cooking equipment is still traveling in a container, we’ve had to resort to takeout more than ever before in our lives. It’s great. And comparatively cheap. But I still want to start cooking myself.
Mobile & fixed Internet
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This is a mixed bag. On the other hand, my mobile “broad”band works nicely and has good coverage and is decently priced for a pre-paid broadband. Mobile services and things like mobile Facebook usage are also advertised quite a bit and it seems Australia is not as much behind Europe as I was led to believe. Behind, maybe, but not the five years some say.
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However, the fixed broadband side has one HUGE minus: all connections are metered and usage-limited. The maximum cap you can find is generally around 60GB per month and that’s bloody expensive – now, 60GB is what I sometimes used in one weekend, so this presents obvious challenges. Or rather, will present when I get a connection. If I get a connection. A “no worries” BigPond guy said my cable broadband (30Mbps would be considered very fast indeed here) should be installed in 5 or 7 or 13 business days, depending on which guy you talked to; the initial sales guy said 5, the actual order processor said 7 and the technical people said 13 business days. Figures. We’ll see.
Energy paradox
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This is something I will likely dwell on much more in the future, but I’m perplexed: Australia has one of the worlds’ best potential for solar power – and the country produces pretty much all electricity with coal. There are – now, finally – some good incentives for insulation and solar heating, but even brand new houses have single-glass windows. Many things like these don’t really compute, so I’ll get back to this after further study.
