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Due to some unfortunate travel delays I spent one week in Australia instead of 9 days. But it was a great trip!
As foreign countries go, I have to say Australia didn't feel very foreign. Maybe it's because I was on the east coast and it's touristy areas. I spent two days in sydney, four in gold coast, last day in brisbane.
I learned to drive on the opposite side of the road. not that huge a deal, once I got the hang of just following other cars! I messed up and turned on the windshield wipers the first 100 times I had to signal, and roundabouts can be confusing, but we survived.
the first day we landed at 7am, were picked up by work colleagues and went off to visit customers. we had a little time in the afternoon to kill so we went to a petting zoo and met australian animals... little kangaroos, wallabies, koala bears and quokkas.
the second day was mostly work but in the evening we walked around the harbor in sydney to see the opera house and have a nice seafood dinner. I had a silly moment feeling late for dinner because it was so dark, I'm used to the sun setting around 8pm. but we're in the southern hemisphere, if the sun sets in kansas at 8pm, it sets in sydney at 5. took me a second there! but I was so jet lagged those first couple days everything took me a second.
we took a short flight to brisbane on saturday and drove to gold coast for our conference. gold coast is the tourist land. it's like I took a 16 hour flight to atlantic city, miami or vegas. there was a hard rock cafe. you could get your hand made out of wax, your hair braided, your name on a grain of rice. the beach was gorgeous but the daily high temp was around 70 and the water was chilly, so we walked around on the beach but only one tolerant person in our group went swimming.
Sunday I set off on my own. When I'm in a new city one of my favorite things to do is learn to use the public transportation and see where the routes take me. I spent $10 AUD, about $7 USD, on a day pass so I could go wherever I wanted all day. I went to an art gallery and a nice shopping mall then back to meet my colleagues for dinner.
monday and tuesday were work conference days without much time for anything else. wednesday we had some meetings with our coworkers. thursday we drove to brisbane, walked around a bunch then flew out. I did make time on thursday to visit the brisbane makerspace. my coworkers were good sports about it, they're always nice and flexible about that sort of thing. I tend to be the planner/thinker in the group, sometimes it annoys me that I'm the decision maker but then I get some idea and they're so cool with it, I guess that is the benefit. I can now brag that i'm an international makerspace traveler! brisbane is like wichita, like five different makerspaces but they all know a LOT about each other and serve different purposes and I got some cool ideas talking with them.
every difference I could find was such a small difference. the power outlets all have their own switches so you can turn them off, I actually really like that. they don't like it if you just ask for "coffee", they ask what kind. in europe you can get an "american coffee" (espresso and water) but in australia a "long black" is two espressos and water, neither are ever good but I can't describe why. always nice to get home to the coffee I'm used to.
if there are birds on the beach accosting you while you're trying to have a nice meal, they're like 5x bigger than our seagulls. they're white ibis, and Australians call them bin chickens. they're beautiful but everywhere and a real pest.
they have these fabulous chocolate cookies called tim tams that come in lots of varieties. they're light and crispy and covered in chocolate and you can bite off the opposite corners so they're like a straw, slurp your coffee right into them and then slam the whole delicious thing into your mouth in one bite. allegedly these might be at world market here or trader joes, i'm going to go on a hunt.
I am now safely back home. We left brisbane thursday night, flew 12 hours to LAX and landed around midnight. left LAX at 5am, left Dallas at 8AM, arrived in Wichita at 10AM Friday. The international dateline math is a real blast, so you don't even bother with what day it is you just go with it. I'm in jetlag recovery mode this weekend but last night was night three and I slept almost all night so things are looking up here.
As foreign countries go, I have to say Australia didn't feel very foreign. Maybe it's because I was on the east coast and it's touristy areas. I spent two days in sydney, four in gold coast, last day in brisbane.
I learned to drive on the opposite side of the road. not that huge a deal, once I got the hang of just following other cars! I messed up and turned on the windshield wipers the first 100 times I had to signal, and roundabouts can be confusing, but we survived.
the first day we landed at 7am, were picked up by work colleagues and went off to visit customers. we had a little time in the afternoon to kill so we went to a petting zoo and met australian animals... little kangaroos, wallabies, koala bears and quokkas.
the second day was mostly work but in the evening we walked around the harbor in sydney to see the opera house and have a nice seafood dinner. I had a silly moment feeling late for dinner because it was so dark, I'm used to the sun setting around 8pm. but we're in the southern hemisphere, if the sun sets in kansas at 8pm, it sets in sydney at 5. took me a second there! but I was so jet lagged those first couple days everything took me a second.
we took a short flight to brisbane on saturday and drove to gold coast for our conference. gold coast is the tourist land. it's like I took a 16 hour flight to atlantic city, miami or vegas. there was a hard rock cafe. you could get your hand made out of wax, your hair braided, your name on a grain of rice. the beach was gorgeous but the daily high temp was around 70 and the water was chilly, so we walked around on the beach but only one tolerant person in our group went swimming.
Sunday I set off on my own. When I'm in a new city one of my favorite things to do is learn to use the public transportation and see where the routes take me. I spent $10 AUD, about $7 USD, on a day pass so I could go wherever I wanted all day. I went to an art gallery and a nice shopping mall then back to meet my colleagues for dinner.
monday and tuesday were work conference days without much time for anything else. wednesday we had some meetings with our coworkers. thursday we drove to brisbane, walked around a bunch then flew out. I did make time on thursday to visit the brisbane makerspace. my coworkers were good sports about it, they're always nice and flexible about that sort of thing. I tend to be the planner/thinker in the group, sometimes it annoys me that I'm the decision maker but then I get some idea and they're so cool with it, I guess that is the benefit. I can now brag that i'm an international makerspace traveler! brisbane is like wichita, like five different makerspaces but they all know a LOT about each other and serve different purposes and I got some cool ideas talking with them.
every difference I could find was such a small difference. the power outlets all have their own switches so you can turn them off, I actually really like that. they don't like it if you just ask for "coffee", they ask what kind. in europe you can get an "american coffee" (espresso and water) but in australia a "long black" is two espressos and water, neither are ever good but I can't describe why. always nice to get home to the coffee I'm used to.
if there are birds on the beach accosting you while you're trying to have a nice meal, they're like 5x bigger than our seagulls. they're white ibis, and Australians call them bin chickens. they're beautiful but everywhere and a real pest.
they have these fabulous chocolate cookies called tim tams that come in lots of varieties. they're light and crispy and covered in chocolate and you can bite off the opposite corners so they're like a straw, slurp your coffee right into them and then slam the whole delicious thing into your mouth in one bite. allegedly these might be at world market here or trader joes, i'm going to go on a hunt.
I am now safely back home. We left brisbane thursday night, flew 12 hours to LAX and landed around midnight. left LAX at 5am, left Dallas at 8AM, arrived in Wichita at 10AM Friday. The international dateline math is a real blast, so you don't even bother with what day it is you just go with it. I'm in jetlag recovery mode this weekend but last night was night three and I slept almost all night so things are looking up here.