It's the little things

It really is the little differences between countries that fascinate me. I always find myself noticing random little differences and wondering, "Why did they do it that way?"

For instance, Australians are, as the Dude would say, really "into the whole brevity thing." The best example is "arvo," which Australians say instead of "afternoon." I say, "instead of" because that really is not an abbreviation.

Another example is the signs for timed on-street parking. Here they simply say, for instance, "2P" for two-hour parking. That seems easier than spelling out "2-HOUR PARKING," as we do. But it's a little thing, and perhaps some would say it's not as easy to understand as our more explicit signs. Anyway, some times they've got it figured out better than us, and sometimes I'm left scratching my head.

So I thought I'd share a few things I noticed here in my first week. If I keep seeing things, I'll probably keep posting on this theme, since, as I say, these things provide endless amusement and fascination for me.

This is probably my favorite Australia-US difference. This is a typical menu at a cafe. For some reason that remains a mystery to me, the Australians have completely re-invented the names of coffee drinks. No one has ever heard of my favorite drink, the Americano. As Vincent said in Pulp Fiction, "They don't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is." But in this case I don't think it has anything to do with the metric system.

And they actually do have the Americano. In Australia, it is known as a "Long Black." My wife's experience in Australia saved me considerable embarrassment when ordering coffee on my first morning here.

FYI, the "Flat White" is similar to a latte but has more milk (Brigette's drink), and the "Short Black" is similar to an Americano but has fewer espresso shots.

Here's another one:

As most people know, the electrical outlets are a different voltage here. And in Australia, the two main prongs on the plug are set at an angle instead of being parallel to one another like ours. I'm sure this is at least partly to idiot-proof things so that Americans cannot inadvertently fry their electronics.

So if you bring electrical things down under, you must buy a converter to use them. And the whole contraption looks like this:

That's my laptop plug. And here's the outlet:

Notice the switch. It turns power to the outlet on and off, which is nice if you want to prevent vampire electronics from spending your money. And notice the handy dot, which tells you whether you're on or off. I love it.

The great irony to all this is that the only electronic thing I brought here (save my phone) is the laptop. And laptops convert incoming current to DC anyway -- that's done by the box on the power cord -- so there is no risk in frying your computer. This led Brigette's colleague Peter, trying to use his US-bought laptop in Australia, to the hilarious DIY solution of using pliers to bend the prongs on the plug into the correct orientation for the American outlet. No converter necessary!