Australia: alien no more!

Arriving in Melbourne was easy. So beautifully easy. No signs to translate, no screaming announcements in foreign languages, no Benny Hill runarounds looking for lost bags when they've just been put on a different carousel to the rest of the flight just because. It was just so easy. The bus had wifi, the tram had clear maps, and the hardest thing to comprehend was how on earth to respond to "how ya goin' mate"! I could navigate, pavements had people on them rather than motorbikes, and before I knew it I was reunited with my beautiful and generous Aussie friends from ENP, Beca and Laura! It was all just so easy.

I'm not weird. That's contentious, but let me explain. In Asia I'm easy to pick out as a foreigner. I wanted nothing more than be seen as a walking dollar sign and then open my mouth and shock people by being able to speak their language! Hopefully one day I will do that, but given my Khmer is limited to food and my Thai is mostly apologising for being lost, I was just the walking dollar sign. My skin, my hair, my assumptions - everything about me is a neon sign of "different" when I'm in SE Asia. I had to learn the culture from the outside in, go to museums and temples and people watch without them noticing I was there because as soon as an alien comes in behaviours unconsciously change. In Australia you could put me in a line up and there's no way of knowing if I am local or not. Blending in means I can absorb the culture because my mere presence is not changing anyone's behaviour, it's not being talked about, and it's not being avoided. I even blended in well enough to get heckled by a homeless man for being a shit lazy student who couldn't be bothered with lectures and was wasting the state's money. Swings and all. 

As much as it's lovely to blend in, I am still me which means still a bit of a plank. It did take me a week to figure out that CBD meant central business district, and to not cross the street as soon as I heard the bleeps going from any set of traffic lights within a 50m radius, but compared to everywhere else I've been so far, I'm not a physical alien anymore. 

My favourite thing about Melbourne is that nearly everyone's got the time of day. People are nice, people will help, people run after you when you drop a 20 on the ground - I know you get those people in every city, but it's just SO prevalent in Melbourne it's incredible. Fitzroy is gorgeous and I absolutely fell in love with all the street art which coats the suburb six layers thick, the Melbourne museum which unashamedly takes on really difficult topics, and the sheer number of quirky little restaurants and bars all over the place. Australia is expensive compared to the UK for sure, but with that comes some amazing deals: $2 pintxos at Naked for Satan every lunchtime, $4 pizza at Bambinos, free tasters on every street corner - YES BUDDY! 

Australia is also quite strange though. Booze isn't sold in supermarkets, you have to go to special liquor shops for that. Timtams are a religion, and everyone is addicted to camping. Makes sense, sure, but still. Community wifi is a thing, and public squares will just have free open connections for anyone to use! Absolute highlight of strangeness though has to be walking through town and hearing one of my favourite bands playing a free gig in the square and just eating cold cheesy pasta in front of The Cat Empire! Just too much, too much. 

Melbourne is definitely a very happy place for me!