It’s hard to believe that I’ve been living in Sydney for a month now.
It’s flown by in a whirlwind of moving house, jetting off to Tasmania for a magazine assignment, and spending far too much time spouting off terms of endearment in Jules' direction.
But it also hasn’t been an easy month. There have been a lot of tears, which was only to be expected. Without the excitement of a new locale to explore—this is my seventh time in Sydney, after all—I skipped the “honeymoon” phase of acculturation altogether and was instead slapped hard by culture shock.
Despite the amount of time that I’ve spent in Australia over the last two years, I’m still learning. (“I’m new here,” has become my favourite catchphrase, usually prefaced by “I’m sorry” or “I didn’t know.”) Some differences are new to me, some I’ve long known, but all have taken me aback over the last month.
Here are 10 of the most surprising differences that I've found between Australia and Canada:
