I have been in Australia for over 7 years since early in 2000 when I first arrived in Melbourne. There have been something I do like and something I don’t like Australia, the following is the summary.
Something I don’t like:
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[li]Weather changes in Melbourne is so quick, you can ‘ENJOY’ four seasons in one day. If you are not careful enough, you will get sick very easily.[/li]
[li]Lots of ads in the TV sounds terrible, they are actually shouting, not speaking[/li]
[li]Very slow in construction work. Lots of buildings in Melbourne took really long time to finish, and I think that’s the reason it is costly.[/li]
[li]All school kids, from primary school to high school, carry very heavy stuff in their school bags. I don’t know why the kids here only study a few hours, unlike we study the whole day in China, but they carry much more stuff to school than we do.[/li]
[li]School kids love to place their school bags on the floor, mostly on platform or trains, even when the floor is wet and dirty.[/li]
[li]Public transport is terrible toooo. There are always lots of delayed and cancelled trains, plus the carriages are often over crowded during peak time. I can’t imagine what will be the public transport like in Australia, or particularly in Melbourne, when it reaches the the same number of population as in China or India.[/li]
[/ul]
Something I do like:
[ul]
[li]The environment is so great in Australia. It has natural wonderland of beautiful beaches, crystal blue waters with lots of friendly residents.[/li]
[li]You can buy all sorts of foods from around the world.[/li]
[li]When you cross pedestrian line on the street in Australia, 90% of drivers will stop their car and let you pass first. But this won’t happen in China, if you want to wait for cars to stop before you move on, you will be standing there for the whole day, probably, because there is no penalty if they do that, but there is in Australia.[/li]
[li]Customer service is excellence in Australia. You can hardly see the staff in supermarkets smile, or even look at you in China ( at least from my experience ). I guess they probably sick of facing so many customers everyday, and they have become machine like service.[/li]
[li]You can always hear “Good morning” or “How are you” when you get on a bus from driver, and “Thank you” from communters when they get off the bus. But I don’t have the similar experience in China.[/li]
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I missed my home town so much, because I grew up there and have families, lots of relatives and friends, but it doesn’t stop me from staying in Australia. I am a country boy, so I like Australian country style surburbs, it suits me and I like to live and work here, but I will still go back often to see my families, relatives and friends. Hopefully I can bring my parents over in the near future.
