Virtually Home

For the most part, living in Australia is very culturally comfortable for an American. I'm not sure how to explain the sort of general unease I felt living for a year in France, where every outing for a long time felt like a challenge. Will I know the words for all the ingredients on the restaurant's menu? Will a stranger ask me for something I won't understand? Will I end up on the wrong bus? Am I going to hit my head on the chandelier in my landlady's house again? What is the difference between these three unfamiliar dairy products? Almost none of that is a problem for us here because we speak English and likely because Australia and the USA share descent from a recent common ancestor. Australia is also a young country spun off from Britain and built and bolstered by immigrants. But there are some things. The other day I said "chalk talk", referring to an academic exercise in which someone gives a lecture without prepared slides, and people heard "c...

I used to dread September because it was truly the end of summer, academically but especially seasonally. September was like staring at an oncoming train and knowing it was going to hit me. I resented living in Minnesota, where I cringed to think of several upcoming months of not spending a second longer outside than I had to. Planning my bus trips around ensuring there was no way I'd have a missed connection in a place that left me exposed to the cold and the wind. Darkness when I woke, and darkness when I got home from work. Winter-induced asthma and dry skin were a constant irritation. My social network still largely consists of North Americans. As they publicly lament the end of the summer, Western Australia is in the full bloom of spring, which apparently arrived early this year. Flowers and trees are blooming and the weather is beautiful. Yesterday it hit 90F for the first time, but the highs have been in the low 70s all week otherwise. The arrival of fall in the northern h...