This Isn't America, You Know

Well, we've been in Australia for several days now, and if you care to read a blow-by-blow of our trip adventures (and misadventures) to date, check my personal blog (the Grant Family blog).


But since this blog is strictly (ok, not strictly. But mostly) business, and success teachings adn the like, I thought I would share these particular experiences here.

Our conference begins tomorrow night (Bob Proctor and Lynn McTaggart are speaking, did I mention that?)

Tonight we hooked up with some business associates who are in town for the personal development conference (the one we're attending for Andy's home based business). We had a little wine and snacks meet-and-greet at our apartment here in Sydney, and then we all went out for dinner and drinks.

While at dinner, we were placing our order and one person asked for bleu cheese dressing on her salad. The waitress completely ignored her and went on to the next person (me). I wanted to make sure the order was right, so I told the waitress what our friend wanted. The waitress (who did not seem to speak much English) said, "no, only dressing is lemon and oil."

Then the first couple who ordered asked for clarification, because they had also requested bleu cheese dressing. The waitress responded with "This isn't America, you know."

Hmmm. Indeed.

Another notable difference is that in America, we tip for service. In Australia, tips are not at all expected. And the service in restaurants here often reflects that custom.

Which is surprising, because you would THINK that in the more tourist-y areas, the servie would be better, because most of us Yanks don't know any better than NOT to tip.

Ah well, no worries.

Yes the waitress was rude. (But of course, she wasn't Australian.) And the food was so-so. And the price was outrageous. But the company rocked, the drinks were smokin' and we sat right on the harbor in the moonlight, so that's all that matters.

But it did get me thinking...

In fact, I'm finding that THIS trip down under, I'm much more cognizant of the differences between the U.S. and Australia than I was during my last visit.

Last time, I mostly just noticed the accents, the differences in language and slang phrases, and chain stores and restaurants (for example, Burger King is called "Hungry Jacks.")

This time around, we're getting a different perspective.

For starters, we're staying in apartments instead of in hotels. We're hitting the grocery adn cooking some meals, instead of dining out 3 times a day.

This time, we're "living" in Sydney, and that's a whole different experience.

For starters, the grocery trip was...well, a trip.

We asked about a supermarket, adn we kept getting directed to quickie marts (convenience stores). Finally, we asked "wehre do you buy food to cook at home?" and we were told to go to Woolworth's, which seemed like another miscommunication, until we got there.

Woolworth's owns most of the true grocery stores in Sydney, and the Woolworth's here is more like a Wal-Mart of sorts. The store includes a grocery, pharmacy (called the "chemist" here), WiFi hot spot, coffee bar, basic clothing, baby items, toys, books, etc. Fascinating!

The produce here is stupendous -- big fat carrots, a 3 foot long bunch of beautiful celery, the sweetest grapes adn apples you've ever eaten, plump ripe avocados, you name it. And not a spec of iceberg to be found.

Which brings me to teh next thing I noticed.

Most of teh food I saw (with teh exception of a rather large aisle of sticky buns adn pastry-type items) seemed quite healthy. It appears that hte Aussies don't eat a lot of the crappy convenience foods we eat, adn they don't put nearly as much crap (chemicals, preservatives, additives, whatever you want to call it) in their food.

Even their internationally-branded food is different -- I drank the most delicious Fanta I've ever had....why? Because it was made with SUGAR, not with corn syrup. No one but Americans would tolerate such poopy food as we stand at home.

Adn speaing of convenience --

what I notice here, that I was compeltely oblivious to last tiem I visited (about 4 years ago), was the total LACK of convenience items and packaging.

OK, I have to be honest here.

Until this week, I really had no tolerance for people who yap and yap adn blather on and on about how wasteful we are in America. I never really paid them much thought, I just figured they were lack-minded and it wasn't anything that had anything at all to do with me.

Adn then I really started to notice what goes on here. Here in Australia, they are very concerned with presrevation and conservation. They don't waste water, they don't waste paper, adn they certainly don't bother with individually wrapping every single thing they put into their mouths.

More individual wrapping means more waste. Sounds simple, right?

Let me give you a couple of examples:

- No individually wrapped cheese slices (it's not like those cellophane wraps are biodegradable)
(No American cheese, actually. We bought some Cracker Barrel brand extra sharp chedder and it was nowhere near the crap we call cheese at home -- this stuff tastes like premium Canadian white chedder. De-lish!)

- no stack of napkins at takeway places. You ask, you get 1 napkin. Period. No individually wrapped straws or plastic utensils, either.

- plastic here (wrappers, forks, plates, etc.) is MUCH thinner -- so when there is waste from disposable items, it's a LOT less than at home

The other thing that struck me was the limited choices. I was telling Andy, to me, it's much easier to grocery shop here.

The reason it takes us 2 hours to do a grocery run at home is because there are so many CHOICES. When I want to buy spaghetti sauce, and I can't remember what brand we liked best last time, I read all the labels to see what's in what, I read the flavors, I read the sizes, I read the prices. Ugh! That's so much work to do for the 100-200 items that are gonna go into my basket!

HEre, instead of an entire wall of spaghetti sauces (many of which are made by the same company adn taste so similar anyways), there might only be 4. Total. Easy!

I think sometimes in America, we are too choiced-out. Too many options can create a serious inefficiency, and in most cases, it's really not necessary. Less choices in teh grocery is fine by me.

So what does any of this have to do with success?

I don't know. This isn't America, you know.

But maybe you could consider that the American way, may not be the ultimate, all-around best way. Maybe there are better ways to live.

Living here in Sydney has me longing for a simpler life -- less stuff, less options. Somehow that equates to more freedom to me.

What do you think?