One would think that when coming home from another country it would be easy to just slip right back into the groove of things. It’s interesting the things you don’t notice when you see them everyday or what you just get used to because it’s all you’ve ever known.
I remember back to the beginning of my time in Australia. I thought the food was horrible. My husband was mortified to come home to me sitting in a chair with a bag of sugar and a spoon because I was going through sugar withdraw. I knew Australia’s food standards were stricter than in America — it was one reason I felt I wanted to have our baby there because I knew I’d have a healthier pregnancy (as much as food plays a part in pregnancy). I did a detox shortly after arriving in Oz, and right before I got pregnant. My skin was flawless, my body lost all it’s “water weight”, and I felt great. I noticed things only seemed to get better when we went additive/preservative free. Coming back home has been a complete shock to my system — and my teeth! Is there anything in America that does not contain high fructose corn syrup?? Seriously, it is EVERYWHERE. Everything I put into my mouth is so full of sugar from bread to BBQ sauce. Even the candy is sweeter (which I remember complaining about how the candy wasn’t sweet enough when getting to Oz). It makes me kind of sick now. Everything has a list a mile long of additives and preservatives as well…yuck, yuck, yuck. It’s hard to do at the moment because we are not buying groceries, or cooking solely for ourselves, but when we do get out on our own it’s looking like more of a whole food diet for us. I just can’t continue eating this way! I wake up every morning all swollen — my rings that used to fall off of me in Australia are not leaving marks on my hands. My hands and face are puffy and retaining water and I can only think that it is due to the amount of salt in the food my parents eat. We do not add salt to anything really when we cook for ourselves. Now I certainly am not saying that you can not find healthy food in America by any means…I’m just saying they allow a lot of things in the food here that is banned in Oz, and my family has different eating habits than we are accustomed to. It’s going to take a lot more work here to be additive/preservative free than it did back in Australia, but once we are out on our own I intend to take it up again.
There are just little differences like prepaid cell phones. We don’t want a plan because we don’t really know what our own plan is, so we don’t want to be tied to a contract. In Australia, prepaid phones work whether you have credit in them or not. Someone can always call or text you. Here, if someone calls or texts you on a prepaid phone, it takes minutes off of your account. Check cards and checks — people in Oz don’t really write checks, and no banks charge you to used your bank card as a debit card. Recently in America, banks have started charging a monthly fee if you use your check card for anything other than the ATM. WTF, dude…don’t you charge enough fees?!? Talking on the phone while driving — I used to be SO guilty of this pre-Oz. Texting, talking, whatever I did it all. It’s illegal in Oz and I drove a manual so all of that stopped. Now, it annoys me to no end to see people on their phones while driving. Same with speeding. I used to do it all the time, but after getting used to mobile speed cameras lurking around every corner, I’ve broken that habit as well. Stop lights…in Australia they are located on the side, so we find that we keep looking in the wrong place for the light signals. Cuts of meat — I was talking to my parents about how I would prepare rump steak and they had no idea what I was talking about…I still don’t know what the American translation of “rump steak” is. There are no birds here!!! I grew accustomed to seeing several different types of birds all over the place every single day…now I go outside and I might see some buzzards and a small bird here or there. Where are all the birdies hiding? You know what’s funny though…I can’t escape skinks….they were in our house in Australia, and they live right outside here at my parents. Well, at least there are no wild blue tongues here.
When it comes to baby…I’ve now fed Tanami in the car like 5 times due to lack of breast feeding facilities. It makes no difference to me to feed her in the middle of where ever I am — time’s square if I needed to — but it seems the most comfortable place is the car. I won’t hesitate to feed her in public if need be, but I’d rather not be forced to do so on a hard park bench or something. They just don’t have designated “feeding rooms”, and no, a disabled bathroom stall is not somewhere to breast feed! I also don’t see many babies in strollers. I guess this is because the malls are different here and we don’t have centralized places to go shopping. It’s just weird to me not to be bombarded by women pushing prams. There are not well-baby clinics, parent groups, or play groups put on by the gov’t here….or at least not any that I have come across. Granted, we do live out in the middle of no where at the moment. It seems the norm for women to return to work 6 weeks after bub is born…or at least this is the age when day cares start saying they will watch babies. I couldn’t imagine being forced back to work only 6 weeks after Tanami was born….I would be devastated!
I am SO SICK of seeing ads on TV for medication, lawyers suing over some problem caused by medication, and insurance! It seems like these are all commercials are made up of anymore. You don’t really see that kind of thing in Australia (the medication ads, you do see lawyer & private health insurance ones). Yes, there are a few ads like that, but they are rare and certainly no where to the extent that they exist here. I had forgotten about it, but after not seeing it, I am finding it terribly annoying. Gotta keep the food full of bad stuff to keep our citizens needing medication to keep them at the Dr. making the insurance & pharmaceutical companies money which ultimately puts more money in the gov’t pocket.
I never noticed smog until I saw the blue of the Australian sky. You don’t (and can’t unless you leave and come back) notice the smell of the air. Even out here in the middle of no where, the air stinks. It doesn’t anymore as I’ve gotten used to it, but for the first few days I couldn’t stand the way the air smelt.
I know not every where in America is the same…nor is every one, but one thing that bothers me after returning is the lack of enthusiasm about the environment. We literally go through one trash bag a day in the house. I’m used to recycling — and used to EVERYONE else doing the same because you are provided with a bin for recycling in Oz and it is much bigger than the bin for the trash. We are using paper plates and paper towels…things we just did not use over seas. I have to admit though, it is nice to have a dryer even if I don’t use it for Tanami’s diapers. That reminds me, not many people at all must cloth diaper here because we drove all over in search of a diaper pail (because they are not the same for cloth diapers) and never found one. I had to make due with a container with a top. I’m also not used to air conditioning, and even though my parents keep it 76 in the house, I am freezing half to death.
I am finding the lay out of cities etc. frustrating. I never understood why my husband would always tell me that the set up of places here were “ugly”. It kind of offended me. But now, I totally understand. Canberra was a city created on purpose…it has a beautiful, purposeful layout. There are residential areas – all of which have side walks – and then there are industrial areas. I like this. I don’t like strip malls and higgledee piggledee buildings here or there and then a house on the end. This never bothered me before because I had nothing to compare it to…but now it just does. Australia oozes natural beauty without even having to try, so naturally, that works in it’s favor as well. But there is really no separation of residential and commercial…they seem to just over lap and things get built where ever.
The crime scares the poo out of me. I could walk at any time of day or night to the city centre of Canberra and not give it two seconds thought. I wouldn’t do that in downtown Nashville I can tell you that. Even out in the suburbs there are constantly murders being reported on the news. It’s unnerving because you certainly did not hear that on a daily basis, or hardly at all, in Canberra. I wish we had the same gun laws as Australia. I feel like I should be able to take my kid to IHOP without worrying that someone is going to bust in with a gun and shoot the place up.
I’m not bagging out America…I’m simply stating the things I notice to be different here. Even though I personally find that my heart belongs in Australia, America is a great place for millions of people. But, since this is MY blog, I’m pretty much going to call it like I see it.
But since it simply is not healthy for my soul to constantly dwell on my loss of the life we created in Australia, I’m soon going to be moving on to focusing more on our lives as parents — and particularly my quest to be a natural/attachment parent in a country that seems against the whole idea. That’s ok. I’m a pretty against the grain gal. I’ll be changing the appearance and name etc. within the next day or two…whenever I get a spare moment. My Brother’s birthday is tomorrow…the second anniversary of the last time I ever saw him. I’m hoping to find some clarity and strength from the day. I’m hoping to close this chapter of my life and leave behind the depression haze that I’ve been wading through. I’d like to come back to the blogosphere renewed and ready to take on all of the changes that are coming our way. At least for the next two years — and then perhaps Australia and I will meet again — until then, I’m hanging up my expat hat and putting on my big girl momma britches.
