After two years in this country, I miss many things from back home, but in this post, you can find out what makes Australia a good country to live in.

1. WEATHER

Australia is famous for its warm weather, but this largely depends on where in Australia you live. For example, in the capital city, Canberra, temperatures in winter can drop below 0 degrees celsius. However, most of Australia experiences a warm to tropical climate, which I really like as I’m not a big fan of cold weather. I sometimes used to wear a t-shirt during the day in winter in Sydney since the temperatures can reach over 20 degrees! During the warm winter days you can sunbathe in your swimwear on the beach! Since I moved to Australia, I don’t hate winter anymore!

2. HIGH STANDARD OF LIVING

Australia is a land of opportunity. It’s one of the countries with the highest standard of living and salaries in the world. Currently, the minimum hourly wage is 20.33AUD. What I like about Australia are numerous educational, job opportunities, flexible work and study options. For example, if you want to work full-time while studying at the university, you can study part-time and attend lectures in the evening after work. If you don’t like school and you want to choose a trade job, you can leave school at the age of 16 and enroll in a vocational training course or start working. There are also options to enroll in a university as a mature age student and different options for a career change. Various educational and job opportunities provide career progression opportunities and good income.With an average salary, you can afford to buy a car, the latest iPhone and MacBook, eat out once or twice a month and travel once a year. Of course, this depends on your individual lifestyle and spending.

3. REGULATED COUNTRY

Australian public service is efficient compared to many other countries in the world. From strict speed limits and parking rules to laws for selling alcoholic drinks in bars and stores. Australia has clear regulations and laws for almost everything, there are restrictions for almost everything. For example, you can only buy alcoholic drinks in liquor stores and if you want to order shots in a bar after midnight, forget about it because it’s forbidden to sell strong alcoholic drinks after midnight. Although some laws and regulations can seem a bit excessive if you didn’t grow up in Australia, a regulated country means less bureaucracy headache as you can do most things online. Almost everything is digitized and you can pay by card everywhere. If you need to renew your driver’s license or change your home address you can do it online. To transfer my international driver license, I had to go to one of the offices, but the process was very quick. I got my number from the machine at the entrance and when my number was shown on the screen, I went to the counter where I provided all required documents, got my eyes checked and was photographed for the drivers license. I also paid my driver license fee at the counter and the license was sent to my home address within two weeks.

4. MULTICULTURALISM

Australia is a multicultural country with lots of opportunities to meet people from different cultures and parts of the world. Living with people from different cultures opens up your horizons and teaches you to accept people with different views and way of living. Something that’s completely normal for you might be unusual to people around you, but you learn to accept and respect cultural differences. In big cities in Australia, it’s normal to see people from different cultures wearing their traditional clothes, LGBT+couples and generally people with different fashion styles and life beliefs. When you encounter people different from you every day, it reminds you that there are so many different cultures and ways of living and makes you understand there is no reason to judge other people because they look or live differently than you. Unfortunately, people who look different or live differently than the majority are being judged and excluded from society in many parts of the world. In Australia, you can be who you are and no one will judge you for that. Multicultural society also means there are many different restaurants and bars to go out, perfect for those who love trying different cuisines. Mexican, Vietnamese, Japanese, Greek, Italian restaurants…it’s up to you to choose! In big cities, like Sydney and Melbourne, you’ll never run out of new and interesting places to go out.

5. NATURE

Did you know Australia is the country with the most national parks in the world, with as many as 685 national parks? There are more than 10 national parks in the near proximity of Sydney alone! Australia is a perfect country if you like spending time outdoors, are a nature-lover or love hiking. With eight different climates, nature is very diverse, so you can see different flora and fauna, from deserts, Mediterranean vegetation, tropical rainforests to deciduous forests. Here you can find some animals that you can’t find anywhere else in the world, with kangaroos, koalas, dingoes and Tasmanian devils being just one of those. Due to its size and natural diversity, you won’t be short of new options for hiking and exploring nature. People from all over the world come to see nature and travel around Australia in a campervan. Nature is not only beautiful outside of the cities but you can also enjoy nature in many big city parks. Sydney was ranked the third greenest city in the world, behind Moscow and Singapore. Parks cover almost 46% of the urban area, so you don’t have to travel far away if you want to enjoy peace and quiet in nature.

Here I’ve listed some of the most positive aspects of living in Down Under. In one of the next posts, I’ll write about the negative aspects of living in this country. If you’ve ever been to Australia or moved to a different country, are you finding some things better than in the country you were born in? Feel free to write about your experience in the comments!

The post 5 GOOD THINGS ABOUT LIVING IN AUSTRALIA appeared first on I WOKE UP IN DOWN UNDER.

WORK-LIFE (IM)BALANCE

Business hours in Australia are from 9 am to 5 pm. In bigger cities, like Sydney or Melbourne, it’s not unusual to spend one hour or even longer commuting to work. This means you need to get up very early in the morning and that you come home late in the evening. Since you spend most of your day at work and commuting to work, you don’t have much free time during the weekdays. Most people work during the week and go out only during the weekends. On Fridays, people stay in the city for after-work drinks, and happy hour is mostly from 3 pm until 7 pm. There are a lot of job opportunities in Australia, but be ready to work hard. Australian society is very work and money-oriented, so socializing with friends or going out for drinks during the week is not that common. 

On the weekends or when they have free time, Australians love to spend time outdoors (which makes sense since the weather is nice all year round). There are often many people on the beaches and in parks. Fitness and exercise are also an important part of their lifestyle, so you can find outdoor gyms in the parks and see people exercising near the beach at any time of  day.

DINNER IS READY

Since evening is part of the day when most people are at home, dinner is the main meal of the day and is usually served between 6 and 7 pm. For lunch, Australians eat something simple and quick, such as sandwiches, frozen meals or salads you can buy in supermarkets (which, in my opinion, are not great quality). Brunch (a meal usually taken late in the morning that combines a late breakfast and an early lunch, usually between 11 am and 2 pm) is popular on weekends and is often served with alcoholic drinks. You can find restaurant and bar packages offering food with unlimited or cheap drinks between 11 am and 2 pm (called bottomless brunch).

AUSTRALIAN DREAM

Australians are obsessed with home ownership. Almost every week, you can hear about rising property prices on the news and everyday conversations are often about property value and buying a property. The Australian dream is a belief that home ownership can lead to a better life and is an expression of success and security. Therefore, the dream of almost every Australian is to buy a house (the bigger the better) so they save for a house deposit when they start working. The irony is that buying a property is becoming more and more unattainable every year as property prices increase at a rapid rate. Just this year, property prices have increased by 15%, while in 2020 the average property price increased for $103,400, which is almost $2000 a week! More and more young Australians can’t afford to buy their own property, especially in Sydney or Melbourne. The average house price in Sydney is currently $1,410,133 (yes, a million!). For comparison, the average annual gross salary in New South Wales (the state where Sydney is located) is $85000 (around $5500 net monthly).

The post AUSTRALIAN LIFESTYLE appeared first on I WOKE UP IN DOWN UNDER.