It’s now Sunday afternoon, and I’m starting to get used to Australia. It will probably take me until next weekend to be comfortable, but I’m learning my surroundings and the tools I’ll need to survive.

Australia is a strange mix of British and American. For example, for two days that I’ve been here the morning has been cold, grey and wet, like London. But by mid-afternoon it’s sunny, bright and just cool, more like home in the fall. The Australian accent is also a bit odd to me. They seem to add a bunch of extra vowels to words. For example, the word “now” rhymes with “meow”.

Yesterday I got up, worked a bit, and then went off to find lunch. I found a sushi place nearby – one of those with a conveyor belt that snakes around and features little colored plates. The color defines the cost, and you just sit, read, and eat. When you are done they tally up the bill by counting the number and kind of plates in front of you.

One thing that strikes me as odd is the lack of tipping. I tend to tip – usually rather well. I’ve never had to make a living in food service so I use tipping as a sort of tithe to insure I never have to. Basic service nets 15%, and I usually lean closer to 20%.

I’ve been told, however, that in Australia a waiter or waitress makes at a minimum AU$16/hour. In the US it tends to be below minimum wage and thus tips are necessary for survival. Considering how expensive things are here, I’m happy not to tip, but it takes some effort to overcome the habit.

After lunch I started my journey back toward Sydney. Michele. a friend of mine who I met at Harvey Mudd, lives north of Sydney in Curl Curl. To get there I can take the train or ferry to Circular Quay (the wharf next to the opera house), then another ferry to Manly Wharf, and finally a bus to her house.

While it is a couple of dollars more expensive and it takes a little longer, I really like the ferry, so that’s how I started my trip. Unfortunately, on Saturday it is full of tourists. I don’t like tourists, and rarely consider myself one. On Friday it was all business, but Saturday meant crowds, children and cameras.

I found a seat next to a window and attempted to take a nap (another benefit of the ferry is that there are only two stops, so I don’t really have to pay attention). First the elderly Chinese man behind me noisily ate what I can only assume to be a complete seven course meal, and second he followed it up by sticking his video camera a centimeter past my right ear to record the entire 50 minute journey.

When a seat opened up a few rows in front of me, I moved.

At Circular Quay I was knee deep in tourists (lots of Asians) and while I had thought to hang out for a half hour or so I managed to catch the next ferry out to Manly. That trip was uneventful and I found myself with a different class of tourist across the harbour.

I had seen from Google Maps that Michele’s house was a couple of blocks from the ocean, so I immediately got on the bus. I was supposed to be there at 4pm, but I arrived about 30 minutes early, and as I hate nothing more than a guest who arrives early I decided to wander around the beach until it was time.

It was an impressive beach, and I sat and watched the surfers. Note that it is winter here yet the ocean was spotted with surfers – at least 50. All of them I saw were male, and it seemed like a rather silly sport – a lot of work for little pay out. While the surf was rather high (well, for North Carolina, not for, say, Hawaii) the longest time I saw anyone stay up was five seconds. The ride would often end with the surf board going straight up the the air and the rider getting dunked in the waves. This was after having to paddle out in surf that tended to crash over them at least seven or eight times before they were in any position to attempt a ride.

I got tired just watching them.

At four I headed up the street to Michele’s place. She and her daughter Shelly met me at the door, and we went out back to an enormous deck to sit and talk. Her husband, Marty, was in the “Man Room” – a shed in the back yard that he uses as a getaway and an extended office. He came out and got us all tea and we sat and talked. After tea I was introduced to William, who at four months old didn’t do much but bob his head like one of those little dogs you sometimes see in the back window of a car, but he was also nice and quiet (being childfree my tolerance for crying is minimal)

In Australia Michele is allowed to take an entire year off of work with the birth of a child – three months with pay. Nice, although as a small business owner I’m glad that my team is all male as I couldn’t lose one of them for a year. Both Marty and Michele work for IBM which is in a much better position to handle such leave.

While they got the kids ready for bed I watched the Olympics. One of the benefits to being on this side of the world now is that Beijing is only two hours behind and most of the coverage is in real time.

Michele wanted to get away for a couple of hours for some adult conversation and to talk “American”. We went out to a restaurant in Manly called Jellyfish. I’ve been eating a lot of seafood since I’ve been here mainly because it is very, very good, and this was no exception. We started off with a plate of oysters, which are out of season in the Northern Hemisphere. For the foodies keeping score at home, I had orange roughy and she had a seafood ravioli.

We talked about politics and people we both know and how things have changed in the last 17 years. When I knew here she had no desire for children, in much the same way that I had no desire to live on a farm, so we laughed about diapers and mucking stalls.

I made it back to the hotel around 12:30am. I made the 10:15 ferry with no problem but the trains run sporadically that late at night so it took me quite awhile to get back to Parramatta.

While Parramatta is nothing special, I’m sort of happy to be here and not Sydney proper. While on Friday night out with Jeremy I was surrounded by local business people, on the weekends it is wall to wall tourists. Parramatta is like most suburban towns I know. The hotel, a Courtyard, is right next to a Lonestar Steak House, and it is one block off of the local “motor mile” which is home to a large number of car dealerships including BMW, Porsche, Ford and Holden.

Down the road is a huge shopping mall called the Westfield ShoppingTown. There are a number of restaurants right next to it, including the aforementioned sushi place. Today I had lunch at a small cafe.

It is taking me awhile to figure out the protocol for things like ordering a meal. For example, in England if you walk into a pub and there are numbers on the table, you choose a table, order at the bar, give them your table number and they bring you food.

Here, there are numbers on the tables, but there is also table service. This works fine for getting your food, but I was completely stymied as to how to pay and leave. After my meal I sat there for a long time, and I finally called the waitress over and asked her how to pay. She brought me the bill, and then disappeared once again. I waited for another long stretch of time before I noticed a small queue of people by a register in the center of the restaurant. I joined it and watched as each of them simply told the cashier the number of their table and paid. So at least I’ll know next time to just head up there to pay.

Speaking of paying, I don’t remember Australia being as expensive as it is. Even without a tip I tend to spend AU$15-AU$20 for lunch. Luckily the dollar is rallying, and while it was US$0.97 for AU$1 it is now closer to US$0.89 which makes it a little easier.

After lunch I found the client’s office, which is really close by, and then went to the mall. It was crowded as well, and I could feel my discomfort increasing as it always does in malls, but at least this wasn’t a tourist vibe but just the normal crowded mall vibe. I had to go up to the fifth floor (it’s a big mall and remember that the second story is floor one here) to find Woolworth’s, which is a grocery store. I bought a few snacks for the room and headed back to the hotel.

So now I’m trying to get some work done, watching the Olympics and reading a little. I’m crossing my fingers that tomorrow goes well so I can relax about the rest of my trip.