So, I'm in Sydney for a training conference that I'm talking about in my work blog if you're interested. There's a lot of interesting small differences that have more of a mental impact to me than the big ones:
- The exit signs inside buildings are green with white letters. I'm used to the opposite.
- Didn't find a single country radio station. Of course, this could be because the alarm clock/radio in my hotel room is cheap.
- Speaking of hotel rooms, holy crap are they small! I'm having flashbacks to the really crappy hotel room in London from a couple of years back.
- Did I mention that the hotel rooms have a distinct lack of ornamentation? Very small, very functional, but it feels like living in a cupboard.
- Apartment buildings are painted interesting colors.
- Window dimensions are subtly off.
- They've got Taylor Swift's Teardrops on My Guitar on the muzak system here at the conference center. I noticed an interesting lyrics change: the line "it's just so funny" is "it's so damn funny" here. Apparently, in the United Nanny States of America, the terrorist will win if a 17-yo girl says "damn" in a country song.
- The magazine in my hotel room had Nicole Kidman on the cover, but I've not yet seen a single mention of Kylie Minogue.
- Speaking of Nicole Kidman, she's done two movies with Daniel Craig -- The Golden Compass and Invasion, which I watched on the plane. Basically another cover of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, only they wimped out on the ending.
Whoops! Time to go, more later!