The most obvious one was the language, and just how easy it was to do things when you can communicate easily with people. Actually, that's not really reverse culture shock is it? OK, so this one was reverse culture relief. You get so used to STRUGGLING every day with a different language that it's such a weight off your shoulders when you don't need to do this.
For example, in Australia Nathan ordered a fast ADSL internet connection for Jo's dad. A bit of research, a few phone calls, a bit of confusion, and ... hey, it's still complicated! It wasn't till a month after we got back to Germany that it was sorted out. Oops! Failure aside, it was still easier than in Germany, where Nathan ordered an internet connection and pay TV over the phone (there's no such thing as free to air TV, believe it or not!). The internet works, but we have no idea if it's actually an appropriate deal, and the TV was incorrect and didn't work. It took alot of help to sort out the contractural mess we had gotten ourselves into with that one!
Still, while it was wonderful to be able to understand everything and communicate easily, we still had trouble finding the English words for things at times. Sometimes the German word would come first and then a second searching for the English word....I guess that's what 9 months in a non-English speaking country does to you.
The other obvious one is driving on wrong side of the road. Yes, it's sacreledge, but driving on the left really did seem wrong for a little while! Nathan avoided driving in Australia to try to keep his right hand driving sense as much as possible. Didn't work, though. The first time he drove back in Germany, he broke 4 road rules in one 15 minute trip!
Not so obvious one was the difficulty of getting around Sydney without a car. We did have access to a car, and we drove SO MUCH! Jo did all the driving and it was really tiring as a result. Things are just so spread out in Sydney. We've become so used to living in a small city like Leipzig and feel spoilt to live within 20 minutes walk of the city centre. Here's Owen in a Sydney car seat. He hated this at first - he screamed all the way home from the airport. By the end of our time in Australia, it was one of his favourite nap spots.
Recycling. The Germans are really into recycling. We've got 4 different bins downstairs to sort our rubbish into, and there's another one down the road for glass. Most public bins have at least 3 of the options. When we were in Sydney, we didn't know what to do with our plastic bottles or organic matter. Where was the plastic recycling bin? Where does the organic stuff go? In the end we had no choice but to reluctantly throw them into the general rubbish.
Many of the glass and plastic bottles have a Pfand (deposit) which you get back when you return the bottle. And they don't just melt the bottles and make new ones - they actually clean and re-use them! Here's a collection of bottles we have currently - worth around 40c or so. If you look closely at the beer bottles you can see a wear mark - proof that these bottles have been scratching against their neighbours for many a year. It's true for the plastic bottles as well, though it's harder to see in this photo. We think it's a great idea, and it really works. Sometimes we can't work out from the label if there is a deposit - we just collect them anyway, just in case they're worth something...Australian money - the 20c and 50c coins are so huge and heavy. It's a great thing that there are no 1c and 2c coins, though!
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