I have been thoroughly enjoying living and experiencing the culture in Sydney, Australia for the past 3 weeks, and I am greatly looking forward to the next 3 weeks learning even more. There are many parts of Australian culture that I identify with, the main parts being how friendly and curious they are. I was nervous coming into the city as I had no idea what Australian culture would be like. However, I was pleasantly surprised. I found that every single Australian that I have met has been so friendly and nice, as well as equally curious about American culture as much as I was about theirs. I also learned that Australia is a very multicultural city that is incredibly diverse. I learned that Australians are super friendly but also more casual than Americans. At home, it is common to have to dress up to go to work and be overly communicative with coworkers, and there is usually a hierarchy when it comes to the office. Here, the work culture is definitely more relaxed, and usually the “higher-ups” in the office are not seen as so, and will usually work in the same space as everyone else. One aspect of Australian culture that has been a little more challenging to navigate is how direct and straightforward people are. At home, it is not super common to be direct and upfront and people usually will tiptoe around uncomfortable situations. However, in Australia that is not the case, but I do find it to be easier to get points across, and it is helpful in the sense that there are usually no miscommunications between people. Another aspect of culture that is different in Australia that is different is people are more quiet here. For example, a few roommates and I went to see Vivid Sydney and there were thousands of people there, but it was so quiet that you would never know there were so many people there if you could not see them. This also goes for public transportation, it is usually a silent ride which is not the case most of the time back in the United States. 

Interacting with other students in the program has been such a fun learning experience. At Pitt, most of the people I have met have been from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, New York, or other close neighboring states. However, on this program, there are people here from all over the country. It has been so fun to learn what is considered different to them, but is something that would be considered normal for me coming from Pennsylvania. I really enjoy being able to learn from not only people from different states than me, but also from Australians as well as people from other countries such as New Zealand or England that have moved to Australia.