The parts of Australia that I identify the most with culture wise are waking up early, almost everyone here starts their day rather early and unlike in the US I have been enjoying that aspect. I find that in Sydney specifically the culture is very mixed, where I work and where my classes are at are two areas with a lot of Asian influence so I feel as though a lot of the culture that I have been around is a lot more of Asian culture than one would identify as just Australian. The parts of the “Deep culture” that I have found the most interesting is just how friendly everyone is here; it is very common for people to ask about your weekend and your plans. I found this rather interesting and different to the US where a lot of the places I have been in the US people can be rather reserve or defensive about most things especially politics which is a very common conversation topic here. At my internship I am often ask about how my weekends are going or when I go out shopping sometimes, I end up spending extra time talking to the cashier.

As for challenges I believe that the most challenging aspect of navigating cross-cultural situations in Australia is just understanding how their politics work and also just their expectations for public transport and walking. The Australian political system is different from the US, when they talk about their Liberal Party that is their right-wing conservative party which is hard to get used to. Another is their expectations for public transport, their public transport is very clean, and people often do not talk loudly on their public transport compared to the US where most of the public transport I have been on has been very dirty in comparison. Lastly just like how they drive, they walk on the left side of sidewalks which has been a hard adjustment for me, but I believe that I am starting to adapt. My interactions with locals and other participants of the program have I believe greatly impacted my own identity as I become more aware of the world and other parts of the United States even it changes my view and I believe that it has helped me to become more culturally aware of not only my own impact on others, but how my interactions with people may impact them.