Foreigner who spent two months in a regional town - a few things I learned about Australia

The Australian accent/speech in general

Got the shock of my life when I asked a Sydney airport official where the taxi ranks were and knew I had to pick it up quick or die. First off, the concept of vowels is non-existent; an 'a' may sound like an 'e' and vice versa. What I try to do is to have a 'loose' jaw and speak like the very action of talking is tiring, and act as though everyone you speak to is your close buddy from kindergarten. Australians adore small talk; even the cashier who is dead tired wants to know how your day was.

Currency

Australian currency is weird. Why the coins get smaller the more valuable they are, I can't fathom. Also the smallest note is $5, very odd considering you can buy a fair amount of groceries using only coins. Back in Malaysia the smallest note was one Ringgit, and with a cup of coffee going for RM4~6, hardly anyone carries coins anymore. That debit/credit card thing where you just wave your card to pay is pretty cool though.

Shopping

Kmart is proof of god's blessing, atheists can go f*** off. Groceries are heaps cheaper compared to back home (I really like the adjective heaps). For comparison, a litre of milk in Malaysia will go for RM6~7 while in Australia it's $1 or so. The killer? Minimum wage in Malaysia is RM4.50/hour. This is the reason why I believe Malaysians have their Milo with hot water instead of milk; it's simply too expensive to have it with milk. Meats are also very cheap here along with...everything else. The only item which I found to be more expensive here are tropical fruits, which is fair enough (I really like fair enough a lot too)

The drinking culture

Oh god I was not prepared for this. I had my first drop of alcohol here despite being over 18 for a year and a half. Australians will drink alcohol anywhere and everywhere, even while taking a f**king shower (things to bring to a typical Australian shower: soap, shampoo and 3 Carlton Dry stubbies). While drinking in Malaysia is frowned upon, getting drunk is a serious taboo whereas here it's a badge of honour to "get f**ked". I remember when I first got drunk, started saying dumb s*** to girls ("Heeyyy, just lettin' ya know, I'm taking my coffee white these days"). As for alcohol itself, I take 3 drinks and I'm done.

S*** tier: Goon and juice. Tasted ok when I first started but now that I've tried other things it's p*ss

Low tier: Beers. Disgusting at first but I'm liking it now.

Carlton Dry is the way to go., f*** VB. Mid tier: Mixed drinks like redbull+vodka and rum+coke. Look like a badass when mixing it too

Top tier: Shots. I personally prefer vodka but tequila's an ok substitute.

God tier: Canadian Club dry. This was the first drink I had and I got hooked.

Being drunk of course leads to another thing...

The "dating" culture

Went to my first club here. Thought it was a really good way to let off steam with the dancing and music, but my friends insisted that I was missing out if I didn't hook/pick up. This was a huge shock to me coming from a religious country and so far, remains the only thing I haven't tried out (more out of failure than reluctance I admit). I'm so horrible with girls it's not even funny and me posting it on Reddit makes it worse. Most of my friends attribute it to me being too nice or some s***

Sports

Australians are very active. I remember all of the ice breakers we organised amongst ourselves involved a lot of running around (bullrush and duck-duck-goose). I was panting pretty soon and I thought "Damn, this is how Australians get to know each other??". The major sports that Australians follow are quite cool actually. I like American football a lot so rugby was basically it without forward passing and a lot more punting. AFL is enjoyable but odd, I felt that a behind should be worth a lot more than 1 point. Cricket is actually really cool, especially at the closing moments when a team only has a few balls left to score x amount of points.

Food

Food, like groceries, is really cheap here. You can get a $5 pizza at Domino's for crying out loud. Rice back home is replaced by mash potatoes or chips. Vegetables aren't cooked, they're mixed with funny sauces and served ice cold for some stupid reason. Who the f*** wants to have a piping hot steak with cold ass salad??

Weather

Let's just say I came from a place where we have 30c heat all year round, and when I go to sleep I set my air conditioning to 24c as a comfortable sleeping temperature. Now it's 5c when I get up for class and IT'S NOT EVEN WINTER YET F*** ME