Learning about Australia

The population of the UK is, according to google, 61 million.

The population of Australia is 21 million.

There they are.

The UK is       244,820 square km.

Australia is 7,686,850 square km.

This gives population densities of

UK: 395 people/km2

Oz: 2.8 people/km2

This could have something to do with the fact that 40% of the landmass of Australia is covered with sand dunes.

But the population density of New South Wales, the state we're in, is 8.87. NSW is supposed to be quite liveable-in.

Even the Australian Capital Territory only has a pop density of 154. That's the Canberra area.

Crazy!

Money:

Australian money is nice and colourful:

And the coins have Aussie animals on them. Can you see the 5cents one with the echidna? So cute! The 50 cents is 12 sided, so it's a...douzagon? Googling...Dodecagon. It weighs a ton cos it's quite thick too.

• Australian banks use 'Swedish rounding', where stuff is rounded to the nearest 5 cents, because nothing is really worth 1 cent and they can't be bothered with it all.
• When you pay with a card you have the option of PIN or sign. This seems backward to me. Some places, like petrol stations, you just hold your card up to a beeper thing and you're done.

Language:

Crisps are chips. Chips are hot chips or just chips, or maybe fries if they're really skinny. (?!)

Slang from Jake:

You're a cack! - You're hilarious

Devo - devasted

Avo - afternoon

It seems to be absolutely compulsory to say 'How are you.' after you greet someone, even if it's at the checkout when you're paying for your shopping.

Other Australian Things:

• The cheap sunscreen is still really nice.
• The weather is so unpredictable that the forecasters don't bother much with trying to predict it anymore, instead they tell you what the weather was like today with the evening news. It can be 30 degrees one day and then some sort of swirl comes off the antarctic and it's suddenly cold the next day.
• South-facing rooms aren't the ones that get the sun all day. Think about it. It's really screwing with my sense of direction.