Doing Business In Australia: Surfing and The Australian Outback

It is now 11:20pm in Brisbane and I have completed my first full day of the "Doing Business in Australia" program. The day started off with torrential rain but it ended as soon as we left the Hostel. Today, we went to Surfers Paradise and took surfing lessons with Australia's best. Surfing really is harder than it looks! However, I did manage to sit up on my surfboard. While on the beach, it was cute to see the little Australian children take surfing lessons, it kind of made me think of how some children in the U.S. take classes such as karate, and how surfing is Australia's equivalent.

Surfers Paradise!

Me after a few rigorous hours of surfing

Taking a picture with the instructors.

Traveling in Australia has made me realize the cultural differences between this country and the U.S. Right now, the Australian dollar is stronger than the U.S. dollar and the exchange rate is $1.1 U.S to $1.0 Australian. Even though I knew that before the trip, I had no idea that the cost of living and minimum wage was much higher in Australia. For example, an average breakfast here costs $10 and a soda costs at least $3.50. Starbucks is not as popular here as in the U.S., I have noticed that Australians have a lot of smoothie shops and are very health conscious people.

After our surfing lesson, our group went to the "Australian Outback Spectacular". This event is equivalent to America's "Medieval Times". First, everyone in the group got cowboy hats upon admission. Then we spent an hour networking in a huge barn area with beautiful horses, dogs and country music playing. After that, we went into a huge arena and enjoyed a show narrating how the Australian Outback was founded along with a three-course meal. I learned that many of the Australian Cowboys were drafted by Britain to fight in World War I. Many of the people in our group were surprised to know that Australia had such a country/rustic culture. I heard one girl saying, " I didn't know Australians had the rodeo, I just thought it was a safari environment." That statement just reflects the stereotype that Australia has in the U.S. from shows such as "The Crocodile Hunter".