Been having writer's block in the midst of my literature review writing, so the only way for me to get rid of the block is, of course, by blogging. Whoever's a writer will definitely understand the true feeling of having writer's block, which is a new term I've just learnt recently, and how to break through it every time. So I'm here for this month's update!
After few months living in a different city, I've encountered few culture differences in Perth. Being a retarded driver I am, I rely heavily on public transport to get myself around. Coming from Melbourne, Perth's public transport is indeed not as good, but I'm happy enough that I can get concession fare here (because I pay double in Melbourne which has dug a massive hole in my wallet).
When I just arrived here, I wasn't as busy yet. And it's not that expensive to take public transport here, so there was one weekend, I tried doing a 3-hour bus ride that connects most of the suburbs around Perth. At the same time I can have a look at the surroundings and environment too. By the end of the 3-hour ride, or three and a half hours to be exact, I couldn't feel my backside anymore, to be honest. It was an interesting 'road trip' but once is enough as I can barely walk properly after that. Pengsan.
So I got off at Fremantle, one of my favorite places, and saw this cruise docking here by chance. I wish I can a cruise experience one day. One day...
In regards to culture shock, I thought I wouldn't have it since I was only moving from Australia to Australia, but there were still some differences that I noticed in the past few months. The very first one was this 'diagonal crossing' thing that you can do in Perth (and I'm only comparing between Perth and Melbourne, not with other countries). As shown in my drawings, you literally can cross an intersection diagonally (orange dots) rather than in 'L' shape manner. And because it's never crowded here, you'll basically find you're the only one crossing the road like this most of the time, with all the cars having their eyes on you from all four directions. It's convenient and save your time waiting for the traffic lights, but being a shy person, you'll know how bad I am at dealing with that amount of attention in the middle of the road. x.x
Also, there are lesser pedestrian crossings here. So you can just jaywalk whenever you're not anywhere close to a proper pedestrian crossing. I've basically lost my skills in jaywalking after living in Melbourne. Here, even an old lady or grandma is better at jaywalking than me. And not to mention how polite I am at crossing the road in Malaysia. Swt.
And probably in some other countries, I can even lose to these swans at jaywalking.
One last thing, I didn't know it is necessary to wave to stop a bus here. Because in Melbourne, every bus will stop for you even if you're just sitting there doing nothing, and you only signal them when you're not getting that bus so they won't stop for you. However, in Perth, even if you're standing right beside the bus stop, they will still charge straight if you didn't wave or signal them, which was what happened to me. It happened in less than a second and I was like "what has happened...?" and staring blankly at the road. Blur case douuuu.... @@"
So that's the main culture shock I wanted to point out for now. Will post more if I come across anymore funny things. Now back to some serious writing....
