A Cultural Exchange (of sorts) During my time in Australia, many things impressed me and I thought how we in the USA could make a few changes. I also thought how much I missed certain things while I was there. So, the Aussies could learn a few things from the Americans too. Here's a somewhat tongue in cheek look at ways we can have a cultural exchange: 10 Things we could learn from the Aussies (in no particular order): 1. Tim Tams- a wonderful cookie 2. Public Transportation- at least in Melbourne, it’s on time, safe, clean, and cheap 3.Shortening of words- why say breakfast, afternoon, cup of tea/coffee, biscuit, chocolate, football and Good day, mate when you could say breckie, arvo, cuppa, bickie, chockie, footy, and G’day mate? 4.Pumpkin Soup- a dish that should be on every American menu in the winter 5.Non-Commercial Patriotism- you can love your country without having it on your person or your car 6.The British Commonwealth- it’s not necessarily a bad thing to be connected to something older and more universal than yourself 7.More Old things in Latin- In the USA we don’t have nearly enough signs, seals, etc. written in Latin. This is probably related to #6 8.Crumpets- I love these things, but have yet to find them in the USA 9.Judges in wigs- it’s cool in a weird sort of way 10.Cities can be livable- they can be clean and relatively crime free. Australia had 5 cities in the world’s top ten list of most livable cities list. The US didn’t even rate in the top ten. 10 Things the Aussies could learn from us (in no particular order) 1.Drink ‘real’ coffee with variety- in America we understand that real is better than instant and that variety is the spice of life. Don’t expect to find double chocolate cake flavored coffee in Oz 2.Gas station superstores- Why not be able to buy everything when you get gasoline? 3.Lemonade/iced tea- Good old fashioned lemonade (in Oz ‘sprite’ type drinks are called lemonade) and iced tea would be refreshing in the hot Australian summer 4.Half and half- Milk in your coffee doesn’t cut it. I want my coffee white, not brown, thanks! 5.Pumpkin pie- the Aussies have the soup part down: now try the pie. 6.Chili soup- Let’s have an exchange of recipes; we’ll get pumpkin soup and they’ll get chili. 7.Halloween/Thanksgiving- The Aussies could really use an excuse to dress up and a few weeks later pig out 8.Four Seasons- A person really misses out not having beautiful springs and colorful autumns 9.Cable TV- everyone should have hundreds of channels and only watch a handful 10.Interstates- A 4 lane (or more) highway that bypasses traffic lights is sorely needed in Australia. It would greatly speed up travel time