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March 12, 2008
Life : Sydney Observation
So what did I think of Sydney? First, this is more than a purely abstract question for Anne and me. There is no doubt that if I were to express interest to my employer in living in Sydney, they would be quite happy to relocate us there for whatever period of time we want. So a subtext of our short vacation was to determine if we did in fact have any interest in that regard.
Second, I want to recognize up front that the following are poorly informed opinions based on working for a week and having a week's vacation there. Still, in that time I did get to spend time in two office environments, visited a couple different suburbs, and spent the evening at a co-worker's house (we so got some sense of how "real people" live).
Overall, Sydney reminds me a lot of San Francisco: steep hills rising out of the water, good (but not great) public transportation, tall office buildings next to colorful Victorian structures, active LGBT community, moderate weather thanks to the surrounding water, large parks, endless suburbs. Particularly when walking around the city proper, it was easy to convince myself I was "back home" (or at least 40 miles north of home).
What I liked:
- Australians seems to be sincerely environmentally conscious. Their history has engrained in their culture how easy it is to adversely affect the environment and they are sensitive to those issues.
- Because of strict quarantines (another lesson learned), there is a limit to the amount of foodstuffs which are imported; but that has the side effect that most of ingredients that actually are available are relatively local and fresh. Even the food in the smaller restaurants tasted great because the ingredients were better, and when we ate at someone's home the food was excellent (although, to be fair, our host was a fairly serious foodie). Fish in particular was better than we get even in San Francisco or I remember from Florida.
- Sydney is a picturesque city, and I'd love to have much more time to do photography there. I know that there is even more to see and photograph elsewhere in Australia; but even limiting myself to Sydney I could spend a lot of time behind a camera.
- Public Transportation was good. At no point did I wish I had rented a car while we were in the city. Even getting out to the suburbs was not much of a problem.
- The Christian book store actually had a more diverse selection of books than the one we have near us.
What I didn't like:
- Books are expensive (and it is well established how important books are to me). They generally cost twice as much as they do in the 'States. I have been assured that if I am willing to order in bulk (many books at once) there are ways to get books at reasonable prices; but it is a factor. In general, anything not produced in Australia (which is most things) tends to be 1.5X to 2X the price in the USA.
- While they are environmentally conscious, they are less concerned about issues like fair trade. Almost everything not produced in Australia was produced in China. Anne and I have been trying to be more socially conscious in our own purchases, and that would seem to be difficult in Sydney.
- The overall culture seems to be significantly more "masculine" than in SF or Boston today. There's more of a focus on sports. Men tend to talk more coarsely. Women tend to dress to impress (seduce?) more. There were times that I felt like I was in a time warp back to America in the early 70's.
Right now, my impression is that Sydney is a city I would like to spend more time visiting; but I'm not prepared to move there for a long period of time. I am also quite interested in seeing more of the rest of Australia. Perhaps when my current project goes into deployment I can wrangle a month or two there.
Posted by Steven at March 12, 2008 05:00 AM
Comments
Regarding where things are produced:
This is something I have been looking at as well recently, but more from the environmental perspective than the social perspective (someday I'll get around to blogging about this, really). I've gotten in the habit of reading the small print on the back of packaging to find out where things are made when there are multiple options for brand/style/etc (i.e. I read the fine print on a toothbrush but not on a scrapbook album).
In Canberra, I have found that for most products sold in supermarkets it is possible to find one that is at least made in Australia (although it may be "made in Australia from local and imported ingredients". Once you get out of the supermarket (books, clothing, electronics, etc. etc.), it's much harder.
There is a segment of the Australian populous that is very pro-Australian in the sense of wanting to buy Australian products to support the local economy. (I think) as a result, many supermarket products that are made in Australia have a special icon on the package to identify them as Australian. Unfortunately, most of them still contain imported ingredients as well as local; but it is better than something made overseas and imported.
Posted by: Melissa at March 13, 2008 01:34 AM
Anne and I have become interested in both the environmental and social aspects of our purchases. We prefer products that are both produced in an environmentally conscious way and where the workers actually got a living wage for having produced it. This isn't an absolute rule; but is one of several factors we consider when making purchases. We are willing to pay a bit more for products that provide us with some form of assurance on this and fortunately, living in the SF Bay Area, there stores and organizations that work to provide such assurances.
Posted by: Steven at March 13, 2008 09:40 AM
