Interesting Findings, Part 3

- Yesterday (the day after I went scuba diving) a 32-year-old man from Texas was killed by a Great White Shark while scuba diving off the western coast of Australia. He was on the complete opposite coast from me, but it is still quite scary, especially considering that he was just diving and not doing anything out of the ordinary. Here is a link to the article if you would like to read it: American scuba diver dies in Australia shark attack
- In the early 1950s, a round-trip airline ticket from Australia to London cost as much as a 3-bedroom house in suburban Sydney or Melbourne
- Contrary to popular belief and the creative US marketing campaign, Aussies don't drink Fosters. In fact, every Aussie I have asked about Fosters either a) doesn't know what it is or b) thinks it is disgusting
- I had a roommate in Sydney that came here on a 21-day cruise from LA. His total price for the cruise, including food and beverages: $1,400. My round-trip flight from OKC-Australia was $1,600. I'd say he got the better deal. He said that he travels a lot and is always checking last minute cruise deals. I guess if the cruise ship isn't filled up with a week left to the departure date they start drastically cutting prices.
- According to the bank Credit Suisse-Boston, Aussies now have the highest median average household income in the world. Lots of this has to do with the Australian dollar rising in value.
- When I meet people from other parts of the world I often find myself telling them "I really want to go there, I've heard great things." Even though that isn't always necessarily true. It has been funny to see everyone's opinions of their home country. No one seems too enthusiastic about their respective homeland, most of the time the reaction is just a shrug of the shoulders and a "yeah, it's not too bad" and then they usually proceed by saying something that they don't like about their country and how it needs to change. I think everyone just takes where they live for granted. However, there has been one major exception to this: people from Vancouver, Canada. I have met three people from Vancouver and they all rave about it and say they would never want to live anywhere else.
- Everyone that I meet is amazed that I come from Oklahoma and don't speak with a southern twang
- The 14-year-old Australian boy that was caught buying marijuana in Bali, Indonesia is probably going to jail for a minimum of 2 years, and possibly 6. It has been huge news over here. The prison he will be in is extremely overcrowded and rundown. Everyone is saying that it is really fishy and looks like the Indonesian government set the kid up.
- American entertainment is so widespread throughout the world that I'm starting to think there is some merit to the saying "Entertainment is the USA's greatest export." Everyone over here is obsessed with the show the Big Bang Theory, and when we were going out to the reef everyone was desperately trying to "find Nemo."
- In Australia, a regular sized beer is called a "schooner" and a large sized beer is called a "pint"