Texan converted Australian

Photo Credit Haili Pue All Ze Details 

A few things that I would love to touch base on as an American moving to Australia: Transitioning is incredibly hard, beautiful and amazingly difficult all at the same time - bundled up into one big confusing ball.

It is hard to get everything done before you actually move, then once you get here it takes forever to get settled, as I will explain the process to hopefully help you enjoy your transition a little more than we did. Not that we did not enjoy it, I would just like to decrease your time in getting settled in, and would love to share my experiences with you.

"G'Day Mate!" No one says it here in Australia. When you finally hear it you want to clap your hands, and jump up and down. Just to let you down easy, and not to get your hopes up no one says it. It's a stereotypical greeting that you wish to hear every time you enter a store, go on a tour, or a term you wish to hear at work. It's like seeing a unicorn. It's. Not. Going. To. Happen.

"How are you going?"…. means "How are you doing"
I always think "Where are we going?" Are we taking a bus, or a train, or taking your car? Right now I am going by foot….I am walking….that's how I'm going. If you've just moved here get used to saying it, you get weird looks when you say "How are you doing?" It's just better to blend in.

"Bikky"a term for biscuit. Which to American's is a cookie. If you want a cookie you can say "bikky"

One thing I can do without hearing is "far out" it was cool in the 60's….stop trying to make "fetch" happen!

"F*ck off!" I was so incredibly offended when I first heard this. I was thinking to myself, "My God, what did I do wrong?" And I was also thinking "Why is such a filthy word coming out of such a pretty girl's mouth?" As American's we think the F word offensive, and try not to say it. This statement is used all the time for what we would say as "No way!"

"Spat the dummy!" basically you are being a little baby or a little brat and are losing your cool. A "dummy" is a pacifier - and obviously "spat" is spit….you're spitting your pacifier out - you big baby. Basically, you are throwing an unnecessary fit.
This is a term or statement I will probably never use.

"What are you after?" what they mean is "What are you looking for?"

"No worries" "no stress" "no dramas" - Australians lead a relaxing life, and avoid dramas at all cost. This is one of the reasons I love Australia.

"Are you keen?" means "Are you happy with that?"
"Yes, I am keen…I am peachy keen."

"Does that suit you?" also means "Are you happy with that?"

"Ripper" means "great or happy"
"Have a Ripper Christmas"

"Do you reckon?" I usually hear this out in the country in the south at home "What do you reckon that there is?"  but it's a common term here, you'll hear it all the time.

"Ta" means "thank you"

Australia is blended - I'm not sure if it's a blend of Western culture or English/European? There are so many European attributes here in Australia. One huge one being high tea, hot tea after meals, biscuits with your tea, and a lot of English slang that I hear here.

Holidays are kind of my thing and so is decorating, ESPECIALLY for Christmas and during the fall. Christmas is a bit different here and as an American moving to Australia I would really LOVE to prepare you for Christmas here - I cried my first Christmas in Australia. Everything was wrong - it was hot, no Christmas decorations are displayed and it is such a different world here. Don't expect any work to be done during December and January as everyone takes off during this time - if you need help putting your home together during this time, or move here during this time, you won't be able to until about February. Honest. 

Be prepared for Christmas - no eggnog, no big turkey or ham, no mashed potatoes, candied yams, no stuffing, no desserts, no buffet style big meals where each family member brings 5+ dishes for the main meal, salads, and desserts, and no sweet tea. 

Christmas here consists of families going to the beach (which is beautiful), and beach activities most of the day. Christmas exchanging, and a seafood layout and everything you would picture eating during the summer. I would in fact expect coastal Christmas decorations since it's hot and the little decor that is put up here looks like winter -- so it confuses me because it's not cold and winter scents, and winter like decorations just don't mix with the heat here. I was expecting beautifully decorated shell decor on Christmas trees, coastal Christmas decorations. We built a "sandman" on the beach instead of a "snowman" for the occasion to fit the season. The only thing that fits the season here are Santa Claus' dressed in "bathers"…bathing suits. I think that Australia could do beautiful things by really embracing their coastal Christmas and decorating more fittingly for the occasion. And MORE decorations everywhere to make it feel more festive. 

We had a few "light the street" festivals where they turn on Christmas lights. But it wasn't the same. And Christmas lights are referred to as "fairy lights". I am so used to turning around every corner and every store, every street, and every single little piece of Texas being decorated for Christmas, I definitely miss that. 

Every other holiday is not celebrated as big here - Valentine's Day was sad -- not any decor in site. 

So I made up my own and went with the color theme. 

Photo Credit Emily Willis for All Ze Details 

I tend to decorate for every holiday, and I'm not ashamed of it. I get really into celebrating holidays that I love. You can find this decor in Australia here. 

The second saddest holiday here next to Christmas is Halloween. It is just not celebrated here. No costumes -- just a few bars in the city/suburbs had parties but it is just not the same here. No trick-or-treating like the states - and no bakeries that overflow with Halloween desserts and decor. I am so used to walking into every store having Halloween decor - and you have choices of which Halloween candy bucket you'll buy, which store had the cutest Halloween candle holder, which store had faux spiders that draped from the ceiling for the best price, and which store had the cutest candy stuffing bags to hand out to friends. We do not realize just how lucky we are with some things, and we take things for granted. Despite the fact that it is made up by the beautiful beaches here in Australia. ;) 

I just really love to get into every holiday and I think that's a big part of American culture is making everything magic, and really celebrating everything as much as we can. Making life fun. 

Australia, on the contrary is more nature-focused and living life to the fullest in celebrating what nature has to give. And that is beautiful, too. So it makes up for the un-celebrated holidays. I'll just have to buy holiday decor next time I'm home. 

Photo Credit Haili Pue All Ze Details 

Our sandman for Christmas

I got called a "Yankee" the other day. The guy almost ended up with a red cheek, but did not because he did not know better. It was by someone who'd been to the USA once for a visit, and did not know the correct meaning. A yankee was probably being funny and taught him that a "yankee" means "American" Be careful when you use that word with someone from the south, or from Texas. I'm not from the baseball team, nor do I come from the north. 

I get called Canadian a lot. It is incredibly funny that Canada and America are mixed up here by a vast amount of Australians. The accents do not sound the same. 

When you visit here ALL you will hear is "I've been to New York!" "I've been to LA!" That's great, you saw 2 states out of 50 in the USA. "I LOVE NEW YORK!" That's wonderful, I'm from Texas. 

Just laugh it off when you hear it all - no biggie. "No stress, mate." 

Confusion on my part -- which way to look when you're crossing the street. I want to look left all the time. Look "right, left, right" and remember that while you're here -- the entire time. 

Everything's expensive. Get over it. When you visit Australia pull out a loan just for food.
$40 for two burgers, chips and a drink. Yep. Welcome to 'Straya. It's just as much to grocery shop and to make your own meals. Unless you eat pears and parmesan cheese together - yep, we totally came up with this for dinner one time. You gotta do, what you gotta do.

MEXICAN FOOD
Nope, don't do it. You were warned. DO NOT DO MEXICAN FOOD IN AUSTRALIA.
I love that a girlfriend of mine told me "You HAVE to try this Mexican food restaurant. It's AUTHENTIC!" My face was beyond excited, I was so excited until what came next. "They serve their food on cactus leaves."
I still laugh. That was two years ago. And I never went to that mexican food restaurant.

Italian Food 
It's not Italian food. It does not taste like Italian food. Just like Olive Garden in America does not taste like Italian food.

Indian Food & Greek Food
We've been incredibly lucky in finding a lovely Indian food restaurant that has been our favorite for years. It is seriously amazing, and truly authentic. We were also lucky in finding a Greek food stall at a local farmer's market that is amazing. It's only a few little things, but they are amazing and truly Greek. Takes us back to Greece, and taste amazing. Although it's only open Saturday mornings we get our Greek fix.

Seafood (FIVE STARS) 
Seafood everywhere here in Australia is absolutely amazing, and fresh. Taste good all of the time here. All of it. Australian prawn is fantastic. If you're allergic, that's so sad. Fish and chips are everywhere, and amazing here. You've been forewarned that at some restaurants you do have to pay for extra "tomato sauce" AKA ketchup.

No Starters are Free 
No rolls, no chips, no salsa….nothing comes to the table FREE pre-meal. Nothing. So sad.
It's $5-$8 for a few slices of bread and add on $$$ for the extra dipping sauces - hilarious. Like I said, pull out a loan for food alone during your trip. Hah!

Milkshakes 
Milkshakes - this counts as a food I think. Get your milkshakes when you go back to visit home in the US. You were warned.

Photo Credit All Ze Details 

 The best fish & chips, and a side pear salad -- a lovely meal here in Western Australia. 

Australia is in love with their festivals, seriously they pop up everywhere. Tents go up, people come out of the woodwork and display their goods for sale, or events happen at random festivals during the year. It'll be popped up today, and gone tomorrow. Festivals EVERYWHERE - on steroids. Seriously, EVERYWHERE.

I know that everything is BIGGER in Texas but when I think festival I think of Round Top Texas or going to ACL in Austin, Coachella. You get the picture. I always come prepared to the festivals around here and every time I've gone I've been disappointed, not because the vendors were not talented but because I can never find any furniture or pieces for our home that I'd love to find. I'll get to the whole furniture point in a bit!

The festivals here usually house extremely talented local artists - dishes, paintings, art work, baby clothing, women's clothing, men's accessories, accessories, tons of food, and things of this nature. Little bits and pieces to find from the local artists of the city. I always hope to find specific pieces and can never find them. It takes a while to get settled in here. The best way to go about the festival is to try food from each of the food vendors find a spot to sit down and just eat.

Music in Australia is sick. The music scene is insane here, and I love all of the local and indie bands coming out of Australia. It's quite common here and the Aussies are going to laugh at me, but Triple J is amazing - it's a national radio station here that puts bands on the map and gives attention to up and coming bands, especially bands and music hailing from Australia. You can listen to it live, on air - online. Amazing. I only wish that all of the music festivals would come to the Western side of the island - the big music festivals seem to thrive in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney. Soundwaves is the most recent festival that missed the mark on Perth. They completely skipped over us. Triple J allows you to become familiar with the music here, and new up and coming bands. Listen to a few Australian musicians that I love John Butler Trio, Chelsea Basham, Angus & Julia Stone, and Vance Joy. Those are just a few, but a good start.

The animals here in Australia are AMAZING and I am always in awe of them. Since I am an animal lover I love to get involved with anything and everything having to do with animals. Some animals here are becoming endangered due to various reasons - if you are visiting or transitioning into living here you can visit wildlife sanctuaries, and some of the zoos are involved in funding research programs, and rescuing efforts on developing ways to help save some of the animals. You can donate while you are visiting or find out ways to volunteer and help with animals here in Australia.

Here in Perth we have rescue efforts for dogs, animal shelters, a Black Cockatoo Rescue, a few wildlife sanctuaries (wombats, koalas, kangaroos) and wildlife reserves, and projects such as the Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Rescue Centre that just recently planted 14,000 seedlings in a park that will provide a new habitat to local birds (via Southern Gazette), and marine life rescue and release upon rehabilitation. It is projects, and efforts like this that are very important to become involved in to help community and local native animals to your region, wherever you may be transitioning to in Australia. Volunteer work here is very rewarding as you will get to work with animals you would have never been able to work with at home. It feels rewarding as well to help out with amazing projects halfway across the world, and is also a wonderful way to meet new people who share the same passion for helping animals.

Photo Credit Haili Pue All Ze Details 

It is incredibly hard to shop here to get your house done. One being that every shop and store here is usually open weekdays 10AM-4PM and it's harder than you think to jump from store to store during that time period, especially when you're working during the day. Shops have "late nights" here on Thursdays that are only open until 8PM. 

And weekends when you want to relax and hang out with your partner and you'd like to see the rest of Australia, as any American would in this beautiful country, you're instead looking for knobs for your new dresser, and trying to find lampshades, and chairs, and God knows what for your house. 

You get really excited to find a furniture store online that sells shabby chic and french country furniture and you step in the store and it is the size of a Claire's accessories store in America and they only have one of each item and they aren't getting another shipment for another six months. I am so used to one stop shops in finding everything at one store and being done within a couple of weeks in America. It's fun to search around, but after doing it for so long you want to be settled in. 

Then you have an incredibly helpful friend, bless their sweet heart, that refers you to a lovely store that is "french inspired" and it looks like every other contemporary store here. It sounds horrible but you'll know what I mean if you are moving here to Australia and once you transition you'll know exactly what I mean. I miss Round Top, TX - or Houston, TX antique warehouses, where if it is an antique store they just ordered it from Europe and it's a container full of real antique furniture. I miss that, and finding unique antique pieces with a story behind them and it's a heavy piece of furniture, solid, that will last for years that you could paint over and sand down and love for years. Not that there aren't real antique pieces here in Australia, it's just different. And possibly different because it cost bajillions of dollars to ship everything to this huge island. 

Here are a list of shops to help you through your searches. Seriously sometimes ordering online will save you weeks, if not months on shopping. I've found all of these by myself by researching online and trying to find pieces for our home. It's a pain in the butt to shop for furniture here, I hope I can help you decrease the time in finding pieces you need. Other than shopping around if you're fine with IKEA just do it, and get it ALL done at IKEA. Not the best pieces but it'll work and it's cheaper - you can always paint the pieces and redo knobs, etc and refer to pinterest for IKEA revamps. 

If you're in the same position as us - searching for furniture making your house a home, and settling in here are a few sites to get your started. Search for the "boot" shows in your area when you move here as well -- which are basically parking lot garage sales. Our version of a "garage sale, but people meeting in a parking lot to host it. 

Interiors Online 

Anthropologie (yes, they ship to Australia -- AMAZING) 

Wayfair 

Lilyfield 

Temple & Webster 

Country Interiors 

West Elm 

Pottery Barn

Retrobella (Perth, WA) 

Selections by Marina (Perth, WA) 

French Vanilla (Perth, WA) 

Empire Homewares 

Kardamom Homewares (Perth, WA) -- with help from my friend Fi, thanks Fi! 

Ginger Morris (Perth, WA) -- with help from my friend Fi, thanks Fi! 

Upcycleit & Vintage 

Second Chance Furniture Perth 

French Knot Designs 

Zanui 

Bunnings  - Meet your new best friend for DIY projects 

Kmart 

Target 

Allissias Attic 

-These are just a few to start to get the ball rolling on sourcing your furniture and home finds-

I have yet to find a good cupcake. I'll say this first and foremost because I am obsessed with cupcakes.

Desserts are not big here, not like in America. And maybe that's a good thing because both my husband and I are huge sweet tooths. We have cut down on desserts here. In America they're offered after every meal. Here I notice every restaurant we have been to offers tea after a meal, or fruit.
We have improved so much on our sugar intake here, although I'm probably equalling that amount by putting sugar in my tea & coffee. Just an observation, they're not as big on sweets here.
With that said every time we visit home we do feel sick after eating the desserts at home because we've been gone for so long our bodies do not respond to the sugar as well. Maybe it is a good thing!

I make chocolate chip cookies here which get eaten in seconds at every party. I have noticed they're not as common here but I do make chocolate chip cookies for holidays and get togethers and my friend's here refer to this as an "American thing"

Milkshakes. Don't do it, and if you order one - don't say I didn't tell you so. You've been warned.

Rocky Road is not the same here. I don't like this dessert either way, but it looks vastly different.

Cotton Candy is called - "Fairy Floss" FYI

Photo Credit Haili Pue All Ze Details 

High Tea counts as a dessert, right? 

Shopping is incredibly expensive here for clothing and shoes. Load up on your shopping when you go back home to the US. Seriously, bring an empty suitcase with you home and load up when you go back to the US. It'll be easier on you. Yeah, the round-trip ticket cost a lot to go home, but if you're going home to visit family and friends anyways you might as well get cheaper shopping in.

Invest in pieces from local designers in Australia, pieces that you can not find at home. That's where your investment should be. Supporting local designers, and local talent also helps those designers out that are trying to make a name for themselves. You'll also have unique pieces that no one else has.

Photo Credit All Ze Details 

These are pieces from local designers in Western Australia - all unique pieces to remember your stay in Australia by. Follow All Ze Details on Instagram for local Australian fashion product updates @allzedetails on insta. 

Photo Credit All Ze Details 

This was a feature I did with local product from Perth designers, pieces you could not otherwise get at home. Read more about this product here. 

When you have visitors from America please clarify that Sydney is not a 30 minute drive from Perth. Seriously, no one knows until they've actually visited Australia how LARGE Australia really is. Also let your visitors know that booking last minute can result in a $1,000 USD flight (one way) to Sydney via Qantas, especially booking week of. This happens, seriously. Clarify planning with your visitors to let them know rates and to look at the specials and "hot deals" on Qantas before they visit, and let your visitors know you won't be able to travel with them to other cities. If you traveled with each person that visits you from America it seriously adds up to the equivalent of a month of traveling in Europe, or another country - you name it. It's expensive. They can also take the train that goes coast to coast much cheaper but you're looking at a 3 day journey from Perth to Sydney on the Indian Pacific train.

So you need a J-O-B? The job market here is really hard to break into for full time jobs. I have been searching and searching and applying for everything I come across that interest me - I am also in fashion, so this might be making the search even harder for me. At home in Texas I am a full time blogger and all of the designers and brands I collaborate with have broken ties, since Australia is incredibly hard to ship to for new product, and new collections. That only means FRESH new start in Australia - But that is my story, and I am here to help you with YOURS and your transition --  There are a few sites online SEEK is one that you should start with, an online portal to search jobs available for the position you are seeking.

Get a bike, go jogging, and become more outdoorsy. You're going to love it here - take advantage of it. I've known people to live here and not experience it, truly go and enjoy your surroundings and check out local events. Almost everyone is an outdoors person here from what I have noticed here in Western Australia. It's a healthy lifestyle. Take time to enjoy Australia every weekend and try something new. There ARE inexpensive things to do here. You can make your meals at home, and on the weekends enjoy free, or inexpensive wine tasting, dolphin feedings, take a friend's boat out to an island (various nearby islands around Australia), enjoy the marine life - in surrounding aquariums or at the shore where dolphin feedings take place, enjoy neighboring lavender farms, and take a road trip to surrounding excursions. Spend time on the beach - the beaches are beautiful, AND the BEST part is…it's FREE. There are so many things to do here. Enjoy it. Welcome to Australia! 

Photo Credit Haili Pue All Ze Details 

Leave comments below on your Australian experience, and message Facebook.com/allzedetails if you need help on other advice for Australia (work out classes in Perth, what to do in Perth), etc. 
We have been here on-and-off for 5 years and I would love to share more with you about Australia if you plan on visiting, or need help on other tips for transitioning for furniture shopping, fashion designers I can guide you to - to shop, local fashion designers to shop in Perth. Things of this nature. Enjoy Australia in all of her beauty!