Wednesday, November 11

Well we finally got our high speed internet in yesterday, after a 5 week wait, and I installed it! An amazing feat, I told the phone tech that I was techo-challenged but he was able to walk me through it with no problems, he was a very patient guy.

When clerks, waiters, etc hear our accent, they often say something like, "You're not from around here," and then they ask if we're from Canada or the U.S. When we tell them we're Americans, they always like to guess which state, and oftentimes they guess correctly! Then, if they've ever been to the U.S., they like to talk about it, and they LOVE New York. Also San Francisco, but we've yet to hear anything complimentary about L.A. The typical comments are that the air is dirty, it's too spread out and there's no way to get around. All valid complaints.

Here in Western Australia, most of the population is concentrated in Perth, and we've been told that there are more people living in Southern California, just from Santa Barbara to San Diego, then there are in the entire state of Western Australia. And WA is a big state, comparable in size to all the area from Denver, CO, west to the ocean. We've also heard that there are more people living in California than in all of Australia and New Zealand combined. Hard to believe, I will have to check that one out.

As far as traffic, they have a rush hour, but it is just that, lastly only about 1 hour, in the morning and evening. Bill says the train is virtually empty when he's taken it after 6:30 p.m., although it is crowded for a while in the morning. The train system is great, always on time and you never have to wait more than 10-15 minutes for the next train, depending on the time of day. If you buy a pass, you just swipe it prior to getting on the train, and again when you get off, and it keeps track of your balance.