It’s June here in the USA  and it’s SUMMER. It is HOT where I live in Louisiana. Right now we have had about 12 days in the 90′s (or higher) in a row. Air Conditioning is a must and many of the TV stations and charities run FAN drives to get donated electric fans for the elderly.

Of course the weather down under in Australia is the direct opposite of here in North America. My mother is complaining about the cold weather. She has had to buy a Hot water bottle and a new little heater. She is in Queensland and the cold is quite bad for that area.

Now of course everything is relative. The degree of the COLD in Queensland Australia wouldn’t rate a mention over here.

The thing we need to remember is that the United States is comparitively located mostly BELOW Australia. Now I am talking figuratively of course. The SOUTH of the United States is at about 30N and SYDNEY is located 32S of the equator. So MOST of the USA would be located below Sydney. Hence the much more extreme weather.

The other thing that makes our weather here in the states BAD in winter and even aids the tornadoes etc during Spring and Summer is the land to the north. COLD air coming from Canada can be extreme. We even feel it in the south.

As the French say Vive la difference.!

Image via Wikipedi

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Image via Wikipedia

We have recently seen some incredible weather down under in Australia. The news online was full of the latest from Queensland in particular and then also New South Wales and Victoria. Floods followed by Cyclones (hurricanes) and then bush fires certainly made the news from Australia dramatic to say the least.

As immortalised by Dorothea McKellar (1885–1968)

My Country

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror – 
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land –
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Many friends and acquaintances here in the US tell me how the floods in Australia is an indication of global warming. hmm I really dont think so. Australia has for hundreds or probably thousands of years been savaged by nature as described by Dorothea McKellar.

In Australia we have droughts. We have floods. It happens. This is one of the differences between Aus. and USA.

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Australians are a friendly bunch. Most Aussies will greet visitors from other countries with open arms and be very friendly to them. Australians like to travel.
There must be something about living in Australia that makes us want to leave. LOL Many Aussies take overseas trips on a reasonably regular basis. Asia is a popular destination for Australians mainly due to its close proximity. From memory a flight to Singapore is only about 7 hours. Bali of course is much less.
Many Aussies also like to travel to England, probably to touch base with their roots. With the immigration of many Europeans since the 2nd World War there are also many new Australians that will also travel back to their country of origin or their parents country of origin for the same reason.
Aussies also visit the United States of America. The pacific is constantly crossed by plenty of airlines with passengers flying to Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) from Sydney (SYD) Brisbane (BNE) and Melbourne (MEL). Poopular destinations in the United States are Disneyland and Disney World. (What a place!!)

More to come. Enjoy.

Eric

Happy New Year Australia and USA.

I sincerely hope that both countries experience peace and growth during 2011.

To all my friends in Australia and the USA best wishes to you and your families.

One big difference between the USA and Australia is that here in America we can buy fireworks. It seems that there are fireworks stands/booths almost on every corner. Fireworks in Australia were banned back in the 80′s from memory. Therefore the BIG fireworks displays at places like Sydney Harbour are very popular.

As I sit here and watch the weather on TV on New Year’s eve I am reminded of the fact that its winter here in the northern hemisphere and in Australia its the middle of summer.

Happy New Year

Eric

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Image via Wikipedia

The differences between Australia and the United States of America are many. But the similarities are many too! From our common ancestry of English colonization to our shared global conflicts Australians and Americans have many opportunites to be regarded as allies and friends.
Even the settlement of Australia is tied to the United States. The Lords of the Admiralty in London were confronted by the fact that the floating prisons on the River Thames in London were rapidly filling, due in part no doubt to the American War of Independence and the closing of the Colonial Prisons in the New World of America.
Eventually in 1788 the Lords sent forth a Fleet of 11 ships to the Great Southern Land that had been found by many explorers over the years from many countries, but especially by Captain James Cook. His voyage of discovery to Australia in 1770 in the Endeavour established potential sites for colonization and also mapped much of the East Coast of Australia. His accompanying Botanist, Joseph Banks, had gathered substantial numbers of specimens to make the Lords believe that a new Colony would be possible.
On this site I will outline the various ways that the two countries of Australia and America are different and similar. I will share some of the cultural experiences I have enjoyed since marrying an American citizen and my years of living here in the USA.

G’day y’all,

The new year brings new ideas and directions. Its the time of the New Year’s Resolution. I made one last year. LOL For one reason and another it didn’t come to fruition. I am MORE determined this year.

I have a number of blogs. www.AUSvUSA.com is this blog. I also have www.MrDTeaches.com (yes I’m a computer lab teacher) and a few more too. My resolution is to blog and post everyday!!!!! I will achieve this by getting up early and being proactive!!! Current income from blogging is next to nothing. I will post some info about this for those that are interested.

I am also determined to complete my second recipe book and write my first book about Educational Technology. I have some teachers’ worksheet generators almost complete too and will be publishing those. Sounds like a busy year doesn’t it?? We will see.

I am determined to drive all of my sites higher up the rankings of ALEXA and Google.

So… as a result of this I am slightly changing the direction of this site www.AUSvUSA.com and moving it back to being a general discussion of the differences between Australia where I was born and lived the first 42 years of my life and the United States of America where I live now with my American wife and children.

So here we go. I will make a spreadsheet of the ALEXA rankings for the various sites and we will see what a dedicated attempt to increaase rankings will do. Wish me luck.

Eric

And still they play. The band that introduced us to Texas Blues and “Sharp Dressed” Men are off to Chile to play a benefit concert on May 26th. Be there.

I saw ZZ TOP in Australia back in the 80′s and was simply blown away. 3 guys and what a sound. A power trio of immense proportions and skill. Billy, Dusty and Frank (he’s the one without the beard, last name Beard!) will certainly blow Chile away with their seemingly endless list of hits from their ever lengthening list of albums.

ZZ Top rock and roll with the best of them and seem ageless as they roll out hit after hit. Rarely pausing to take a breath Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill will once again hit the stage with Frank Beard ( he has no beard! LOL) for the Chile gig.

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No one can deny that “The Wiggles” are one of Australia‘s great musical exports. Not quite Rock’n'Roll but most of their members have had some R’n'R leanings in the past. The Wiggles are now stars all around the world. TV shows and Disney Contracts sell out Wiggles tours and Million Selling CDs make the Wiggles a wealthy and successful group!

Beginning as Cockroaches and playng for a friends kids birthday party the original Wiggles must have had not idea of what lay ahead of them.

Now recognized around the world as the Red, Yell, Blue and Purple Wiggles, Anthony, Murray, Jeff and Sam (replaced Greg) are certainly up there with some of the greatest Aussie International stars. My kids have all had their turn of being Wiggles fans and have danced and Wiggled for hours in front of the TV.

Keep on Wiggling Wiggles!

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With a seemingly never ending string of hits and headlines Keith Urban never ceases to amaze me for his ability to churn out BIG tunes. His marriage to Nicole Kidman and subsequent birth of their daughter is just an ongoing addition to the saga that is Keith Urban.

I have never seen Keith live but do love most of his more “up” songs. (Isn’t tht most of them?) Keith Urban was one of the rising stars in Australia for a long time and certainly paid his dues.

I guess one of the other things I like about Keith Urban is that he plays a Gibson Les Paul in many of the clips that we see.

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