Being an Indonesian Down Under
What did I learn from living in Australia for the past years?
Living in Australia felt like a dream. Since I was young, I always dreamt about living overseas. A lot of things that I can imagine if I live out of town: being more independent, eating good food, meeting with more people from different countries and learn many things.
The real question is, which country will I be? I went to different countries for a holiday and there’s a lot of options to choose from. But Australia is never one of them.
My parents and I had this discussion on where should I move for my tertiary education. My parents believe that Australia or New Zealand were the best options. They would like me to be in an English speaking country to improve my English skill. In the end, Australia was much more favourable option.
Interestingly, I never thought that I will be in Australia for a living. Imagine for someone that never been to Australia for holiday, decided to move for his study. It feels very weird, exactly what I felt when I landed in Adelaide for the first time.
Immediately, I had some few cultural shocks. Shopping malls in Indonesia closes late, around 10 pm. It never happens here in Australia, which mostly shopping centre closes at 5 pm. I was feeling confused, what should I even do at night? Staying at home and binge-watching all night? Or even they did it in purpose so I do have some time for study?
Related to shopping, I was shocked by double the price of almost every item in the grocery store. Like I wanted to buy my favourite Indomie instant noodle that costs three times more than the original price in Indonesia.
Should I even wait when I got back home to have some Mie Goreng?
The real struggle was when I started my uni program. Listening to lecturers feels like listening to a race car. It gets more confusing when I met my Australian friends for the first time and they started to talk with the Aussie slangs.
“Nah yeah mate, fair dinkum”.
“Wanna get some pack of stubbies in the servo, mate?”.
Seriously. Do they REALLY speak English?!
It was funny rather than annoying actually.
Few years into my life in Australia, I started to admire this unique culture. I have to accept it because I decided to live here in Australia. I have to stop comparing these things to my own Indonesian culture because I’m not living in Indonesia at this point. I accept the reality that their stuff was more expensive, how they speak fast and using unique slangs and much more.
Not only understanding the Aussie’s culture but also sharing my own Indo culture to them too. As a very multicultural country, they also love to learn about other people’s culture and habit. I remember once I showed my friend how to eat rice with hands, which are very common in Indo. They were impressed with my skills.
More than that. I was involved in an M&M eating competition with chopsticks. I was only Indonesian in that competition, the rest were Aussies. My friend told me,
“I am 100% sure that if you are part of the contestant, you absolutely going to kill the rest”.
He’s right. I am the winner. I ate 50 M&Ms with chopsticks in a minute. Something that I should be proud of, maybe?
There are more things that I can tell about my experience here. As for myself, I love and proud of being an Indonesian. But at the same time, I love being part of this Australian community. They taught me a lot of things that I never knew before.
As much as I love them, I also wanted to share the uniqueness about my own culture. That’s the point of being together since we are all brothers and sisters.
Well, as an Indonesian Down Under isn’t that bad at all I guess.
Christopher Reno Budiman is a writer, explorer and entrepreneur-minded person. He received Bachelor of Business (Hospitality Management) and Bachelor of International Hospitality Management with Swiss Hotel Association accreditation. He’s on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn if you would like to know more about him.