Have you ever met
someone who introduced you to a whole new way of seeing and understanding a
place? It is easy to only see the world through your own eyes, but sometimes
looking at things differently can be truly eye-opening.
Living in a small
town in regional Australia brings one enormous benefit; there are no crowds.
This applies in lots of places. For example the nearby beaches are stunning and
you often have them either completely or virtually to yourself. Parking is
always available, usually within a few metres of the shop you wish to visit and
people are, for the most part, friendly and familiar.
 |
| Isolated but beautiful beaches, Australia |
However,
isolation is a problem, with the nearest sizeable town a five hour drive away.
There are few shops with limited stock and somewhat bizarrely they shun trade
at weekends by closing at noon on Saturday, making it near impossible to go to
the shops if, like me, your full-time job frequently involves working weekends.
The local air carrier charges extortionate prices and flights cost about three
times what some European carriers charge to travel a comparative distance.
Everyone is at the mercy of monopolies in terms of utilities because there is
no competition and don’t get me started on how terrible the internet service
is…
Coming from
Europe I struggle with these things. I accept them, because after all, what can
you do other than accept them?
However I saw things differently when I met two Chinese women yesterday.
To be honest I understood very little of the sum of what they were telling me,
but one thing kept coming up.
They were
extremely happy to live here and very grateful for the opportunity to do so.
They must have mistaken me for a local girl because they praised the local
landscapes, infrastructure and services. I do not know their background but
they struck me as immigrants rather than refugees.
We live in a
world where we are quick to moan about things that we don’t like. Negative
complaints are more likely to be made than positive feedback given. As an
expat, comparing places is a dangerous game. There are bound to be comparisons
made between one place and the next, but it is vital to not transfer
expectations between places. There are good things and bad about every place on
earth. The only thing that changes is the perception of these things.
The Chinese women
showed me the town I live in from a new perspective and my encounter with them
zapped some lurking negativity, for which I am grateful.
Photo credits: Andy Mathias, Nick Papakyriazis, EmilyJosephine7
