First impressions of Australia

After probably the best international flight I’ve been on since coming to Asia, we finally arrived in the Gold Coast. The air was hot and dry and for the first time in months I felt like I could breath fresh air. ( I mean I would hope so being so far away from China and all). I was so excited to finally be seeing a friend that I hadn’t seen in 3 years, and to just be in Australia, that I took my time taking in my surroundings. My first mistake because my slow ass ended up at the end of the immigration line. The Gold Coast airport is pretty tiny and not impressive, I just wanted to get the hell out of it. But Australia is very strict on the items you can bring with you into the country so after the customs line, you have to go into another line to get sniffed by dogs/open your luggage/declare basically anything that has food or dirt or… You get the picture.

My friend was eagerly waiting for me on the other side and proceeded to tell me that she had been racially profiling the people leaving the hangar to see if they were Asian. My flight was from Hong Kong so she knew that if they looked like they came from Hong Kong, then I would be among them. Though I don’t even know how she could do that considering that many tourists coming to the northern part of Australia come from Asia, including myself (living in Korea at the moment)!

After some small talk, my friend told me that we would be going to her favorite restaurant in all of Gold Coast.  A place called “Pancakes in Paradise”. I had arrived just in time for breakfast and considering it would be the first time in a long time that I would be eating Western food, my body was ready. I expected to see normal kinds of breakfast foods on the menu, but that’s not what I saw. They add ice cream to their pancakes!? Nearly all of their special pancakes had tons of icings, syrups, and ice cream on them. Same goes for their crepes. I settled on just normal pancakes and a latte. Eager to try Australian coffee, since the boast about it, I was confused as to what they put in front of me. Guys, they put coffee into GLASS CUPS!? WHY???? It’s like Australians are now used to burning their fingertips when enjoying a cup of coffee. I just don’t understand the reasoning behind this. Then again, the mug is more expensive. So if you want to save yourself the 3rd degree burns (kidding), then opt for the mug every time.

When it came time to pay the bill, my friend and I fought over who would pay. As soon as the guy heard my accent, he turned to my friend for her card while saying “you sound foreign”. So because I sound foreign apparently that means that I am the guest and therefore should not pay for anything. Ever. I guess this is the Aussie way, though I can’t complain about getting free food.