As part of being in a new country you get to learn lots of things, about:

• Yourself – things you never thought you’ll learn about yourself
• Community – your new community and yourself as part of a community
• Family – the loving family you’ve left behind
• Relationships – has to do with all of the above and more

You also get to learn a lot about culture and finally, most important, about  the weather.

Let’s start from the end. From my point of view the most noticeable change – the weather. Melbourne weather is very unique. And very diverse.

It’s changing every day AND every hour, which means you need to be prepared for it. In the mornings it can be freezing cold (even in summer); at noon it can change to very hot and sunny weather; on the late afternoon it can be raining (even in summer) and at night, a  thunderstorm might appear out of the blue.

Crazy, I know. Did I mention it’s diverse?!

That’s why I love it. It’s unique, different. Exactly like culture!

It’s so much unlike the Mediterranean weather, where you get 3 months of unbearable humidity with nonstop sun and heat.

Here in Melbourne you get everything all at once. In the same day!

I love diversity, it makes you feel there is room for everybody, or even for every kind of weather; you can see people wearing thongs with raincoat and shorts, holding an umbrella. At the beginning it looks weird, but once you realize you always need to be prepared – that’s what you will be doing. Always wear short sleeves, long jumper in your hand bag, and always carry raincoat and umbrella in your car. That’s a MUST.

I can compare the weather to the culture in Melbourne: lots of different immigrants, cultures, foods and smells. You can find Asians, Hindi, Greeks, Italians, Russians, Lebanese Israelis and many more. I have never saw so much cultural diversity in one country as I saw in Melbourne.

When you travel to Europe, most of the people look the same and sound the same – Europeans. But here you can find so many cultures mixed up and it’s so beautiful to see there is room for everybody and there is respect for every culture.
Each culture has a community –  usually they live around each other, and the shops and restaurants will be more cultural at these areas. It means they are united by their culture, history and community (sometimes by religion as well). From their community you can learn about their relationships and the connections to their family and the individual. These things teach you a lot about the way they are living. Connection with family is different here, because some people have no family in Australia, but some do. If you don’t have family – you will find few families that you can relate to, usually from the same cultural background, and make them your family.

You get to learn a lot about yourself by facing  new obstacles in your new life; but by leveraging your supportive surroundings (family / connections / relationships / community) you can overcome any obstacle – because by their support you are empowering yourself and your family. That what moves you forward and encourages you to overcome any obstacle. Sometimes a simple question like “how are you?” can really mean a lot. A hug or a kiss will make a total difference.

In a very diverse country you’ll have very diverse friends – that’s the beauty of cultural mixture of Aussies, Canadians, Americans, South-Africans, Israelis, Russians and more. And while sitting around the table together, you’ll talk about the most common theme: Melbourne weather.

I think that summarizes it all.