Jane Hilton
Taking a break from her job in Australia, Jane packed her bags for the United States,
initially
for a holiday. She
started off
in California where she found it was “a lot less liberal than I'd expected”. She explains, “I was on the beach and took off my top. A
lifeguard
immediately came zooming along on a scooter and told me it was a $90 instant fine. Anyway, he let me off because I was a foreigner,” she laughs. And what other cultural differences did Jane come up against? “When I was trying to get waitressing work, I didn't have a car and was quite
intimidated
at the thought of driving on the freeway — it's too fast and they drive on the other side of the road!” So she looked around for a bus, but found there weren't any. “Apparently, a
petrochemical
company had bought the whole
transportation
system and then phased it out. In the end, I walked long distances, which was another strange thing to do, and got told off again — this time by a cop for
loitering
when in actual fact I was just standing near an ATM.” And how did Jane get along at work? "American waiters and waitresses are very
courteous
, so was probably more
abrupt
and straightforward, so a bit of a novelty, and I got good tips. It was interesting because people I'd barely laid eyes on were prepared to tell me the most amazingly private things — about their divorces and breast
augmentations
, for example. Australians would find that really weird! Despite my problems though, I had a great time in the States. The American ‘can-do’ nature is very
infectious
and the people
ooze
positivity.”