Jogging Down Under at Dawn

It's 5am and Sydney is already teeming with life. Unlike what happens in U.S. cities where you see people going to work, what you see in the Australian city is people of all ages jogging, exercising, training. Australians are more obsessed with fitness than any other people in the world, and training is an important part of the day. For Italians like me, it's easier to come around the idea of training daily rather than doing it at dawn, like most Aussies do.

Australia, a country prone to clashing opposites, is also one of the Western nations where obesity is highest. It's all or nothing. In food and sports, just like in personal behavior. From Monday to Friday, Australians are highly disciplined. Starting with the early morning training and continuing with regular, synchronized, schedules for work and meals. In the weekend, they turn into other selves. They get into pubs already in the afternoon and drink late into the night. The neighborhoods of Sydney where bars are concentrated, usually impeccable during work days, are often closely monitored by police to prevent drunken brawls and disorderly conduct. The need for alcohol to facilitate socializing is somehow a cultural limit. And you end up drinking up more than you normally would, although Europeans here do not reach the excesses of Australian and British drinkers.

Life in Sydney is a lot more relaxed than in Italy, possibly because the economy has been little affected by the crisis still plaguing Europe, wages are significantly higher, and the high demand for labor pushes people to try out different professional experiences, changing jobs frequently, even in absence of recognizable economic improvement. The light and colors of the place suggest serenity: the possibility to relax on the ocean's shore, right after work, a few minutes' walk from home.

Even the long commute almost everybody has to do each day, due to the city's suburban structure, is not experienced as a problem. Public transportation to downtown Sydney is highly efficient, while one-way traffic and the cost of parking provide disincentives against car usage. Those who work elsewhere in the city have to drive to work, though.

Australia is a country of immigrants and I think I know only one person, among the hundreds of people I have met, whose great-grandparents were born here. Migration waves have overlapped with time, and in Sydney you can find Italian-Australians, and Italian immigrants who came here thirty years ago (just like my current employer), as well as young Italians who came here after the crisis, just like many other young Europeans. For the same kind of job, in Australia one enjoys a higher standard of living with respect to Europe, and, most importantly, it's much easier to find a job.

You usually get to Australia with a one-year study or work visa. If you are thinking about staying in the country, during the 12 months of validity of the visa, at least three months must be spend in "farms, i.e. in socially useful work, usually done in the agricultural sector. Alternatively, one can be admitted to the country thanks to the sponsorship of a hiring company. So the job environment is very international, and immigrants are not disproportionately relegated to humbler jobs like in Europe. This is also one of the reasons why there is very little racism in Australia.