Australian Tour Diaries: Jason Dourisseau

This has been a great trip and a great experience for all of us. We have seen a lot of Sydney, and now we’re in Cairns, which is just as beautiful. We went to the zoo before checking into the hotel today, so we haven’t seen much yet, but the landscape -- with the mountains and the ocean so close -- is absolutely gorgeous.

It’s kind of weird to me, but the further north you go, the warmer it is. It’s winter here and was in the low 60s last week in Sydney, but now we flew three hours north and its 80.

That’s just one of the many different things we’ve experienced here. The people are really nice and it seems like they are willing to help with anything you ask of them. But some things are just different than we are used to, and it takes some time to adjust.

Some of the things we’ve seen that are different are:

? They drive on the opposite side of the street (left side) and the cars have the steering wheel on the right side. I know it’s that way a lot of places in the world, but this is the first time I’ve seen it in person

• They call fries ?chips’ and chips are ?crisps,’ which is kind of confusing at first
• Burger King is named Hungry Jacks but McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Subway are the same as back home
• Australians don’t have dollar bills, but they have one and two dollar coins
• After I say ?Thank you,’ they say ?No worries’ in place of ?You’re welcome’

Another thing that is different in Sydney is that they use the ferry so much to get back and forth around the city. We were able to take a tour of the city by ferry and tons of people go around to work and home on them each day. It makes it easier to get around in such a big city, especially since the cabs are so expensive and getting across the harbor by car can take much longer than a quick boat.

Nearly everything is more expensive in Sydney. Prices of basic things are sometimes double what it is at home, but you can probably find some good deals if you look. The food also comes in a lot smaller portion than back home, but at least most of it’s good.

Things are a little different on the court as well. The gyms here are much smaller than back home despite it being a professional league. They are cold, especially south where we had our first and last game before coming to Cairns.

So far, our games have been good and getting back to .500 the other night was definitely good. I think we have been extremely efficient on offense and been making shots, which is great. But we obviously need to work more on the defensive end, especially in transition.

These close games are an example of us just needing to stay together down the stretch to win games. We are playing against professionals who know how to get around the court and this will definitely get us ready for Big 12 play.