ColinEssex said:
I lived in Oz for 3 years in Sydney. Bearing in mind it was a few years ago. At that time the whole lifestyle was "USA" - big automatic cars, adverts every 30 seconds on TV, loads of channels, fast food (we first encountered McDonalds there) everything was neon and glitzy, fast talking DJ's on the radio using "Americanisms", super beaches, hot sunshine.
Yep, Sydney appears to many of us outsiders to be a tryhard US city... as are Melbourne & Brisbane, to a lesser extent.
And I can't speak for the many country towns, as I don't know what country towns are like in USA.
But the smaller capitals, such as my home town Adelaide, are a little more quiet & European in feel.
As a result, we get called slow or behind the times by our Eastern neighbours.
(They say when crossing the border into the SA timezone, you turn your clock back 30 minutes and 20 years
)
In fact, the other country Australia is most like would have to be Canada. I went there on holidays in 2000, and it felt like a home away from home (except with different accents & weather
)