Why would any culture voluntarily colonize such a place!?

... Oh, right :-P

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

After reading that article, I think I would go crazy after a week if I actually lived there

In one sentence:

yeah, it's alright.

With more detail:
It is an expensive place to live though. The internet is #@$%, car is basically mandatory, what public transport there is, is also poor AND expensive. If you play a game called warhammer, lol @ if you thought warhammer was expensive where you lived. average movie ticket goes for around $25AUD($23.25 ish USD ATM). in stores, new games will usually be at the $90AUD($84 ish USD) mark.

There are some cultural things that might crop up eventually (ie: casual racism in conversations, the expectation that said casual racism would not be taken seriously etc.) and these will vary depending on where you are in Australia.

It's not the large spiders you need to fear, it's the small, hard to see ones that are dangerous :)

Also don't go to perth, its basically Australia's sibera :)

We have some colleagues that work out of Perth. They seem to like it, especially the weather.

The important question - can you get into cricket? If so, perhaps avoid because we are kicking the aussie backside right now, and they're very upset about it. If not, perhaps avoid because they are very into their cricket.

Of course there's the rugby, we recently kicked the aussie backsides in the rugby.

Of course there's the olympic stuff. We recently kicked the aussie backsides in the olympics.

Seriously though, I think sport plays a big part, so it might be worth talking to some of those anti-poms and see if there's things you can get into. I don't think there's much baseball, but I could be wrong.

True. The deadliest spiders in Australia are comparatively small. (redback, funnel-web). Which amuses me when non-Aussies carry on about Australia having large deadly spiders

I thought Alice Springs was Australia's Siberia? ;)


BTW seen many drop bears around lately?

Heck, even I've been offered an English teacher's position in Thailand! :) Not sure if they were willing to pay me any salary though, but some teacher in the local school in one village approached me and asked whether I'd be willing to teach the kids some English. I rejected the offer, after all I was there on a vacation, not for work (I told them that I might have to go somewhere else on a short notice, so I couldn't make any commitments). And maybe I would have felt bad teaching Thai kids my broken English with a Finnish accent, I'd rather leave those positions to native English speakers with their heavy Cockney accents and whatnot.

BGG obviously is a better authority on foreigners working in Thailand, but my understanding is that other than teaching English or running a small company (like a restaurant) which is owned by a Thai, it might not be that easy to find proper work in Thailand. I think they are quite protective of their labor market, and there is a long list of Thai occupations where foreigners are not welcome at all. I recall even e.g. construction work is on that list, and quite many other quite common occupations (and some uncommon).

EDIT: Obviously googling for it is the best way so I don't have to keep remembering wrong:

http://www.thaiworkpermit.com/prohibited-occupations-in-thailand.html

Maybe working as an expat for a western company which has a branch in Thailand is the easiest way.