American expat lists 'crazy' things about Australia: 'Unbelievable'

A US expat living in Sydney has raised eyebrows after revealing several aspects of Australian life she says "would send Americans into a coma".

Highlighting vast differences between the two countries, the Florida native took to TikTok to shed light on things that people from the States would find weird about living Down Under.

"I had to y'all," Hannah Shuman laughed as she kicked off her list.

Guns, roundabouts, speed cameras

Australia's high level of gun control is the first thing Ms Shuman says she finds mind-blowing. "Number one: The fact that you just can't go into Walmart and buy a gun, or anywhere. There's not a total ban on guns in Australia, so you can get one, but it is so much harder than in America," she stated.

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Quickly moving on, Ms Shuman addressed the next item on her list: traffic roundabouts, which are few and far between in the US. "We have so many roundabouts here, it's crazy," she said.

Third on the list: speed cameras. "So instead of just having cops sit on the side of the road and wait for you to drive by speeding, they just have cameras up everywhere that catch you when you're speeding and they just send you a ticket automatically based on your number plate."

An Aussie TikTok user pointed out that police also catch speeding drivers from roadside patrols in Australia, while an American viewer was aghast at the idea of speed cameras. "I'd get so many tickets," the latter commented.

Air con, ranch dressing, healthcare

Ms Shuman went on to highlight Australia's lack of "central air", also known as ducted air conditioning. "Central air is not common. You are lucky if you have central air conditioning, but most places only have wall units or don't have air conditioning at all," she pointed out. "Growing up in Florida, this would have been unheard of. You cannot survive in Florida without air conditioning."

The Floridian also noted her difficulties finding ranch dressing in Australia. "Sometimes you can find ranch dressing here, especially at places that serve American food, but it's like a watered-down version. I don't know, it is not ranch dressing, let me tell you," she chuckled.

The last thing about Australia that Ms Shuman finds shocking is public access to free healthcare. "I know we pay for it with our taxes, but it is unbelievable to go to the doctor and they're like 'Okay, bye' and you don't end up with a thousand-dollar bill in the mail."

Aussie viewers react

The clip has already generated over 220,000 views in three days and has received hundreds of comments from Aussies who couldn't help but chime in about the woman's observations.

Many viewers praised Australia's strict gun laws and healthcare system. "Feels good being able to go to school where the only fear is if you have a test," commented one user. "Universal healthcare is amazing, and we need to keep it," wrote another. "That's why Australia is one of the best countries to live in," added a third.

Meanwhile, scores of Aussies took issue with Ms Shuman's claims about ranch dressing and ducted air conditioning, arguing that both are prevalent in the lucky country. The US TikToker doubled down on her convictions though, responding that ranch dressing is "not the same" in Australia, and claiming all of the apartments she's lived in have either had no air con or, again, "just wall units".

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