Time for a list. If you've come here for anything other than superficial (possibly erroneous) self-amusement, I suggest you cease reading immediately and go find some better material, like David Foster Wallace, or a PAT bus schedule.

Anyway, I'm in the mood to compare. (Tomorrow you'll get the grand update on my weekend.) But for now, I'll empty my brain of the little life-in-Sydney observations it has stockpiled.

I suppose it's only natural for one to compare a new place with an old, familiar place, so that's what I've done. We've got two categories here, titled (rather purposefully) Things You See in Sydney, and Things You Don't See.

Don't See: Fosters beer

Do See: Cascade beer

Do See: Toyotas and Hondas, including some models foreign to the States, even when the name is familiar (http://www.toyota.com.au/corolla)

Don't See: pick-up trucks

Don't See: Obesity

Don't See: People who speak on their cell phones while walking

Do See: Morning pick-up games of cricket

Do See: A shocking percentage of the out-and-about downtown population -- 30 percent, I'd guess -- wearing backpacks

Don't See: Rudeness

Do See: People who respond to a question about directions with an enthusiastic 10-minute conversation, as if they'd be waiting on one specific street corner for several hours, or maybe ever several days, specifically to aid one particular wanderer in need of assistance

Don't See: Large selections of cereal in grocery stores

Do See: Widespread availability of trail/nut mix

Do See: A monorail

Don't See: Natives who actually use the monorail

Do See: Youth hostels -- everywhere

Do See: Sunsets at 6 p.m.

Don't See (or hear, rather): Honking car horns.

First Published: October 7, 2007, 7:00 a.m.