I am also worrying about how to answer the inevitable and oft-repeated question, "What was Australia like?" My short answer, already formed, is "It was nice." The medium-length version is, "I really enjoyed it, but I don't have to spend another year there." My long answer takes between five minutes and a whole evening.

Australians are as forthright and friendly as you've seen them portrayed in Crocodile Dundee. They can also be stuffy and officious. Their economy is the envy of many of their Asian and Pacific neighbors. It is also struggling through one of its worst recessions in decades. They make leading-edge contributions in C, UNIX, and the world of computers in general. They also lag the US and Japan about five years in the use of computers in business.

Get the picture? It's another of those Charles Dickens "best of times, worst of times" sketches. You can't generalize about a nation this big without introducing distortions. Try to imagine a country the size of the 48 contiguous states with maybe seven per cent of the US population. Imagine the nearest thing to the US or Canada, but with two centuries to evolve along different lines. With so much familiar, the differences shock all the more.

I will miss looking out over the Pacific every day, meat pies and Sydney rock oysters, the Opera House and students eager to learn. Equally, I yearn now for the sharp seasons of New England, pizza that tastes right, and malls open late with well-stocked software stores. I leave behind good friends to return to old friends.

Believe it or not, my biggest lament was missing the X3J11 meeting earlier this year. (The second biggest was missing the solar eclipse over Hawaii.) It was the first such meeting I failed to attend. My first piece of business after leaving here will be to attend the December X3J11/WG14 meeting in Milan on the way home. After three days of committee haggling, I may remember why I hid on the other side of the planet for a year.

P.J. Plauger
pjp@wsa.oz
uunet!munnari!wsa.oz!pjp