American who moved to Australia reveals the major culture shocks that left her ‘blown away’

Moving from one country to another is likely to bring a lot of changes, some of them leading to bigger culture shocks than others.

Especially if you've never left your home country, heading to pastures new can certainly be an exciting but also a daunting prospect.

YouTuber Ashleigh Fay left New York for Australia some two years ago now. Despite that, she doesn't think that she'll ever stop having culture shocks down under.

Fay moved to Hobart, Tasmania for university, and often shares what she gets up to on social media.

She is training to be a biologist and physiologist, though the main focal point of her online presence is certainly on how an American lives her life in the other side of the world.

In a recent YouTube video, Fay discussed some of the major differences to her life in Australia and the US.

In a viral video, the content creator spoke a lot about money, including bank transfers and wages - and she of course discussed the differences in Christmas.

"I was blown away when I lived in New Zealand and then when I moved here to Tasmania how cheap phone plans are relatively obviously all of this is just relative in my experience," Fay began.

YouTube/ashleigh fay vlogs

Fay then spoke about wages, a factor that certainly shocked the American.

She said: "I'm not inventing anything here but I'm still reminded very frequently throughout my week of how grateful I am to live in a country that pays their workers more than $8 an hour.

"Casual rates here being sometimes upwards of almost $30 an hour Australian but then when you convert it that's still like $22 - $23 USD."

Sticking with the money theme, Fay noticed how bank transfers work rather different in Australia.

"In the US I was taught like to hold [bank details] dear to your heart," she said. "'Do not share that with anyone,' but here it's just so casual, it's just like 'oh yeah here's my account details.'"

While money is certainly the most important factor when it comes to everyday life, Fay was left equally surprised about how tomato ketchup differs in the US.

And it's safe to say that she finds ketchup a lot better in the US, describing the Aussie version as 'watery and flavorless'.

"[US] ketchup has like more sugar and um it's a little bit thicker and normally is a bit more like vinegary," she said.

"Whereas tomato sauce [in my] experience is a lot more watery, there's not as much flavor I'm sure there's some sugar in some of them but yeah they are different and I much prefer ketchup."