We made it to the USA. And it feels good. There are a million things we missed.

One example from today: In the midst of a million errands, we stopped at a restaurant for a late lunch. Can I just say, I love the policy of tipping for better service?

• The waitress brought us our drinks in about 2 minutes. She even put the water I’d requested for my 11-month-old in a plastic cup with a lid.
• She came back when we were ready to order.
• She refilled our drinks almost instantly, which meant she was watching us to see when we were almost empty.
• She smiled at my son and acted like a human that was interested in whether we were having a pleasant time and enjoying our meal.
• She promptly brought us our meal.

In Australia, tipping is not expected. In fact, a few Australians told me very emphatically never to tip because they don’t want to ever be expected to tip.

The result of no tipping? Horrible dining-out experiences. For example, we went to dinner the night before we returned home. Just as today, I only saw one or two wait staff and it wasn’t very busy. However, our waitress that night seemed bothered when I hunted her down for everything we needed: we’re ready to order, more water please, I’d like a take home case, could I please have the check?. Eating out is more expensive in Australia, but there is no incentive to ever go back again: the service is so lousy. (We only ate out infrequently because it was so unpleasant and annoying. Not that we eat out frequently anyway, but still! When it’s a horrible experience, we’re not likely to repeat it soon.)

I will never complain again about the expectation to tip! It makes it so much better in the long run!

P.S. The bill today was significantly less than the bill in Australia, even with a generous tip and the dollar conversion rate.