Language.

I've had a couple of interesting encounters with the language. The area around the factory is fairly Hispanic, and at a local restaurant for lunch the waitress came up and started speaking Spanish to me. She only stopped when she saw that I was very puzzled. She then had to go and get the other waitress to translate to ask if she could clear the table.

I've had a couple of times when I've asked for a drink of water. They pronounced it waaater and can't understand my accent.

A similar thing happened when I asked for a macchiato coffee. It must be that different 'a' sound that confused the waitress and she didn't know what I was asking for. I gave up and order an espresso. She later came back and realised what I'd said and was very apologetic.

Steve and David at the office are easy to understand and we haven't had any difficulties, but then they are both born in Australia. The other engineer Jim sounds a lot more American than he did in Australia.