Thursday Aug. 13 (12:11AM)
So, Mark and I had quite an interesting time trying to do some shopping the other day. Nicki's birthday is tomorrow (well, technically today) so Mark and I decided we are going to bake her a cake. Simple enough, right? Not quite. First, we asked Nicki about her favorite kinds cakes she said she liked golden cake with chocolate frosting, or marble cake or strawberry cake. Lots of options. Well... later on as Mark and I were talking we realized that we both have totally different perceptions of cake and the things which one puts on or in a cake. It took about a half hour of frustrated explaining and bickering to realize we were both talking about pretty much the same thing the entire time. See, even though we both speak english - there are so many words that have different implications and meanings from one country to the next. In England, the type of cake we would typically think of as Birthday Cake is specifically referred to as sponge cake, and is different from other varieties of cake. What's more, Icing, frosting, cream, butter cream, jam etc. are all different parts and pieces and eventually it came down to going to the store and pulling items off the shelf in order to show what we meant. It was so frustrating! And we both speak English!
It's interesting, the differences in one language across three continents. I mean, Australia is famous for it's slang but sometimes it can really be downright confusing. You are sitting in a circle and you all think your talking about the same thing, but in reality the same word has three or four separate meanings!
On another note, I came face-to-face with real anti-Americanism in one of my classes last week. In my Politics of International Relations class, there are two or three adult (non-traditional) students. One of whom is a 50-something year old Australian man who believes that because he is probably about 20 years older than the professor, he is also far more intelligent. He would constantly interrupt to ramble on about historical dates and names and eventually lead to no actual point or conclusion. What's more, he absolutely hates Americans. And not just American or the American Government but AMERICANS. I found this out in my first tutorial (the lecture class is very large and early in the day, the class is then split into smaller groups and assigned different times to meet for a tutorial... this is where discussion and questions take place)
So, bitter Australian guy (or, Mr. Obnoxious, as Zoey, from London, and I have affectionately named him) is in my tutorial group, and, as it happens, the first topic is the two Iraq Wars (of 1991 and 2003). The issue was merely the legalities of each war under the UN charter, I opened discussion with a brief synopsis of the UN involvement with each war and the steps which led to violence in each case. I concluded with my own opinion that, barring all moral and historical issues involving Iraq's claim to Kuwait the 1991 war had CLEAR, LEGAL justification, whereas the 2003 did not.
Well, from the second I opened my mouth and an American accent came out, he must have stopped listening. All of a sudden he was peering over his glasses and rambling about American arrogance and how Americans think they have the right to spread their ideals and democracy and Americans only care about oil and who knows what else. At that point all hope of discussing anything related to the course was lost and class became a debate about American motives in the war and how the American public hates the "Axis of evil" and something about September 11th... There were more buzzwords flying around that room than a fox news broadcast. And when I say "class became a debate" what I mean is Mr. Obnoxious talked over anyone else who opened their mouth to say anything at all. Eventually his accusations of "Americans this..." became "You..." As if I were the embodiment of America. Excuse me? I wasn't even old enough to vote when all this started!
It was a strange feeling, to be singled out because of something like my nationality... or really, the way I speak. I don't look any different than the Australian girl two seats over, it was my accent that gave me away. It's a strange, new experience to be different and to feel the effects of that difference. It's minor, too, what I've experienced here compared to what millions of minority groups deal with everyday, and in their homelands. To be an American citizen and be discriminated against in your own country... I really couldn't even imagine.
I'm gaining an interesting perspective though. I don't think I ever realized how influential the U.S. really is to the rest of the world. At home, we are really aware of only ourselves - there's about 10 minutes of news dedicated to the rest of the world, our classes in school revolve around American history, government, economy... because there really is no need for us to understand these things about other countries. But here, everyone is aware of the U.S., U.S. news, history, politics all have media attention, classes, make the newspapers. It's because the U.S. is viewed as the world super power and what they do directly effects everyone else.
Also, I've gotten some interesting insight on why Americans think the way we do, do the things we do... things we've been taught in every grade level- about our Founding Fathers, The Constitution, and how much reverence we give these things is viewed by the rest of the world as just plain weird. Language we hear politicians use all the time about "the greater good" or "American responsibility to the world", overall sentiments of virtue and grandiose ideals would be scoffed at by Australians should they be said by an Australian politician. Which makes sense, from the outside, a lot of our portrayal of history is somewhat ridiculous.
All of that being said, I'm really loving Australia. I'm also just now beginning to get over being sick. I may or may not have had swine flu. Yeah, I'm that cool. I'll save my commentary on my brief brush with Australian Healthcare for a later date.
<3
