Politics and Kangaroos...

I was back on American soil this past weekend. Let me tell you how it happened…

All the ASC students took a fieldtrip to Canberra (the Washington, D.C. of Australia) for one of our classes about Australian culture and history. While the trip was interesting in itself, my favorite part was getting out of the city. From Sydney, it was about a three-hour bus ride through rural Australia – I saw pastures and trees and quite a few cows along the way :) I enjoyed every minute of it.

Even though Canberra is Australia’s national capitol, it is nothing like Washington, D.C. Canberra is a quiet, quaint town spread out over a wide area of land with an abundance of parks, memorials, museums, and embassies/high commissions (but it’s mostly just parks…). Ask almost anyone in Australia and they’ll tell you Canberra is a VERY boring place. Perhaps that’s why I enjoyed it so much :)

While we were there, we visited the embassies of the United States and Indonesia as well as the High Commission of New Zealand. Apparently when you’re at a country’s embassy/high commission, you’re actually standing on their soil. So in a matter of about 6 hours, I stood on the soil of the United States, Indonesia, New Zealand, and of course Australia. Pretty nifty, eh? Overall, the embassy visits were very interesting – each one talked about their foreign policy and current issues regarding Australia (the older I get, the more interested in politics/economics I am…weird). Both New Zealand and Indonesia gave us some refreshments/snacks from their native land. They were also VERY friendly and loved to talk with us. However, the United States was a bit of a different story…this was the only place where we went through any sort of security (go figure). Their presentation was very business-like, everything planned out and very efficient. Rather than giving us any food, they just took a picture of us in front of the embassy. How typical American. This was kind of interesting: they spent most of their time telling us how we could get into government jobs instead of foreign relations.

Overall, we spent two days in Canberra – the first talking politics and policies while the second was spent visiting museums and memorials. I’ve always been a fan of museums, so I really enjoyed seeing what Australia had to offer in this area. We visited a portrait gallery (a museum totally dedicated to portraits of important Australians), the National Gallery (pretty much like a Smithsonian only not as big), the National Museum (this was probably my favorite stop – it was an art museum with paintings by Monet, Bastille, Courbet, Cezanne, Picasso, Andy Warhol, and many others. What I found most fascinating here was their section dedicated to Australian art – I really enjoyed looking through the Australian Impressionists and comparing what I saw to what I’ve studied of the Impressionist in the past.), annnd our last stop was to the War Memorial. At this memorial, we took a guided tour through dioramas detailing Australia’s involvement in the wars, emphasis on their role in Gallipoli and WWI.

Now this is REALLY exciting…I’ve saved the best of the Canberra trip for last: I SAW MY FIRST WILD KANGAROO!! On our trip home from the capitol, we saw seven or eight mobs of kangas (yes, apparently kangaroos come in mobs). A couple of them were even boxing :) I can officially say I can leave Australia now a happy camper having seen a wild kangaroo. However, seeing as how I have three more months here, I’d like to see a shark fin (a little recreation of Jaws would be cool), a platypus or echidna, a box jellyfish (one of the most deadliest creatures on earth!), an emu, a koala, and a dingo. I’m sure there are more I could add to the list, but I’ll just leave it at that for now.

Since we’re kind of on the topic of wildlife, I’d like to note that Australia has some extremely annoying birds (actually, they’re not that bad anymore. I’ve gotten quite used to the weird sounds they make. I kind of really like it now). So far, I’ve nicknamed them the ‘crying baby’, the ‘dying sheep’, the ‘caterwauling cat’, the ‘barking puppy who’s lost his voice’, and the ‘laughing monkey’. My personal favorite is the ‘dying sheep’. They’re usually quite active around sunrise :) Despite their awkward squawks, many of the birds here are quite beautiful. This may be a little hard to imagine, but they have wild Cockatoos, Rainbow Lorikeets, Kookaburras, White Ibis (stork-like things), and Galahs just hanging around. It’s like a little pet store of birds hanging out on the telephone wire when you walk down the street. I’d like to say that since the local birds look so much like the ones we have in pet stores, I was a wee bit curious as to what types of birds they sell in the shops. Sooo I found a pet store nearby and discovered that the birds are pretty much the same as what we have in the States (minus the cockatoos). Nothing too exciting.

Do you know what IS exciting though? The possums. Yes, I said the possums. Rather than looking like oversized rats, the Australian version of these marsupials is cute and kitten-like (in fact, they have been mistaken to be cats every once and a while!). They look up at you with their big black eyes and oversized ears. They’re kind of adorable (and they have much more hair on their tails. That’s always a plus). Some of them will even let you pet them…

Change of subject, but did you know that I see a completely different set of stars than you do back in the States? Because I’m in the Southern Hemisphere, I see the southern set of gaseous spheres. No Big Dipper or North Star for me; it’s all about the Southern Cross and South Star down under (the Southern Cross is on the Australian flag by the way). Despite the fact we’re in different hemispheres, I’m pretty sure we still see the same moon…I could be wrong though.

Before I go, I just want to say one more thing. They have the BEST multi-grain Cheerios here. Seriously. They’re amazing. And the milk here is pretty darn good as well – it tastes less pasteurized/homogenized and more farm-fresh than what we have back home in the grocery stores. Really good Cheerios and really good milk makes for the best breakfast combination.