A Trip on the Horizon

For the last several weeks, it's been nothing but research and writing. That's good and bad. It's good because one of my goals with this sojourn in Australia has been to improve my writing skills, but bad because... well, writing is hard work! I am in complete awe of journalists, authors, and professors who do this for a living.

At the University of Melbourne, they have twelve weeks for teaching, a full week where no one teaches and no one studies, then a three week long exam period. For my classes, I've had sizable papers due in all four subjects. None of the papers alone is too daunting a task, but having each of them due one after the other, the mind and spirit start showing signs of wear and tear. I appreciate the ample time they give us to complete them, but I'm just not used to such writing marathons and would almost like to get it all over with quicker. Almost.

I've written about the use of history in a museum gallery about minds and madness for my history of psychiatry class, realism versus anti-realism in my philosophy of science class, relativism in scientific controversies and the sociology of scientific knowledge for my sociology of science class, and the importance of Descartes' mechanical philosophy and dualism of mind/matter in breaking away from Aristotelian world views in my history of natural philosophy class. Not exactly the stuff of everyday life... but interesting and I feel privileged to be thinking about this stuff more than usual.

So while all my family and friends back home are enjoying the longest day of the year, I am experiencing the shortest. It starts getting dark here about 5 in the afternoon and by 5:30, you'd think it was midnight. Winter in June is a funny feeling. I'm certainly not used to dating academic papers in the month of June. Last night on television they were playing Home Alone and The Holiday both of which take place at Christmas time in the northern hemisphere, but I guess when it's winter time you play winter movies.

But enough about school and the weather...

The time has come for a trip. And I intend to use my five weeks of break between semesters to take a few. Tomorrow I set off on a two week trip from Adelaide in the south, to Darwin in the north. A road trip journey through the centre of Australia. A foray through the dry, vast, featureless, barren, and hot Outback. A backpacking escapade from the southern vineyards of Adelaide, through the red centre of Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Alice Springs, ending in the wild and dangerous Kakadu National Park outside of Darwin. Along the way I'll be seeing heaps of kangaroos and dingoes, crocodiles and snakes, sleeping in a swag (an Aussie type of tent for the Outback), riding in a van with a bunch of other adventure seekers like myself, and experiencing some of the most remote parts of the earth. I'm so excited for the trip I'm about to burst.

This should be something to write home about.

How American...

Every now and then I have a conversation about American-ness with Aussies. Two nights ago I was at a house party for some Dutch friends that are soon heading back to the Netherlands, and admitted to someone I was chatting with that one of the things I was surprised about and didn't anticipate in coming to Australia was a slight anti-American mentality I picked up here and there from people. By no means is this a very strong sentiment among Australians and Aussies are very polite to Americans and give them respect they would give any other foreigner to their country. But there IS something different in the way Americans are treated or thought of. You never hear someone say, "How Lithuanian..." with a rolling of the eyes and cheeky grin. But when someone says, "That's so American..." somehow that means something more than just where I'm from.

The following is something I wrote about two weeks into my stay in Melbourne. I never posted it, but through my conversation the other night I came to some of the same conclusions. Therefore, enjoy my thoughts from around four months ago:

Tonight was an interesting night. I had my first outing with a bunch of Aussies who were showing me the ropes of what it means to go out for a night of drinks with the fellas. "It's a nuance of Australian culture I've never thought about," said one of my mates, "but if someone buys you a drink, you are obligated to give your shout back or you're just shit." I then realized, I'd better buy the next jug of Carlton Draught, or I'd be labeled "shit". Our conversation turned towards travel, and I made the comment that many Americans on the whole don't find the time to travel or simply don't have the motivation to see the rest of the world. The Aussies looked at me with a bit of a smirk on each of their faces. We continued to talk about travel, and finally I asked them a question that dawned on me. With the looseness of the situation, and the carefree attitude that had marked the whole night of teasing conversation, I asked them, "Why does the rest of the world hate Americans?" They immediately became quite serious and replied, "Because they have no sense of how the world works outside of their country. They are ignorant."

America is ignorant. Hmm... I would like to think that my country is full of open-minded people who just haven't had the chance to venture out in the world and see what it's composition is, but the perception by the rest of the world (or at least by these Australians) is that we don't pay attention to anyone else but our selves, and we don't try to hide that fact even if we do go abroad. As much as we (and I) pride myself in being an American, we certainly could do our part to hear about other cultures and somewhat familiarize ourselves with what goes on in other parts of the world - parts with whom we are not at war or in which we do not have troops stationed. True, our media doesn't focus on world affairs as much as say the BBC does or other international new programs, but we as a people could choose to take more of an interest in our fellow nations of the world. We could at least acknowledge the fact that the sun doesn't rise and fall by the American day, and we are not the only nation out there that can influence world events. Americans do tend to become a bit self-absorbed with our own news and events, and forget that a whole world of other happenings takes place everyday of which we are completely and utterly unaware.

Tonight's conversation with the Aussies was very sobering in a way, but not too surprising. I knew my country had a reputation for being unaware, but when it's spelled out for you by three Aussies who don't hold anything back, you tend to get the message a bit clearer.