ANZAC Day

As Americans, we like to think of ourselves as the professionals of patriotism, but after yesterday's events, the Aussies have proven themselves just as patriotic in my view.  ANZAC Day marks the day on April 25th, 1915 when thousands from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps stormed the shores of Gallipoli, Turkey during World War I.  In a devastatingly ill-fated mission, thousands of Australians and New Zealanders lost their lives that day, marking a significant loss of life for the two countries who at the time weren't boasting the larger populations they have today.  Around 5,000 Australians were killed that day, and a total of 8,000 were dead by the end of the battle.  The Battle of Gallipoli was the first time the Australians acted on their own behalf as a nation.  Before that, I'm assuming Australia either wasn't involved very heavily in many wars, or they were fighting as Brits for the Her Majesty's empire.  Some say this day signifies the making of Australia as a nation in the minds of the people, even more so than Australia Day does, which marks the arrival of the first fleet of British ships in the late 1700s.  I guess the equivalent for the U.S. would be a mixture of Veterans Day and Memorial Day.  The Australians commemorate that first sacrifice those soldiers made for the newly formed nation of Australia, and they also acknowledge the living veterans of all the wars that have since happened.  

The day started out with a 4:45 am wake up in order to get to the dawn service for ANZAC Day and potentially have a good view of the service.  One of the Rotarians from my host club had offered to take me to the service with him, and I happily agreed to it.  I thought it would be interesting to see how an event that had no large bearing on the U.S.'s course in the war, and one I didn't know a thing about would be commemorated and acknowledged by a country who had a very special and painful connection to the event.  In the still quiet of early morning, Kevin and I groggily got into his car and drove from his house to the Shrine of Remembrance.  This mammoth monument situated on the south side of the Yarra River just off St. Kilda road was built in the 1930s originally just for ANZAC Day, but has also come to serve as a shrine to all Australians killed in subsequent battles and wars.

As we drove, Kevin had tuned the radio to the equivalent of NPR for Australia, ABC (Australia Broadcasting Company).  There was constant talk on the radio about different dawn services for ANZAC Day going on all over the country and even the world.  Not only were there numerous services in Australia, but one in Gallipoli, Turkey as well as one in France.  Once again I was reminded of how important this event is to a millions of people, and I barely even knew a thing about it.  The shrine is near the Royal Botanical Gardens of Melbourne on the South side of the Yarra River, but we were coming from an eastern suburb of sprawling Melbourne during lots of traffic so it was about a fifteen minute drive.  I noted how lots of cars were out and about as well, and activity was unusually high for five in the morning.  I quickly realized that this event was hugely attended and that I was about to be among tens of thousands flocking to the shrine for the dawn service.  After parking the car a few kilometers away, we began our hike over to the service.  As we got closer, more and more people began converging on our same path around the gardens.  With all the people headed towards a common point in the dark hours of early morning, the event began to take on a specialness even to me, someone quite new to all of it.

I soon heard a soothing, deep voice over speakers in the distance and knew we were close.  We rounded a corner and in the early morning light, the Shrine of Remembrance loomed before me.  At the time, I didn't know how many people were there.  All I could tell was that many people had aggregated in front of the monument, and we weren't going to get a very good viewing point.  That didn't really matter, though, because everything was spoken over a loud speaker to the whole crowd.  

The service was very well done, and I can see why Australians would swell with pride in their country after attending this ceremony.  The speaker told the story of ANZAC Day, read poems from some of the soldiers, and accounts of what those men had to face, the few that did survive.  Gun shots were fired during one of the hymns sung by a choirs of former soldiers.  They also sang "God Save the Queen" which, to my American ears, I recognized as "My Country, 'Tis of Thee."  Then the whole place joined together in singing Australia's national anthem, "Advance Australia Fair."  It was a moving ceremony, even to a bloke like me who didn't know a thing about the whole affair until now.  Later that day I found out that around 40,000 people had been in attendance that morning.  Forty thousand people got up at the crack of dawn, many of them hours before the service started so that they could be up front, to remember their past countrymen who died in the heat of battle, in a mission that was almost doomed from the beginning.  Those in attendance weren't just old folks either.  I saw people of all ages in attendance, paying their respects.  The event was a moving one even for me as a foreigner here, and the Aussies showed their true form as supportive and mindful citizens of their country. 

Confusing Lingo

Lately, my house mate Rob has been calling me "Aluminum".  Why you ask?  An odd choice of nickname, I know, but it came about one night as I asked him for some aluminum foil for cooking.  "Say it again, mate," he told me.  "Aluminum," I said.  "Aww, mate, that's all wrong.  It's aluMINium!"   The Australians say it as the rest of the world does: aluminium  (see my spell checker just told me to correct that).  The extra "i" at the end makes all the difference.  It's so funny how the way I say this word throws Rob for a loop every time, and it's become kind of a joke every time we cook.  Rob will even come home from his work and say, "How ya going, aluminum?" with a cheeky grin on his face.  It's so funny to me how in one part of the world, 300 million people won't bat an eye at hearing the word aluminum, but on the other side of the world, saying the phrase, "Where's the aLUminum foil?" causes these short pregnant pauses where the hearer grins slightly to himself, always reminding you that you say things quite funny.

Another prime example of how the lingo and pronunciation here can cause a bit of confusion happened when Rob and I were biking through Princes Park situated just north of the University of Melbourne.  We had a choice of a couple of different paths to head down through the park, and Rob said to me, "Let's go down this way, mate.  The symmetry is really nice."  I thought to myself, well this is a sensitive side of Rob I haven't seen yet.  He's perceptive of the balance and beauty bestowed on things because of symmetry.  Must be the architect in him.  So I responded in agreement saying something like symmetry tends to be universally thought of as beautiful and a lot of times really attractive people are thought to be that way because of the symmetry of their face.  Rob cranes his head around while standing up on his bike and gives me this perplexed look.  "Mate, what the hell are you talking about?  There's a bloody cemetery over here!"  I then looked to my left and sure enough, a huge beautiful "sim-eh-tree" was there, plain and simple.  These sorts of things happen from time to time here in Australia.  The lingo and expressions developed on this island nation will take awhile to get down, I guess.

"Alex from Kentucky"

I'm coming up on two months in Melbourne, and Easter break is just around the corner.  Australia isn't that religious of a nation (especially compared to the US), but for some reason they still schedule their "non-teaching" period to coincide with Easter, an autumn event for Aussies.  As can be seen by my lack of posts, the work is picking up in classes and the reading is becoming fairly lengthy.  My fifth week of class has begun and I'm steeped in reading and papers.  Ah, the life of a humanities student: ideas, papers, tests, and grades.  This next week will be a doozy as all mid terms seem to be.  Not looking forward to the two papers and one test all happening on a Thursday a week and a half from now.

So in order to catch up on the month of March, I'll provide just one vignette for the sake of brevity:

During the second weekend of March, my host Rotary district had its annual conference where all the various club members within the district are invited to attend.  For three days the conference holds sessions that spread the word to all its members about what Rotary is doing locally, nationally, and internationally and bring them up to date with where Rotary is and where it's going.  All the ambassadorial scholars were invited to attend which included six others and me.  The event was well done and the speakers and entertainment they had lined up were excellent. However, the best part was... the venue was Tasmania.

Honestly (I must admit this because that's the first step to recovery), I had no clue before my trip to Melbourne that Tasmania was a state of Australia.  Had you asked me about Tasmania before, my mind would have immediately fixated upon Looney Tunes'  Tasmanian devil and the location of the island would have been a complete mystery.  To my ignorance's allay, this conference trip brought me up to snuff on the location and nature of Tasmania.  The plane ride there was a short hour just south of Melbourne to the town of Launceston in the northern part of the small island.  Tasmanian gets substantially more rainfall than the mainland and hence there's more greenery.  Launceston (pronounced lawn-ses-ton) is the third oldest city in Australia and is a quaint town with quiet streets and easy-going locals.  The trip provided a nice contrast to the bustling streets of Melbourne .

I won't go into the ends and outs of the conference, but one particular day bears mentioning.  The last day of sessions had quite a bit of entertainment scheduled, and as one of the final acts before the closing ceremonies took place on stage, Rotary invited a female improv duo to perform for the conference similar in style to "Who's Line is it Anyway".  These ladies romped down the aisles and assumed the stage, asking everyone in the audience to stand up.  One of them explained that she was going to ask us all a few questions and if our answer was yes, we had to sit down.  She began with easy questions that only singled out a few people, but then she asked a biggie, "Are you married?"  A sequence of scoffs and chuckles emitted from the audience as almost everyone in the entire theater sat down.... except for the Rotary Ambassadorial scholars.  The others and I were just about the only ones standing, and for some reason, I found it necessary to throw my arms up in the air and give a few little fist pumps to show my pride for staying in the race.  Suddenly the attention was on our little group and one of the ladies pointed at me and said, "Yes, the young gentleman there who expressed so much joy at not being married.  Come up on stage!"

A bit shocked but kind of excited, I shuffled past a few people in the adjacent seats and headed up on stage.  Now, the conference was fairly large, so around 500-600 people were staring back at me from on stage.  The woman proceeded to ask me my name and other questions about myself.  "Where are you from?" she asked.  I replied Kentucky which threw her for a loop.  Here we were in Launceston, Tasmania and some unmarried bloke she picks out of a room full of Melburnian Rotarians is from Kentucky?!  She asked me more questions like what and where I was studying, about what was in Kentucky (horses and Derby I gave for short answers), and she asked me what a pet-peeve of mine was (I grappled with this for a bit but answered when people say "ummm" too much).  She thanked me for my answers and then told me I could return to my seat.  With the information I'd just given her about myself, she produced an improv rap about, "Alex from Kentucky" and incorporated all the answers I'd given her from our short conversation on stage.  The rap was hilarious, but even funnier was that for the rest of the day, Rotarians I'd never met before would come up to me and say, "You're Alex from Kentucky!  Nice to meet you."

The final night of the conference, the district threw a big gala dinner party with around 800 guests all under a large outdoor tent, with a nice Tasmanian rain pouring down for most of the evening.  There were stage performances of operas singers and a live band, but the most hilarious part of the evening was at the end when people began to do a bit of dancing around the stage and suddenly the district governor (THE head honcho) gets on stage with the band and a slew of young women join him and dance all around him as he does his thing on stage.  At this point, I was confirmed in my belief that Australians are a laid back bunch that know how to have a good time.

As I flew back from Launceston, an unexpected feeling came over me.  I felt like I was coming home.  I hadn't felt this feeling in a long time, and I took comfort in it.  It told me that I'd finally reached a point where this foreign place had become less foreign to me.  I knew what I was doing when I came back here, and that's a good feeling.  Leaving a place you are familiar with, exploring an unfamiliar place, and then returning to the familiar seems to be the theme for the year.  And I like that.

University Starts

This past Thursday marked a month since I first arrived in Melbourne, and how the place has changed.  Well, not exactly.  The weather has lightened up a bit and now starts out quite chilly in the mornings (this morning it was 9 degrees Celsius), and rises to about 23 degrees in the afternoon, then falls back to a chill at night.  Autumn is creeping in I guess but Melbourne has a way of fluctuating quite quickly so it's still quite summery for the most part.  The change has more to do with me really than Melbourne.  Now, I know the area somewhat and when someone talks about Carlton, Fitzroy, Parkville, or Brunswick, I have a good idea what they mean (those are all suburbs surrounding the University of Melbourne).  The tasks I found daunting and confusing a month ago, like getting around by tram, understanding Australian slang, or looking right, left, then right again when crossing the road are now coming more easily, and words like bloke, mate, brekky, and footy have found their way into my vocabulary.  In short, I'm beginning to think I'll get used to this place.

Last week was my first week of classes, and it felt like the first day of college all over again.  I hadn't really anticipated the change of attending a small college for four years and then switching to an enormous one like Uni Melb.  The largest and most palpable difference I find is simply the numbers of people that are everywhere.  Waiting for my first lecture, I was in a sea of students, many of them first-years.  Some (mostly girls) were all collecting together and chatting away and others were stoically awaiting the doors to open for the lecture hall.  When the doors opened, we flooded into the theatre, resembling a levee breaking, and as I entered I felt more like I was attending some large production with a keynote speaker rather than a lecture.  Of course, this is really all quite normal for most people, and it's me who's finding this all a bit unusual.  The second challenge is navigating my way around campus.  It's like a big maze with some pathways leading to a dead end and others that look like they'll take you where you need to go, but then end up hanging left suddenly and you're not where you wanted to be at all.  So as I get used to Melbourne and navigating the city, a new challenge of familiarization rears it's head in the form of university.  Getting settled takes time.  All in all, the first week showed me I still have some adjusting to do for life at a big university, but I know I'll land on my feet.

International Conversations

What I love most about traveling abroad is the people you come across, and the stories they share with you.  Travel doesn't just bring you in contact with the locals, but also with the internationals that are visiting the country as well.  Tonight I spent the evening with a bunch of Germans, a woman from Poland, and an Iranian.  What a mix, huh?  I met my German friends at the graduate session on Australian culture, and one of them called me later to arrange a hang out at a place on Brunswick street called the "Comfortable Chair".  This was a perfect place for hanging out and talking without having to scream at each other in order to be heard like you sometimes have to do at a bar.  The group sat down in some cushy couches on either side of a big coffee table and just exchanged conversations the whole evening over a few drinks.  Of all the different conversations that night, the ones I had with the Polish woman and the Iranian man were the highlights.  We ended up discussing American politics and I commented that I was a bit surprised at how much they knew about the election.  She said to me, "Well, you all are the angel of the world, okay?"  She was insisting I stop acting so modest, but it did legitimately strike me as odd that they should know so much of my politics and I know so little of theirs.  Then I began to speak with the Iranian man who told me of his strong desire to go to Colombia University, and how he was accepted but his country wouldn't give him the simple papers he needed to get in.  So instead, he came to Australia and is doing his Ph.D. here.  He expressed frustration with his government and commented on how the people of a country get very badly represented by the governments in certain cases.  The whole time I kept thinking the same thing about my government is true.

I just find it refreshing to meet these people, discuss politics, life, anything, and come away thinking we aren't so different from one another.

"A Fair Go and Taking the Piss"

Today, I attended a session provided to the graduate students of Uni Melb about Australian cultural values.  The whole time I've been here, I've been trying to put my finger on what makes Australian culture different from American culture.  The place sure feels different and goes about life a bit different, yet it's still a part of western culture and is maybe what you'd call our sibling from mother England.  However, whereas our allegiance to the crown ended centuries ago, Australia is still a commonwealth of the UK; the Queen of England is the head of state (this was a bit shocking to me).

As just a run through for the sake of time, here are the values mentioned at the session.  The value is followed by an Australian turn of phrase meant to illustrate each value:

Egalitarianism - "a fair go"

Anti-authoritarianism - "tall poppy syndrome"

Self-reliance - "no whinging"

Practicality - "give it a go"

Informality - "no worries"

Multiculturalism - "everyone belongs"

Humor - "taking the piss"

I'll just touch on two of the values in the interest of time.  In describing the egalitarian nature of Australia, the speaker provided this quote by Francis Adams, circa 1880s: "This is a true republic, the truest, as I take it, in the world.  In England, the average man feels that he is inferior, in America that he is superior: in Australia he feels that he is equal."  Australia prides itself on the myth of mateship, the idea that your "mates" will do anything for you and you for them.  You need your mates and rely on each other to help you survive the Outback, and the other harsh aspects of the extreme country.  Many Australians also expect and dream of the "quarter-acre block" which is akin to the American dream of a front yard with a white picket fence.  With your mates and a quarter-acre block, life is grand.  All Australians are entitled to these things and they make up part of the Australian way of life.

Australian humor also interested me because of the turn of phrase paired with it.  I'd never heard the phrase, "taking the piss" in my life.  Australians like to have a bit of a go at you sometimes, because they never like to take themselves too seriously and feel you shouldn't either.  If someone is starting to take his or her self too seriously or talking a bit like they know it all, Australians might "take the piss" out of them with a few jabs at their ego.  They also are willing to take the jabs themselves.  "Taking the piss" is a gesture to show you don't take life too seriously and won't get all upset if life isn't perfect or exactly as you lined it out to be.  It's meant to be in good fun, but it reinforces the idea not to take yourself too seriously.  The speaker said that Americans have a hard time with this aspect of Australian culture because it can be a bit off putting especially to a nation that is very proud, a bit naive sometimes, and take themselves very seriously (we're the greatest country in the world, right?).  But no worries, mate.  It's all in good fun.  She'll be right.

Orientation Begins

My orientation to life at the University of Melbourne began today.  Needless to say, life at a university this size will be quite different than my former experience at Centre College.  The University of Melbourne has around 44,000 students, undergraduates and graduate.  Centre College has just below 1,200.  The number of international students at the University of Melbourne is around 11,000.  My home town of Somerset, Kentucky has somewhere around 12,000 people total.  Somehow the phrase, "little fish in a big pond" comes to mind just about now.  However, as staggering as those numbers are, we must grow up sometime.  Last night I was telling my housemate Rob about Centre, and how it was a lot smaller than what I'm about to enter.  He said to me, "Wow, mate, you're in for a shock."  Earlier today before I left for my orientation events, he texted me saying, "I reckon there's more than 1,200 people hanging around the architecture building right now.  Welcome to the big pond buddy!"

I set out today doing as I've done numerous times the past week, walking east down Arden Street, listening to my latest podcast of This American Life as I tromp towards Uni.  However, today was a bit different as I would be mingling with not only international students but all the Aussies as well.  I strode onto campus and headed for the Student Union events.  Immediately, I could tell that the place was much more crowded than the days before.  Pockets of students crouched below eucalyptus trees, laid themselves out on the lawn in front of the beautiful standstone Old Arts building, and sauntered to and fro from all sides of campus.  Union lawn was my destination, and upon arriving I knew this would be an interesting event.  Not one minute into my arrival at Union lawn, with the area teeming with students of all ages, a guy approached me and asked if I wanted to sign a petition to end the seize in Gaza.  A bit flummoxed, I slowly comprehended what he said, and then thanked him but said no.  Not two seconds later, another guy comes up to me and asks if I want to join the Marxism Society.  A more confident and faster no escaped my mouth.  Geez, I'm here two minutes and already I'm being drafted to support Palestine and communism.  Welcome to the rest of the world, silly American.  Most of the tents had promotional booths for campus organizations and clubs.  Other booths had tables promoting the two big papers in Melbourne, The Herald Sun and The Age, different banks to open up student accounts, and various stores that students might find interesting or useful like Ikea.  Another booth caught my eye that had a busty brunette and a bubbly blonde, scantily clad, handing out free Coke Zeros.  I had to go investigate because free stuff is always a plus.  Sure enough, you could get your picture with the girls as well...  so I did.  It's shameful, I know, but I'd better go ahead and admit it now.

So with some free Coke Zeros and a big smile on my face, I headed off to my orientation to the Faculty of Arts.  I am enrolling in a Graduate Diploma program in the history and philosophy of science, which marks the first time I will have ever been an official arts student with no science in the mix.  Science has pervaded most of my studies up to this point, so I find it rather odd but exciting to think of myself mingling with those of the more Platonic bent rather than Aristotelian logic.  The event kicked off with a lecture explaining the ins and outs of being a part of this particular faculty.  The best part, though, was the welcome party that followed the meeting.  Any faculty that thinks serving wine, beer, and some fancy dinner snacks for a welcoming of the new graduate students has my effortless and enthusiastic approval.  With a chance to meet some of the faculty and a few of the students I'll be among this year, it was a great way to start things off, and I look forward to the next few days as I get acclimated to life at the University of Melbourne.  Hey, maybe they'll be handing out free Coke Zeros tomorrow.