Footy Madness

The Grand Final is this week and Melbourne has gone footy mad. Australian Rules Football is the sport of Victoria and Melbourne is THE city for all footy excitement. It seems like everywhere you turn there's stuff going on about the footy. One day last week, The Age's front page headlining article was about the St. Kilda Saints having beach practice with all the Saints coming up from the water showing off their footy muscles. This is the front page Melbourne's major paper. Most of the other day's front pages have had some footy article as well.

There's endless talk among my roommates about who will win and how the game will go. I'm for St. Kilda, Rob my roommate's team, as they haven't "won the flag" as they say since 1966. The Geelong Cats will be tough competition though partly because they are just bloody good, and partly because they've won or been in the premiership the last three years. Their experience will come through I'm sure. But it's the Saint's time. 1966? This is the kind of sports matchup that makes Australians, just like Americans, sports fanatics.

Last week the St. Kilda Saints and the Geelong Cats beat out the Western Bulldogs and Collingwood Magpies, repectively, to come head to head for the premiership game. The Grand Final is held here in Melbourne every year at the Melbourne Cricket Ground which holds nearly 100,000 fans. In the past, they've had over 100,000 people attend the game. Rain is forecasted, but that won't slow down the fans, I'm sure of it. This week the Brownlow award was given out to a Geelong Cat adding pressure to the Cats for a victory this Saturday. The Brownlow is the approximate equivalent of the Heisman trophy for footy. The ceremony was broadcast on TV and branded like the Academy awards. The event was a great way to recap the entire footy season as they read off votes for best man of the match by the umpires for each game played. Reading off votes is painstakingly boring at times and really not good television, but you catch the highlights of each week for the footy season which began back in March.

Unfortunately for me, I'll be missing the game. I probably couldn't get tickets anyway seeing as you must be a club member to get them and the waiting list to become a member of the MCG is decades - people sign up their unborn children for membership. Plus I don't know any members who are going who can score tickets. Instead, I'll be visiting Sydney over my break from classes. My spring break is this week so it's time to leave droll Melbourne and surf some waves in New South Wales. Maybe I'll hit up Bondi beach again and check out the surrounding countryside of Sydney. I do hope the Saints win, though. They deserve it.

Go the Saints!

Time Flies after my Sydney Adventure

I think you could say I'm a fair weather blogger.

It's been too long with no updates and August just flew by. Suddenly, I looked up and we're half way through September. My weeks are seeming more like days and my months more like weeks, which is a bit depressing because by that logic I only have three more weeks in Australia. My spring break has just started at Uni, and ahead of me lies two weeks of no classes. This occurring after seven full on weeks of class and several Rotary club visits where I stand up and talk about where I'm from and pretty much anything else I'd like to mention.

Last time I posted, I was getting ready for a weekend trip to Sydney with one of my best friends from high school who flew all the way out here to have a little Australian adventure before returning to work. Marty and I flew into Sydney Thursday night the first weekend of August and stayed at a backpacker in King's Cross which, as someone described to me, is the "biggest party district in the southern hemisphere". Unfortunately for Marty and I, who had only brought minimal clothing and none of which would be considered nice, we weren't allowed into the really nice clubs around the area. I guess sneakers, a wind jacket, dirty jeans, and a backpack isn't the best look for clubbing... The first night we arrived, a friend's text message informed me that one of our travel partners during the Red Center trip I had done back in June was in Sydney the same weekend. I sent him an SMS (that's what they call texting in Australia... no clue what it means) and we met up for free drinks provided by our hostel at the World Bar in King's Cross. We made plans for the next day to go surfing at Bondi Beach. Finally, I was going to go surfing in Australia.

Bondi is a gorgeous beach located a five minute bus ride from the city center of Sydney. I couldn't believe how close the beaches were to the main city in Sydney and definitely see why people love the beach life there when its so at your finger tips. After sussing out the surfing options, I decided to go with no lessons and see how my two friends who'd taken one lesson each a while back would do at teaching me what they learned. Surfing (or trying to) was awesome and the two hours I rented the board and the wet suit flew by. I wanted to go for longer but the clouds were rolling in so we decided to call it a day with surfing. Bummer dude.

That night Marty and I checked

out the Sydney Opera House. This is a landmark icon that does not disappoint. But what made it even better was that we were able to score tickets to a concert in the main hall. Plus, the concert was no string quartet or orchestral movement, no sir. We saw a couple of famous Aussie singers in current rock bands sing the entire Beatles White Album. It was a rockin' show. Plus the inside of the opera house is amazing. The building juts out into the harbor so the impression you get as you're heading for your seats is that you're watching a show on a big fancy yacht. Surfing at Bondi beach and catching a show at the Opera house on the first day in Sydney. That will go down as one of my favorite days in Australia.

The next day we took a ferry ride from Circular Quay to Manly Beach.

Most tourists take this ferry just to get views of the opera house and the harbor bridge, both classic Sydney icons. The harbor is beautiful and Sydneysiders should consider themselves blessed to live beside it. With all the ferries and sailboats around it's amazingly clean, and the fact that such a large city built right on the harbor is able to manage such clean water is hard to believe. From Manly Beach we walked to the very north edge of the harbor where the water becomes the Tasman Sea. My favorite view of Sydney happened there. The sailboats, the ferries, the water, the harbor bridge - spectacular.

As we were walking back from the edge of the harbor (a lot of walking happened this day), Marty stuck his thumb out hoping somebody would see us poor vehicle-less boys and offer a ride back to the ferry wharf. We were in a designated park area so not a very dangerous thing to do, but I thought it was stupid to even try. Well, Marty showed me. After about thirty minutes of dedicated hitch-hiker thumbing, Marty's perseverance paid off, and a nice old couple pulled up and offered us a ride. The couple had lived in Sydney all their lives except for lots of traveling that it seems all Australians make a point to do. They were so nice to pick us up and I still don't really know why they did. We thanked them as they let us off at the wharf, then I thanked Marty for the hour's walk he'd saved us. That night we searched for a place to get some kangaroo meat for dinner but settled for a cook your own meat pub with some excellent Sydney cuts (basically a sirloin) shared a few (several *cough*) Aussie beers.

The next day we walked around the city a bit checking out the parks and a few landmarks. Sydney is just plain huge. The streets are wider, the buildings are taller, and there's just an overall larger than life feeling to the place. It's much different to Melbourne's large yet quaint tram filled city center with little alleyways everywhere full of cafe and boutiques. Sydney's also much more hilly and less bike friendly, something I notice now as a daily bike rider. We checked out the Sydney aquarium and got our fill of dugongs, which apparently are the creatures sailors used to think were mermaids in the oceans. If you've ever seen a dugong, you'll hear me out when I say, I'm not buying it. In our final hours in Sydney, we finally found a place that offered kangaroo on the menu. Now Marty could finally say he'd tasted the animal on the national emblem of Australia. Good on ya, mate.

We flew back to Melbourne with our stomach full of roo, and our appetite for a Sydney adventure satisfied. I have to admit I like Sydney. My Melbourne friends will boo this statement, but the city has charm. It's fast-paced and flashy, stylish and sun-soaked with close beaches and an unbeatably handsome harbor. Melbourne's probably a better place to live, but Sydney's hard to beat for a visit. I'll be going back for sure.

Why Study the Humanities?

Yesterday, as I was listening to my lecturer in biomedical ethics, he mentioned an opinion piece to us in The Age written by Peter Singer, a very famous University of Melbourne professor of philosophy and ethics, who also spends time teaching at Princeton as well. As my ethics professor mentioned the name, I vaguely remembered passing a book signing going on at the Arts Centre on campus last semester with a Dr. Peter Singer, so I was interested to read what this man had to say.

His opinion piece describes his discontent with the emphasis that Australian universities have put on teachers to publish more papers, teach more students and apply for more research grants in efforts to demonstrate the value of what they study. He lifts up many of the American universities that place more emphasis on undergraduate education of a liberal arts kind where the teachers don't have as much pressure to publish and can focus on teaching. Words like Singer's always fill me with pride and make me all the more thankful I was able to attend an institution such as Singer describes. For all Centre folk reading, I think you'll enjoy the article.

Back to School

And so my semester break has ended. But I can't say I didn't do anything while in between semesters.

Last night after a two hour flight back from Brisbane, and a taxi cab ride back to my apartment, the excitement to start up another semester began to sink in. Of course, I'm bummed I can't do more traveling like I have been the past few weeks, but who knows, maybe some weekend trips will be in order.

Although, this trip wasn't as long as the last trek across the continent, the sights and sounds were no less fantastic. Brisbane (pronounced Briz-bun) is a great little city, nestled about midway up the east coast of Australia and full of exotic rain forest looking trees everywhere. The highlight of a trip to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world and situated about 2 hours north of Brissie, was a drive along 75-mile beach to a place called Indian point. From there, we were at the eastern most tip of Australia and could watch hump-back whales gracefully slide along the coast, followed by a few dolphins, and some seawater turtle sightings. Fraser Island has no roads, only the open beach, yet these open beaches are recognized as roads, with sign posts for speed limits, and patrolmen to enforce the law. A four wheel drive vehicle is a must on the island because once you turn off the beach the pathways are quite bumpy.

From Fraser, we traveled through the little town of Bundaberg (the namesake of a tasty ginger beer I love in Australia), and arrived at Agnes Water and the Town of 1770. Yes, the town's name is a year in history. Here, I (and I never thought I'd say this) rode around on a motorbike throughout the town to catch views of the sun setting over the eastern sea. A local who runs a tourist business called "Scooteroo" actually leads visitors around on motorbikes so they can see the town, ride a motorcycle (a smallish version), and catch the sun setting over the ocean horizon. I'll briefly mention that my first attempt to ride the bike ended tragically with both myself and the bike tangled in a wire fence about 20 yards from where I stared riding. There's no more helpless feeling than not fully having control of a motorbike and realizing that, yes, you in fact will be crashing into a fence for everyone to witness. After a quick bike swap, and a dusting off of my pride, I rode off into the sunset with my masculinity recharging by the moment. I know my dad would hate to hear me say this, but man are they a blast to ride.

The next day at 1770, we took off for a trip to Lady Musgrave Island, which is included in the Great Barrier Reef by just a hair. A few clicks south and we'd have been out of the official Great Barrier Reef. Lady Musgrave is a lagoon about 2 hours east of the town obviously only reachable by boat. The sea was extremely choppy that morning causing major rocking of our boat. Lots of patrons got sick. When you look out to the horizon and the boat railing goes about three feet below it, then shoots about three feet above it for two hours, that's not a pleasant ride. The waves would splash us with sea water consistently with each wake, so I arrived to Lady Musgrave a bit disoriented and quite wet. The coral reef, however, made it all worth it. Snorkeling with the colorful fish and brilliant colors of the coral was unlike anything I've ever experienced. No words can really capture the feeling and the experience so I won't even try, but I hope that I can do it again before I leave this country.

Today, classes started back up. The second time around is so much easier! I know where I am, how to get to where I need to be, and what to expect. Plus, my class schedule (pronounced shed-ual in 'Stralian) is much more even keeled and spaced out than last semester. It's back to work I guess, but I'm so thankful for the time off. The break gave me the opportunity to see parts of Australia other than Melbourne, and get a feel for how big and diverse this country/continent really is.

Journey Through the Red Center of Australia

I've been back from my trip up through the center of Australia for about two weeks now, and I'm still coming down from the excitement and energy that trip gave me. I can honestly say the road trip will go down as one of the best I've ever taken. The scenery was incredible, the people I traveled with were fun and adventurous, and the tour companies we used were top notch. In fifteen days, we traveled nearly 4,000 km (2,500 miles) across the continent starting in Adelaide and ending in Darwin. To talk about all the incredible parts of the trip would take ages and volumes, so I won't even try. I would upload some pictures, but I'm having trouble figuring that out at the moment. Instead, a few interesting tid bits:

I saw more camels in the Outback than kangaroos. Apparently, when they were building the Gahn railway that runs north-south, they used camels and then let them run wild. They've thrived in the desert that is most of Australia and are so numerous they are set to sell camel meat in the Australian supermarkets soon.

A town we stayed at in the middle of South Australia called Coober Pedy began as a settlement of miners who were looking for opal. The town still exists today with most residents living underground or in the sides of huge earthen mounds. This type of living keeps the home a steady temperature in the hot desert, but makes for a very bleak looking town - no grass, red dirt everywhere, and not much else going on. Coober Pedy (pronounced pee-dee) means "white man's burrow" in one of the Aborignal languages of the area.

Uluru (Ayer's Rock) is the largest monolith in the world and was a difficult climb. There's controversy surrounding if we should be climbing it or not. The Aboriginal people of the area would rather people not simply to keep them safe from falling to their deaths. I debated not climbing it, but couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Sleeping outside every night in a swag on the ground, staring at the clearest starry sky you've ever seen is the only way to spend your time traveling the Outback. I saw the Southern Cross and gases of the Milky Way galaxy it was so dark. Sunrise and sunsets out there can not be matched either.

Once you cross the Tropic of Capricorn, termite mounds begin to show up as you exit the desert and enter more forested areas. The more north you travel the taller they get. Just outside of Alice Springs they were no higher than my shins. In Darwin, they towered over me at just about 10 or 12 feet high. The termites themselves are no bigger than a poppy seed.

In the Northern Territory, there are snakes, spiders, termites, cane toads, and most important crocodiles. The fresh water crocs are pretty harmless and more scared of you than you of them. Plus they only get about 3 feet long. The salties on the other hand... they will kill you. They get to be about 10 or 12 feet long, but have been seen as big as 16 feet (5 meters). Signs were up everywhere that said, "Saltwater crocodiles have been known to enter these areas undetected. Swim at your own risk."

Darwin is a great little town with a decidedly 70s look after the whole place was destroyed in the 1970s after a hugh cyclone hit. So the architecture is in the style of the times. Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks just outside of Darwin are full of amazing waterholes, cascades, and rock jumps. Some are only accessible with four-wheel drive vehicles. Lucky for us, we had some.

So, those are just some of the highlights of the places I went and the things I saw. I had an amazing group of travel partners and we had such a blast together. We also really enjoyed meeting the other travelers on the tours we took. In our groups, we met people from England, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and different parts of the U.S. I met a former Swiss guard who'd protected the Pope, a former professional footy player (who I just recently met back up with in Melbourne), and a French amateur didgeridoo player who made the Northern Territory jungles come alive with his excellent playing. Such a variety of people only added to the excellence of the trip.

So why not take another one? Tomorrow, I head off to Brisbane for a week to tour Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world, and the southern most parts of the Great Barrier Reef. It's sure to be a great trip to finish off my in between semester holiday.

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.