It makes sense, though. The group has been incredibly busy, always moving. I had my first day off since the beginning of the program this past Saturday, and it felt weird. On our day off some of us took the bus down into Sydney, and went to the weekly markets, the Sydney aquarium, and walked around the city. So far, other than what I've mentioned in my previous blog, I've had the opportunity to visit the town Manly across the harbor by ferry, walk through The Rocks region of Sydney, travel to Bondi Junction (just an interesting super-busy place of town. They have a 7 story mall there, pretty crazy), and attend a professional rugby game at the Sydney Roosters' rugby stadium. I honestly felt like I came away from the game knowing fewer rules than I did before the game began. The intricacies of rugby are really confusing without a rulebook. For example, after a foul, a team would intentionally kick a ball out of bounds and they themselves would start a new possession at the point it went out of bounds. Like a punt out of bounds, but you keep the ball. Who does that?!? Tomorrow I am going surfing at Bondi beach (I probably will at least twice), and eventually I want to make it to Sydney's 2000 summer Olympic venue and to Coogee beach.
Alongside all of the Sydney sightseeing, I had an opportunity to meet with the program coordinator of the UNSW incoming study abroad program, Nick Dowd. I was interested to see what he considered to be the most significant similarities and differences between Americans and Australians. I wasn't expecting him to give me much of his time, and I was surprised when over an hour later I finally made my way out of his office.
Nick and I agreed on a lot of things, however I learned a great deal from him. Quick aside: If you're Australian and I'm getting this wrong, don't blame me. I'm just doing my best to piece it all together. For one thing, the education process here is quite different than education in the states. After students graduate from high school, if they want to pursue higher education they fill out a form for part of their university applications detailing what they specifically want to study. They choose only six options, which are specific majors at specific universities. They don't apply to the school, but to the individual majors at their colleges of interest. For example, you could choose six different majors from the same school, the same major at six schools, or a happy medium of the two. The process has got to be a challenge for the undecided students. law, business, and medicine are all undergraduate programs, however they are five to six years long and students start the material immediately after high school. This is a big reason why there are fewer lawyers per person in Australia than in the states- if you don't have the credentials after high school, you just can't be a doctor or a lawyer. Also, electives are few and far between in their academic fields of study.
Students rarely leave their own state to study at university, because of the complications in applying to universities in other states. In comparison, in the US many people study in other states, of course- I'm from PA and I study at Michigan. Here, each state has its own high school evaluation scale, and if students want to study at a university in Queensland, for example, their high school performance has to be changed from the New South Wales scale to the Queensland scale- and it doesn't always turn out favorably. Also, students are generally always expected to pay for university entirely on their own. When they leave their house for university, their parents rarely pay even if they have the money. Australians end up being a bit more independent in this regard once they head to school, and mostly all of them end up having to work full time during the school year and during breaks. I would too, if minimum wage was around $15-18/hr in the states.
Another thing that I found surprising was the amount of people involved in organized sports (you'll notice, its hard to have a conversation with me or read something I've written without it occasionally coming back to sports. Straight forward answer? I like sports. <= shout out.) And I'm not talking about university or high school students, but adults. You see, beyond popular belief, being active and participating in sports doesn't actually end when you get out of college. They still watch their professional teams on tv and all, but most Australians are very active in organized leagues up into their forties and fifties. Sports end up being a great way for them to get together with their mates, play some footy, and barbecue while watching their kids play with each other's kids. They play hard and compete, but the main point of the game is to get out there and enjoy sport.
A good example of not becoming overly involved in the outcome of sports is the 2000 Sydney Olympics itself. The Australians are the best Olympic performers per person, far outshining any other country. Their swimming is particularly impressive, and in the 2000 Sydney Olympics their 4x100 freestyle team was no exception. The Australians and Americans were the top ranked teams and got into some pre-race smack talk as usual, and in the race the Americans beat out the Australians by a hand length. Later that night, the anchor of the Australian team made an appearance on the famous Australian comedy show aired during the Olympics, and a few jabs were made at him about the team's performance that day. The relay anchor was pretty light-hearted and had some jokes, stating that it was fine that they had lost and they were just going to do their best next time, fully meaning it. In the 2004 Olympics, the Australian team won gold.
The example of the Olympic teams shows a bit how Australians view sports- they're awesome and its great to do well, but winning is not the end game. Australians have what is called the "tall poppy syndrome"- look it up on wikipedia- which is basically a way to put sports in their place. Basically, it means that athletes have no right to think that they are better than other people because of their on-field performance. there is no stereotypical "football jock crowd", and if someone thought that they were better than others because of athletics, they'd get smacked by their mates real hard. And even if they are stronger athletically, it still doesn't matter. You'll get some "nice job, you did really well comments", but it stops there. The mentality may have something to do with professional athletics in the media, where athletes and professionals such as actors and musicians are not put on a pedestal like they are in the states. Nick himself has met actors such as Russell Crowe (or however you spell it) a few times and said hi, but that's really all thats needed. There is no reason to freak out or follow him with media cameras, because he's just a person. And Australians get that (One example of media getting too involved was when the paparazzi followed Nicole Kidman and who she was with. The truckers association decided it needed to be stopped, and entirely blockaded entrances to where the actors were staying with their trucks, preventing paparazzi from going in. The police came, and said good work.)
Overall, Australians just let the unnecessary be unnecessary more effectively than most Americans. In Nick's words, cars and clothes don't define what kind of person you are or what you do here. You may really want the car and if you can afford it, thats great- go buy it. But if you can't, its no big deal. How you display yourself, such as being fit and healthy, shows much more about how you respect yourself as a person. The Prime Minister had a news conference one time about the topic one time wearing just a collared shirt and some dress pants, suggesting that Australians not wear jacket coats or ties to work on occasion, but just a collared shirt. Doing that would allow people to deal with warmer temperatures in the work place, and help companies decrease their energy bills. Many people just wear jeans and a collared shirt to work, and there is no pressure from management to change that. What you wear does not determine your performance on the job.
A last thing that I've noticed is that Australians are very aware of their importance in the global environment. At UNSW, there are majors such as Energy and the Built Environment, as well as Photovoltaics and Renewable Technology Engineering. An entirely new building, the Tyree Energy Technologies Building, is currently being built on campus. The Australian labor government has also done their part and just passed a very controversial bill, a carbon emissions tax. Even though there are roughly 25 million Australians and they emit less than .1% of global emissions, Australia is being a proactive leader in developing alternative technologies to be more environmentally conscious, not to mention more competitive in industry and the commercial sector. Most people may believe differently, however being energy efficient and investing in new technologies is a way of becoming much more competitive in the marketplace. I've seen ten times more PV arrays in the past four weeks than I have in my entire life leading up to the program.
Although I didn't experience much of a culture shock when I arrived and settled into Darwin, there are definitely some noticeable ways in which the US and Australia are different. The things that are different make Australia absolutely awesome and special, and make the UNSW Energy Tomorrow trip absolutely worthwhile. I'm impressed if you've held on for this entire blog, this was a long one. Go treat yourself to some ice cream or something. Or maybe some vegemite.
The Sydney Roosters stadium. Roosters? Really?
The sign at the entrance to the main walkway through campus
At the rugby game
The college, or dorm, we are staying in on campus
No comments:
Post a Comment