My First Month in Sydney
Well, I’ve been here almost two weeks now and I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve met more people and have more stories already than I’ll probably remember to include in my blogs. I suppose the best place to start in sharing my experience with all of you is the beginning. I’m Jason and I’m in Sydney, Australia! Wait, you probably know that already. I’m a twenty year old double major in marketing and political science at Rutgers University in New Jersey. That’s not who I am this semester, though. This semester, I’m an international student studying political science at Macquarie University near Sydney, Australia.
I should probably get a couple of details out of the way if I expect you to read this short novel I’ve written. Let me explain what brought me here to the southern hemisphere. I’ve always known I wanted to travel. Even before I’d been anywhere, traveling was the one of the only things I knew for sure I wanted to do. Graduating from college without having spent at least a semester away was out of the question (as was Europe more or less. A semester in England would have cost more than a year at Rutgers.) I’ve always been interested in Australia and I decided that if I was going to spend four and a half months out of the country, I might as well be on the other side of the world. I had heard great things about Sydney and, since Rutgers has a program at Macquarie, here I am.
To start at the real beginning, the flight wasn’t nearly as bad as I was anticipating. The hardest part was probably saying goodbye to my family at Newark. Beyond that, I rather enjoyed the trip. Flying with Rachel, a friend of mine from home also studying here at Macquarie (locally known as “Mac Uni”) was a smart move and made the trip a lot less stressful. Now, don’t think Qantas paid me to say this, but the food was actually edible! (I know, I couldn’t believe it either.) The flight was mostly Aussies, Brits, and Kiwis (New Zealanders). They couldn’t have been friendlier or more eager to share with me all of the places I absolutely cannot leave here without seeing. The sleeping pills were definitely a wise investment and, before I knew it, we had touched down in Australia.
Of course, there are plenty of details to consider when traveling to a foreign country. It’s easy to get frustrated in a place where (even in “English”-speaking Australia) people don’t speak the same way you do, spend the same money, or design an airport as logically or as easy-to-navigate as Newark Liberty. (Yeah, right.) Several laps through customs, the baggage claim, and the international arrivals terminal later, Rachel and I found Terry, our uni driver, and we made our way out on to the Sydney motorways.
Ok, perhaps I’m delving into a bit too much detail here, but I have to imagine it’s normal to want to share every detail of everything going on here. As far as adjusting to a foreign life goes, there is plenty to keep in mind. Not only did I travel for twenty-four hours getting here, the fourteen-hour time difference stretched my door-to-door journey to approximately two days. To paraphrase one of my favorite comedians, Lewis Black, you would think that after 11,000 miles of traveling, the people here would have the common decency to speak a language other than English. I feel the need to correct him, however, because as Americans speak American, not English, I dare you to find an Australian who would call the language spoken here English. The Aussie accent and lingo have been some of the more interesting obstacles to conversing with Aussies, and I, for one, have had a lot of fun figuring out what Seppos and Vegemite are. (Don’t ask.) As the weather’s great and life just a bit less Type A than I’m used to in the Northeast, g’day and no worries are popular phrases here.
After trying Vegemite...
Unfortunately, there was a particular section of orientation which comes to mind that still makes me a bit unsettled. No, I’m not talking about the way Australians drive (on the left. Have fun crossing the street or riding shotgun in a cab here.), but how easy it is to feel representative of the American people. It should come as no surprise that our government holds a number of positions that are highly controversial here. Population wise, Australia is an extremely small and politically active country. The government here fines those who don’t vote which, in turn, leads to staggering average of an 85% turnout at most elections. (Can you imagine this happening in the U.S.?) As a result, everyone has an opinion. Perhaps the only politician more controversial than the Australian Prime Minister John Howard is President Bush. His positions on everything from stem cell research to Israel and Iraq are debated endlessly here and American news dominates the Australian headlines. The advisors were quick to remind all international students, American and non-American, not to feel obligated or necessarily empowered to speak on behalf of our nations. Still, being an American abroad has been interesting and I’m learning a lot.
Overall, I’ve derived a ton of pleasure at being the foreigner, even if it’s only temporary. If you are American and have never been someplace where your accent is foreign, it’s time to get moving. I have never been so conscious of what makes me American as I have been here. I’ve engaged in conversations with people here on topics ranging from the metric system to Mel Gibson, the peculiar popularity of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my country, and the incredibly large number of people here from New Jersey.
An excellent benefit of traveling to Australia and, more specifically, a major university in one of the world’s greatest cities, is that there are plenty of people here willing to help. I can’t express how many people I’ve encountered whose job it is to plan events, offer support, and basically enrich this experience and ease the transition to life here in the other hemisphere. I can’t thank them enough. In my short time here, I’ve attended orientation and a city tour, enrolled in classes, opened an Australian bank account and purchased insurance, arranged several trips (including mid-semester break in Thailand!), bought enough groceries to last me approximately seven minutes, eaten exotic foods (which, as compared to British standards, were surprisingly delicious), and met more people with names that I either will ever be able to remember or pronounce. I’ve never been to Europe, but I have picked up some appreciation for European culture here, as well. Australia’s ties to England are strong, a fact plainly evident in the language, the shock Aussies elicit in meeting a non-Irish redhead, and the popularity of meat pies in the Mac Centre food court.
I could go on for ages (and I still have four months to go!) so please, if you any questions or wish to share some aspect of life back in the States I’m currently missing (other than the heat wave, please. I’ve heard enough about that), feel free to contact me.
Cheers from Sydney!
Jason
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