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Australia: So Close, Yet So Far Away

December 12, 2007

Coming to Australia has been one of the most exciting experiences of my life. Saying goodbye to our families on July 4th, three friends and I touched down in Los Angeles for what was my first visit to the west coast.

We spent four exciting days visiting Rollins friends and seeing the sights, from the Getty Museum to the Hollywood sign, before departing for Sydney on the 8th. On our 14-hour flight, we crossed over the equator and the international dateline and into a continent both comfortingly familiar and dauntingly foreign.

Australia is an affluent English-speaking nation with McDonalds and Coca-Cola and basically all of the modern conveniences we have come to take for granted in the United States. In this way, it seems very similar to any city in the United States. What intimidated me was being 10,000 miles from anything I knew. Everything from street names to the different suburbs to the bus system was a complete unknown.

The advantage of this is that even the ride to school became an adventure that could bounce you half way around the city before you finally reached your destination. Learning the bus and train systems was one of the most rewarding experiences of living in the city. There is little more gratifying in a city you have lived in for two months than to be asked for directions and to be able to give them.

Dinner conversation with my host family has been my opportunity to figure out the nuances of Aussie lingo such as “crossing the frog and toad” or “good on ya!” They have also helped me to transition into real Aussie culture through watching Australian television or discussing the local issues. They even recommended some night clubs, beaches, and local restaurants to visit so that I now feel almost like a native.

We have grown close through the months of living together and I have learned as much from them as I have from any class. I know that I will continue to keep in contact with them even after I return home. I have really enjoyed the classes as well because they are tailored to apply to our experiences here. Australian History, for example, taught me about the great psychological impact of World War I and helped me understand why there is a memorial in every town and suburb.

I can talk politics with the locals because of my Australia’s Economic & Political Systems class and I have even started to be able to identify local plants and birds because of our Flora & Fauna class. Coming to a country that I thought was so similar to the United States, I was worried that I would miss out on some of the cultural exchange that is such an important part of living abroad. In actuality, I became even more immersed in the culture because the basics are familiar, but the nuances are unique and so I find myself with a new vocabulary and a new perspective on familiar issues.

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