Australia is not an easy place to reach. Approximately 9,950 miles separate Australia from Bloomington, my home these past three years.
I spent more than 22 hours traveling from Southern Indiana to this mysterious land down under.
If you’ve never flown on an international overnight flight, then you may not understand the line between sanity and insanity.
On my flight from Los Angeles to Adelaide, Australia, I watched eight movies and read two books. I saw the sun rise in gold and orange hues across the southern hemisphere as it chased us across the sky.
I was also cramped, unable to sleep and down right restless.
My saving grace on this flight happened to be a man by the name of Ian Hutchinson, a native Australian and a teacher who was returning home.
He, and the Atlantic magazine I picked up at Los Angeles International, helped keep me sane. We talked about his perspective of the United States, and I learned that most Aussies are certainly fascinated by things going on in the U.S. right now.
He also helped explain at least some of the intricate slang which litters the Australian vocabulary.
Words like “arvo,” “brekky” and “Macca’s” probably don’t mean much to most folks from the U.S., but they’re quite common in Australia and utterly confusing at first. In case you're curious, "avro" means "afternoon," "brekky" is slang for "breakfast" and "Macca's" is their reference for McDonald's.
Also please do not ever use the word “root” when cheering for a team. Trust me.
Anyway, I could’ve kissed the ground when we set down in Adelaide finally. I almost did, but I felt the people behind me would’ve been disturbed by my emotional response.
Adelaide is the capital of South Australia, which is one of six Australian states or territories. Adelaide is commonly referred to as the city of churches.
Cathedrals and churches, from modern architecture and Lutheran to Gothic Revival and Catholic, dot the landscape. Their steeples and crosses shimmered in the early morning as I walked around the city.
There are museums and shops all across the city, as befits this metropolis of Southern Australia and its almost 1.2 million people.
And if you’re lucky, while shopping or sightseeing you’ll be blessed to hear some of the amazing street artists, who set-up in the outdoor mall.
The night life in Adelaide is also something that should be experienced if you’re coming to Australia. Pubs and clubs shatter the night with their neon lights and loud music, and you can experience it all starting at just 18 years old.
Some however, might want to stick to the zoo, museums and shops.
One of the other interesting things about Australia, to me as a journalism and history major at least, is the profusion of war memorials and statues. From north Adelaide and my residential college, down into the heart of Adelaide, they’re everywhere.
The stone faces of soldiers, rearing horses and statues of men pointing into the distance, are omnipresent to pedestrians. Maybe it’s my small-town mentality, but I find myself constantly looking up in amazement at these grandiose memorials.
While I’ve waxed glowingly over much of the city and some of the differences between the U.S. and Australia, there are a lot of similarities.
Similarities exist in politics, problems and personality. Right now, Australians are having a postal vote on whether or not they’re going to allow same-sex marriage.
This is an issue that hit its height in the U.S. a few years ago but still sparks debate and controversy between progressives on the left and social conservatives on the right. It’s doing the same thing in Australia.
So while much is different or new, there is much that is the same. We’re living in a global world now after all. And before you ask, no, the Aussies do not ride kangaroos around town.
@Domino_Jean
https://youtu.be/EyQ_SKtPeu8
