The Land Down Under
Hey all!
My 2nd study abroad semester has finally commenced and I find myself in Perth, Australia. The transition here so far has been amazingly smooth, more so than last semester when I was in Spain. Australia is very similar to the states in many aspects, and above all, they speak English, which really does make everything easier. In Spain, everything about me (the way I looked, talked, walked, etc) screamed American, but here it seems just the accent (or as I see it, my lack of one) which gives me away. Which brings up an interesting point; I was talking to a lady at one of the orientation functions and she asked "Is that a bit of an accent? Or do you just speak well?" American English considered speaking well? That amused me.
One thing that kind of surprised me here is the prevalence of drinking. There are at least three clubs at the uni solely devoted to partying/drinking/pub crawls, and almost all clubs list pub crawls as one of the things they do (Groups hire out "Night Cruiser" buses which take them from bar to bar blasting music...at least it avoids drunk driving). In the states, most uni clubs have a social aspect but it usually isnt so blatantly alcohol-based. I really don't know how they can afford it either, because alcohol here isn't cheap. It also cracks me up; all the freshers who are just 17 are complaining because they can't go out yet. If only they knew how easy they have it compared to the states.
Oh, and one more thing. The colleges (residence halls) had dragonboat races on the river the other day, and that water was chock-full of jellyfish! At first I was kind of freaked out because there are some deadly posionous jellyfish in the waters off Oz, but these were completely harmless. People even started picking them up and throwing them at each other. Yea for jellyfish fights!
My 2nd study abroad semester has finally commenced and I find myself in Perth, Australia. The transition here so far has been amazingly smooth, more so than last semester when I was in Spain. Australia is very similar to the states in many aspects, and above all, they speak English, which really does make everything easier. In Spain, everything about me (the way I looked, talked, walked, etc) screamed American, but here it seems just the accent (or as I see it, my lack of one) which gives me away. Which brings up an interesting point; I was talking to a lady at one of the orientation functions and she asked "Is that a bit of an accent? Or do you just speak well?" American English considered speaking well? That amused me.
One thing that kind of surprised me here is the prevalence of drinking. There are at least three clubs at the uni solely devoted to partying/drinking/pub crawls, and almost all clubs list pub crawls as one of the things they do (Groups hire out "Night Cruiser" buses which take them from bar to bar blasting music...at least it avoids drunk driving). In the states, most uni clubs have a social aspect but it usually isnt so blatantly alcohol-based. I really don't know how they can afford it either, because alcohol here isn't cheap. It also cracks me up; all the freshers who are just 17 are complaining because they can't go out yet. If only they knew how easy they have it compared to the states.
Oh, and one more thing. The colleges (residence halls) had dragonboat races on the river the other day, and that water was chock-full of jellyfish! At first I was kind of freaked out because there are some deadly posionous jellyfish in the waters off Oz, but these were completely harmless. People even started picking them up and throwing them at each other. Yea for jellyfish fights!
1 Comments:
Is it true there that "women blow and men thunder"?
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