observations, part 1

(photo from IMDB)

i've been here for over a month now, just long enough to make a few observations about australian culture.

on the aussie:

1) aussies will go out of their way to help you... even when they have no idea how to help. sounds lovely, i know, but this is often only helpful insofar as it teaches patience!! one of our colleagues at uq says this is the very unique aussie blend of congeniality and inefficiency.

2) aussies are very forthcoming with their opinions. case in point: the grad student who swims every afternoon to maintain his ex-army/bouncer physique and who told kp he was the "splashiest motherf*cker in the pool."

3) australians are modest and down to earth. they loathe pretentious behavior and distrust those who draw attention to themselves (this is the tall poppy syndrome, which describes a social phenomenon whereby those whose status and achievements elevate them above everyone else provoke criticism and sometimes attack). they're generally the most unceremonious, self-deprecating people i've ever encountered. this may be partly explained by the country's geographic isolation... or the fact that it was for so long a penal colony for british thugs... or by the peter weir film, gallipoli, which recounts the WWI gallipoli campaign in turkey, and in particular, one attack in which wave after wave of soldiers from australia and new zealand were sent to certain death to create a diversion for the brits (although this, it turns out, is not quite historically accurate). the attack marked a turning point in the australian national consciousness, the sealing of a collective identity, and is considered to be an australian foundational myth. in fact, ANZAC day (australian and new zealand army corps), the aussie equivalent of memorial day, takes place every april 25, the day of the attack. australia day - roughly equivalent to the 4th of july in terms of celebration - is january 26, the day commemorating the claiming of sydney cove by the british in 1788.