God Bless America

It was a fun, interesting and overall enjoyable weekend here in Sydney. However, I did receive my first real anti-American comments. I was at a barbie on Saturday and got to chatting with an Australian guy and when I told him I was from America, he seemed to offer me his sympathy. I was a quite confused. He started going on about how everything is out of control in the US and George W. Bush is a terrible guy, just like the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard. Inevitably, he got to the topic of the Virginia Tech shooting and how that’s just so crazy and wouldn’t happen in any country but America. Even more interesting was that earlier in the day I had been chatting about the same thing with one of my friends from South Korea, Sam, who said he has some friends on exchange in the US who are sort of scared after what happened, since the shooter was Korean. He even had sort of the same view as the Australian guy, that America needs stronger gun laws, because it’s impossible in Korea, for instance, to have any kind of gun at all and that’s why, according to Sam, nothing like that ever happens in South Korea. It was really interesting how the same thing came up in two different conversations, but I guess it’s such a big deal and something that’s on the minds of a lot of people when they think about America.

Anyway, back to the Australian guy at the barbie, I wasn’t too eager to get into a political debate or any kind of confrontation for that matter, so I basically just smoothed things over, while letting him speak his mind. There was even a point after his bashing of the Australian government where I said, “well hey, Australia is still one of our good allies,” to which he responds, “unfortunately.” For the record, it was quite clear to me that this guy had been drinking for quite awhile. However, I also believe that when people are under the influence of alcohol, they tend to tell the truth and give their honest opinion about whatever it is they’re speaking of.

My response to both of these guys was pretty much the same. For a country like the US to offer their people so much freedom and to have so many different types of people from so many different cultures living there, some bad things are going to happen. That obviously does not make it ok for these tragedies to occur, but you can’t say the whole country is a bad place because of a few horrific events that do happen.

Strangely, it sort of reminds me of how my favorite NFL team, the Cincinnati Bengals, is portrayed around the league. Because of the wrong actions of a few of the younger, less mature members of the team, everyone has to deal with the consequences. The bad stuff gets magnified and overshadows the good things that people do. Unfortunately, it works the same way throughout the world. One major thing that I've learned from being away from the US for so long is how much I love it there and it's made my loyalty to my country so much stronger. Despite the bad things that do happen, I am truly proud to be an American! I know that's such a cliche but I mean it!

Well, anyway, like I said, I did have some fun this weekend, highlighted by the grand opening of Pancakes at Darling Harbour on Sunday night. One of my housemates, Alessandra, works there and invited Jochen, my roommate, and me to come and get some free food! Now, this is definitely a one-time thing in Sydney. We felt quite special because only guests of employees received this benefit. We had to stop at an information desk and ask exactly where the restaurant was located and the lady said that she didn’t think it was open yet, but directed us there anyway. We knew that it was open to us! Then when we got to the door the hostess was a bit skeptical and asked if we knew anyone working there and when we mentioned Alessandra’s name we were in! So, needless to say, I stuffed myself quite full with the Aussie Sunrise breakfast and a Greek salad, with a coffee and even a little bit of Jochen’s steak and mushroom crepes. Great stuff! And the best part is that this Pancakes is in a much better location than the one I used to frequent, located at The Rocks.

Also this weekend I went to the Sydney Aquarium. If you really know me, then you know how much I like tropical fish. Even though I had be there for my Marine Environment class and complete a three page handout, I still really enjoyed it. I got to see some pretty massive sharks and some very interesting looking fish. I also petted a small shark and touched some sea anemones, starfish and sea cucumbers. We also stumbled in on a fight/play between some seals. They got into it pretty ferociously, so I’m not quite sure if they were playing or not. They had the tanks where you could walk underneath the water and the seals would be swimming overhead. The shark tank was the same, where they would just swim right over your head and you could marvel at how massive they are. The best part of it all was the Great Barrier Reef section. There were so many colorful fish, as well as some reef sharks. However, it still took a backseat to what I experienced actually being at the Great Barrier Reef itself. So, it was all real cool, but still nothing like actually being with the fish in their natural habitat.

Finally, I finished my first big assignment for Australian Wildlife Biology on Sunday. I wrote about the Orange-bellied Parrot, which is a critically endangered bird endemic to (only found in) Australia. But it’s nice to have that done with, before I start on the next paper for Australian Economic Development, which is due on Friday!

Also, the NFL Draft was this weekend and I couldn’t help but pay pretty close attention to what was happening. I’m still sort of curious about some of the Bengals picks, but I’m not going to go crazy like a lot of our fans and call the Bengals stupid for selecting a running back and not defense with the second round pick. I know that there is so much about the draft and the team and the players they select that the fans do not see. I trust Marvin and soon he’ll take us to the top!