I thought this would be a good time to write a passage since I thought we were just about to have a vicious thunderstorm. I heard three loud cracks of thunder outside and I thought, “Oh. This is brooding weather. Why not write today’s journal entry?” Alas, I’ve opened my computer and we’re back to being sunny. How this place is always so sunny is beyond me.
So, today’s events have been very similar to yesterday’s. I woke up early, watched a little bit of the Australian news and found out that Leonardo DiCaprio is in Australia filming a new version of The Great Gatsby. Baz Luhrmann is the director behind this project too. I’m pretty sure I like Baz as a director but something in me hesitates. Anyway, when I watched this news story, the 9-year-old girl inside me thought, “Go find him (Leo)! How cool would it be to brush shoulders with your 12 year crush in Australia!” Now that I’m older and wiser (emphasis on “wiser” I hope), I think I’ll just be satisfied seeing the movie. I’m so excited for him to play the role of Jay Gatsby though. When I read the book, I envisioned Leonardo as him, so it seems rather fitting. For me, at least. But enough about Hollywood. Actually! One more thing about Hollywood:
I’ve noticed that everything American reminds me of home. If I see an American show on TV or hear anything North American related, I get this feeling of home. It sounds weird because I saw a poster of Natalie Portman on the side of a bus and I thought, “Awe. That’s like advertising at home…” If you haven’t caught the irony of this yet, I’ll tell you: American things are reminding me of my Canadian home. There, I said it.
Being away has really opened my eyes to how assimilated we are with the Americans. This is not a recent discovery nor is it really provoking. I’ve been asked if I am an American. I know I look like one and maybe even talk like one. I consume the same culture for the most part… And I’ll be damned if I could ever go without movies (which, again, for the most part, are big American productions).
You could say that Australia is very much like American and/or Canadian culture. They have their own reality shows, celebrities, metropolitan centers as well as farming communities. They consume North American and Australian music, movies and books. … and they definitely know how to party like any North American kid too.
What I find a little culturally shocking is in the details. For instance, I was told that Newcastle has it “really bad for the mozzies.” What are “mozzies” you might ask? Mosquitoes. Basically you can put “zies” after any word and you’ve made it Australian.
There are other words I can tell you about but I’ll just sum it up neatly by saying there are obvious dialectical differences—not insanely different from us but enough to say, “Pardon me. Could you repeat that?”
I also noticed they do not account for “calories” on any of their products. They’ll give you the energy via kJ but forget about calorie counting. When I went grocery shopping today I also noticed a few other things. Most big name products like Kraft, Yoplait and Coca Cola have their spot in the grocery store; however, they have completely different logos or sub names. For instance, my peanut butter doesn’t have the two teddy bears on the logo. It’s definitely a product of Kraft… but it isn’t “Kraft” if you know what I mean.
Similarly, our Walmart is their “The Big W.” It looks the same, carries many of the same things but is slightly different. I didn’t recognize any of the laundry detergents but I walked to the next isle and found a complete section of “glade” and “febreez” candles. Why this fascinates me, I don’t know.
Finally, their plug-ins are all buggered up. You can’t use anything from home that requires being plugged in. You either have to get an adaptor or an expensive step-down transformer to use your Canadian products. I had to buy an adaptor for my computer and, luckily, it’s capacity for voltage accommodates the insanely high Australian voltage of 220V. My hair dryer, on the other hand, will probably sit in my closet until I can come home.
I wish I could tell you more about the beautiful scenery here. While I was walking to the campus library, four parrots zoomed over my head while making the most horrendous sound ever. I thought an alarm was going off. However, when I looked up their beauty stunned me. These particular parrots are white with bright yellow and green on the underside of their wings. They also have a green Mohawk. I’ll look them up when I have Internet.
Alright, I’ve bored you with American similarities, Mozzies and The Big W. I’ll just finish by saying that I have yet get my bearings but I feel like everyday is a bit of a learning curve.
More from me later (that is, if you’re not sick of me yet and, in which case, you should just ignore my posts anyway…)
Love,
Kenzie
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