Being Back in LA

I can’t say they didn’t warn me. At the Sydney Uni international student orientation, they graphed the emotional sine function we’d experience during our time abroad (sad to leave home, excited to be somewhere new, frustrated with cultural differences, content with your new home, sad to leave all the friends you made, etc).

I’m happy to see my family and everyone here, even though my sister and most of my friends aren’t in LA this summer. A lot of the time though, I miss being abroad. I had great friends and loved Sydney. More than anything, I miss the thrill of seeing and doing something new everyday. Home, I have to say, feels especially dull after that.

There’s a lot to love about LA. The weather is great, it’s got a beach, lots of life. My favorite thing is the variety — and I say this about Sydney too — it can be whatever you want it to be: posh, urban, bohemian, rugged, lively, serene, a party, a home...With all the cultures, different neighborhoods, and varied landscape, you can feel somewhere different every day, or multiple times in one day. Any kind of people, food, scenery or experience you’re looking for, you can have it. I respect LA a lot for that.


But a few things bother me. I hate that a car is a prerequisite for most things here (especially since I don’t have my own). I can’t stand the traffic I submit myself to when I do drive. I like a city where I can walk and feel free.

I wish we didn’t have that heavy layer of smog. The city can be picturesque — when you can see it. And I’m tired of the attitude from people living the in vacuum Los Angeles can be.

Maybe it’s easier to say these things because it’s where I grew up. The better you know someone, the more flaws you notice. On the other hand, I probably wore rose-colored glasses the whole time in Sydney. Still, for me everywhere else seems so new and exciting. Home can feel so suffocating, can’t it?

I love LA when I’m doing something different, when I discover something I didn’t know about it. After so much exploring in Sydney, you think I’d want to approach Los Angeles the same way. I do, but it has been hard to find the same motivation. I don’t have my study abroad cohorts, ready to do whatever random thing I find to do, not to mention walk however many miles it requires. Also, like I said, I don’t have my own car here, and public transportation isn’t convenient. From my house it’s a 25-minute walk to the nearest bus stop, which only two bus routes pass.

So it’s tough sometimes for things to be so familiar, plus not being surrounded by my 30 housemates all the time. It’s quiet and I'm rather listless. Is it weird I think I'll feel better when I go back to school in Missouri?

(The top photo is from a while ago. You can see Catalina Island under the haze. But since I’ve been home I’ve barely been able to see the city, let alone the ocean, because of all the brushfires.)

School Shmool

I finally got my results for the courses I took at Sydney Uni (Sociology, Linguistics, Sociology of Sport, and Indigenous Australia). The classes only count pass/fail at Missouri, so it doesn’t matter much, but I’m happy with my three Distinctions and a Credit (My Sociology of Sport lecturer was an extra tough grader).

Overall I found Sydney Uni a lot more demanding in ways. I don’t think the lecturers were any better than at home or that I learned much more from them. They just graded harder. Whereas at Mizzou I expect every test and essay to come back to me with an A on it (I’m the person frustrated with a B+), at Sydney I felt their main goal was to remind us all how average we are. Toward the end, I started to learn the system better. To do well you needed to be very explicit in your analysis. Analyze, analyze, analyze, then analyze your analysis.

For comparison’s sake, my percentages and how they’d translate in the States:
82% Distinction (A-)
79% Distinction (B+)
75% Distinction (B+)
72% Credit (B)

Oh, and the photo is a shot from the hip as I walked behind some school kids on George Street one afternoon.

Burritos and Remembering Home

There probably few families in America that have put more money toward Chipotle Mexican Grill than mine has. We usually have home cooked meals, but when we go out in Los Angeles, 90 percent of the time it is to Chipotle. It’s easy, it’s cheap, it’s delicious, and if you order right, it can be decently healthy. I don’t claim that it’s authentic Mexican food, but I love it.


Well, Sydney doesn’t have Chipotle. But I just found the next best thing: Mad Mex in Darlinghurst.

Same concept as Chipotle: fresh ingredients along an assembly line piled into burritos, tacos, quesadillas or bowls. The quality at Chipotle is a few notches higher and the prices a bit lower (considering tax and conversion rate, it isn’t grossly different). Still, Mad Mex hits the spot.

I head to Darlinghurst with a feeling I’d be disappointed. It’ll cost too much, won’t taste the same, won’t be enough food... But as we joined the line spilling out the door, I could smell those familiar scents. The night air even felt like California. Excuse me as I get nostalgic, but I really felt like I was back home.

The burrito was really good. Through dinner I discussed all the subtle differences: lack of bay leaves in the black beans, uneven onion-to-green-pepper ratio, not enough salt and cilantro in the rice...but nonetheless, it satisfied a certain yearning.

As part of their specials leading up to Cinqo de Mayo, Mad Mex has $5 margaritas. Knowing how much my dad loves the margaritas at Chipotle, I figured he’d be disappointed if I didn’t try one here. It was pretty good, but probably not better than back home.


I still have that Chipotlesque taste in my mouth and full in my belly, and it makes me happy.

Aussisms

I used the word “heaps” the other day and thought I’d mention a few more words and phrases I hear often.

Good on ya - I like this. It’s a positive, congratulatory ‘way to go’ sorta phrase. Expect me to come back using it.

Can’t be bothered - People say this one a lot when they’re talking about being lazy. “I have the book in my room, but I can’t be bothered going upstairs.” It’s not something you would never hear in the States, but definitely a phrase that comes up often here.

No worries - The Aussie cliché, I suppose. People say it in the States these days too, but it’s still common here. For me this seems more like the Australian way of life than just a phrase.

Mate - Speaking of clichés...But yes, everyone is mates in Oz. We took a cab with an Australian guy once and between him and the driver, they must have said “mate” at least nine times. It makes everyone sound extra friendly.

Nice - I find some people say “nice” where Americans would more often say “good.” We use it most often when we’re analyzing the day’s meal. “This curry is nice,” “The cake is nice today,” etc.

Sweet as - (Not to be confused with “sweet ass.”) This is actually more from New Zealand, but some people have picked it up here. It’s basically “awesome,” “cool,” or “sweet.” I don’t know why they say “as” because they never follow it with a comparison to anything. This bugs a friend of mine who always wants to know “Sweet as what?” If you ever hear me say this, I am clearly trying too hard. I hope it never happens.

Doona - I learned this week that this is a duvet or quilt. It’s a trademark that people use generally now, like Kleenex, Band-Aid, Frisbee, etc.

Bogan - A bogan is a lower class Australian usually from a rural or poorer area. It was first explained to me as someone from the country, a “hick,” but I learned at our house’s Bogans and Billionaires Party that it’s a little different from American white trash. Short rugby shorts, high socks, flip-flops thongs, flannel, Ugg boots, black jeans, wifebeater shirts, cigarettes and cheap beer seem to be key to the bogan lifestyle. People use “bogan” in a general sense too when they don’t dress up, like when my neighbor goes down to dinner in a mismatched t-shirt and shorts with Uggs because she can’t be bothered to change.

A lot of words are just shortened versions of English words. I find a lot of them endearing.

Sunnies - sunglasses
Swimmers, Bathers - swimsuit
Lollies - candies
Arvo- This one means afternoon. I’m not sure where they get the V, but oh well.
Derro - Maybe not so endearing, this is a homeless person, i.e. derelict. Often also an “alco.”
Bikies - This is hilarious because it's what they call bikers, like rough and tough guys on Harleys. But how cute does it make them sound?

One example of making a word longer rather than shorter, is sprinkles. I'd expect them to be called "sprinkies" or "sprinko," but they actually call them "hundreds and thousands." Charming, if not too poly-syllabic.

And no, they don’t say “crikey,” so don’t even ask.

Putting the 'Study' in Study Abroad

My parents can be assured that the lack of blog entries recently means school has picked up and I’ve been trying to be productive. I’ve had heaps of reading and papers to do since Easter Break ended. (“Heaps” is definitely an Aussie phrase. I hung out with a group of college kids who said it all the time, as in “That’s heaps cool” and “I was heaps drunk.”)

Something the other American students and I have noticed is how much less Australians talk about their schoolwork. In the States, it’s always a competition over who has more to do. We stress ourselves out by constantly talking about school and how busy we are.

I don’t think Australians work less than we do, in fact, the courses may require more effort to really do well. But I think it’s more personal for Australians and not as competitive. This probably has to do with the grading system, which is very different from home. It falls more along a bell curve than the inflated grades in the U.S. Here, you can pass with a 50 percent and 65 percent is a “credit.” Most people are pleased with a credit. A “distinction” is usually in the 75-85 percent range and isn’t given to everyone. A “high distinction” is very rare.

A paper I know would have easily gotten an A at Mizzou got a 13 out of 20 here, and everyone said my “credit” was great for a first paper. It definitely changes how you think about grades. It’s nice getting As all the time at home, but at least here I know my “distinction” really means something.

Anyway, time to get back to my next paper.

Nothing Says ‘Easter’ like the Easter Bilby

The theme around here seems to be, if it’s not a marsupial, Australia wants nothing to do with it. Therefore, instead of the Easter Bunny, you get the Easter Bilby, which looks to me like a rat wearing bunny ears.

In 1991, the Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia started a movement to change the Easter symbol from bunny to bilby because apparently rabbits are feral pests that have wreaked a lot of havoc on the environment here. Not everyone fully embraces the bilby though. A guy about my age told me the Easter Bilby hasn’t completely caught on, and he seemed to think of it as a lame imposter.

I’m not going to knock anyone’s culture, but I’m going to have to give this round to the Easter Bunny. On the other hand, most of the chocolate eggs here seem better than back home. Still, I miss me some sour Starburst jellybeans.

Happy Easter... however you celebrate it... and even if you don't.

Look Right

As my friend Colleen pointed out, cars driving on the opposite side of the road can be confusing, but luckily for us, Dublin and Sydney point our eyes in the right direction.

Now, if I can just get a sign to remind me to run straight ahead after I hit the ball in cricket instead of 45 degrees to the right like in baseball, I just might pass for Australian.

For the Birds

During our orientation on the Mornington Peninsula (the Aussies pronounce it, “peninshula”), we took a small boat ride across the water. We got a glimpse of a few dolphins and saw a colony of seals, but another highlight was the seagulls, which I’m obsessed with because of Finding Nemo.



We thought we’d be going for dinner at a restaurant at the other end of the bay, Instead, our guides wrapped our meals in paper and served us soggy fish and chips right on the boat. Appetizing, right? It wasn’t so bad once the salt and ketchup made it to where I was sitting on the second level. (Aussie Fun Fact #2: they call ketchup, “tomato sauce,” prompting the inevitable question, “Then, what do they call tomato sauce?” So far, I’ve just heard tomato sauce, but my guess would be pasta sauce. I’ll have to go to a grocery store or Italian restaurant to investigate.)



Anyway, my friend Bianca was less than thrilled with her supper so, to the delight of the flock around us, she chucked most of her fries overboard.



This one bird was particularly adept at catching the chips midair.