The other day I went to the supermarket to buy ingredients to make sushi. It was a couple of minutes before closing, and instead of searching the aisles for the rice, I thought it would be faster to ask. I walked up to an attendent and said, "excuse me, where can I find the rice."
she responded with a blank look. "what?" she said.
"um, do you know where the rice is?" I replied.
Again, she stared at me blankly, this time with a bit of panic. "what?" she said.
I was beginning to feel a bit desperate. Rice is a fairly simple word, and I couldn't think of any other way to say it. I tried agian, slowly, and as clearly as possible: "RICE."
Again, she looked at me blankly. "I don't know what you're saying."
Feeling very foolish, I tried to describe it. "Um, it's white, and you eat it in a bowl, with chopsticks" I mimed eating a bowl of rice, hoping no one else in the store was watching. I hadn't expected to have to do this in an English speaking country.
"Oh, RICE" she said, pronouncing it more like "Ray-uce" "I don't know where that is."
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007
here we come a hosteling....
So, a few things have happened since I wrote my last post. First of all, I have got a second part time job working as a receptionist in a youth hostel. I've been working for about two weeks, and it's a pretty fun job, though it manages to be both laid back and hectic at the same time. Most things are pretty straightforward, and it's gotten easier as I've learned the ropes. And of course, the number of weird requests I've gotten has decreased with each shift. My first shift was the hardest, with people coming in and asking for all sorts of things not covered in my training, like if they could take showers here (they did pay for them). Now people mainly just ask the same questions (where's the nearest....) or if they can have change for the washing machine. The hostel is in the middle of Adelaide (Adelaide "city" is a square mile of mainly commercial buildings, what we would call a down town. Everything else, what we'd call neighborhoods, are called suburbs. So even though I live a 10 minute walk from central Adelaide, I say I live in the suburbs. Confusingly, they also call the suburbs "suburbs" though they have fewer of those because there's less urban sprawl. Not that Aussies don't like the same sort of picket fence/McMansion houses we do, there's just fewer of them to sprawl out.) But anyways, that's a bit of a digression. My hostel is in the Northwestern half, kind of on youth hostel row. It's the area of town that was fairly seedy and is now getting funky/trendy with young people. It's still a mixture of mattress and auto shops, cheap cafes, strip clubs and hipster bars (there's some sort of strip place I walk past that lists its hours from 10-6pm. can't figure out the exact clientele they're catering to.) According to google earth, it's almost exactly 2 miles from my house, and I tend to walk there because the bus schedule doesn't really work for me, I can either get there half an hour early or 5 minutes late, neither of which is desirable. But it's a nice walk and it's a way to get some exercise so I don't mind.
The hostel is run by a Swiss woman probably 5 years older than me who has married an Australian. She's nice, although I'm a little bit intimidated by her, mainly because after my first shift, she listed off about 20 things I'd done wrong, and then at the end she said, "well, not too bad for the first day." Though seriously, when not telling me what I'd done wrong she is very friendly, as are the people staying at the hostel. Many of them are Swiss (does she advertise? is there some sort of secret Swiss guidebook?) There are also lots of people from the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany, as well as a few Italians, French, and Canadians (though no French Canadians). There have been relatively few Americans, though I did manage to offend several of the Canadians by asking them if they were American. There was one guy from Oregon though, who was from Eugene.
I don't have much occasion to use my Chinese, though I did get to take a booking in French. It was rather pitiful. However, I managed to get her credit card number if not exactly her name ( unless it's Bulamerv...). But anyways, have to go and deal with some laundry. I'll try to update more often in the future.
The hostel is run by a Swiss woman probably 5 years older than me who has married an Australian. She's nice, although I'm a little bit intimidated by her, mainly because after my first shift, she listed off about 20 things I'd done wrong, and then at the end she said, "well, not too bad for the first day." Though seriously, when not telling me what I'd done wrong she is very friendly, as are the people staying at the hostel. Many of them are Swiss (does she advertise? is there some sort of secret Swiss guidebook?) There are also lots of people from the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany, as well as a few Italians, French, and Canadians (though no French Canadians). There have been relatively few Americans, though I did manage to offend several of the Canadians by asking them if they were American. There was one guy from Oregon though, who was from Eugene.
I don't have much occasion to use my Chinese, though I did get to take a booking in French. It was rather pitiful. However, I managed to get her credit card number if not exactly her name ( unless it's Bulamerv...). But anyways, have to go and deal with some laundry. I'll try to update more often in the future.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Hot Cross Buns
So Easter was over a month ago, and I started this post well over several weeks ago, but since I didn't publish it then I might as well do it now. Easter in Australia (or at least Adelaide) is a bit different from Easter in America.
In America, Easter is all about chocolate bunnies. Here, it is all about horse racing. In fact, there are two races in the Adelaide area on the Saturday before Easter. One is called Oakbank, and it's in the city proper. I'm told people are dressed to the nines-hats are obligatory for the women. The other race is the Clare race, held in the Clare valley, a wine producing region about an hour and a half north of Adelaide, also the location of Dave's family's vineyard. This race is referred to as "the country race" by Adelaidians. Dave's friends arranged for a big day out at the Clare races, followed by a night at the vineyard. Having never been to a horse race, I had no idea what to expect. Horse racing like, fox hunting and primogeniture, strikes me as being a remnant of feudalism, when landed gentry had to search for ways to entertain themselves on their vast estates. The only reference point I had is from the horse racing scene in "My Fair Lady," which reinforced my view. As such, I was interested but a little worried about the experience. After all, I didn't really have hat and gloves, much less ones that would match my dress (bought in China for about 10 dollars, très declassé). Nor was I willing to spend all day on my feet in high heels. However, Dave's Adelaidian friends reassured me that this was just a country race. No need to get so fancy. It wasn't Oakbank, and it certainly wasn't a Sydney or Melbourne horse race. I mean, who knows what the farmers would be wearing. As such, I went for jeans, sandals, and a blouse. It was the right choice. Most people (unwashed peasant masses included) were dressed in a similar fashion to me. There were a few women in cocktail dresses and heels, and and more perplexingly, a group of women who looked as though they'd gotten lost on their way to a pole dancing competition.
In America, Easter is all about chocolate bunnies. Here, it is all about horse racing. In fact, there are two races in the Adelaide area on the Saturday before Easter. One is called Oakbank, and it's in the city proper. I'm told people are dressed to the nines-hats are obligatory for the women. The other race is the Clare race, held in the Clare valley, a wine producing region about an hour and a half north of Adelaide, also the location of Dave's family's vineyard. This race is referred to as "the country race" by Adelaidians. Dave's friends arranged for a big day out at the Clare races, followed by a night at the vineyard. Having never been to a horse race, I had no idea what to expect. Horse racing like, fox hunting and primogeniture, strikes me as being a remnant of feudalism, when landed gentry had to search for ways to entertain themselves on their vast estates. The only reference point I had is from the horse racing scene in "My Fair Lady," which reinforced my view. As such, I was interested but a little worried about the experience. After all, I didn't really have hat and gloves, much less ones that would match my dress (bought in China for about 10 dollars, très declassé). Nor was I willing to spend all day on my feet in high heels. However, Dave's Adelaidian friends reassured me that this was just a country race. No need to get so fancy. It wasn't Oakbank, and it certainly wasn't a Sydney or Melbourne horse race. I mean, who knows what the farmers would be wearing. As such, I went for jeans, sandals, and a blouse. It was the right choice. Most people (unwashed peasant masses included) were dressed in a similar fashion to me. There were a few women in cocktail dresses and heels, and and more perplexingly, a group of women who looked as though they'd gotten lost on their way to a pole dancing competition.
The race itself was held at a race course (duh) with the surrounding area cordonned (sp?) off for spectators. There were tents set up selling food and alcoholic beverages. The more prepared people had shown up with chairs, blankets, umbrellas and coolers full of food. We showed up with many cases of beer. We sat in the car park (trans: parking lot) right on the other side of the fence from the track by our car. I soon learned that horse racing was not at all about watching horses race and all about getting drunk before noon on cheap beer. A few people placed bets, but not even then did they really watch the race. Not surprising, because the races were half an hour apart and lasted for about a minute. Moreover, the course was big enough that after the horses passed by you in a under a second and were soon small dots off in the distance. Conveniently, the finish line was diametrically opposite from the spectators, so determining the winner was pretty much impossible unless you had binoculars and didn't get motion sickness. For our benefit, large TV screens played close-up images of other horse races taking place in other parts of Australia, so even if you couldn't catch the winner on the field in front of you, you could know which horse won in Sydney. I did manage to watch two races, and took some pretty pathetic pictures (which soon I will post). However, I can now say that I have been to the horse races.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Great Ocean Road
Here are some photos from our trip from Melbourne to Adelaide along the Great Ocean Road, from early March:
Life guarding competition
Melba Gulch
Along the Road
Me besides one of Southern Australia's greatest waterfalls
Life guarding competition
Melba Gulch
Along the Road
Me besides one of Southern Australia's greatest waterfalls
Saturday, April 21, 2007
etc.
And speaking of living in a small and insignificant country (in terms of global affairs--surfing is another matter), we are now Chinese commercials with English subtitles. Not commercials made for Australia that are in Chinese, but commercials made for Chinese people, which companies decided not to bother redoing, but subtitled and plopped on Australian TV. The first several I saw were for Western Union video chat something-or-others. You might argue, video chat, travel, international, blah blah, maybe the whole "this is just a Chinese commercial with subtitles" makes sense. But the next one was for a men's razor. And I thought marketing involved lots of people tailoring ads towards a specific market. Apparently not. And apparently Australia is now an afterthought for companies cashing in on Chinese consumers.
from the arse end of the world
To quote Paul Keating, former Australian prime minister.
Moving from a large country whose goings on are the center of the world to a remote nation (to paraphrase an English newspaper) that could basically sink into the sea without attracting notice really makes me aware of a sort of privilege that Americans have. Unlike America-bashers who claim it's a unique fault of Americans, I think that it's more an off-shoot of coming from a large, populous country with a great deal of international political clout. This is increasingly true of countries like China and India, just as it used to be the case with the Soviet Union. Most people follow the politics of these countries because they have to, and people large countries don't do the reverse because they don't have to. My guess is if the Italians or Norwegians or Sri Lankans weren't affected by US foreign or economic or environmental policies they wouldn't give a damn about who the president of the US was (to paraphrase Gone with the Wind). And the smaller the country, the more they must follow the affairs of larger nations. Australia, while large in landmass and number of sheep, has only 20 million people, fewer than California. Moreover, their prime minister, a keen member of the axis of the willing, has vowed to support America in all our causes, whether it's not ratifying the Kyoto protocols (despite meeting all standards) or by supporting a surge in Iraq. (Australia just sent in 50 more soldiers, bringing its grand total up to 450. This is despite Cheney coming the day after his pledge and telling the Aussies that their contribution is irrelevant and they might as well go home.) So given Howard's 'monkey see monkey do' approach to US policy, Australians have a decided interest in how the Fearless Leadership of the Free World behaves.
Of course, it's not just US news that Australians follow. As the 'white trash' of Asia (to paraphrase the president of Singapore), Australians keenly follow Chinese, Indonesian, and to a lesser extent, Japanese politics.
But anyways. This large country privilege means that as an American, I can follow American affairs through Australian media almost as well as I can through American media. Almost every day we get (hopeful) updates on the Democratic primaries, from the 10s of millions raised by Hillary to Obama's support among former Clintonites. We also get documentaries on the Newark mayoral race, and read about Schwarzenegger's renewable energy policies in CA. Australians up on current affairs have an opinion on Hillary vs John Edwards, or Romney vs. McCain, or whether or not Gonzales should resign, etc. You'd be hard pressed though, to find Americans who have a strong opinion on whether or not Peter Costello should have replaced John Howard, or whether Kevin Rudd was right to propose new work choices laws. But again, who's the PM of Australia is for all intents and purposes completely irrelevant to our everyday lives. It's funny to think that what our country decides to do affects the fate of 10s or even 100s of millions of people worldwide, but that those same people, living in countries of 10s of millions, don't really have the same effect on us. (Last night I heard on the news that Norway was hosting a conference to ban cluster-bombing, which can create minefields if the bombs don't explode, as during the Israeli bombing of Lebanon. Many countries signed the treaty, including the Netherlands, South Korea, New Zealand, Germany, England, Sweden, etc. Of course, the countries manufacturing these bombs (like the US) and using them (like Israel) were no where to be found, giving the conference an air of idealistic pointlessness. Australia of course, in solidarity with their ally, stayed away.)
On local news, the top story for the past several days has been the horrific shootings at Virginia tech. The event was a tragedy that ought to have received international coverage, but the pages and pages and hours and hours of coverage, in which Australian academics, politicians, and police have all weighed in, probably rivals America for sheer volume and scope of coverage. Admittedly I was very young when it happened, but I doubt the even more deadly Port Arthur school shooting in Tasmania received as much coverage in the US news.
Likewise, Australia is facing one of the worst environmental catastrophes in its history, and it gets nary a mention in the NY times or BBC. The country is going into its third year of drought, and until recently farmers have been going through water like hot dogs at an eating competition. Moreover, water policy is decided at a state level, not national, and the states' policies generally involve using as much water as possible with no regard for the states downstream (much to the chagrin of South Australia, at the mouth of the Murry-Darling river system). Because of this, the Murry River, the largest river in Australia, now has no run-off into the sea. John Howard, PM, has threatened that if there is no major rain in the next two months all irrigation from this major river system will be cut. As %60 of food production draws from the Murry-Darling river systems, this means disaster for the Australian produce market. Tens of thousands of farmers already stretched to the limit may go bankrupt, and produce prices may rise to $20 a kilo or more. However, since Australia doesn't really export much produce, this will have little effect on those outside this country. (Except for all you wine drinkers. Much of the wine sold in America relies of irrigated grapes, so stock up on your Yellowtail now before it rises to $10 dollars a bottle).
Moving from a large country whose goings on are the center of the world to a remote nation (to paraphrase an English newspaper) that could basically sink into the sea without attracting notice really makes me aware of a sort of privilege that Americans have. Unlike America-bashers who claim it's a unique fault of Americans, I think that it's more an off-shoot of coming from a large, populous country with a great deal of international political clout. This is increasingly true of countries like China and India, just as it used to be the case with the Soviet Union. Most people follow the politics of these countries because they have to, and people large countries don't do the reverse because they don't have to. My guess is if the Italians or Norwegians or Sri Lankans weren't affected by US foreign or economic or environmental policies they wouldn't give a damn about who the president of the US was (to paraphrase Gone with the Wind). And the smaller the country, the more they must follow the affairs of larger nations. Australia, while large in landmass and number of sheep, has only 20 million people, fewer than California. Moreover, their prime minister, a keen member of the axis of the willing, has vowed to support America in all our causes, whether it's not ratifying the Kyoto protocols (despite meeting all standards) or by supporting a surge in Iraq. (Australia just sent in 50 more soldiers, bringing its grand total up to 450. This is despite Cheney coming the day after his pledge and telling the Aussies that their contribution is irrelevant and they might as well go home.) So given Howard's 'monkey see monkey do' approach to US policy, Australians have a decided interest in how the Fearless Leadership of the Free World behaves.
Of course, it's not just US news that Australians follow. As the 'white trash' of Asia (to paraphrase the president of Singapore), Australians keenly follow Chinese, Indonesian, and to a lesser extent, Japanese politics.
But anyways. This large country privilege means that as an American, I can follow American affairs through Australian media almost as well as I can through American media. Almost every day we get (hopeful) updates on the Democratic primaries, from the 10s of millions raised by Hillary to Obama's support among former Clintonites. We also get documentaries on the Newark mayoral race, and read about Schwarzenegger's renewable energy policies in CA. Australians up on current affairs have an opinion on Hillary vs John Edwards, or Romney vs. McCain, or whether or not Gonzales should resign, etc. You'd be hard pressed though, to find Americans who have a strong opinion on whether or not Peter Costello should have replaced John Howard, or whether Kevin Rudd was right to propose new work choices laws. But again, who's the PM of Australia is for all intents and purposes completely irrelevant to our everyday lives. It's funny to think that what our country decides to do affects the fate of 10s or even 100s of millions of people worldwide, but that those same people, living in countries of 10s of millions, don't really have the same effect on us. (Last night I heard on the news that Norway was hosting a conference to ban cluster-bombing, which can create minefields if the bombs don't explode, as during the Israeli bombing of Lebanon. Many countries signed the treaty, including the Netherlands, South Korea, New Zealand, Germany, England, Sweden, etc. Of course, the countries manufacturing these bombs (like the US) and using them (like Israel) were no where to be found, giving the conference an air of idealistic pointlessness. Australia of course, in solidarity with their ally, stayed away.)
On local news, the top story for the past several days has been the horrific shootings at Virginia tech. The event was a tragedy that ought to have received international coverage, but the pages and pages and hours and hours of coverage, in which Australian academics, politicians, and police have all weighed in, probably rivals America for sheer volume and scope of coverage. Admittedly I was very young when it happened, but I doubt the even more deadly Port Arthur school shooting in Tasmania received as much coverage in the US news.
Likewise, Australia is facing one of the worst environmental catastrophes in its history, and it gets nary a mention in the NY times or BBC. The country is going into its third year of drought, and until recently farmers have been going through water like hot dogs at an eating competition. Moreover, water policy is decided at a state level, not national, and the states' policies generally involve using as much water as possible with no regard for the states downstream (much to the chagrin of South Australia, at the mouth of the Murry-Darling river system). Because of this, the Murry River, the largest river in Australia, now has no run-off into the sea. John Howard, PM, has threatened that if there is no major rain in the next two months all irrigation from this major river system will be cut. As %60 of food production draws from the Murry-Darling river systems, this means disaster for the Australian produce market. Tens of thousands of farmers already stretched to the limit may go bankrupt, and produce prices may rise to $20 a kilo or more. However, since Australia doesn't really export much produce, this will have little effect on those outside this country. (Except for all you wine drinkers. Much of the wine sold in America relies of irrigated grapes, so stock up on your Yellowtail now before it rises to $10 dollars a bottle).
Saturday, April 14, 2007
aussie mozzies
I have 31 mosquito bites on my left leg and 20 on my right, leaving me looking as though I have an outbreak of the chickenpox, or perhaps measles. We tried to take a walk in the balmy dusk, but the mosquitoes were out as though they hadn't eaten in three months and we were the only source of nutrients for 100s of kilometers. We tried to fight them off with an increasingly strong arsenal (sprays, smoke, etc) but they eventually overpowered us (although they did have a higher casualty rate). Adelaide usually doesn't have an issue with mosquitoes, especially not in April (the equivalent of October). But this year has been hotter and more humid than usual, even given the severe drought. In the month and a half I've been here, we've only had two days of proper rain, and maybe one or two early morning showers. Every day the forecast in the paper shows a picture of seven suns next to the weekly temperatures, and they're beginning to look a bit menacing to me. Now, I look up hopefully whenever it appears a cloud cover is beginning to form, even though that usually just brings a day of humidity instead of the torrential rain it ought too. And not only has it been drier than usual, but it is also quite hot. After a few days in the mid 20s (high 70s) it's gone back up to 30 and stayed there for the past 2 weeks, leaving us with eerily monotonous hot weather.
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