Australian Television

There are plenty of American influences in Australia television. Although Australia has probably the most diverse selection of television in the world, American programming is seen all the time. My apartment television only has 4 channels so I do not get to see the full extent of Australian programming. Some of the American programming I have seen here include: House, the Good Wife, Bones, CSI: Mami, NCSI, Survivor, the Amazing Race, Desperate House Wives, Glee, Lost, Late Show with David Letterman, and much more. Considering that these are just the basic channels, I can not imagine what the extended basic channels are provided. Now knowing this, I can understand why the world always seems to know about America and why America does not know much about the world. This must be partially because American popular culture is part of Australian television programming. Much like, how the Vietnam war was brought into peoples living rooms via television.

Even in class lectures, America is constantly brought up or used in some statistic. Ironically, I travel around the world to learn about a different country yet I am constantly learning about America. However, it is interesting finding out the different perspective people have of my country. When it comes to world understanding, I feel many Americans are “out of the loop” compared to the Australians and Europeans I have met here. Perhaps this is because American television dominates the airwaves. I feel like if there was a CSI: Paris than I would know more about France just by watching.

Going back to television, Australia does have its own programming too. My favourite is “Talkin’ About My Generation.” It is a game show where the Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y battle in trivia and interactive games. It is quite humourous, but I am not sure if it is a 100% Australian program. It may be an English program. Other Aussie programs include Sea Patrol, Border Security, Master Chef, and Bondi Rescue. I work on Bondi Beach so it is interesting that they can make that into successful programming. It’s really not that exciting of a beach. Border Security is all about the day in the life of working as a customs officer in Australia. It is great watching people trying to smuggle things out or in to Australia. People get really angry when customs checks them out. There are also America shows that Australia made their own version of like: So You Think You Can Dance? Australia, Australian Idol, Deal or No Deal, etc.

The Differences in culture….

•Australians pronounce the letter “H” like heyh and the letter “z” is zed.
•“Taking the piss out of you” means like making fun of you; it’s a good thing.
•Biscuits are cookies
•Favorite is spelled favourite; Behavior is spelled Behaviour; etc
•Lemonade is a Sprite or 7up
•“I reckon” is commonly said
•Fact: the Australian government made a law that force all cigarette companies to have the same black and white packaging. That way no brand stands out or looks appealing. A pack of cigarette cost roughly $30.
•Organization is spelled Organisation; etc.
•Skinny jeans and short jeans are commonly worn by men
•Aussie men (including heterosexuals) own and wear Uggz
•Money Bills vary in size. The smaller the bill the less it is worth. Notes (or coins) vary is size and colour. The smaller the gold note the more it is worth. Gold notes are either $1 or $2. Large silver notes are worth more than small silver notes.
•Pepperoni is know as Cabanossi.
•Raspberry is big in Australia. Usually when you go to a 7-11 store, you can always get cherry or cola slushies. In Australia, you always have raspberry and cola slushies.



( A Mexican Family Dinner; very Australian, but not really )

The Drinking Culture

Alright, I haven’t wrote some culture blogs in a while, but now I finally got some time on my hands. I been loaded with papers. Maybe, I’ll blog about them later.
The more and more I am immersed in the Australian culture, the more and more I find out about how significant alcohol here is. I am not saying that Australians are a bunch of drunks. I am merely stated that this culture revolves around drinks, much like America revolves around food. Of course, drinking and driving is not tolerated. I’d say even more so than in America. Every Australian I know that had been drinking, whether it is just a few drinks or a lot, is VERY responsible and never goes behind the wheel. They always ended up getting a cab or had a friend come help them. I like to see this happen in America more. I believe the consequences of drinking and driving in Australia are vastly worse too compared to in America. I am not certain though, but I see tons of advertisements about not drinking and driving.
As I said, Australian is a drinking culture. In America, if a guest comes to your house it is normal to offer them a drink (water, soda, beer, etc.) and a snack (not a meal, but more like cookies or chips). In China, a guest is commonly offered just food (like a meal). In Australia, they commonly offer just a drink (beer or spirit). It is also proper to bring the host of a party a bottle of booze and not just booze for yourself. This is proper manners here that you rarely see at home.
When I went to the Outback, I mentioned we stopped at the “Daly Water’s Pub.” At this pub, you could find money from around the world posted on the ceilings and walls. This tradition of taping or nailing stuff to the walls started off because locals would sometimes forget their wallets when going to the bar. There is not much in the Outback so I’d imagine you have to take a pretty far drive to get to the pub after work for a drink. What would happen if you took that long drive and realized you forgot your wallet after making that long drive? Well, what the locals would do is that when they visited they would tape money to the walls of the bar and write their name of the money. That way, if they ever forgot their wallet again then all they have to do is get their money off the wall so they could have their drinks. The tradition evolved to much more than money at the “Daly Water’s Pub.”

SHOUT!!!! This is a common term and thing to do when drinking with “mates” (mates are your friends are called). A shout how many locals drink. Pretty much, it’s where one person in your group buys a round of drinks for everyone in the group. Then it is someone else’s turn to do a “shout.” I like this because your not just buying for yourself, but treating others to a drink to. It’s nicer then making everything 50/50. You buy this time, and I’ll buy the next time sounds better than lets split everything 50/50.

When I went to the horse races, Jon Organ, our guide, told me that the horse races were not really about the gambling on horses. It was more about socializing and drinking champagne, wine, and beer.


(random picture of me jumping off a cliff near Neielson Park)

Australia Day, which is a big holiday here (go figure), is pretty much a day to drink a lot of booze and barbeque. I guess that’s what being the stereotypically Australian is all about?

ANZAC is another reason to go out and drink. ANZAC (Australian New Zealand Army Corps) Day is like the 4th of July except more people go out and drink; mostly the younger generation. It is also a time to play “two-up” which is an old gambling game. This game is otherwise illegal any other day.

There are more examples too. I will write them down as I remember them

Cheers!

The Fashion Forward Festival

This weekend I spent my entire time at working at the internship. It was worth it because there was actually heaps of fun work to do. I got to edit a couple runway shows for the “Fashion Forward Festival” at Paddington Town Hall. Paddington is the leading fashion district in Sydney. The festival is about bringing together new and emerging designers and models in Sydney. The festival has amateur models to model designer’s clothes. It’s a sponsored event. DND media, who I work for, was one of the sponsors. I got to hang out with some of the people behind the scenes, which was cool because I felt like a VIP. Later, I got to edit the runway shows, which are being streamed live on the internet now. Click the link below and check out some of my work.

http://www.fashionforwardfestival.com.au/runway-shows.html

I made all this videos. My boss was impressed with my first full & REAL project for the company. The people at the FFF were also were happy and wanted copies. :)

Alice Springs

I was staying at the Haven Backpackers Resort an extra day so I decided to make the most of it. I booked a tour to visit the area. Went to see the McDonell Ranges and stopped at Desert Park. The Ranges were beautiful. It was just one really long, not tall, mountain. Aboriginals called it the “caterpillar” because they it literally what it looked liked. Parts of the range were rounded and consecutive. There are two ranges. I went to the West ranges, and not the east. The story goes that during the time of dreaming, giant caterpillars came from the ocean. Two of some ended up in dessert and stopped to drink some water. Interestingly enough, the two ranges stop at a small water source. So there goes the story.



I learned about the “Flying Doctors Service” a lot. What’s that you ask? Let me tell you. Imagine living in the Outback back in the day or even now for that matter. You hurt yourself on your farm and need a doctor. Well, there are no hospitals. So you had to call the Flying Doctor Service and a doctor would fly out to a designated landing area, where you would have to meet the doctor. Other highlights included Stephen’s Chasm and Simpson’s Gap. During the trip, I had tea with some local elderly Australian couples. It’s interesting because I feel the older generation is very European-like, and the younger generation is more Americanized. American television is everywhere on Australian television, and does effect the Australian culture to a degree. I only have 5 channels in my apartment. Two of them are only worth watching. There are always good movies on Saturday night though.



ANYWAY after cruising more of the outback, I was dropped off at Desert Park. It’s like a zoo dedicated to just the Australian Outback. Although I got to see kangaroos, I never got to see a baby joey in its mother pouch. Well, I was luckily enough to get to see that at this park. It was pretty cool. The baby just hopped in there and had his head and feet sticking out of the pouch. The park had tons of aviary’s to walk through. I love birds so I enjoyed myself. I got to see a Kingfisher finally. The park also had an endangered species exhibit. The exhibit was neat and filled with many mammals. This simple says that mammals in the desert are running out food sources and are now very few in number now. We ended our day at the park by seeing a Bird’s of Prey show.





Only one more night in a hostel and I’d finally get to go home and do some laundry. I was in need of some clean clothes.

the Outback

The first thing to keep in mind when traveling in aboriginal lands in that nearly everything is sacred. During my time at Uluru, I had to hear this word over a hundred times. Uluru and the surrounding area are known as the red centre. That’s because the sands and stones are literally RED! It’s really beautiful. We were fortunate to see the colour green, which is rare because it is a desert. April is about the ending of Wet season and the beginning of dry season. The weather was pretty much great the entire trip because the forecast was rain rain rain. I am glad weathermen are wrong here too.



The night before we departed to the desert outback, I was booked in at the “Haven” hostel resort. It was much nicer than the place in Darwin, but I didn’t get a fridge and television after my trip from the desert outback. We had another early start to the day around 6am again. We met our guide Miles , who looked younger then he really was because he had a big black beard. Miles took us to the “Adventure Tours” station to make sure we all paid and got all the food and sleeping bags for the trip. I learned from the road trip down from Darwin to Alice Springs that I torch (aka flashlight) was a good investment for the nighttime. We had a bit of a drive Jsmuni (pronounced “SSHH-moon-e”) and I grabbed the back of bus, which was nice cause we didn’t have to sit next to anyone so we were able to stretch a bit more. Our first stop was a Camel farm. So what did you think I did???? No, I did not eat camel this. I rode them instead. Camels are pretty fun to ride. Their “yelp” is amusing as well. It felt pretty cool being high on top a camel hump and it only cost a few bucks. At the little barn café in the farm, I got the best chocolate chip biscuit (aka cookie). It was worth every 5 cent! I would say “every penny,” but pennies don’t exist in this country. After a couple hours we had another stop at “Elmunda.” It was just a Shell gas station, nothing special. However, our next stop was camp! We got there and did a quick sandwich lunch. I feel like every time we had a meal, I got stuck with washing the lettuce. That’s okay though as long as I did not have to do dishes. I hate doing dishes! Mostly because I feel like I am the only one who does them in the room sometimes HA HA. However, they all do dishes somewhat.



Anyway, after lunch we hit Kata Juta. This site was so scared to the Aboriginal people that no one knows why it’s so scared. I laughed when I was told that. I was really ready for a good story. However, the hike through the rocky area was pretty nice. It was a pretty cool day, but the flies were still out. Now, the Outback flies are the worse kind of flies. They literally attempt to go into the sides of your eye lid. No JOKE! They were annoying, but a pair of sunglasses fixed that problem till nightfall. I was also happy to test out my new hiking shoes. They are the comfiest shoes I think I ever had. Worth every penny! I can say that cause my mom got me them in the US.




The night ended by a loving sunset over Ayers Rock.



That night I feasted on some camel sausage and kangaroo steak that Miles made. It was awesome! Camel is alright in sausage form. This was the first night I got to sleep in my “swag” and it was not going to be the last. A swag is this big burly sleeping bag. Think of taking a small mattress and covering it over, that is what a swag felt like It was the best I slept the entire trip thus far because I was so warm. Not to mention I got to sleep under the endless amounts of stars.



The next morning was an early start. The campgrounds are a huge bathroom area, which was clean and warm with almost no bugs! It was a nice change for once. I had my typically peanut butter, nutella sandwich. Nutella is a chocolate spread for those who don’t know. Soon we were off to catch the sunrise at Ayers Rock. It was a cold morning, but soon heated up.



Miles took us up to the base of the rock. He began telling us stories about the rock. Most were about the geography of the rock, and not too much about the Aboriginals that view the rock as a scared site. The thing with Aboriginals is that their stories are very secret. Very few outsiders know the stories about Ayer’s Rock and for those who do know only know parts of the stories. Interestingly, each tribe holds parts of a story so you’d have to visit them all throughout Australia, gain their trust and respect, to even be considered to be told the story.



Ayer’s Rock was more impressive then I thought it be. It was HUGE! It took a 3 hour walk just to circle around the rock once. Areas of the rock were considered scared so you could not take pictures. As I mentioned before, I do not know why they are scared, but they are.



I ended that afternoon with a climb up the rock. I did not make it far due to time constraints plus I was super tired! It is a difficult and steep climb. Our next stop was camp for the night near our last stop of the tour “Kings Canyon.” However, before we got there we stopped for milkshakes. Now, when Australians say something they literally mean what they say. For example, the “Harbour Bridge” and “Sydney Opera House.” Very creative names, right? Well, a milkshake in Australia is literally milk with a scoop of ice cream. It’s a disappointment, I KNOW! They remind me more of root beer float just with milk instead of the root beer.



At our new campsite for the night, we had a campfire. It was a lot of fun roasting marshmallows with my new friend from Perth, Renae. She is a pretty funny and cute Australian. I enjoyed her random humour throughout the trip. After making a few jokes about how Dan, this mate from England, has the most pale white skin in the Outback, it was time for bed.



Again it was an early start to the day. This was probably my favorite hike. Kings Canyon was beautiful. It was a prefect place with perfect weather to do an amazing hike. Being tired from the day before, Tom and Catrina the couple from the UK, asked me to improv tour as we hiked up the canyon so we would get distracted from how swore our legs were. Needless to say, I was funny and I really miss improv. Anyway, the canyon was great. The rock was all sandstone. You could literally take two rocks, rub them together and create piles of sand. Miles talked about the local vegetation and wildlife. Ask me how Aboriginals kill, eat, and utilize kangaroo when I get back. It’s pretty cool and disgusting. The canyon was additional huge. It is scary getting close to the edge.



This tour we ended up back in Alice Springs, where I had a free day to do some more touring around the area. So of course, I went out.