Classes, Sport and Winter Olympics

Another long stretch without a blog update. This can be attributed to the lack of reliable internet here at college but hopefully the internet is fixed for good now so blog updates should begin to be more frequent.

Classes are very interesting here. I’m taking Colonial History of Australia, Australian Film and two Australian politics classes. The material is fascinating, especially the colonial history and how European occupation of Australia began as a place to dump convicts from the overflowing prisons in Britain. The struggle between Europeans and the Aboriginals is also intriguing because it is relatively similar to the struggle between the British and the Native Americans in the development of the American colonies.

Politics is another story. Most students here have had basic politics lessons going through the school system so they have a basic understanding of the different parties and the main issues common in election debates. Being from America, I have no real knowledge of Australian politics so I’m playing a bit of catch up. For one class I am writing a paper comparing Kevin Rudd, the Australian politician in power with Barack Obama. It requires a lot of research but being able to compare it to the United States is helping me to get a handle on the basic political structure.

To add to the computer issues, I had to purchase a new hard drive for my laptop last week. Luckily my computer had been giving me warnings that there was a problem so I was able to backup everything before it crashed. Since replacing the hard drive, I’ve had to re-download everything. It is such a daunting task. I went to listen to some music only to realize I hadn’t reinstalled iTunes so I couldn’t listen to any music. And with the sketchy internet, downloading programs has been a challenge and a chore. All is working well now and the new hard drive is a lot bigger so I have more room to download so that is nice.

I played touch footy here a couple weekends ago. Sports here are really confusing because there are different leagues of rugby, sometimes called footy while football can refer to American NFL or soccer. I am constantly trying to keep them straight. Touch footy is a version of footy (rugby) where a rugby ball is used and the goal is to score a tri. The ball is moved either by running it or passing it but you are not allowed to pass the ball forward. The defense’s goal is to touch the person with the ball to stop play. Each side is allowed 5 touches before the ball changes possession. It is a little bit confusing but a lot of fun and a very good workout.

It was interesting to watch the winter Olympics from another country and to see the difference in coverage and broadcasting. One of the most controversial events, from an Australian viewpoint, was the ice dancing routine that supposedly represented Aboriginal culture. When the couple performed the routine at the World Championships previous to the Olympics, the guy was in “blackface” but after an uproar, they eliminated the “blackface” part of the costume but the costumes, body paint and music was still supposed to be representative of Aboriginal culture. The general understanding here was that the music was not traditional Aboriginal music and the costumes were offensive and unauthentic. Australians here were upset and angered by the misrepresentation and the insensitivity and lack of research that went into developing the routine. This controversy received significant coverage and discussion throughout the entire Olympics here in Australia.