Men at Work

Hello again, from the land of skin cancer and sharks. I have been swamped with work over the last week (I had that assignment due; for anyone curious the Algorithms were Quicksort, Quicksort w/ Median-of-Three Partitioning, Bubblesort, and Bublesort w/ Early Exit). Unfortunately for all of you, this means I did not have time to post. But fear not gentle reader, for I have returned to the keys and am ready to give you another all too brief glimpse into the world of the Australian exchange student!

My relations in the North have asked me to discuss the weather, so I guess I will start with that. Right now, it is a balmy 27 degrees (Celsius mind you) and clear. The sun is out, and I was sitting outside on the lawn reading earlier. Don't let that fool you though; this is probably the warmest it has been since I got here. We probably have another 2 weeks or so until we can expect weather like this on a regular basis.

I think there is some sort of graduation going on today, as I have seen a number of Asian students in cap and gown with their families taking pictures on the main walk. I think it might be a special one for the international students, as I heard nothing about it until today, there seemed to not be very many of them, and it is the end of August. In any case, it is a nice day for it.

Since I have been here, I think it has rained 3 times, and while all of them got up to a pretty steady pour, I don’t remember any of them producing thunder. Of course, that could have more to do with my insensitivity to the stuff after growing up in north Florida than the actual absence of it.

When we first arrived, it was cold enough at night to warrant the use of both the comforter and extra wool blanket provided for us, but it has been about 2 weeks since I last used the blanket on anything but my feet. In fact, I am beginning to think about requisitioning a fan from the Baxter Study Abroad quartermaster.

I would like to add a final disclaimer on the weather before everyone packs all their Earthly belongings and heads south: this is the winter. Remember how I mentioned this is the land of skin cancer at the top? There is a reason for that. That hole in the ozone layer you hear environmentalists griping about is situated due up of Australia. It is just something to keep in mind.

I have also realised I have not discussed that most Australian of condiments yet. I am speaking of course, about vegemite. For the uninitiated, vegemite is a spread made from excess brewery yeast, some sort of random vegetables, and a few spices. Australians spread it on toast, and that is about it. It is also utterly disgusting. If you mixed about a gallon of salt with petrol and slug ooze, I think you could probably approximate the experience. During O-weekend our leaders made everyone of the international students eat a pack. One kid spewed on only his second lick.

I think that is why no one outside of Australia likes it. If you ever watch an actually Australian use the stuff, they will scrape it incredibly thin on a piece of toast, and then load butter on top of it. I tried it once more using this method, and if I did not still have the memory of the stuff jammed up the back of my nostrils (it sticks with you), I recon I would have actually liked it. They never tell you it is supposed to be eaten that way though, so even when it is not being forced down in mouthfuls the uninitiated will spread it to thick. If they would add some instruction on the packets, I think they could get a lot more foreigners interested in the stuff.

I am almost done with In a Sunburned Country, so I might write about my preliminary impressions next week. Or I might write about my class schedule. Or I might write about Baxter. Or who knows, I may write about all three or none of them. I guess you will just have to stop by to find out.