Just Like Chicken

Brought to you by Dick Burnam-Fink . . .

Did you know that Australia is the only country where you can eat the coat of arms? Tonight I took the first step toward that endeavor and ate a kangaroo steak for dinner. For those readers who haven't had kangaroo let me tell you, it is delicious. My fellow roo-diners and I described it as a chewier lamb, and I thought it tasted a bit like beef jerky. Although this has been the most recent of my Australian adventures, every other experience so far has been equally enjoyable...

It's hard for me to describe just how amazing this trip has been so far, but the least I can do is tell you what we've been up to. Yesterday we had the day free; some of the group went to Coogie beach and the nearby pool, while others checked out an exhibition on sharks at the Maritime Museum and a collection of Annie Lebowitz's (of Rolling Stone and Vanity Fare fame) photographs at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Did you know that sharks have been swimming in the oceans for 400 million years? That's 200 million years before dinosaurs roamed the earth! To just walk around the city and end up seeing two fantastic exhibitions is a perfect example of the ease with which Sydney offers up its cultural bounty. Although I didn't go to the beach, those who did came back with smiles on their faces and tales of great swimming and tide-pools. It’s only a 40-minute bus ride, so I'm hoping to go after class one of these days.

In the evening we attended an informal story telling by an aboriginal woman from Sydney, Aunty Rhonda Dixon Grosvenor. She reminded me of a grandmother, gushing about her family and sharing stories of her childhood. It was fascinating to hear her express a full range of emotions about Australia, from complete awe at the land's beauty to anger at the unjust treatment of her people (I suspect this won't be the last time we'll hear such grievances). Rhonda also had a fantastic voice, regaling us with old Elvis songs in between her stories. It was a lovely end to a fun day of unstructured and unintentional learning.

Today it was back in the classroom bright and early to learn about the European settlement of Australia. You probably already know that Australia was originally a place where Britain sent convicts (166,000 between 1788 and 1868). While this is true, it is important to keep in mind that many of these convicts were being sent for petty crimes such as pick-pocketing or stealing bread. The true crime may have been ignoring the roughly one-million Aboriginal people who inhabited Australia at the time, declaring the land to be "terra nullius" in order to colonize it without going through the time consuming process of treaty creation. Our professor pointed out that Australians have been defined by their battles on the frontier, while Americans are defined by their battles for independence. Some have argued that this is why Australians embrace egalitarianism and the concept of mateship, while Americans seem to focus on the ability of the individual genius.

The afternoon was spent touring the Hyde Park Barracks, a regal sandstone building designed and built by and for convicts in 1818. It was fascinating to learn that although it was a penal colony, Sydney convicts could trade goods with the free people in Sydney, and many were skilled craftsmen and laborers. I guess it wouldn't make sense to try and build a successful colony by filling it with only murderers. We even got to lay in the hammocks like the prisoner’s slept in; I thought they were pretty comfy but I'm sure if I was sleeping next to a murderer with no air conditioning and a back still bleeding from lashings it would be a different story.

The rest of my afternoon was spent playing frisbee in a nearby park; if there's one thing Lewis & Clark students know how to do it’s throw a disk! I even saw a group of men playing cricket, which I had never seen in real life before. For any concerned parents reading this, let me assure you that we’re all wearing sunscreen, eating our vegetables and washing behind the ears. That’s all I really have to blog about; next time I check in with you all I hope to have tried some Emu, completing my quest to eat a country's coat of arms.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are some photos to give you a visual experience of our time here:

Drew checking out a shark jaw; it was around five feet high!

The group entering Hyde Park Barracks; not a bad looking place for a bunch of prisoners!

Just taking a nap . . . convict style!

Cricket in the park!

Circular Quay and downtown Sydney. The Museum of Modern Art is across the wharf from the Sydney Opera House.