During my first week in Australia I visited the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. While holding a koala, I thought to myself, this is exactly what I imagined Australia was going to be like. Little did I know I had barely touched the surface. Australia is much more than koalas, kangaroos and warm weather.
When I showed up to the first university-wide jungle-themed party I realized that my sorority style-inspired outfit was not what the Aussies had in mind. Standing in line, I noticed a student in a full body wolf costume talking to a student who was dressed as a tree. To my left was a Steve Irwin look-a-like holding a crocodile, and to my right was a girl completely covered in yellow body paint, wearing black stripes and wings to look like a bumblebee.
"What are you supposed to be?" my Aussie friend asked.
"A cheetah," I answered, as I spun around in my high-waisted animal-print skirt and dipped my cheetah-print cowboy hat.
I first experienced "culture shock" when I saw the look on his face. A themed college party in the U.S. is an excuse for everyone to dress up in their skimpy yet fashionable outfits, play beer pong and take a lot of pictures. A themed college party in Australia usually entails body paint, face paint, costumes, techno music, beer and sausages.
To become more acquainted with the Aussie lifestyle, I decided to submerge myself in the Australian culture. I participated in the public holiday, Brisbane Exhibition Day, also known as "Ekka." The university is closed on this particular Wednesday and encourages its students to join the rest of the city in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, for fairground rides, horse races and, once again, beer and sausages. This is a time for young women to show off the latest fashion trends and for young men to win some extra cash by betting on the horse races. Who would have thought that a country would have a public holiday in the middle of the week devoted to having a good time?
I felt it was necessary to take a vacation to the Whitsunday Islands off the coast of Queensland to gain a better understanding of the culture. When I arrived, the streets of Airlie Beach were jammed with people because sailors from all over Australia were in for a week-long sailing competition. After turning down a sailboat ride from a few newfound friends, my roommate and I headed off to the Great Barrier Reef on a cruise ship to go snorkeling. We stopped and admired one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, Whitehaven Beach, known for having the whitest sand in the world. We stayed in a hostel, went jet-skiing off of our private beach and got to feed the most beautiful noisy, exotic birds.
Instead of cheering on the Orange football team in the Dome with my best friends, I'm now watching cricket and rugby, with a kebob in hand, trying to understand what my German friend is saying. It's not culture shock anymore; it's getting used to and accepting a new culture.
Sunny Garretson is a junior IST major who is currently studying abroad in Brisbane, Australia. Her columns appear occasionally and she can be reached at gwen.garretson@uqconnect.edu.au
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