An Australian Tangent

Friends,

I have returned and the Tangent Space(s) hiatus (felt by all 3 of you readers) is finally over! As promised, I spent 6 weeks on a mission trip that took me to the wonderful city of Melbourne, Australia. For a serious look at some of the lessons I learned, check out this post from our team's blog. For a silly look at some cultural observations I made, you can stay right here.



The Blogger Down Under
It's like The Rescuers Down Under, but without the talking mice or golden eagle or murderous poacher

Something very simple dawned on me for the first time when I started talking to Australians: Hollywood is in America. 

You might be thinking, "Yeah I already knew that." [If you're mean, it might be, "Jon, you're an idiot." If you're me in 7th grade, somehow reading this by virtue of some time travel device, I bet it's "No crap, Sherlock." If you're a pre-teen or teenage girl (or, mysteriously, my 27-year-old girlfriend), the word 'obvs' or 'obvi' might come into play.]

Ok, so the location of Hollywood is nothing new to me. But I'd never before considered its implications for world travel. For instance, if you ask Australians about life in America, they have so many sources to pull from-- blockbuster movies, sitcoms, talk shows, trashy shows on E!, trashier shows on Bravo, etc. This entertaining tapestry may not provide the most accurate picture of American culture, but they have a picture nonetheless.

Conversely, if I ask you what life in Australia is like, what would you say? My guess [whether you're 7th-grade-me, a pre-teen girl, or my awesome girlfriend] is something like, "Um... they have pretty funny accents, right?" We just don't have any media exposure to Australian culture, real or fictional.

What do we have? Some pretty (hilariously) sad caricatures:

"It'll make you happier than a koala up a gum tree."

"Crikey!"

Throw in a Men At Work song and Claire from LOST and you have a pretty comprehensive list of Australian stuff in our media. So, to help inform you a tiny bit about actual Australian culture, I give you...

My Top 5 common Australian words and phrases

They'll make you happier than a koala up a gum tree.

5. 'a bit'

Meaning: a little, somewhat, sort of, kind of

Comments: Sure, you might hear this in America. But you hear it a ton over there. Like, you won't hear any of the above phrases that mean the same thing. It's a bit ridiculous.

4. 'cheers' (or, even better, 'cheers mate')

Meaning: thanks

Comments: If you hold a door for someone, they will almost surely say 'cheers' to you. It's a bit weird to hear the word without mugs of ale being knocked together, but I guess it would also be a bit weird for people to carry around mugs of ale everywhere they went.

3. 'no worries'

Meaning: you're welcome, my pleasure, no problem, I forgive you

Comments: You can hear this in America too, but in Aussieland it's more versatile-- it's the default response to both 'thank you' and 'I'm sorry'.

2. 'good on ya'

Meaning: good job, well done

Comments: As with 'well done' or 'way to go', this can also be used effectively for sarcastic purposes.

1. 'it's my shout' (or 'I'll shout')

Meaning: I'll pay for you this time

Comments: Not only is this just a cool and unfamiliar phrase, but it's obvs one that you always like to hear.

What's your favorite appearance of Australia in our pop culture?

Which of the above phrases do you want to start using?

I'm out of questions, but it would really make me happy and ready to return to blogging if you would leave a comment!

Jon

On international travel

Friends,

Whenever I'm going to have an especially long absence from this site, I like to let you know about it.  The warning might save you a few seconds of visiting a non-updated Tangent Space(s), and at any rate it makes me feel like you might miss my blogging, and that thusly this whole enterprise is a valuable use of my time.

My raging neediness aside, it's time for one of those warnings.  I will not be updating this site until, say, mid-August.  You're probably wondering what could possibly tear me away from my beloved blog for so long, and you're right to wonder that.  It would take a lot.

Well, I will be spending the next 6 weeks in Melbourne, Australia!

I (and the team going with me) will be keeping a blog specifically to give updates about our mission trip-- stories, photos, prayer requests, etc.  Feel free to check that regularly if you want to hear about my ministry experiences and lessons learned in the land down under.

I thought I would leave you with one final (mini-)tangent.  And the tangent that's been on my mind lately, of course, is international travel.



The Best and Worst of Going Overseas
For general air travel woes, here's an old post on the subject


The Worst

1. Jet lag
I'm not necessarily a seasoned world traveler, but this ain't my first rodeo (somehow I need you to puzzle out that rodeo = flight across the Pacific).  If you've never been jet lagged, basically it's as terrifying as you'd expect-- your internal clock just being totally wrong.  Like, 12 hours wrong.  There's nothing fun about that.

2. Missing your checked bags
Flying domestically with one or more layovers, your checked bags have an okay chance of arriving when you do at your final destination (by no means 100%, but okay).  Going international, well... you're not getting that luggage when you get there.  Just accept it.  I hope you can fit 2-3 days of survival items in your carry-on.  You're going to need it.

The Best

1. The beauty of other cultures
It's so easy to think of America as the world.  I mean, I know there are other countries out there, but in the back of my mind, they function like Alaska or Hawaii.  Just more distant extensions of what I know.  Going to those countries helps to shatter this false picture of our world.  The mystery, unfamiliarity, strangeness (and yet relatability) of other cultures are fascinating.

2. A better understanding of humankind
Once you're in another place, meeting people and learning about their lives, it's so much easier to understand what things are universal to people everywhere and what things are specific to specific cultures.  Sure, we might learn in a classroom that America is "individualistic" while Mexico is "collectivistic", but what does that look like?  In what ways does a Mexican family function differently from an American one?  What would still look the same?


This isn't goodbye, it's... yeah, it's goodbye
But just for a month or two

Have you traveled overseas?  What was your favorite thing about it?

Jon