I confess, when I was researching books about Australia to build my booklist I wasn’t sure if I should include this book. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy Bill Bryson (especially his books on language!), but I wasn’t sure if including a book about traveling around Australia was the best choice for a book to help prepare me to move there. I finally decided that, though this is most definitely a travel book, it would serve as a resource of what I might expect to experience Australia (and Australians) as an American.
Now, in hind-sight, I’m really glad I decided to kick off my reading list with this book! Not only did I pick up some tips on what to see and where to go, but I also learned that I’ve willingly agreed to move to a DEATH TRAP! Since not even the discovery channel was noble enough to be so forthright about the Ciguatera (a deadly disease infecting Snapper fish in the north), Box Jelly Fish (found near the Great Barrier Reef, so poisonous that people are known to continue screaming and writhing, even after they have been knocked out with Morphine), and the Taipan (the most poisonous snake in the world) I highly doubt any of the other, more scientifically minded books, on my book list would be either. So I thank Bill Bryson, and my ingenious decision to begin my reading with his book In A Sunburned Country, for giving me the opportunity to freak out about it now, and continue my preparations with a better sense of resignation about what the hell I’m getting myself in to.
If you missed my post about the book list, check it out here!
So, guess who has the LARGEST New Years celebration in the world? Syndey! Yep, that's right, I didn't know that either. :o) Check out the video of JUST the fireworks!
I am currently taking reservations for my couch and floor space for anyone else who wants to come experience this incredibly awesome looking celebration next year!
Since this posting is coming out on Christmas weekend, I was hoping to find some information about any December celebrations of the Aboriginal Tribes in Australia. So far, I can’t find anything. :o( No matter, this search can go on my list of things to find out while I’m living there! However, what to do for a post topic? I’ve settled on some of the documented differences of how mainstream Australian culture celebrates the Christmas holiday, instead.
Australia’s seasons mirror North America’s, which means that Christmas arrives in the middle of summer (just 4 days after their summer solstice, in fact). This in itself means that many of the quintessential Christmas/holiday activities (for me) are not possible or don’t exist at all. For instance, plants traditionally purchased or grown in the northern half of the planet (like the pine trees used for our Christmas trees or the poisonous poinsettias that adorn our coffee tables), which thrive in colder weather, are nowhere to be found in Australian holiday decorations.
Instead, check out the traditional Australian flora one might encounter at a holiday party(photo credit: http://www.anbg.gov.au/christmas/):
Christmas Tree - Western Australia
New South Whales - Christmas Bells
Victoria - Christmas Bush
South Australia & Tasmania
Queensland
Interesting that these plants don’t exhibit any of the colors those of us from the north associate with Christmas. A little more research leads me to believe that, even though the more traditional Red/Green/Silver/Gold color scheme is not prominent in the landscape during the holiday season in Australia, these colors are still used for marketing Christmas and the New Year. I suppose this is mainly due to the fact that these colors were already accepted Christmas colors before the Christmas holiday came to Australia. They probably continued the use of them for marketing purposes, however.
If Tim Minchin’s song “White Win in the Sun" is any indication (not to mention all the photos of windsurfing and reef swimming that popped up on Google when I searched for "Australia + Christmas) Australian's tend to prefer water sports to the more traditional snow play of the Northerners. Honestly, I wouldn't have had a clue it was holiday time, were it not for the Santa hats... :o)
It is (at least to me) a little known fact that one of Australia's nicknames is the Land of the Long Weekend (though this seems to be more related to student culture, with no classes on Fridays, than to any other demographic). Therefore, in honor of my impending trip Down Under, I would like you to join me here Friday evenings for a new post about preparing to move to Australia!
Posting topics will vary but may include: the student/worker/dependent visa process (after all, the fiance may be going with me), packing for an extended 'trip', local attractions, vaccinations, books, etc.
This week I will be sharing my 'to read' list. My goal is to have all 13 books read before I touch down in SYD (Sydney's international airport). I have roughly 32 weeks to accomplish this, so it shouldn't be a problem, right?
1)The Fatal Shore. Robert Hughes - historical non-fiction novel about exiling prisoners to Australia from which stemmed colonization.
3) In a Sunburned Country. Bill Bryson - comical recount of Bryson's encounters with Australians while living Down Under.
4 (Travelers’ Tales Guides.) Australia: true stories of life down under. Habegger - Thirty-nine travel tales about varying experiences vacationing and traveling in Australia.
5) Prehistory of Australia. John Mulvaney & Johan Kamminga - An overview of Aboriginal history, culture and art.
6) Rabbit-Proof Fence: The True Story of One of the Greatest Escapes of All Time. Doris Pilkington - True story about the Stolen Generation (Aboriginal children who were taken away from their parents and placed in white Australian families in an effort to assimilate them into 'mainstream' culture and society).
7) The Explorers. Tim F. Flannery - 67 personal accounts of the development of Australia.
12) We of the Never-Never. Mrs Aeneus Gunn - An Australian version of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, this story is about life on a 1920's outback station focusing mainly on the social and cultural life of the Aboriginal workers.
13) Cultural Atlas of Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific. Richard Nile & Christian Clerk - Short essays accompanied by maps and copious illustrations of the arts and cultures of the South Pacific.
" is any indication (not to mention all the photos of windsurfing and reef swimming that popped up on Google when I searched for "Australia + Christmas) Australian's tend to prefer water sports to the more traditional snow play of the Northerners. Honestly, I wouldn't have had a clue it was holiday time, were it not for the Santa hats... :o)
. Habegger
. Doris Pilkington
Tim F. Flannery
. Ronald Strahan
Tim Berra 
. Peter Carey
. Mrs Aeneus Gunn
, New Zealand & the South Pacific. Richard Nile & Christian Clerk