Home Sweet Homesickness

I am generally a stranger to homesickness, and I have not usually missed people and places I have encountered in my life. This fact has always bothered me because it meant, perhaps, that I didn't have people and places in my life that were "home" to me, or that I didn't recognize them as such. Similarly, it has always bothered me that I didn't particularly identify with being American or Korean--I wanted a place to identify with.

It is nearly a month since I left the States. During most of this time, I have been quite occupied finding a place to live, getting my bearings in this city, figuring out my classes, and just taking care of everyday things, like checking email, going grocery shopping, and cooking enough to satisfy my intractable hunger. In between these daily imperatives, though, when I'm walking to school or sitting on the tram, or at the end of a tiring day, my thoughts wander to the places I have lived in recent years and the people whom I've had the fortune of knowing. I recall the everyday sights and sounds that colored my existence, from the little supermarket across from my building at Teachers College to my favorite laughs of my friends, and I miss them. Yet it is a sweet feeling because it means that I have people and places in my life that I feel at home with (if you are reading this, you are probably one of them, unless you are a random web surfer). That is not true for so many people in this world. There was a segment on the Today Show before I left on how loneliness in the U.S. is on the rise, and it said that compared to twenty years ago, a larger percentage of the U.S. population reports that they have no one in whom to confide.

Interestingly, being in another country has made even things that are not a significant part of my life in the U.S. come into relief and suddenly become part of "my life" because they are American. The Melbourne International Film Festival is going on right now, and tonight, I went to see a documentary called Beyond the Beats and Rhymes: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs in on Manhood in Hip-Hop Culture. It is a reflection on and analysis of the violent, misogynistic, and homophobic themes in hip-hop, and the cultural underpinnings of them. Now, I don't even listen to or like hip-hop (I went because I like cultural critiques and hip-hop is the music of choice for most of the students I have worked with), but I found the images of African American hip-hop artists, and African Americans in general, strangely comforting. Likewise, the images of the South Bronx suddenly became images of "my home", and I've never set foot in the South Bronx. They had a clip where they showed the director and narrator, Byron Hurt, playing professional football, which I (a Texan, from Dallas) have yet to fully understand or watch a full game of, and it made me miss the U.S.! I went to the film by myself, and afterward, I wished that I had gone with someone, just so I could talk about America.

I'm not trying to say that the film made me proud to be American--I still have the same general feelings about American media that I expressed in a previous blog, and I still don't like hip-hop. But I missed being part of American society, even with its difficult issues and flaws. Much of the film brought out the socioeconomic and cultural milieu of many African Americans and Latinos, and I sort of missed reading and hearing about these issues, though I try to keep up with the news at home. One thing that was quite noticeable to me early on was that there are virtually no black people in Melbourne (which also means there are virtually no Aborigines in Melbourne). I don't think Melbourne faces a racial issue similar to that of the United States. (As for the Aborigines, they are pretty much the minority equivalent of American Indians, living on designated areas of land, and alcoholism and gambling are rampant in their communities, so I rarely seem any.)

Anyway, this is all just to say that being homesick is a good thing because it means one has a home. And I guess Dorothy was right--there's no place like home. (ha ha ha!)

[side note: During my first few days, I saw hip hop videos of African American artists being shown on TV here, and I wondered whether or not it was popular or who its audience was because the sociocultural underpinnings of the music seem to be specific to American society (I know that the hip hop style is popular in other countries, but isn't it usually performed by people from that country? Then again I know I'm pretty ignorant on this matter). I also wondered how Australians perceive African Americans since they probably only know of them through the media. Perhaps I'll do a little anthropological research...]

Melbourne Uni

Classes started this week, and I have been spending nearly all day every day on campus shopping classes and running beginning-of-the-semester errands. Here are some sights from the school that I regularly pass.

The Clock Tower

The Clock Tower is part of the original and therefore the oldest building of the campus where my department (Philosophy) and the Faculty of Arts are housed. The light brown-ish building is the Old Arts building and the white-ish one is the Old Quad.

Old Arts and Clock Tower



from the north (back)



from the south


(Can you tell I like this building?)


One more of the Old Arts

Old Arts, Old Quad, and the South Lawn (on the left)

The Old Quad is really nice. It has the architecture of a cloister: four corridors forming a square with a courtyard in the middle. The corridors have beautiful columns and arched ceilings.

Courtyard

Corridor



Corridor with view into Old Quad coutryard



View of Old Arts through arch at the end of a corridor

Unfortunately, much of the original structure is gone and the rest of the buildings were (re)designed in the 70s and are accordingly unattractive. For example...

University of Melbourne Faculty of Medicine

The business school is a little snazzier and is newer, but I prefer the old buildings.

Melbourne Uni Business School

They have also disguised some of their buildings with a more classical facade, which they simply purchased from other city buildings that I assume no longer exist. For example...

The Architecture building

This facade came from a bank. You can see that it is attached to a larger brick building right behind it. There's also...

The Carpark

i.e., a parking lot. You can see the light shining off tops of the cars inside.

The Guardians of the Carpark

For those of you ladies who are wondering, these are the only hunks I've seen. Maybe it's because I'm in Philosophy...

Hope you've enjoyed this little virtual tour.

Minor Adjustments

Since Melbourne is a city with all the modern conveniences of home and is of the Western culture, I have not had to make major adjustments as of yet, but here are a few things I'm getting used to.

PEDESTRIAN WAYS
Australians drive on the left side of the road, and I'm still getting used to looking the right way when I cross the street. (If you've been to a country with similar driving practices, you'll know what I mean). If I waited patiently at the crosswalk for the little green man to light up, this wouldn’t such a problem, but because I am a frequent jaywalker (after years of training in Boston and New York), this is actually a matter of life and death. Looking left when cars are speeding at you from the right is unhelpful, to say the least. The habit of turning my head to the left is suprisingly hard to change. The strange and annoying thing is that even when I manage to look the right way at the curb, I still turn my head the other way, looking down the same lane, not even the one across the street, only to see, of course, that no cars are coming from that direction.

MONEY, MOBILES and MESSAGING
I'm not sure when, but Australians got rid of their penny. The smallest monetary denomination is the 5 cent coin. So when you buy something, the cashier just rounds to the nearest 5 cents. If your meal comes to $8.97, you pay $8.95. Or if the book you're buying costs $12.43, you pay $12.45. What's puzzling is why they still have prices like $19.97. The sales tax is included so that's the price. I guess it still sounds cheaper than $20. Well, I hope it all evens out in the end so that I'm overpaying and underpaying the same amounts overall.

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Since I'm only here for 12 months, I got a pay-as-you go mobile plan here, or a prepaid plan, where you pay, say, $30 and get a certain number of minutes. Seems simple enough, but then there are several types of prepaid plans with my company, and with the same $30, I get a different amount of minutes, plus or minus some free calls to other phones of the same company or free text messages. Well, I hate text messaging--I dislike it more than emailing and blogging and got rid of it on my cell phone in the U.S.--so I eventually decided on a plan where I pay $30, but get $120 worth of credit to call or text. And not just the first time. On this plan, every time I pay for a $30 recharge, I get $120 of credit. I had to ask the salesman twice if I was understanding this correctly, and I was. I was puzzled, but stopped asking for clarification.

But, alas, I am forced to text message here. The cool thing about the mobile plans here is that you don't pay for incoming calls, only the calls you make. The not-so-cool thing is that it costs 37 cents per HALF MINUTE to make a call. In U.S. dollars, that's 28 cents per half minute or a whopping 56 cents per minute! Texting, on the other hand, only costs 25 cents per message, or 19 cents (U.S.).

TABLE MANNERS AND RICE
I had my first meal with Australians on Monday, July 10. Bruce took me to the meeting of the Keilor East Rotary Club, my host club in Melbourne. I read in the Lonely Planet before I came that Australians use their utensils as the British do. That is, holding the knife in the right hand and fork in the left, they bring food to their mouths with the fork still in the left hand, tines down, rather than switching hands, as many Americans do. The guide also noted, however, that Americans would be forgiven for using their fork like a shovel. Not wanting to have to be forgiven, I was careful to observe others at the table, and indeed, they all ate as the Lonely Planet described. In general, eating this way is not that difficult and not particularly noteworthy, except that this meal included rice. Not sticky Korean rice, but fluffy, highly independent grains of rice. Now, I’m someone that thinks eating rice (particularly the non-sticky kind) with a fork even when using it like a shovel is hard enough. I have always wondered why Americans choose to do so. I prefer to pick up rice with my chopsticks or use a spoon if it's not sticky. Anyway, seeing that there was rice on the plate, and being conscious of how I was using my fork, I can honestly say that for a few minutes I was at a loss for how I should eat my meal. How was I supposed to bring the rice to my mouth on the underside of the fork? [Have you ever tried this? I’m sure you can see the difficulty just by imagining it.] I was truly puzzled. So, again, I observed those around me. The way they accomplished this feat was to push the rice grains onto whatever piece of food was already on the fork, almost using the portion of the food sticking out from the tines as the scoop, whether it be a slice of zucchini, chicken, potato. They would also sandwich grains of rice between pieces of food. So first poke a piece of chicken, push some rice grains onto and next to it, and before the grains can fall off, poke the fork into a slice of zucchini. And voila, you have mini rice kebab on a fork, ready for your enjoyment. Of course, then you have to be careful the rice doesn’t fall off en route to your mouth. At least I had to be. I believe this was one of most difficult meals I have ever eaten. I kept looking at the plates of those around me to see if they would actually be able to get to all the rice. Because that’s the other thing—trying to balance each bite so that you don’t just have a mound of rice left over. Well, this is something I was concerned with because I didn’t want to have a mound of rice left over with the primary reason being that I couldn’t get it onto my fork. How stupid would that be. It seemed that very little rice would be on the fork each time, but amazingly, everyone got to the rice pretty well. Even more amazingly, I managed to do so too with maybe fifteen grains left. I should say I was helped a bit, but only the tiniest bit, by the watered down sweet and sour sauce that the chicken was cooked in, which left much to be desired, and since I can’t say anything nice about it, I will end my story here.

GENERIC STICKY RICE
Okay, so I have another rice-related comment. Bear with me. I needed to get groceries a couple of days ago, and I made a bee-line to the little Korean supermarket I stumbled upon, which is right by the bad Korean restaurant I stumbled upon. I was hoping it would be like M2M near Columbia, which was just about my favorite place in New York City. I was really excited because this grocery store is right on the tram line that runs by my new place (just moved in July 16, more in another post). Anyway, it's pretty good, but I was surprised and disappointed to find that that they don't carry Korean rice. They carry Japanese rice and some other generic sticky rice, but they don't carry Korean rice. These types of rice are not that different, and it's not a big deal at all, but I was just surprised. I asked someone who works there (a Korean guy) if there was anywhere that carries Korean rice and he said that he's never seen Korean rice in Melbourne. His own family eats the generic rice. Korean rice is too expensive he explained. So I guess I'll be living without Korean rice for 12 months.

BEING (SEEN AS) AMERICAN
Although I was born in the U.S., I have never felt strongly that I identified with being American. Much of this has to do with the fact that my family is Korean. I am not much of a flag-waver on the Fourth of July (and didn't even live the day this year), and in international sporting events, I admit I am always more inclined to root for the (South) Koreans and would be proud if they did well; by the same token, if a Korean person (whether in the States or elsewhere) did something shameful, I would feel some embarrassment.

People say that spending time in another country helps you understand yourself better as a citizen of your own. In my case, that happened in some small ways before I came here because I was emailing potential housemates descriptions of myself, and I had to consider whether or not I wanted to identify myself as American, given our nation's role in world events and the impression non-Americans may have of us as a result. Most often, I would choose to say I was from the States rather than describe myself as "American" and I would sometimes qualify that by saying I was Korean American. (But then I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to say that I was Korean American because I've heard that Australians are less "open" towards Asians). Since I've been here, I haven't run into any serious problems as an American or a Korean American. There was one instance, though, that my being American did create a small obstacle for me in my housing search, as the Australian woman renting the room expressed her discomfort with American culture. Curious, I asked what her concerns were and she said, acknowledging that this was a big generalization, that Americans seem to be loud, opinionated, and insist on their being right (I wonder where she got that idea; it's a good thing I don't also speak with a Texan accent and say "nucular"). It was interesting to have this American stereotype applied to me since when I'm in the U.S., I usually find myself fighting (internally) to not behave in the stereotypically Asian way of withholding my opinion.

There was another instance that impressed upon me my being American, but I felt it internally, rather than externally by somene's impressions. I went to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 with fellow Rotary Scholar Ryan Diehl during my first week here. I was still suffering from jetlag and needed a brainless activity to keep me up. Given that Pirates is an American movie, all the previews were also for American movies. One of them was for the movie, Little Man, the new Wayans brothers comedy. I saw the trailer for this movie before I left the States and was disgusted by its utterly asinine sense of humor. When I saw the trailer in Melbourne, I had another reaction, in addition to disgust—I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed that the American movie industry not only produced this rubbish, but also that it then thought it was something worth exporting. Before the series of previews began, the woman I was sitting next to had started a conversation with me. I mentioned that I had just come from the States, so she knew I was American. And I was embarrassed sitting next to her. I'm not sure if she said this for my benefit, but I heard her say with digust, "Just some more American trash, I’m sorry to say."

First Impressions

Well, much to your disappointment I'm sure, I don't have any stories or pictures of kangaroos hopping around the streets of Melbourne. But Bruce has a 4 x 4 that he uses for outback adventures, so just wait! Nonetheless, here are some of the more mundane sights and sounds of Melbourne.

WINTER IN MELBOURNE
It is winter here. To me, it's a lot like Boston in November. Cloudy, grey, chilly, rather windy, and rainy at times. The days are short, getting light at around 7AM and dark at 6PM. The high is in the mid-50s, which I found shockingly cold after a month in the Texas summer heat. (I have to say, though, it's amazing to me that as many years as I have spent in the Northeast, I manage to forget every year when the temperature falls that 50 degrees, or even 59 degrees, is actually cold. I have been cold quite often because I simply did not wear a heavy enough jacket.) Most of the dead autumn leaves have fallen off the trees here. Interestingly, in Australia some trees don't lose their leaves; instead, they shed their bark. And some trees lose both. I read that this happens in Australia, and it is true. What a strange sight that is. It is strangely beautiful.


Despite the cold, people still eat outside. Melbourne has a lot (or "heaps", as they say here) of cafes with outdoor seating, and the key to enjoying it in winter is the outdoor heating. The cafes have these great heating lamps above the tables, under which I've huddled while walking more than once.


Gail tells me that the weather will get better soon. I guess it's fitting though to be cold and grey since that's how my academic year has begun for so many years in Boston and New York. Only I have spring to look forward to in just a short while instead of a seemingly endless winter.

THE MOST LIVEABLE CITY
Melbourne reminds me of Boston in many other ways, as well, but somehow this city has earned the title of "Most Liveable City", while I don't think Boston ever will; maybe it's the temperate climate. (Melbourne actually recently lost its top ranking to Vancouver.) All in all, Melbourne is a very accomodating city. It is very walkable and has good public tranportation. It doesn't have subways, but it has trams (above-ground, electrical), buses, and trains. It's also a great place for bikes, which I think I'll be getting soon. There are a lot of parks, gardens, and museums, too, but I've only managed to see them in passing. Its downtown reminds me a lot of Boston's Downtown Crossing, with streets that are only for pedestrians and trams and lined with shops and department stores. Architecturally, it has a mix of modern and older styles, and it's a nice city to look at over all. I haven't seen any really rundown areas yet. Around Melbourne Uni, the suburb of Carlton is like other college towns, kind of like Harvard Square, with lots of resturants, stores, and designer boutiques.

Ethnically Melbourne is very diverse. I don't know what the percentages are, but there are heaps of Asians here. It makes me feel like I'm back at Columbia, actually. This is probably moreso around the school, since Melbourne Uni attracts more international students than any other school (I think), many of whom come from China, Taiwan, and Indonesia. Carlton actually has a large Greek and Italian population, with the largest Greek population outside of Greece, even larger than some cities in Greece. It seems like 70% of the restaurants and cafes in Carlton are Italian, and for the World Cup final, they shut down several blocks of its main street from 10PM to 3AM. I didn't go out to watch, but the Italian flags draped around people's shoulders and waving out of cars, and the shouts of I-TAL-IA gave me the distinct impression that Italy had won. People were still leaving the celebration at 11AM Monday morning.

Given its ethnic diversity, Melbourne's restaurants are also ethnically diverse, which I'm thankful for. There are plenty of Vietnamese, Malaysian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Middle Eastern restaurants. I have managed to find two Korean restaurants, one pretty good and one not so great. I don't know if I've had "Australian" food yet, but I'll let you know when I have my first bite of kangaroo.

I'm still learning what makes Melbourne one of the most liveable cities in the world, but I think part of it is that it has something for everyone. Like New York, each of its neighborhoods has a distinct character, places that are somewhat like the East Village, SoHo, the Upper West Side and the people that make the neighborhoods what they are. And then there are its suburbs, which are like American suburbs with their plazas and malls, which there isn't much to say about.

WHERE AM I AGAIN?
Well, I've pretty much described Melbourne in terms of the U.S. cities I've lived in. So much for flying 21 hours to be in foreign country! Don't get me wrong--I am really enjoying this city, but, superficially, I can't say that I get the distinct feeling that I am somewhere different, other than the Australian accent I hear all around me and the colorful Australian money. (And contrary to the stereotype we so fondly hold, only one person has greeted me with "G'day" in my first two weeks; others have said, "hi"). Oh, and I did see a small Aborigine protest march; they were shouting "Always was, always will be, aboriginal land!". Overall, though, most of what I see is similar to what I see at home, and I guess that's because it's not different in some fundamental ways; it's an English-speaking, economically developed, Western country.

In Australia, there is a rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne that is simply a part of the culture. It is said that they are quite different, Sydney being more American in flavor, while Melbourne is more European. I've never spent much time in Europe, but I guess Melbourne does have a European aura. It has great little alley ways crammed with cafes, shops, and restaurant, and there are a lot of nooks and crannies that I'm looking forward to exploring.

Yet, outside of those little alley ways, America’s fingerprints are all over the place. Melbourne is a city where 7-11, KFC, Subway, and Starbucks abound. (Why does a place like Melbourne, which is brimming over with cafes, no pun intended, even need Starbucks? How does Starbucks survive?). It also has several Borders, Nine West stores, Payless Shoes, Target and Big W, which is basically WalMart, (but Melburnians vehemently deny this, according to Ryan, despite, as he pointed out, the same color scheme and "every day low prices"). I admit I’m disappointed by all these American chain stores. Bruce informed me that Target, 7-11, Subway, and other fast-food chains are franchises that are Australian-owned (i.e., not planted here by the American parent companies), but still.

Its media is also very American. Hollywood blockbusters fill the theaters, which is no surprise, and its television programming is also filled with American shows. Yes, Dear. According to Jim. Home Improvement. Desperate Housewives. Boston Legal. Grey’s Anatomy. Days of Our Lives. The Young and the Restless. Judge Judy. Dr. Phil! And this is just on their basic TV stations. There must be 50 other American shows on what I gather to be their cable lineups. They have Fox, two Fox Sports channels, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central (with pretty much all American shows). Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, since when I went to Guatemala, nearly all their TV programming was American, too (I was told that 70% of the TV media was American-owned down there), but I am.

Interestingly, the Americanization of this city came up in an article I read in last Sunday's edition of The Age, the Melbourne daily. It was called "My Kind of Melbourne", and prominent local figures were asked their thoughts on how to make this most liveable city even better. The article remarks, "We have the foundations to create a city truly deserving of the 'liveable' tag. To get there, we need foresight and daring—and, according to several of our respondents, we need to look more to European traditions and avoid the freeway and "Disney World" mall culture of America. ‘We could have followed the European path but we have chosen the US path for whatever reason. The more human path is the European path,’ says Melbourne artist Jon Cattapan…" According to the article, Melbourne, like other large cities is dealing with issues of urban sprawl and lack of affordable housing. People want improved, and even free, public transportation (wouldn't that be great!), fewer cars on the road, more pedestrians and bikes.

Again, I haven't spent much time in Europe, so I don't know exactly what the more human path is that the European traditions allow for, but I'd love to know.

I'm looking forward to meeting more Aussies because I'm sure the differences between our cultures is more subtle and more fundamental than what I've been able to see in my first two weeks.

New Friends, Warm Welcome

After four sleepless, jet-lagged nights, I have now almost achieved normal sleeping hours and am functional enough to post something about my first week. Actually, I have more to post than I expected because I ended up writing some thoughts down during my sleepless nights, so I divided them into three parts. The two others are in the works with pictures...

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It has been a week since I first set foot on the land down under. I arrived in the morning, so from my window seat, I could see Australia from the air, and it was really beautiful. Very lush, green, and moutainous. (Unfortunately, I couldn't take a picture because I was right behind the wing.) I was seeing the southeastern part of the land, of course. The outback further north and west is supposed to be the exact opposite. Anyway, when the wheels of the plane hit the pavement, I thought, the modern world is truly amazing. In less than a days time, I have been transported nine thousand miles away to the other side of the world.

I was warmly welcomed to the land of Oz by my host counselor through the Rotary Foundation, Bruce Cameron, and another Rotarian, Gail, of the Keilor East Rotary Club. Since my first day, Bruce has been a great host, checking in on me, even though he caught a bad flu the day after I arrived. He is wonderfully jolly and young at heart, and we are already getting along quite swimmingly. Bruce is a retired engineer and businessman, but more interestingly, he is a Lord, donned Lord Bruce Cameron by the Australian Goverment and the Queen (UK) for his service to his community. How cool is that! Bruce and Gail made my first day in Melbourne incredibly stress-free, helping me set up my bank account and get a mobile phone and just making sure I knew I had friends in Melbourne. And indeed, they are my first friends.

Two days after I arrived, I made another new friend, Ryan Diehl, a fellow Rotary Scholar from Kansas. Of course, I brilliantly pointed out that he is like Dorothy--you know, from Kansas and now in Oz. Actually, I didn't make this association until 3AM that night, and I was sure no one else, not even he, had made this connection, and with great pride announced it to him the next day. Okay, I knew I wasn't the first to figure this out, but I still managed to amuse myself and take just a smidgin of pride in my discovery. Anyway, Ryan is also studying at Melbourne Uni (this is what the locals call it) and has been here since February. He was kind enough to accompany me as I went flat-hunting, since I had not yet acquainted myself with the transportation system. Having only gotten about 6 hours of sleep over my first two nights, I cannot tell you how much I appreciated his company.

I'm still looking for a place to live (I think I'll land one soon), but in the meantime, it's nice to have made some friends who have helped me to feel at home already. I don't have pictures of them yet, but I will definitely be seeing them again so I'll be putting those up in later posts.