International Relations 101.

I think one universal constant amongst all enlightened cultures is a love for:

a) meat roasted on a stick and subsequently wrapped in some sort of bread; and

b) a love of intoxicating beverages to dull the horror of one’s circumstance.

In Australia, I presume the entire image of drunken Australians results from the lack of decent internet – not being able to watch Youtube means they’ll hit the goon* pretty hard. It appears to be perfectly acceptable to pass out on a bench in the city, pee yourself and wake up in your own vomit and no one will judge you. In respectable countries that’s known as alcoholism, but here that’s just life. Most intriguing! In one of my classes, I learned that this has roots in both the traditions of the convicts of old, Larrikins, and Swaggies. What these are exactly is anyone’s guess, although they are much beloved by Australians as an integral part of their culture. Despite the perceived backwardness of the Australian bush, even they enjoy some of the same pleasures of the normal world. As you can probably imagine, many jokes are had at the expense of Australians.

In light of these revelations regarding Australian tradition, the best way to both honour Australia as well as forging international relations is to hold an alcohol fuelled party. However as university students, we like to class it up with cheap beer, cheaper wine and Japanese food. Being a positive cultural ambassador, I volunteered to help Koki, my Japanese roommate, cook the food. I think I’ll have to bring some of these recipes back to Canada with me. We ended up make a smorgasbord of food, including Okonomoyaki (A Japanese pancake filled with pork, shrimp, cabbage, mochi, and cheese), Sushi (We used lightly grilled salmon and kingfish), Sushi rolls, and some other Japanese specialities. I asked Koki about Sake Bombs, but he didn’t know what they were. I guess we’ll have to explain the bastardization of Japanese culture by drunken gaijins.

One pretty consistent theme amongst our parties is the amount of international students that end up turning up, which is actually really cool, because it’s really conducive to mingling with lots of different cultures. Not only do you get a lot of questions answered about far away cultures (and subsequently dispel some longstanding myths regarding Canadian culture – i.e. Canadia.), but you also gain a real sense of self and national pride when you travel. It’s pretty cool that I can proudly identify myself as distinctly Canadian, and even though I don’t consider myself the average guy… apparently I do represent a lot of Canadian stereotypes! Occasionally I do slip in some nonfacts into the mix, just to keep the mystery of Canada in everyone’s mind. Uniquely, amongst all international students is the shared experience of living in Sydney, which is a new environment for everyone but maintains some constants. For example; of getting screwed over by landlords, the ridiculously expensive and crappy internet, and even finding cheap eats in Newtown! Without getting too sentimental, the shared experience helps connect people who, up until a month and a half ago never knew each other, and makes everyone instantly relatable. Except those bastards in the Unilodge or Sydney University Village. You know who you are!

The party quickly got underway and after gorging ourselves on delicious Japanese food… I guess the pictures explained the story better.