im baaaaaaaaaacckk

hey! ok, well yeah, i guess i dont even have that much to talk about
im taking a break from researching my history paper. its only going to be around 1500 words, but i already have a ridiculous amount of source material. im going to be talking about how australian film may or may not mirror the real experiences of australians at war (read: of course they dont), and how movies like breaker morant and gallipoli are historical fictions rather than true stories, and they were created to deliberately form a national image and identity that australians can rightfully be proud of, instead of the previous stereotype of the drunken, misogynistic, idiot that kinda dominated australian films in the past.
did you know that alot of aus film is controlled by the government, or was at least, and movies like gallipoli and breaker were funded by the government to help clean up the stereotypes? i mean, both films were based on reality as far as the public and directors were concerned, i guess there was just allot of propaganda or something going on during the wars, so the aus troops may actually have been less than pristine, and instead of getting blasted to pieces because england hated them, it might have been because, well, they actually werent very good soldiers ... ouch.
five months ago i would have been outraged by the suggestion, but honestly, from what ive learned these past months ... i wouldnt be surprised. this is a very different country than i thought it was.
please dont get me wrong, i still love it dearly, but there's a fairly entrenched immaturity to the place, and their english roots go far deeper than i realized.
i guess it makes sense. they were founded as a penal colony, sure, but the majority of the migrants i guess seriously considered themselves as going to a british colony. they wanted to be attached to england, they fought in multiple wars for england, only because of england.
it wasnt until the 80s that they got their own national anthem for petes sake. most still like thier archaic allegiance to the queen. they WANT TO BE BRIT BABIES!

i guess i always thought of australia as a different sort of US, common bond being, both were attempted british colonies, but by gum, we got our way and look at us now! brit free and loving it!

not so much.

they're brats about immigration, had a white australia policy that completely persecuted any non-glowing white ethnicity until the SEVENTIES (like, even greeks and italians. if you werent anglo-australian, you were no good), and so so much of their culture reeks of "previously owned british colony"
we were talking about this in class actually, the problems aus has with racism and immigration, and my prof asked the abroad students if we thought it was much different than the US, or was it about the same
i ended up throwing in my two cents, and everyone agreed with me, and the australian students were slightly offended i think. it was something like
"well, actually, while there definitely are racial problems in the states, the whole immigration thing i dont really get here, and i have to admit, its emphasized for me the differences between the US and AUS that i didnt really appreciate before coming here. i guess its just that AUS clung to the idea of being a british colony for so long, and valued that mentality, and its only been in the last 30 years or so that you've started to break away. meanwhile, the US decided that it wanted to distinctly separate herself from england pretty much off the bat, and embraced a truly "melting pot" mentality to immigration ... i mean, we wanted to form a country where anyone, no matter what, could come and make a life for themselves. of course we've had our problems, and our hypocrisies, but at least thats what the ideal always was. we want and from our founding documents embrace diversity ... australia ... not so much"
but yeah, its true.
now im getting all goosebumpy and bright eyed thinking of the statue of liberty.
good grief im a basket case sometimes.

cos i guess that means allot to me. i mean, yeah, you can have the movies or books or cnn exposes on how racist and bad and hypocritical we are, showing the statue and monuments and whatnot to show how everything is for show, and make sure we all pick up on the cynicism, and yeah, sometimes the hypocrisy gets to me. but i guess the point is, at least we have an ideal, and all of us in our own way are striving for it. australia is still trying to figure out their ideal for themselves, and they arent doing the best job of it.

sorry, im being very abstract and vague. these are just thoughts that've been puttering around my head for a while.


ANYWAYS the reason you should be excited that im researching my paper NOW is because its not due for another week, and in estherland thats unheard of! of course, it wouldnt be happening if i didnt have TWO 2500word papers due the monday after this one, but still, im proud of me.

um ... you probably got the mesg i left on catheines blog, but i got my theatre and cinema paper back and got an HD! i was surprised surprised. followed immediately by wrath, because honestly, our prof lady was telling the class how there were tons of passes and credits because they didnt research enough, or focused too much on one thing and not another, and that there werent very many HDs. of course, i was freaking out, positive i got a pass or credit or something (Ds to low Bs), but i got mine back, did well, and after checking out with everyone else, was relieved because all the notre dame kids got HDs. we ALL get HDs all the time! honestly, if you were to take the top 5, heck 1% of this school, (2500 total), i would place allot of money that all the notre dame kids were in there. and im not trying to be cocky, i swear, its just so aggravating, because the history department hates us SO much, they think we're all slackers and terrible people, and good grief! we are doing phenomenally well here. we take more classes than any of the australians (people take 3 or 4 units at a time here), and we excel. the only class that allot of people arent excelling in so far?
history
the class that only has abroad students in it. i honestly think its because they're trying to make a point about how hard it is to do well here. but thats absurd! we're doing better than all of the australians in our other classes, and i think allot of people would do better in history if we werent being treated so badly by the profs.
well, thats harsh. there is one lady prof whos really awesome, she leads my tutorial, i love her. and she loves us and is super sweet. but everyone else treats us like second graders who have discipline issues.

*rant over*

thats been vexing. but yeah, other than randomly getting really upset about stuff like that, ive been doing great. my other classes are awesome ... well, we'll see how really awesome after i get my poli sci papers back, im extremely nervous about those. i just dont get poltics. arg.

i talked to kate online, she IS going to be at TAC this summer, and i havent confirmed, but im hoping i can stay with her. oh yes, i never got john daley's email, so i havent asked them officially if i can stay yet.

um, what else. works been going OK. i mean, it pays fine, i just get frustrated with how slow moving everyone is. im looking forward to the fish place again =)

i got a hair cut! it was a great experience. the hairdresser lady used to live in wales, moved here two years ago with husband and kids, HATES it, and listening to her rant about all the things that drive her up the wall was cracking me up. basically, fremantle is a fantabulous place to visit, and stay for a time. but i dont think i could do more than a semester. if i were to live here, it would have to be in melbourne or sydney or something like that. i love being able to get away from the city, but deep down, i love being around a big city more. or if i was to live away from the city, i would want to be AWAY. like in the kimberlies ... sigh.
i could live there for a while. they have a grave need for teachers. im looking into things, just a heads up.


yeah, i think thats more it actually. its not that i dont like australia, i just dont think i could handle living in urban WA. but we'll see how the east coast fairs when i visit (!)

aight, i should go watch gallipoli. *sigh* so much work to do, have to go watch mel gibson ... hee hee

but yeah, ill put up pictures when i figure out how (my computer is being retarded at the moment - im in a computer cluster)


love you all, hopefully talk to you soooon