Outback Diaries on YouTube

I just realised it's been over a year since we (Jhow, Marina, Salma, Lucy and I) went on our amazing Australian outback trip, when we learned a lot about ourselves, nature, aboriginal culture, trips and friendship.

To celebrate, I finally put our "Outback Diaries" film on YouTube. Enjoy!

Part 1:



Click here to see Part 2

Sustainable Sydney 2030 - the plan

Sustainable Sydney 2030 is a vision for the sustainable development of the City to 2030 and beyond. Sustainable development is not just about the physical environment, but about the economy, society and cultures as well, and how addressing each, with bold ideas and good governance, will result in better outcomes for current and future communities.

Sustainable Sydney 2030 has a vision of a Green, Global, Connected City.

GREEN with a minimal environmental impact, green with trees, parks, gardens and linked open spaces, green by example and green by reputation.

GLOBAL in economic orientation, global in links and knowledge exchange, global and open-minded in outlook and attitude.

CONNECTED physically by walking, cycling and high quality public transport, connected ‘virtually’ by world–class telecommunications, connected to communities through a sense of belonging and social well being.

The main directions for such vision are:

• A Globally Competitive and Innovative City
• A Leading Environmental Performer
• Integrated Transport for a Connected City
• A City for Walking and Cycling
• A Lively, Engaging City Centre
• Vibrant Local Communities and Economies
• A Cultural and Creative City
• Housing for a Diverse Population
• Sustainable Development, Renewal and Design
• Implementation Through Effective Governance and Partnerships

Based on that, a plan was created and made available in various languages and accessible versions for residents' feedback.

I found the whole process really inspiring, as it involved strong leadership, counted with public participation and achieved a pretty impressive result. If I manage to lead and implement something close to this in my lifetime, I guess I will be a fully realised person! Go Sydney!

Australia with love

Tears kindly fall down my face as I listen to "Leaving on a Jetplane" and write this post.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye

But the dawn is breakin', it's early morn
The taxi's waitin', he's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could die

[...]

'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane
I don't know when I'll be back again
Oh, babe, I hate to go

John Denver

=============================================

Arriving back in Sydney I felt so home it wasn't funny. Not only the stunning beauty of the city, but also the realisation that I've lived close to best friends one could ask for made me enjoy even more my last days in the land down under. Receiving everybody's love was super powerful.

It might be hard, but I'll try to keep all this energy up for another special moment: going back home (the other home ;o)), being close to my family, feeling the Brazilian joyful spirit, enjoying the music and also facing the re-adaptation and job hunting processes.

The hugest THANK YOU, with lots of love!


Breakfast close to the beach



Lovely picnic

Special dinner


=============================================

Everywhere you go you always take the weather with you

Now its the same room but everythings different
[...]
Strange affliction wash over me
[...]
Do I lie like a loungeroom lizard
Or do I sing like a bird released

Crowded House

Australian personality #5 - Peter Garrett

Peter Garrett is the ex lead singer of the internationally famous rock back Midnight Oil (1973 - 2002) and current Labor Party Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment & Heritage, Arts.

While a rock star, he was always very committed to environmental causes and a strong critical of United States military and foreign policies.

As a politician, he continues involved in such causes, but is obviously quieter.

Some say he's not the same. Others say he's causing the biggest impact he could. Who am I to judge? Good luck, Garrett!

Feeling Australian #4

It's been a while that I don't post a "feeling Australian" fact, probably because I'm already too Australian. But here is one I didn't think I would post: I finally finished my Vegemite! Hooray! (I know it took me one whole year, but hey!)

A taste of Lebanon in Sydney

Last Sunday I was invited by Manny to visit Punchbowl, the suburb where she lives. I knew it was a mainly Lebanese region, but it's more: it really feel like a little Lebanon in Sydney. People speak Arabic, the markets have a different display, the posters on the walls are from Lebanese singers, Arabic styled clothes are sold and people eat the most yummy Lebanese food and sweets.

In order to live a little bit of all that, Manny showed me around, we bought some really good sweets and went to have lunch with her brother and father. I'm very glad we did, as I learnt a lot of things.

As you might know, Lebanon was created to be the Christian state in the Middle East. So around xxx% of the population is Christian, but another xxx% is Muslim.

Therefore, there's an ongoing tension. Formally, it is one country, but the education people receive at home segregate them into Christian Lebanese and Muslim Lebanese.

Discontent with this situation, Manny's father (who is Christian married to a Muslim wife) joined a political party which advocates the creation of one secular state comprised not only by all of Lebanon, but also Syria and Jordan. The idea is to acknowledge the difference but unite people around a bigger dream and, in his words, "let God decide whose religion was wrong when we die".

Youth in Australia

I’ve been thinking about posting about Australian Youth for a long time, but I didn’t want to jump into conclusions too fast, in order to be able to understand a bit more of the hidden part of the cultural iceberg. After chairing 2 youth conferences and facilitating 2 others (including a recent high school girls’ leadership event – thanks Flor and Lucy for the invite!), I think I’m ready to share some perceptions.


Young people in Australia are incredibly capable. They are smart, skilled, express themselves very well and have a fairly good understanding of the world’s situation. They are interested in internationalism, are free from pressures if they want to pursue an Arts degree and broadly wish to live in a better world. They value their leisure and life style a lot and have tons of opportunities available, such as education, government welfare programs, individual sponsorships and corporate jobs.


However, with all these things easily available, they tend to hop around different things and don’t generally commit a long / a lot of time for a project in which they believe. Therefore, big initiatives don’t tend to be carried on and beliefs such as “it’s too difficult” and “there’s not enough money” are reinforced.


Talking about Australian society, this behaviour probably works. People are exposed to different jobs throughout their lives, have a great quality of life and are happy, whereas the economy runs smoothly and prices rise proportionally to the incomes. On the other hand, it’s a pity to have these many capable people doing so little to transform a very uneven and unfair world out there.

World Heritage in Northeast Australia

According to the Lonely Planet, locals from Cairns “speak reverently about their region and will look at you with undisguised pity if you’re form ‘down south’”. That was exactly what happened in the first hours of our 3,5 days long weekend in Cairns, when we talked to some authentic Australian blokes in a local pub.

In our 3 days, we had the chance to:

- Stay in a $19 backpackers’ place (with dinner included ;o))
- Drive through the beautiful sinuous road of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, in the middle of the rainforest, headed to Cape Tribulation
- Do a short walk and see where the rainforest meets the see
- Take a boat in the Daintree River and see 3,5 meters crocodiles
- And most importantly: snorkel and dive in the exuberant Great Barrier Reef! (I saw all sorts of corals, molluscs, fish and even sea turtles, crown fish - Nemos! - and a shark!)

The Reef totally deserves to be called World Heritage, as it has so much to teach to humanity with its interrelations, uniqueness and beauty. More than the colours, shapes, dimensions and features, the incredibly intricate harmony of life under the water is really impressive. Camouflage, fluorescent, tiny, gigantic, funny and odd fish are host by hard or flexible (but always gentle) nurturing corals. When the water current is strong, they all pulse in the same rhythm, as if they were guided by the best of the orchestra’s maestros.

At the end of the weekend, I got a jellyfish scarf, felt a lot of “saudade” from Brazil and shared the Cairns citizens’ pride for living in the paradise.

Life in the Great Barrier Reef

In 2003, I went scuba diving for the first time in Arraial do Cabo (RJ, Brazil). Marcos, my diving partner, was absolutely in love with the sport and used to say there's nothing richer and more revealing than life under the water. He was absolutely right! Look at what his statement means in the Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef system in the world, which:
- stretches for 2,600 km;
- covers an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres;
- began growing 20,000 years ago;
- hosts 700 species of corals, 30 of whales, 6 of sea turtles, 125 of sharks, 200 of birds, 5000 of molluscs and 1500 of fish;
- is breathtaking!

Visiting the Nation's Capital

Last weekend, Mandi, Sveta and I rent a stylish red/pink Toyota and had the best time in Canberra, the Federal Capital, 3 hours south of Sydney.

The construction of Canberra was decided in 1901 (year of the constitution of the Australian Federation), in order to end the dispute between Sydney and Melbourne.

As a planned city, Canberra is a very organised place and, as the capital, it hosts most of the national governmental entities. On the other hand, the place has a small population (only 300.000 people) and not so much of a soul, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, we had the best time there! We visited the War Memorial, the new Parliament, the Science Museum and the Art Gallery, all great places, which helped us understanding Australian history and arts better.

On the social agenda, farewell party in Lauro’s place – with heaps of Brazilians and the first decent forro since I arrived in Australia! – and meeting Angie, my colleague in the UNDP Peace Project in Poland 2003.

Angie deserves a special paragraph. She is finishing her PhD in peace & conflict in Rwanda, is very relaxed and just joined the Australian Foreign Affairs Department’s Diplomacy Program. She is working in the Chinese economic committee and told me a story that made me feel in the West Wing. Apparently, the Chinese government may not sign the Free Trade Agreement as planned because it’s unhappy with the possibility of the Australian Prime Minister’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, because of the Tibet issue.

Australia's most famous songwriter crazy about Rio

Peter Allen is a famous Australian songwriter and singer, creator of the unofficial Australian anthem "I still call Australia home" and inspiration for a musical based on his life called The Boy from Oz, the first Australian to be performed in Broadway.

Look at parts of one of his songs:

"When my baby
When my baby smiles at me I go to Rio
De Janeiro, my-oh-me-oh
I go wild and then I have to do the Samba
And La Bamba
Now I'm not the kind of person
With a passionate persuasion for dancin'
Or roma-ancin'
But I give in to the rhythm
And my feet follow the beatin' of my hear-eart

Woh-ho-oh-oh, when my baby
When my baby smiles at me I go to Rio
De Janeiro
I'm a Salsa fellow
When my baby smiles at me
The sun'll lightens up my li-ife
And I am free at last, what a blast"

Trip stories

Where to start?

In the second day of the trip, in Woomera’s campsite:
"While cooking dinner, we met in the kitchen a couple with a dog. They had a camper van and were driving from Adelaide to Alice, Darwin, Perth and back.
Gabi: Wow, that’s a great trip! How long is it gonna take?
Man: Who cares? Maybe 2 months....."

Last day, in an amazing pub in William Creek, where people from everywhere hang at the walls old IDs, flags, hats, bras…
“Gabi: This is a really cool place. How long has it been here for?
Lady from the pub: 30 years now.
Gabi: Awesome. And how many people live in William Creek?
Lady from the pub: Here? 10.”

In between:
- Opal world capital, which has 50% of its constructions underground and probably the same percentage of the flies of the planet;
- 8 km track in the middle of gorges and unexpected waterholes (it has rained 2 weeks before we arrived, what is absolutely uncommon), which took us the whole day to complete as the track got much harder and we would stop, meditate and swim;
- Car breaking down 500 km far from the closest town;
- Ride with a Rottary high school students’ excursion + food (berosidade!) + camel riding for free!
- Walks in Lord of the Rings type of scenarios;
- Alternative dirt road, which permitted us to met the founder of a village and see the most amazing sunset of my life!

More about aboriginal culture

The aboriginal culture is fascinating and, although it’s 40.000 years old, it many times represents some of the most progressive thoughts we hear nowadays.

To start with, before the European colonisation started, the population was fairly distributed across the whole the territory, and not 95% concentrated in the cost as it is now.

All their social and legal rules were based on an extensive number of stories from the Dreamtime, which essentially transmitted that nature is sacred and all beings are equally important, as well as the idea that the Dreamtime / Creation / Paradise is now (differently from us, they were more attached to places than to time).

Reflecting those stories in their social organisation, some of the beliefs and expressions were:
- Kids are independent, choose their mothers and are raised by the community
- Complex kinship system, guaranteeing stability, independence and constant interaction with other tribes
- No commerce, no exchange of goods, but presents in various situations and responsibility towards the well being of some of the community members
- Arranged marriage + sweethearts (extra marital relations), which would bring social stability without losing the individual pleasure
- Clear gender roles to be played: women's role is conserve, love, look for harmony; men's role is to destroy and create, understand nature's cycles and avoid super population, aggressiveness

I know the readers of Thoureau, Huxley and Quinn are exhilarated now ;o)

However, the very sad side of it from what I read, heard and noticed is that currently most aboriginals don't live essential aspects of their culture anymore (sharing, dependence on nature and self independence), neither benefit from modernity comforts. They often receive government support, are not nomads anymore, maintain very few ceremonies and are quite marginalized, without having a unique space in their own land.

Presents from nature

We were certainly more sensitive and appreciative during the trip. But nature really did its part, rewarding us with amazing blue skies, birds announced sunrises, colourful sunsets and uncountable stars.

Here, you can use one of your senses and your imagination to feel a little bit of that magic. Enjoy!

Sacred landscape

"After leaving Adelaide, seeing some white terrain with bushes, passing through some green bushes and stopping for lunch in Port Augusta - where Salma said G`day to the gas station attendant ;o) - something cool happened: I slept for almost 40 min and feel that I woke up in the desert. Landscape has turned redder, air drier and there's a big isolation feeling. Trip has just started!"
Gabi, trip journal, 1st of April



Throughout the whole trip, nature was absolutely breathtaking. And how much have I learnt!
We’ve seen that the desert can have an exuberant chain of life, in an absolute delicate balance, dynamically changing.

The area where the current desert is located used to be a big sea 200 million years ago (nowadays a good part of it continue being below the sea level) and, although it’s extremely dry at the surface, it hosts an underground water reserve that covers 22% of the Australian territory.

Therefore, we could find palm trees growing from rocks in an area called Palm Valley (!!!), which is still reminiscent of the times where the ocean was in that area (just to emphasize, we’re talking about hundreds of millions of years), as well as frogs who “hibernate” when the weather is too dry, maintaining the water in their bodies and coming back to live when it rains.

We’ve also seen live many sorts of gum trees and animals like kangaroos, camels, lizards, emus, many different kind of birds and dingos.

But I think what touched me the most is the landscape itself. The mixture between flat terrains and impressive rock formations, with gorges, canyons, cliffs and waterholes – result of millions of years of meteors falling, tectonic movements and erosion – transmits an energy that the same time fills us with a fantastic spirit and shows us how small and recent we are. No wonder the aboriginal people considered most of those places sacred.

Outback trip - introducing the team

Hello everyone,

Sorry for not posting about the Outback trip until now, but it’s a very hard job to select a few moments, stories and pictures.

Marina, Salma, Jhow, Lucy and I had one of the most remarkable experiences of our lives, where we drove almost 7.000 km, visited some of the oldest geological formations on Earth, saw the beauty and the life of the desert, got to know a little more about the aboriginal way of seeing the world, faced some physical and mechanical challenges and especially reconnected profoundly with nature and ourselves.

This is the team:

Together we:
- watched the stars;
- had a collective massage session;
- played sleepy (cards game, great to re-hydrate and provoke some visits to the toilet during the night, right Salma?)
- shared our gifts in a talent night;
- had public speaking classes ;o)
- transmitted strong energies to one another in Mac Donnell’s Ranges;
- walked a lot!
- danced in the middle of the Oonadatta track, where no cars passed for 3 hours / more than 200 km;
- had a lot of fun!

Countdown: 4 days to go!

The peak of my energy recently, though, has definitely been the Uluru trip. U..lu…what?

Well, Marina, Salma, Jhow, Lucy and I are going to face one of the nicest adventures of our lives, I suppose. In 4 days time we’re starting a 2 weeks road trip to the Australian desert, passing through a subterranean mining city, amazing rock formations, canyons, aboriginal sacred places and a lot of land and sand.

The trip is logistically demanding, personally exciting and spiritually relevant at this point of my life. (Soon I can update some more learnings about the aboriginal culture, history and myths)

Check what we’re gonna see soon – in 3 weeks time, pictures taken by me will be available ;o)

Aboriginal Conceptual Beliefs

Getting prepared for the desert trip we’re taking in 2 weeks time, I started reading about Aboriginal history and myths.

Talking about conception, Aborigines believed that in the beginning the world was an immense featureless flat floating disc. On tjukurita times, mythical giant creatures appeared. They had many similarities with aboriginal rituals and life style and planted an inexhaustible number of eternal spirit children .

Tjukurita era finished and the giant creatures died, but natural features stand where they’ve performed any tasks. This way, the mythical snake man became a watercourse, the camps of mythical creatures are now mountain ranges, and so on.

The spirit children – independent beings, about the size of a sand grain, who will became the children – o continued living in some welcoming spot, until they choose their mother and enter her body to develop into a child.

I found this story amazing because it, at the same time, sees humans as part of nature, children as community blessings and the individual as an independent decision capable being, since early times. I guess our scientific society has a lot to learn with the native inhabitants of this planet.

Learning from nature

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to the Blue Mountains, which beautiful and just one hour and a half drive from Sydney. I went with 4 other people, each one from a different country: Priscilla (China), Albert (Romania), Roy (Canada) and Jake (Australia, our driver and scout guide).

Arriving there, I noticed a few trees have marks of fire on the bottom of their trunks. Commenting with Jake, he explained me some trees actually need fire to reproduce, an amazing adaptation to the Australian dry environment and frequent droughts.

Piano Bar and Aussie Songs

Last night, after a great dinner in MC house with shisha and Lucy’s presence after almost 4 months in Thailand, we went to a Piano Bar. I got to know a little more about the Aussie way of enjoying music and obviously learnt some new very Aussie-life-style-description songs. Check it out!

Among The Gum Tree's

I've been around the world a couple of times, or maybe more,
I've seen the sights, I've had delights on every foreign shore,
but when my mates all ask me the place that I adore,
I tell them right away.

Give me a home among the gum trees,
with lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a ka-kangaroo.
A clothes line out the back, veranda out the front,
and an old rocking chair.

You can see me in the kitchen cooking up a roast,
or Vegemite on toast, just you and me, a cup of tea.
And later on we'll settle down and mull up on the porch,
and watch the possums play.

There's a Safeway up the corner, and a Woolys down the street,
a brand new place they’ve opened up where they regulate the heat,
but I'd trade them all tomorrow for a simple bush retreat
where the kookaburras call.

Some people like their houses with fences all around,
others live in mansions, and some beneath the ground.
But Me, I like the bush, you know with rabbits running 'round,
and a pumpkin vine out the back.

(Not) Feeling Australian #3 – Drinking

As I’m experiencing the Australian culture in all its length, I decided to take part in some drinking events. I don’t know if I mentioned before, but drinking is a quite important aspect of the Australian social life, as happy hours, friends catch ups and parties in general quite always involve drinking.

In December and January, I took part in 6 drinking events.

Hash run (twice): a run around the city, where you need to follow arrows, help your fellows and arrive in the end of the path. When everybody is there, we form a circle and the Hash Master conducts a very funny, interactive and culturally unique ceremony, where people end up drinking for different reasons. To be honest, it’s quite a nice game.

Power hour: one shot of beer every minute for 1 hour. People get quite drunk.
Skolling night: a night dedicated to skolling as fast as you can, where different AIESEC local committees form their team, cheer, chant and try to take home the Skolling Cup, which exists since the beginning of the 80’s. People really get into it. It’s impressive. And scary. I just watched.

Vodka night: a Sydney pride night, where people toast for great things existing in the city. Just Sydney people are invited.

Century club: one shot of beer every minute for 100 minutes. I just went for 50 minutes, but the winner stood until the 201st shot. It was quite an unpleasant experience, as people got completely smashed and didn’t enjoy the rest of the day.

As referred in the post title, I don’t really feel Australian in this sense. I don’t really care that people drink sometimes, but having alcohol in every social event and in every ceremony doesn’t seem right to me. Besides, it seems to me that educated and smart people get distracted about drinking moments and its effects instead of being healthy, having great conversations and caring about things that matter.

Adelaide

In January I had the opportunity to go to Adelaide for the first time, a city located in the south of Australia, about which I've heard quite a lot because of Lucy Dodd, who is from there and used to live with me in Sao Paulo.

Adelaide is the 5th biggest city in Australia, with 1.130.000 inhabitants. It doesn't have huge attractions, but an undeniable charm. The Rundle Market, the main streets and the beaches are calm and transmit a sense of familiarity and friendliness.

Thanks South Australians (especially Laura) for the receptiveness.

Feeling Australian #2 - Topless (no pictures!!!)

This post is extremely personal, but I need to do it, especially for my MC mates, to whom I told I was going to Australia to play beach volley and do topless. Well, I’ve played beach volley before and it was not a big deal. But the topless remained as a challenge.

Just after coming back from Melbourne, I had one free day and decided to go to the beach by myself. As I was alone and there were other women doing topless, I decided that was the right moment for trying it myself.

Very shy, I took off my top and remained laid down, so it wouldn’t be too evident. The interesting thing was nobody really paid attention to me. Everybody in the beach continued doing what they were doing, girlfriends were not particularly jealous and my behaviour was seen as normal.

The whole experience lasted 10 minutes, but it was quite a long time for me. I was impressed and happy with the natural way of seeing the body and the respect for individual choices.

Quite an experience!

New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve was absolutely amazing!

First, we invited all AIESEC interns in the country to come to Sydney. And most of them came! Counting alumni, friends and randoms, we were probably 30 – 40 people!

Second, Jhow and Jerry arrived in the Botanic Gardens at 8 in the morning and found the perfect spot for us to see the fireworks: by the harbour, just in front of both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

Third, we were 3/8 of the MC team together: Jhow, Lucy (who flew from Adelaide) and I. Amazing!

Well, the fireworks show was beautiful! It was quite special as well, as it was celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Harbour Bridge.

After watching it, we all headed to my house and did a little bit of a party there. Then, around 4a.m. we took the bus and went to Bondi beach, to see the sun rising from the ocean in the very first day of the year. As a good Brazilian, I jumped 7 waves and asked for a wonderful year!

Twelve Apostles

On Boxing Day (Dec 26th – no clear explanation why it’s called Boxing Day), Michelle and Simon drove us in the Great Ocean’s Road, one of the most beautiful and famous roads in the world. It’s really, really beautiful!

After almost 5 hours we arrived in the Twelve Apostles, these huge rocks in the middle of the ocean, formed by thousands of years of erosion. It’s absolutely breath taking!

The feeling is that nature is powerful, patient and peaceful. And the will is to stay there for hours, just observing, meditating, re-equalising our internal energy.

Melbourne

Melbourne is quite an interesting city: people are very elegant (lots of them wear black) , there’s quite a lot of culture and the city is very well organised.

However, people seemed to me a little bit colder than the rest of Australia (I’m sure the weather contributed, as despite of the summer it was rainy and cold all the time).

Cool things I found:

Very fancy Southern Cross Station, witch costed AU$ 1 bi (!!!), has an unique architecture and has everything you can imagine inside;

Federation Square, in the middle of the city, place for popular gatherings and for watching cricket, while I was there;

Melbourne Museum, definitely my favourite, with a modern architecture and various interactive attractions, from human body to dinosaurs, aboriginal art and cricket.

Nice to visit, but I still prefer Sydney or Brisbane.

Carols

There’s something extremely cool happening in Australia before Christmas – the Carols. Carols are events when people get together to sing Christmas songs and enjoy each others’ company.

The first one I went to was the Victoria Park Carols, which happened in the Park in front of where I lived in my first two weeks in Australia. There were around 400 people present, pretty much everybody from the neighbourhood. I really, really liked that! The community feeling was evident and the engagement with the commerce and schools around was part of the ceremony, as well as the presence of families doing a picnic in the park while the show didn’t start.

As I liked the concept very much, I went to a second Carols, this time in the Domain. Very different from the first, it was a huge show, counting with the presence of 100.000 people, some of the best singers in the country, a big charity campaign and TV forecasting. There was a big group of us present and it was amazing, especially the final moments, when everybody gets up, lights candles and sing together for a great Christmas and a peaceful new year.

Feeling Australian #1 – Shoes

Today, for the first time, I felt quite Australian. Check what happened.

I needed to go to work, as always. But I was also giving a short speech in the AIESEC recognition night + official opening of a local conference I was chairing, which meant I needed to run from work and walk a fair bit.

As I wanted to be beautiful for the night, I decided to wear high heels. But they were definitely not comfortable for working and specially for walking. So, what did I do? Without any doubt, wore comfortable shoes during the day, changed for the event and changed back to walk home. Very Australian…

Koala Park

Time for re-unions and more exploration of the Sydney surroundings. This week I had the pleasure to host Marjana and Nina in my house, 2 Slovenian friends who took part in the Peace Project in Poland with me in 2003. Isn’t that cool?

Well, cool meetings deserve cool Australian programs. So we went to the Koala Park, a kind of open zoo, where you can see and touch some very typical Australian animals: peacocks, many kinds of birds, emus, wombats, echidnas, dingos and obviously koalas and kangaroos.

The koalas are really cute! But they are quite boring, as they sleep 19 (!!!) hours a day, eat, get high with the eucalyptus leaves and sleep again.

So, I completely fell in love with the kangaroos. They are friendly, play a lot and are extremely original. I sure they wouldn’t be as sweet in a wild environment, though.

Sydney for Christmas

Sydney is getting very beautiful for Christmas! There’s certainly less lights than in Brazil, but quite a lot of decoration in public spaces and stores. The puppets' choral is my absolute favorite!

Sydney Tower

.

I finally went to the Sydney Tower! And it’s amazing!

I obviously didn’t do the tourist expensive tour, but as a good local went to the bar, entering there for free ;o)

The Tower is 309 meters high, cost AU$ 36 million and completes a rotation in 90 minutes, giving the observer a 360º fabulous view of the city, without needing to move. Fantastic!

Melbourne Cup

Also known as “a celebration that stops a nation”, this horse racing is happens in the first Tuesday of November, is extremely traditional and really stops Australia.

In my work, we worked until 12 and then went to a restaurant in Darling Harbour, a very nice place. The company sponsored the day, the food was great, free drinks and some betting. Many races went on during the whole day, but the most important one started punctually at 3 p.m. Everybody stopped, ran to a big screen and cheered all through the 3 minutes race. And then? Then the laid back atmosphere returned and people continued enjoying the day and drinking.

The whole experience was quite strange and interesting to me, but what called my attention the most was that people really dressed up for the occasion, buying new dresses and even wearing hats. I can understand that people dress fancily to watch the race in the stadium, but to watch it on a TV in a bar?!?

For the ones wondering if I was lucky, I need to say that… I was! Even knowing nothing about horses, I kept the tradition and won a non important third prize, which allowed me to pay the betting!

Koori Kitchen

Yesterday, I took part in an AIESEC in Sydney project called Koori Kitchen. It was created by a quite visionary and hard working member, Tina, with the objectives of:
- Preserving aboriginal culture and proud amongst aboriginal teenagers from Redfern, a quite marginalised suburb in Sydney nowadays;
- Improve their knowledge about nutrition and pleasure for cooking, so that they can have a healthier diet and a better life.

In the process I learnt:
- Aboriginal communities still have a strong sense of group; so we should never highlight too much individual accomplishments;
- They are generally very quiet, and just let you interact with them once they trust you;
- They face very important social problems: poverty, drugs addiction, bad nutrition, discrimination, among others. As a result, their life expectation is significantly lower than other Australians;
- In my perception, Australians don' recognise them as legitimate Australians, seeing aboriginal communities as another minority group present in the country.

This Saturday, as part of my role, I was around while the kids were cooking, giving some instructions but mainly taking pictures. It was quite a nice experience to interact with them and realise that people are at the same time very equal and very unique. Very equal in a sense that they just need a inspiration, trust and a little bit of skills to do extraordinary things; and unique in the sense that their actions, dreams and contribution will always be different, once genetics, temperament and previous experiences shape each one of us differently.

Comparing to Brazil, the Australian aboriginal communities can be translated into:
- Our indigenous communities, also extensively disrespected by the colonisers, with less legal rights until recently and facing important social problems nowadays;
- Our poor communities, quite marginalised, with fewer opportunities and not as many role-models. The difference, in this case, is that in Brazil we cannot use an ethnicity as synonymous of poverty, even if black people are statistically poorer and face heaps more discrimination.

Thanks for the opportunity, guys! See you in another Koori Kitchen Saturday!

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