Internationalism

Something that really calls my attention is how Australia is international. Let me explain.

Although Australia is a quite isolated island, it’s very very connected to what happens in the world, especially in US and UK. Some facts to support this idea:

- People study lots of foreign models and the situation of other countries in university;
- One of the biggest selling point in my work is that we have access to “global best practices”;
- English people are extremely respected in the country;
- AIESEC members are always participating of other national committees, international conferences, AIESEC International and other international bodies;
- Australians travel overseas a lot!

As paradoxes are always present, though, when it comes to the official external policy, Australia is a very conservative country and is not taking part of some extremely relevant global efforts. They didn’t sign the Kyoto Protocol, to reduce greenhouse emissions; don’t support UN the corporate responsibility working group; and didn’t sign the Treaty against women discrimination.

Indian culture

Last weekend we had an awesome Indian Cultural Day. Organised by Siddharth, we started with an Indian movie, followed by discussions and high quality Indian food.

Some things that I learnt:
- India produces around 800 films a year (almost 3 per day!)
- Going to the cinema is the typical Indian program for the weekend, as it’s quite affordable. The films are the equivalent to the Brazilian soap operas and generally show an imaginary world, very rich people and a happy end.

More than that, something that called my attention again about Indian culture is how they are serene when they take decisions. In one part of the film, the boyfriend of the main character said she shouldn’t talk to other men. Instead of swearing at him, she said she needed to think about their relationship, and it would be helpful it he did the same.

My birthday

For the "gauchos" reading the blog, happy Gaucho Day! Here, in the other side of the world, it's not holidays. But everybody around me have heard a little bit about Brazilian history and the "Farroupilha" Revolution already ;o)

“Mostremos valor, constância
Nesta ímpia e injusta guerra
Sirvam nossas façanhas
De modelo a toda a terra”
Hino Rio Grandense

Talking about my birthday, it's always good to feel more mature, experienced and serene than last year, especially recapturing how much has happened in the last 12 months.

But besides the good feeling, my birthday couldn't pass without some sort of celebration, right? Even not counting with the famous strawberry cake, the party was quite joyful! Around 20 people showed up last Wednesday evening, amongst foreign interns, AIESEC members, neighbours, flatmates and work colleagues. Neighbours brought cake and, with Jhow's help, we had a good amount of Brazilian music and some caipirinha (by the way, these were the most expensive limes I have ever bought!). There was even a "chão, chão, chão"!

Another very nice thing was to be surprised by lovely emails and calls from everywhere. Thanks a lot for that, my friends!!!

Non Australian Personality - Master Jhow

I couldn’t help adding a non Australian personality to my blog – in the end of the day, he is the Master!

Yes! Jhow just arrived in Sydney. He’s also an intern in the city and will stay in my place for the first weeks, until he finds a flat to live. It was very nice to meet him, who is now the only physical linkage I have with my life in Brazil. It’s great to have people who know us well around!

Besides the great conversations, I don’t need to tell I was missing Jhow’s particular – and quite dangerous – way of walking the stairs, do I? But the surprise of this time was the Master’s new Portuguese sleeping fashion: little cows pajama. Jhow! Jhow! Jhow!

Australian Personality #2 – Mr. Smith

While in the beach, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Smith (picture below). Mr. Smith was in the beach in the end of the afternoon, walking around with his metal detector!?! My first (dumb) thought was that he was looking for land mines. As I was too curious not to talk to him, I approached him and we had a very pleasant conversation. He told me he was looking for coins, which people accidentally drop. He explained me everything about this market: all you need to do if by a metal detector, commonly sold in tools stores; in winter, you don't find as many coins; on the other hand, there is a lot of competition in summer; etc.



Besides making a living, Ms Smith is a very popular character in the beach, as everybody knows him and many people look for him when they lose their mobiles, watches, cameras and so on.

A true personality!

Australian Snapshot #1 - Sculpture

Walking in a beautiful park close to where I live, I faced this very interesting and profound sculpture by the famous Australian artist Brett Whiteley.


“The fine art of painting, which is the bastard of alchemy, always has been always will be, a game. The rules of the game are quite simple: in a given arena, on as many psychic fronts as the talent allows, one must visually describe, the centre of the meaning of existence."

Brett Whiteley


To see some of his paintings, check http://www.artquotes.net/masters/whiteley_paintings.htm

Relaxing weekend

Last weekend was very relaxing. It started quite energetic, though, with dinner and party in a cool genuine Latin club by the Harbour.

On Saturday, walk in parks, reading and jazz listening by the Opera House and nice conversations.

On Sunday, beach! Coogee beach - beautiful! The colour of the water is impressively blue-green, the rocks edge is imponent, company was good (first randoms, than Salma and Liz - thanks girls!) and I even found a group of beach volley weekend athletes. Isn't that awesome!

At night, welcome to 2 new AIESEC interns: Ana from Bulgaria and Marina from Russia/Canada.

Sustainability in Australia

It took me quite a long time to write about this, right? But subjects that interest us continue catching our attention – maybe even more than before – when we’re abroad.

So, since I arrived in Australia, I’ve been getting involved and meeting people engaged in sustainability related things:
- engaged in a very nice sustainability virtual network, commanded by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), which produces a high level worth reading scientific newsletter - http://www.csiro.au/;
- engaged in the social investment committee of Colmar Brunton, which is focused on the Habitat for Humanity program - http://www.habitat.org/;
- participated of some events: launch of One at a Time Foundation, GreenPeace renewable energy seminar and social leadership lecture at Sydney University, where I can understand Australian stage in terms of sustainability practices and thinking and, most importantly, connect to locals;
- watched “The inconvenient truth” movie.

Some sad findings:
- Australia is among the top 3 countries in greenhouse emissions per capita (after US and Kuwait);
- 90% (!!!) of Australian energy comes from coal (in Brazil, 96,8% come from water);
- Australia and US are the only developed countries who didn’t sign the Kyoto Protocol;
- More than half of the people drive to work;
- Although Australia produces lots of technology around environmentally friendly systems, it generally exports it without implementing in the country;
- The level of conscience and engagement is still very low and even the ambitions of the environmental leaders is shy – they are fighting to have 15% of the total energy production coming from renewable sources by 2025.

Given this situation, we are planning to start a discussion group on the theme in the upcoming weeks, formed by people with different backgrounds, willing to spread knowledge, create individual commitment and put some actions into practice. Let’s see…

Darumas

Tonight, I went to a Japanese restaurant with AIESEC and had a bit of a class with Kana about Japanese culture.

Kana’s parents are Japanese, she was born in Australia, speaks Japanese and is going to live in Japan for the next 5 months.

The most curious thing I learnt today is about the Darumas (picture beside). Daruma is a wooden made doll, without arms or legs and with white / unpainted eyes. In New Year’s Eve (the most important family occasion), people paint one of the eyes and make a wish. When the wish comes true, they paint the other eye and, in the next New Year’s Eve, burn the “complete” Daruma, which brought some king of happiness to the house.

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daruma

House warming

With the theme “Trashbag Clubber Chic”, the party brought friends from 4 different people (Duncan, Alex, Chris and I) together in a raining Saturday.

In the beginning, everybody was quite shy. But with some introductions, drinks and Italian kiss, everybody starting interacting. And the resistant ones enjoyed and danced like never in the 1 to 4 a.m. trash music selection!


A true party, to warm up the new house!!!

Australian Personality #1 - Steve Irwin

“Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and conservationist known as the ‘Crocodile Hunter’, was killed Monday by a stingray while filming off the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.”

That’s it. The Crocodile Hunter in dead. And in a very unique and coherent way, if I can say so.

He is definitely one of the internationally most known Australian citizens and its death caused different feelings in people around here. Some think he just used an extreme stereotyped image to make money; others say he’s a truly environmental conservationist, who called a lot of attention to its cause.

First "saudade" feeling

Last Sunday, I received some incredible news, closing with a golden key my leadership experience in AIESEC, especially the last year in the national committee.

1) AIESEC in Brazil received the Regional UBS Award, for its Excellence and Achievements in the year 2005-2006. This means that we were the best country in the region! Congratulations to all the ones that put their passion, talent and effort to make it happen!

2) The other brilliant news was that AIESEC in Brazil was chosen to host the International Congress 2008, the biggest AIESEC conference in the world, which counts with young leaders from almost 100 countries, lots of externals, media, etc. It’s an honor and a big responsibility, as it’s the first time this meeting is happening in Latin America. Let’s go for it!

Well, I think I don’t need to say I am very proud and happy with such recognition and confidence demonstration. And, for the first time since I’m in Australia, I felt a strong saudade (for the non Portuguese speakers, saudade is a deep nostalgic feeling of missing something special). I wish so much I could celebrate these results with all the 7 great individuals who were part of the National Committee 2005-2006, eating a pizza in Cascaes, having great conversations and dancing some pagode.

I’m sure each one of them is feeling exactly the same: joy, pride, continuity wish and a good amount of saudade.

“SAUDADE

na solidão na penumbra do amanhecer.
Via você na noite, nas estrelas, nos planetas,
nos mares, no brilho do sol e no anoitecer.

Via você no ontem , no hoje, no amanhã...
Mas não via você no momento.

Que saudade...”

Mário Quintana

Watson’s Bay

In a beautiful, beautiful Saturday, a crew formed by people from all continents – 1 Nigerian, 1 Indian, 2 Lithuanians, 1 Norwegian, 1 Italian, 1 Australian and 1 Brazilian (;-P) – did a very special program, aligned with the beauty of the day. We took a ferry and went to Watson’s Bay, which is one of the places in the harbour cost.

The beach is very nice, there is a small nudity beach as well, some fish and chips bars and a big cliff facing the sea. We tried to play some cricket there, but I lost the ball in 2 seconds. It happens…

Leaving Sydney for the first time

In my 1 month birthday in Sydney, I left the city for the first time. In a trip organised our company partner – Colmar Brunton – in order to celebrate the first semester’s results (to which I didn’t contribute ;o)), we all went to Hunter Valley.

This Valley is just 2 hours away from Sydney and very renowned by its vines and wineries (I didn’t know Australia had worldwide known wines before starting researching about the country). In our way, we tasted different types of wines in a couple of wineries (very fancy!) and ate quite well in a restaurant, from where we could face a beautiful landscape.

Besides improving my weak knowledge about wine, it was very nice to get to know a little bit more about Australia and the non big city environment. As well, spend time with the work colleagues in a relaxed atmosphere was very worthwhile.

For more information about the region and the good wines produced there, visit http://www.winecountry.com.au/.

Homosexuality

I’m very impressed on how Australians lead with homosexuality. Three examples will illustrate what I want to express:

- In my first week of work, I saw the cutest guy in my office (in the office, a quite formal environment) with a t-shirt saying “sorry girls, I’m gay”;

- About 2 weeks ago, I was in a pub with some friends of a guy that I met and we starting commenting about the hot people present in the place. Without ceremony, he revealed he was bisexual and felt attracted by a specific guy;

- Today, the most curious of all. One of my female colleagues saw some papers in my desk and asked: are we working with this company? How cool! My girlfriend works there.

I used to consider myself very open-minded and without prejudices. But I need to admit that this kind of situation is not normal for me, as I followed how hard it was for all my Brazilian gay friends stand up and assume their sexuality.

In Sydney, differently, it doesn’t seem to be a big deal. Some facts:

- The city is the second biggest gay city in the world (the first is San Francisco, in US);

- It hosts maybe the most famous gay parade in the world;

- There’s a big area close to the city centre (and relatively close to where I live) where many gays live and have fun, in many pubs, cafes, gyms and clubs;

- I’m not sure about legal rights – I’d better research about that!

- It’s quite common to see gay couples walking hand-by-hand in the streets.

Seems like Sydney citizens really live diversity and worry more about enjoying life than following rules. And it seems they live much lighter, as a result. I have the impression this doesn’t happen out of the big cities, though, at least when the topic is homosexuality.

Food

So, what about Australian food? What is exactly Australian food? Good question!

There are not that many dishes we can say that are Australians. I’ve been eating more Asian food (Chinese, Thai, Japanese, etc) than anything else. Sushi is sold as fast food in many places, just like coxinhas – fantastic! Anyway, slowly I’m being introduced to the genuine Australian food.

- Peas pie: seems to be typical. It’s a meat pie, covered by smashed potatoes, peas and gravy, as you can see in the picture;

- ANZAC biscuits: made with flour, oats and brown sugar, they used to be sent to Australia and New Zealand soldiers during the 1st World War, as they are tasty and last long;

- Kangoroo: actually, Australians don’t generally eat kangaroos – they should, though, as there are twice as many kangaroos that people in the country. Anyhow, I decided to try it! My ex hosts Steve and Leah cooked and we all ate delicious low fat meat with salad.

- Pavlova: this is the best dessert ever! Its made with egg whites, sugar and fruits. Fantastic!

For recipes, check http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/FOOD_IS_ART/places/Ausfoodarticle.html.

Dancing Sunday

After the frustration with the Brazilian party – where I intended to dance a lot, I decided to dedicate my Sunday to one of my passions: dancing!

In the afternoon, I went to the Sydney Dance Company, probably the most renowned contemporary dance company in Australia. But they also have classes for amateurs. And I took one of those – Broadway Jazz, quite nice! It certainly made me remember of Lalau Miranda, the Gaucho Dance Group I used to be part when I was in high school.

As it wasn’t enough, in the evening I went to a salsa class, followed by social salsa dancing. During my dancing day, some things called my attention:

- As my 32 year old female teacher was going to US to dance some musical, I could confirm than late maternity and instability are not big issues to Australians. In general, they are less attached to social rules and follow their dreams more easily. The economic situation is surely related to that;

- If Australians don’t follow that many rules in life, when it comes to shake their bodies, they seem to need 100 rules. Instead of just having fun, in the salsa class they were eager to learn a new step and there were lots of signs, pulls and lines so that they could accomplish it.

Cultural differences…

Frustrated Brazilian Party

In the first week I was in Sydney, I was forwarded an email about a Brazilian party. As time passed, I got excited and so did many of my new friends, and we bought the tickets to go.

As I was going to the party, took a bus and there was at least half of it (about 15 people) who were Brazilians. Thee were speaking Portuguese, making jokes, singing, etc, and I was quite nice to feel this spirit again, of a lot of joy.

Unfortunately, the organizers sold more tickets than the capacity of the place and some of us didn’t get in. I don’t need to say that I was very, very disappointed. Anyway, we went to another place, which was quite good: club, good music and beautiful people having fun. And took a Brazilian with us, as his friends had gone home with all the confusion.