Arriving

Look Right Not Left

We deplane as we have so many times in so many strange lands; we wait for our luggage; we meander through customs; our passports are stamped, we find the shuttle to our hostel.

As Bill Bryson eloquently says, “Because we know so little about it, perhaps a few facts would be in order: Australia is the world’s sixth largest country and its largest island. It is the only island that is also a continent, and the only continent that is also a country. It was the first continent conquered from the sea, and the last. It is the only nation that began as a prison. It is the home of the largest living thing on earth, the Great Barrier Reef, and of the largest monolith, Ayers Rock (or Uluru to use its now-official, more respectful Aboriginal name). It has more things that will kill you than anywhere else. Of the world’s ten most poisonous snakes, all are Australian. Five of its creatures-the funnel web spider, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, paralysis tick, and stonefish are the most lethal of their type in the world…If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or carried helplessly out to sea by irresistible currents, of left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback. It’s a tough place.”

We arrive here as the first stop on our long journey. And as we walk the city streets and see the sights it’s a metropolis like so many around the world, sophisticated but also a pleasantville. People sit in public parks for a two-hour lunch in business attire. Also there are many runners, men, women, of all ages shapes and sizes. We thought people in the US worked out a lot – the people of Sydney are training, the Sydney marathon is at the end of the month but maybe we, in the US, should be worried about these fit people trying to challenge us at some point, since we are worried about everyone else. But we probably won’t, because as was made evident on the fourteen-hour plane ride down south, with fifty USMCs, Australia is an ally. However as Bryson notes the people of Australia go unnoticed on the world stage. People talk about traveling to the exotic places in Australia but what about the people who actually call this amazing place their home. A land where they drive on the other side of very familiar looking cars, on the other side of the road and talk similarly but different, no foam = flat white. Hopefully over the next three weeks we will see Australia and get to know its people.