on sausages

I had an epiphany today. An epiphany spurred by the loud group of guys advertising $1 sausages on campus this afternoon (more on the sausage phenomenon later).

During the entirety of the going-abroad-decision-making process, I’ve experienced anxiety about my chosen destination. Why, I asked myself, am I going somewhere where the language is the same, the TV shows are the same, and walking down the street, I could easily mistake it for any warm American city? Shouldn't I go somewhere super exotic, where I can't understand anything, where my Westernized mind is boggled by the intensity of the crazy, life-altering events going on every day? Why Australia? I have struggled with this issue on and off for several months, always pushing it aside and thinking about happier things, i.e. the beach.

Until today. Cue epiphany. I was walking to class, my stomach was growling, and I encounter this group of guys shouting about discounted sausages. And then it just hit me. I like Australia. I am happy here. This is where I want to be.

I don't want to struggle to communicate with the native people. I don't want to feel alone. I don’t want to go weeks without showering in a tiny rural village. I don’t want to live in a sophisticated European flat and go on art tours. I don’t want to go somewhere extremely exotic solely to have a more “authentic” cultural experience. I would love to go to Africa & Europe & South America at some point, but I’m devoting thousands of dollars and four months of my life to this experience. I want to be in a place where I can have fun, meet people, and not be stressed out all the time. That is Australia.

What’s more is that for all of the American luxuries I didn’t have to give up (Internet, showers, large portion sizes), there are tons of things that are, in fact, not the same. I am for sure living a different life in a place far, far, really really scarily far from WashU, and that makes me confident that I made a good choice.

I will make an elaborate post one day listing all the differences between America and Australia, but for now, let me leave you with a short piece about sausages.

THEY LOVE SAUSAGE HERE.

Seriously. So many meals here involve sausages. And every student group sells them on campus for fundraisers. When they say they’re having a BBQ, they mean sausages. No buns. Just white bread. Just a sausage on a piece of white bread. With onions. And barbecue sauce. I don’t get it. But I love it.

So today I walked to class, eating my $1 sausage, in perfect weather, and I was happy.