I've been slacking on keeping up with this blog, but I'm back and I have a few posts in mind for the next few days. I think my days of writing thousand word posts are over as they take up too much time and I don't usually have that much of an opinion on things. So here goes with a shorter post.
While I knew Australia had more to it than Sydney, Melbourne, the Outback, and the Reef, I had no idea what it looked like. I think in my imagination I saw smaller cities, such as Townsville, as just miniature versions of Sydney. Obviously when I stopped and thought about it, I knew every city was going to have its own character, but considering Australia is rarely in the news, I had little to base my imagination on. So when I first arrived in Townsville, I think I was a little disappointed it wasn't Sydney. Not overly disappointed, because I knew it wasn't going to be Sydney, but nonetheless, I didn't expect it to be so different. And boy is Townsville different. First of all, it's located roughly about 1,000 miles north of Sydney, so the flora is wildly different. And secondly, it's located in Queensland, where, as anyone from outside of the state will tell you, people are just a little weird.
But having now lived here for close to two months, I've come to appreciate Townsville for what it is. I have no desire to stay here after I'm done with the term, but it's more than enough for 5 months. The first thing that one notices upon arriving in the city is the scenery. Surrounded on three sides by steep, verdant hills and on the fourth by a gorgeous stretch of golden beach, Townsville has plenty going for it location-wise. It's definitely a tropical city. There are palms everywhere. It's hot, it's sunny, and when it's not, it pours harder than I ever thought possible. The fauna is amazing, especially the birds. Sulfur-crested cockatoos fly over my house every night at 6pm by the hundreds causing the biggest racket I have ever heard. Rainbow lorikeets continue to amaze me with their colors (or should I say colours? I am in Australia after all). Ibises routinely impress me with their determination in the face of apparent lack of coordination. And that's just a few of them. On any given day, I might see 10 or 15 species of birds, most of them gorgeous. Wallabies can be found on campus, and apparently koalas are not uncommon. Castle hill is as good of a city hike as there is this side of Table Mountain, Cape Town (more on that in a later post). All in all, Townsville is damn pretty. Or it would be without all the buildings. The neighborhoods are definitely pretty, but the downtown could use some work. But that's just being nitpicky. So in that respect, Townsville lives up to my expectations.
However, the people are not at all what I expected. My image of Australians is of cool, tan, happy, liberal people. For the most part, Sydney lives up to that. Townsville does not. The people are certainly tan and happy, but cool and liberal they are not. Queensland is somewhat the Texas of Australia, and the more north you get, the more pronounced this becomes, disregarding Cairns. Townsville is both a military town and a mining town. Which is to say there are a lot of macho dudes walking around. People tend to dislike the south (New South Wales and Victoria) because of all the press they receive. They don't seem to like the government all that much. They tend to be somewhat rough. And of course, they're not crazy about Americans, which I guess is to be expected. This is not to say they're not nice. The vast majority of people are friendly and helpful, just a bit distrustful. For the most part I don't notice it, but I wasn't expecting to feel like such a foreigner.
But I'm okay with it. It's part of the experience. It's been fascinating seeing a different part of Australia. I want to see more of it. I would encourage everyone to visit. Queensland folk are a bit odd, but only after you've spent a while with them. Mostly they're wonderful people happy to show off their amazing state. And Townsville is worth a look. I miss the States much more than I expected, but I've grown to love Australia. Pictures will follow this post as soon as I'm back from class.
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