America

Hey everyone!

So this week was election week here in Australia. It is illegal not to vote, so everyone votes. It was fun walking around Sydney getting pressured to vote for Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott. It was also fun telling people I can't vote because I'm foreign and letting them guess my ethnicity. No one is ever wrong. Everyone knows I am American because I say R's. Only one time someone messed it up and guessed I was Canadian. But anyways, for the first time, the election was too close to call, so they might have to have a re-vote! My Aussie friends are not happy to possibly have to go and vote again.

Today I had lunch with my Aussie friends. We ate pizza! It was amazing!!! I got barbeque chicken with mushroom. But as we were talking, one Australian girl pointed out how self-centered and sort of ignorant Americans can be. Especially the American media. It kind of made me defensive at first. But I've been thinking about it all day. I've came to the conclusion that this is probably true.

In Australia, the news shows what's going on around the world, not just Australia. In America, we only talk about things that are going on in America. They talk about the middle east on the news, but only because we are involved. Think about it. What else do you ever see on the news? I bet you didn't know Australia was having an election. But here in Australia, they talk about every countries elections on T.V. I guess we are sort of self centered.

And here, they know what America's government system is like. They know most countries voting system or lack of. In America, we are only taught our own.

I guess you can go by resource consumption and waste as well. America is a very small percentage of the world's population (4.52%), but contributes a HUGE percentage of the worlds waste (estimated over 30%). And we also use way more than 4.52% of the worlds resources. In Australia, most people are what we would call "hippies" in the U.S. because they really care about the environment. Everyone recycles. You see more recycling bins than trash cans (no joke.) If everywhere was like the U.S. and didn't care so much about the environment, the world would be so gross and we'd have no resources left. I really hope America can change that because I love America and I don't want America to be looked down upon by any country.

Well, that's all I have for today. Just sort of a random thing I've been thinking a lot about today.

Love you all!

Brittaney