All of the people that I live with and interact with at the hostel have been really nice but I am starting to realize how different I am and my interests are to most of the other people that I am living with. It seems life for most of them getting “Pissed” (American English translation Drunk, trashed, wasted, ect…) every night is the primary goal. And since alcohol over here is so expensive most of what is consumed is this horrible sweet wine called Goon. Absolutely terrible stuff, tastes gross, gives you a horrible hangover and it is consumed by the gallons on a nightly basis. I drank it once and think I am pretty much good. Though I was told the other day that I had to keep working at it and eventually I would develop a tolerance to the hangovers (I think this is one area I feel ok being a quitter).

I did go out with some people the other night to a bar in a hostel that was mainly backpackers. It was a very interesting experience. I really enjoyed people watching in there, though I think it kind of confused my party that I was perfectly happy to watch the craziness rather than actively participate. I have no problem dancing and singing and having a good time but there were some very interesting people in there that I was fascinated by. There were a few very intense looking guys who had turned some metal bar stools into drums. They were having a far better time with those stools than I think anyone has ever had with a stool. It was funny as hell to watch! Some of the dancing that was going on was crazy, entertaining as hell to watch but totally nutz! I also discovered that over here my gaydar is crap. I cracked one of the girls I was with up when I asked her “are there a really large number of gay guys here or are they just European?” Apparently they are for the most part just European. Who knew!!!!

Walking around I have noticed that at least in this area Homosexuality seems to be pretty open though according to Bill Bryson it was only recently legalized I think he said sometime in the 1980’s I have been reading about Australia and its history in Bryson’s book “In a Sunburned Country”. (It’s really good I am enjoying it a lot). I didn’t realize just how short the European portion of Australia’s history has been and how terrible to the plants, animals, and particularly the Aboriginal people the Europeans have been. It’s just amazing how recent a lot of these political changes have been. I still think it’s crazy that it took us until 1865 to get rid of slavery but it wasn’t ill sometime I believe in the 1920’s that the government recognized them as people and apparently as recent as the 1960’s the Aboriginal people were still being referred to as “feral jungle creatures” in some school text books. It’s just unbelievable to me though maybe that is a product of my up brining where a person is a person black, white, gay, strait, blood, or stranger you treat them all with compassion and respect until they prove they don’t deserve it. Though policies definitely seem to be changing around here drastically and quickly now.