Hey Friends!
Welcome to my newsletter, which I am absolutely winging, but what an amazing time to be winging things. Nobody knows what’s going on!
While I very much intend to tell you about all things travel, chooks, and crafts, I feel as though today’s ramble should touch on the historical events happening in the homeland, because wow, what a day.
Today, as you all surely know, marks a new administration for the United States. As an American living overseas, I have a unique perspective on what’s happening back home (that is, the Australian perspective), and I thought it might be interesting to share that with you today.
But putting today’s news aside for a moment, it’s also worth telling that I was overseas in 2016, too, on the day that Whatsy was voted in. At the time, I was working in New Zealand and living with my beloved Kiwi Family, and man oh man what a time that was. Kiwi Dad was engrossed in it; everyone was engrossed in it. The NZ media portrayed it as a mix of very exciting, very heartbreaking, and very entertaining news. For those of us who may not get out of the country very often, or are somehow otherwise unaware, the US is a big deal in many, many countries that are NOT the US. As an American, I often wish this wasn’t the case, but alas.
Being the American that I was, with a distinctly American accent, I was often a target for political conversation, which I’ve pointedly avoided at all costs for the last four years. This has been a rather difficult and tactful skill I’ve had to develop, especially in my bartending days in the Northern Territory. Back in New Zealand in those early days after the 2016 election, I was hopping from hostel to hostel, hiking and volunteering, and meeting tons of new people every day. One of the first questions people will ask you when you’re a traveler is where you’re from, and without fail I would receive one of two reactions: laughter or pity. Sometimes both. It didn’t really bode well as an introduction to making friends.
On one occasion, probably mid January 2017, I was shopping around a small craft market and started chatting with a lady who made handbags. She, like everyone, caught onto the accent and asked if I was American. “Yeah, I am.” I hated that I usually sounded sheepish about it. I was embarrassed. And she said, “Do you really want to admit that right now?” with this sort of raised eyebrow, slightly disgusted look on her face. And I just thought, Lady! I’m trying to do business with you! Ouch!
Maybe the reason that lady sticks in my brain so strongly is due to the fact that most Kiwis are the kindest people you’ll ever meet. So generous, so hospitable, there is literally no end to how lovely and relaxed their culture is, and I love them dearly for it. (Granted, I got the luckiest pick of the crop with my own Kiwi Fam, but I’ll stop doting on them now.) On the other hand, I did have some conversations with Kiwis/travelers who were very worried at the outcome of the election. The tremor my American people were feeling back home had reverberated throughout the world.
However, Australia was a slightly different story, and overall I sense that Aussie culture is a big fan of American culture. And also just… big. The people, the vehicles, the racism, the food portions, the houses, and so on. We weirdly have a lot in common, but I think the reason I find that so weird is because I always assumed Australia would have more in common with, say, England. You know, being a sovereign nation and everything, but more often than not I find that Aussies cannot stand the English. Or “Pommies” as the poor Brits are sometimes called, but then we Americans are labeled too: the “Yanks.” I’ve never figured out if this is endearing or derogatory, which I suppose is just how Australia likes to roll, the c*nts.
Uh, back to politics. I’ve met PLENTY of Aussies that think Trump was the best thing that happened to America. They may not be the gun-waving spastic lunatics you see portrayed in the States (because Australia has gun laws), but they fit the same archetype none the less. However, these people don’t necessarily fit the mainstream view (just like in America), and therefore the news coverage - though positively obsessed with American politics - stays vaguely neutral. (However, Oz is not without it’s biased reporting, and our version of Fox News Down Under is called Sky News.)
Maybe it’s because I moved to Australia after we were already a couple years into Trump’s term, but the attitudes in Oz compared to NZ were much more amused at what was happening across the Pacific. Coverage was soapy; the real-est reality show. Especially in the last year, primetime coverage frothed over the pandemic shit show, the BLM movement, and of course the election race. It got very tiring, but it must have raked in the viewers, and it was often the first news story being presented - even before their own national news! I didn’t really understand this, but it was Viv that explained the reality-show-esque way in which Australians viewed America, which is why our news still tops the charts.
As a side note, the only other sources I get my news are Reuters and BBC World, and both of them nearly always headline with US news as well. I realise this isn’t unusual in the world, but it’s more about the way in which it’s presented here in Oz. The amusement, the anticipation of the next episode, that sort of thing.
I’m still asked regularly about the goings-on in America. I often joke that I “got out in time” or that I should pretend I’m from Canada. But I’ve never once done that, and regardless of the turmoil in America, I am still in love with my country, and I deeply believe in its goodness and possibilities. It may appear that I’ve distanced myself from the US, but my path just sort of lead me that way. I miss living there all the time, for the people, culture, environment, and so much more. I’ve occasionally been told that I make a good impression on behalf of Americans, and that many other travelling Americans have done the same. Aussies see us as reliable people, good workers with energy and optimism. We are not only Democrats or Republicans in the eyes of the world, regardless of the eyes we view ourselves.
So I AM a very proud American, who happens to be writing to you from Australia, watching her country resurface across the Pacific with the Biden-Harris administration, catching a breath of fresh air for the first time in these long four years. It won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, I know. My partner’s own mother is a fairly large admirer of Trump, but we get along extremely well anyway, much to Viv’s annoyance. All that any of us can do - no matter which side of politics or which side of the world - is watch, think, vote, and see.
Coming to you next time…
I will, if possible, adamantly return to my negligence of political conversation, and instead regale you with any other bullshit I find entertaining enough to write about.
If you somehow didn’t know, I’m currently living in Australia with my Australian partner Viv, working daily on building our life together as we await the status of my permanent residency visa. This is a lengthy, ongoing, and expensive process that is mostly me filling out versions of the same document 15,000 times. This, among other experiences, lessons, and occasional strife, are what I hope to bring to your inbox, sprinkled with a bit of lightheartedness and joy. I hope we can make that happen.
Seriously, thanks!
Thank you ALL very much for catching up with me this week! I will make absolutely zero promises on how frequently I will be sending out my newsletter, but the good news is that if you’ve subscribed, it will come straight to your inbox and you won’t miss a thing.
According to my inside guide, if you reply directly to this email it will come straight to me, and we can have discussions on anything that might need discussing! Just, if you feel like it. I’m a pretty open book.
Catch you next time, ya bloody good cunts.
Maddy