bogan

6:00 pm - Wednesday, 20 June 2012

First, before I get into my "deeper thoughts," a little local culture for you all...

This one here calls HIMSELF a bogan. Something about "bogan pride."

In the big news here, the word "bogan" was inducted into the Oxford English Dictionary. Wikipedia states that a bogan is "Someone whose idea of a good time is meat pies, beer, cigarettes and playing the poker machines at the local football club." The guy interviewed in the Adelaide Advertiser stated that being called a bogan is "not flattering, but I'm proud of it...I've grown up with a love of beer, footy, and rock n' roll."

Basically, a bogan is pretty close to what we in the States call "redneck" or "trailer park trash." Problem is, Australia doesn't have trailer parks, so they make do with what they have. Beer, cigs, mullets, acid jeans, "flannos" (open flannel shirts over a t-shirt), AC/DC, etc. But today, bogans are finally recognized by the rest of English-speaking people as their own sub-species.

And yet they're somehow familiar...

Okay, back to the real deal.

Tuesday

I spent my morning editing photos and in general enjoying the quiet (well, with the exception of the family of screaming magpies outside--they have one of the funkiest songs I've ever heard). A college-age girl named Yanni from Glen Osmond Baptist came and picked me up and we drove to Glenelg Beach, one of the more beautiful beaches around. Obviously, it was too cold to be in the water, so we had lunch before she had to head on home. I wandered around the small town, but most of the shops were closed because the town thrives on summer tourism. One of the older men who was fishing off of the pier talked to me for a few minutes; he was fishing for squid but wasn't having much luck.

I rode the tram back to the city center and then the bus from there to Tea Tree, and then I walked the rest of the way home. I was enjoying the beautiful weather, watching the sun set and listening to the birds settling down for the evening. I walked up to my host home and realized that I had left the house keys on the dining room table. (It's been years since I locked myself out.) So I sat on the front porch, expecting my host family to be home in a little while. (This was at 4:30.)

I read my Australian Geographic magazine for a bit--yeah, I WOULD be the person to find it. You know National Geographic? Australia has their own localized version of it that is focused on Australia (and building up international tourism to places like Thailand, Bali, and China). But it was FASCINATING. There's an article in the journal (I bought the January/February one for $5) about this couple that is taking the "Big Lap" around Australia on Highway One. H1 runs all the way around the perimeter of the continent, tracing the coast and visiting nearly every major city in Australia. This couple is taking about a year to do it, and their photojournal about the first leg of their trip is amazing. How many of us would drop everything to take a year-long roadtrip around the entire Australian continent?!

It started to get dark because the sun had set. It eventually got so dark that I couldn't read anymore, so I put the mag down and looked at the time. (6:00 pm.) My host family still wasn't home, and Flick doesn't have a cell phone; Glenn doesn't get off work until 7 at least. I just pulled up my sweatshirt ("jumper") hood and curled up.

It gave me time to think about all the things that have happened to me in the past 3 weeks. I've been in Australia for 3 1/2 weeks already, and I'm just now beginning to feel like I'm learning the people and the culture. I'm just now beginning to get relationships with people to where we're talking about more than just culture differences, Hugh Jackman, and how weird bogans are. I'm having conversations with people about church, God's place in their lives, and the future of cultural morality. I'm in that weird spot where I'm surprised that I've already been here for 3 weeks, but I feel like I've been here forever.

By this time, it was 6:30, and it was starting to get really cold. Finally Flick drove up and I prepared myself for the inevitable commentary. Haha great. The ONE time I leave my keys in the house...



In other news...

Please be in prayer for the people of Melbourne, who just experienced a 5.5 magnitude earthquake yesterday. No significant damage was done, and as far as the authorities know, nobody was injured, but alot of people are really rattled and frightened. I praise God for His provision and protection, but I also pray that this experience opens doors for the local churches to minister to peoples' lives--particularly through Maggie, Taylor, and Ashton (the three girls with whom I came). They're in the area and they have already posted on Facebook about it. Please pray that this minor quake will open doors and allow people to let their guard down long enough that Taylor, Ashton, and Maggie might have opportunities to speak into their lives and show the love of Christ in an uncertain time.