"She just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich"

Ah, the land down under. Majestic, with its rolling mountains in the Outback, the trendy urban lifestyle, the accents. It really just makes you want to put a shrimp on the barbie, eh? Hmm, now let's see. I haven't put any shrimp even close to a barbie. In fact, they don't even have shrimp here, only prawns. Hey wait a minute, I haven't been given a ride on a kangaroo either, or fed a koala! Australia is such a ripoff! Ok, maybe if I was completely disillusioned the previous statements might make sense. There seems to be a lot of stereotypes about the Australian culture when it is in fact extremely similar to that of America's. I haven't met anyone even closely resembling, in behavior or dress, Steven Irwin or Crocodile Dundee. I haven't even come close to seeing the Outback (I will in about a week though!). I haven't learned to play the didgeridoo. Nobody has proclaimed 'Crikey!'. The only people who say 'G'Day' are on television. And while I may have met quite a few laid-back Australians, I've met some uptight ones too, and some crazy ones, and some intelligent, and some not so. The point is, people are complex and it's hard to lump a group of them into one file folder in your head, under the label 'Australians'. This goes for any nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or age. Don't get me wrong I love the song "Down Under" by Men at Work, but no one has yet to offer me a Vegemite sandwich (not that I would take it, Vegemite seems to be an acquired taste, and I don't plan on acquiring it).

So I'll most likely cringe when I return home and the first questions I get are the most stereotypical. "Did you see a kangaroo?" "Did you go surfing?" "Where's your accent?" When the real questions should be about the people I met, the real experiences I had, the undeniable truths I learned about myself and my fellow human beings. I'm not here to be a tourist.

Ok, reading back that all sounds a bit defensive. So, no I haven't seen a kangaroo, yes I have been surfing, and I don't have an accent because I was born in the United States. That makes Q & A a little easier.