June 18th, Australia Day 117

Another week in Australia has come and gone but this one has been filled with a little more stress than the others. Exam season has begun and I had my first exam on Friday. I think I did reasonably well and I am fairly confident with regards to my next exam. This coming week contains 2 more exams as well as a paper so I will have to work more diligently than usual to obtain good results.

In one of my previous posts I neglected to mention the great hospitality I received at the home of my mother's dentist's friends. I had meant to contact them much earlier in my time in Australia but I never got the chance to. A few weeks ago I called them up and they invited me over to their house for dinner one night. It turned out that many friends of the family were also invited and the conversations over dinner were quite stimulating. The wife of my mother's dentist's friend is Polish and she had invited some friends who had arrived from Poland as well as some of her local Polish friends and family. I had a delightful time and I hope to see them again soon.

After dinner, the conversation turned towards the contributions of Polish explorers to the Australian landscape. One famous explorer was a man named Strzelecki (shche-LETS-kee) and there is a small desert named after him. Also, Australia's highest peak is named after a Polish hero, although he was also part Belarussian. Equally interestingly, if you heard how Australians pronounce the name, you would never guess that it was named after a Pole. When I first saw the name Mount Kosciusko, elevation 2 229 meters, I thought that it was an aborigine name and I pronounced it "koss-kee-OOSS-koh". When I showed the landmark to my father he said that it should be pronounced "koss-TSYUSH-koh" and that it was named after a famous Polish hero. It turns out, that my original pronunciation is closer to the Aussie one, who pronounce it "kawh-zee-AWSS-koh". The mountain is named after Tadeusz Koszciusko (tah-DEH-oosh koss-TSYUSH-koh) who was a Polish patriot who fought in the American Revolution on the side of the Americans. He also campaigned vehemently for the independence of his homeland.

My father also told me about a river that is apparently named after a Ukrainian nobleman. About 300 kilometers north of Sydney there is a river named the Macleay River and at first glance it would appear to be like any typical Scottish name. However, the first clue that something is up is that it is pronounced "mahk-LAYE" and not "mahk-LEY". If it were to be correctly spelled, it should be spelled Maklay but my mother's dentist's friend said that in Australia, the man is generally regarded as Russian but in days past, the distinction between Ukrainian and Russian, as well as other nationalities, was not always made.

The most interesting thing that I saw this week was the National Rugby League State of Origin Game 2. It was held at Telstra Stadium, once known as Stadium Australia, that was the main venue for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, to a near sellout crowd of 82 389. The State of Origin series was begun in 1980 and is generally regarded as the Stanley Cup of Rugby League. Each year, the best players in the NRL are selected to play for either Queensland or New South Wales, depending on where they began playing Rugby League professionally; hence the name State of Origin. There are 3 games in the series, held 3 weeks apart and the state that wins 2 games is said to have won the series. This year the games were arranged Brisbane-Sydney-Brisbane, but next year it will be reversed. NSW wears sky blue jerseys while QLD dons maroon ones and each team is named after their respective colours. While I prefer maroon as a colour to sky blue, I felt it would be safer if I cheered NSW. By a total coincidence, before I left for Australia, a friend of the family had given me a quick drying blue shirt as a present and it came in handy for this occasion. The atmosphere was electric and NSW managed to secure a 32-22 victory.

I am looking forward to watching Game 3 of the State of Origin series but I am less enthusiastic about my Honours Thesis.

Photos are now available at: http://stateoforigin.blogspot.com/