So here I am down under!
I arrived in Brisbane on the 4th June, to my disappointment there has been non stop rain for the last week.
My first meeting with a true Aussie was an interesting one and I will try not to associate all Aussies by this first encounter.
I was greeted by a taxi driver at Brisbane airport, he was stereotypically a middle aged, balding, beer bellied Aussie wearing green knee length shorts, long white socks with brown sandals and a short sleeved unbuttoned shirt. Instantly I thought ‘oh my God It’s Alf from Home and Away’
Throughout the entire journey to the hostel, Alf kept going on and on about how great Oz is and how if I have the opportunity I should ‘up sticks’ and move out here. Alf’s voice grew louder the more passionate he felt about what he was saying, he thought the UK had ‘gone down the shits’ and it is full of foreigners.
‘Foreigners’ wasn't the actual word he used; I couldn’t repeat what he said, all I will say is his comments came across to me as racist, rude and ignorant.
I was quite surprised that Alf was happy to share his opinions with me as he had no idea about my background and how I could have reacted. To be honest I shut myself off from him after 20 minutes of verbal trash.
There are obviously people all over the world with similar opinions to Alf and I am not going to be ignorant enough to suggest that all Aussies are like Alf, that would be stupid of me and this could have happened in any country but it is a shame that the first impression I received from Australia was from a negative, bigoted and narrow minded man.
They do say first impressions count but in this case I truly hope not.
