EDUCATION≠EDCUATED

Sorry everyone. I know it's been some time but I do have to go to class along with attempting to find a job to support the outrageously high prices here. But anyways, everything so far is becoming routine. For the most part, school is interesting but definitely not the same. Well, no crap Kolin, really? School in Australia is different from school the States? I would reasonable think meh, maybe not by much. Nope. Wrong. Let me explain...

I am an opinionated person. Yes, this may come as a shocker, but I always have an opinion.... just about everything. Where it comes from, not to sure. And yes, while in school I have an opinion that I wish to convey to my professors, especially when they are teaching something that is, for a lack of a better word, dumb.

In my Organisational Communication & Leadership communication course there was a slide presented with this:

How Organisations compensate for problems with this structure

• Remove the competition
• Get Government protection
• Diversify into stable environments
  
• Rely on information and communication technologies
• Relax rules about following the chain of command
• Subordinates can build redundancy into communication networks

Now, lets examine. If anything I have taught myself (and I mean this in the sense of reading about economics from mises.org, or the Austrian School of Economics which denounces Keynsian Economics from the sense of well, fractional reserve banking and government intervention, essentially why America is in the financial mess we are at right now) those first two bulletins go against Capitalism. Well maybe not so much the first one, but in the context this women phrased it, it was a bit "dodgy." Fair enough, nothing compares to how she said the second point. She looked down to the floor and kinda paused, swooped her hand through her hair embarrassingly and said, "or seek government protection." Now, we are not talking here the government protects you from some other entity stealing from you but rather, if you're failing, ask for money, they are a great place for loans. Upon this whole situation I immediately said, those first two bulletins go against the basic tenets of capitalism. To which she replied, "Well I mean this isn't necessarily what is right but what happens."

.....?

Then why are you teaching it likes it's gospel? I don't know, when I had made my statement she retracted and went into diplomatic mode, as if arguing something was forbidden. I didn't really wanna make her head spin and go into how with government intervention you suspend the ability to be innovative because of the bureaucratic nightmare the follows but oooooo Bureaucracy, that was slide 6, so whatever, I guess it works. This was just one of many observations I have made with teaching methods....



Another fun one:

"How many people here support the right of people to have guns?"
-Me, sole hand raiser

Girl sitting in the front row: "Like ummm for when dad goes hunting?"
Teacher: "No no no, just in general."
Girl from east coast: "Well... I mean, like... if no one had guns then like, there would be no problems. I don't see where the issue is."


Epic fail indeed...

Kolin: "Yea, I just wanna say, first off, there is a reason it is America's second amendment. I am sorry guys but I don't want a gun to go.... hunting. I want a gun to protect myself, my family and property. And I especially like the right to bear arms because, I don't like the government when it starts to invade my home without consent or like the phrase goes, 'Governments like defenseless citizens with pitchforks.' The reason we have the second amendment isn't to go hunting and be sporty, it's to protect ourselves from the government."

Teacher: "Well it's apparent Kolin has strong feelings toward the first amendment." (and no I didn't mess up, she accidentally recited the wrong amendment.)

Kolin: "hah, amongst other things."

She later said something like, "Maybe everyone in Kolin's family has a gun."
Me: " hahahaha no...?"- I mean honestly though, what an assumption? I think we own a shotgun? I just like having all the rights I am constitutionally permitted. Sorry dawggg.

These are just several occasions where you challenge and the teachers kinda back away. They wish to talk about something but never want to cross the line where people come out and say, "Well I am challenging that thought process with this evidence." It's kinda hard to explain but you would understand if you were in class.

I spoke with a girl that is in a couple of my classes and she said the same thing. The teachers are not keen on debating. That's cool, just how they roll I guess... rollin lame ooooooo, burnnn


You're probably asking yourself, job huh. Found anything? Well, let me tell you, I tried my hand in telemarketing. Not a good idea. Probably the most demoralizing job ever. Not only is it 100% commission, but you could work for almost 5 hours and make nothing. I am/was (I have already decided on not coming back as I type this) selling some kind of phone plan that hooks your phone to the internet and works quite well actually. It's called VOIP or something, the company is BSMART. It's a lot like how skype works and is pretty cheap compared to other plans, but no one wants to hear all this bull shit. O and there is also the nice people who answer:

"What? Nah nah nah nah, the last bloake tried selling me crap. Why are you doing this?"

"Mate, listen, Im gonna hang up and then you hang up, we both know you're trying to sell me something that I probably don't want and lets just go our ways."

"Umm not too sure, me dad's not home. Im just the kid."

"Ummm, o dear, uhhh well I am not sure Kevin's at touch football." (Yea, like I know who the hell kevin is... O yea, get Kev in on this!)

"Who is this? Edward?"-Yea Kolin and Edward sound like the exact same if you say them quick? no.

"Not interested." -Followed by a slam dunk in yo face, particularly the ear region.

"Go to hell."

"You called three hours ago."

"I'm not too sure, hows your day? Yea, my son just left, I hope he comes back."

A lot of the calls go to old people and they are so nice and remind me of Grandma. They just wish to talk to someone that doesn't normally come around. Some will give you their life story. Quite moving but after 3 hours of calls, I am just thinking, "Please buy this stupid shit so I can make $30 for the 3 hours of work I have put in."

I Don't think I have a bright future at BSMART communications. (I don't have a future, I just quit in my head) My opportunity cost was to call trying to sell BSMART and be annoying to people across Australia in hopes to make maybe 60 bucks or go meet the soccer team and make friends. Yea, not a good choice...

Here in this beautiful place, the culture is laid back.... Perhaps toooo laid back. Things open at 9am and close at 5pm. Understandable... for places places that do commercial business. Everything shuts down at 5 pm. What the Hell is that? O the weekends...overtime. Friday, over time (last time I checked that's not the weekend) but I guess, a casual, such as myself is not complaining when the starting wages are around 17$ an hour.

For some reason there is a stigma that Americans are lazy. Where that came from, I am not too sure especially around here. Yea, some of us are fat, and eat a lot, but at least we go to work on the weekends and don't demand overtime pay from some employer like Mackers (MacDonalds) just because it's Friday. It's insane to even think about that. $17 an hour and then overtime just because it's the weekend? Overtime to me is going over 40 hours with the exception to Christmas, Easter and a few select others. But at ESI, the greatest business in the world, no such thing. We bust ass everyday of the week.

"We be doin fineee Work."- Mr. Koppy

O this reminds me... a lot of people rip on the US for being fat and lazy. Meh you got us for being fat. But wait, efficiency...


O, hah, I forgot, we have the highest GDP in the world as a sole country. God damn, capitalism is just so like.... Awesome.




MORE TO COME...
next I go to a soccer match and skydiving on Valentines Day.

(Sorry Mr. Koppy, didn't wanna kill the job on a single entry ; 0)

Stay fresh kids.

-KOLIN

Australica?

So the past few days have been quite fun. Still attempting to adjust to how things work around here. The dorms are pretty interesting. You have like a commons area with a television and then a balcony. A lot of the kids drink and chill on the balcony and nothing bad happens. Hah, it's pretty different in the States.

























Almost everything has some kind of unique name or means something completely different. It's interesting but every time I mention something, they already know exactly what I am talking about. They watch the Simpsons, Futurama, Malcolm in the Middle, etc. I thought we were interesting, guess not?

I went to the supermarket mall/store area and they
have like everything we have, they have a K Mart? Subway, Pizza Hut, Borders, Target and a few others. (O, and Burger King is call Hungry Jacks...??) Also the price you see includes the tax so there are no 'surprises' when you get to the check out. I tried to explain how in every state there are varying laws and some states have no sales tax. (They didn't get it for the most part) Their proportions are small as well. Subway's sandwiches were much smaller and forget 5 dollar footlongs... more like 9 dollar foot longs and then some. Its interesting but it kills your wallet.

Another strange thing is the driving. (It goes a bit deeper then just driving on the other side of the road.) The kids have to display a P on their car, and then there are different colors that represent what level they are. You can get rid of your P when you turn 21... hmmm and then you have to have a special license to drive a manual as well. I rode with some girls to the beach and they were telling me all about how the P display works.

The Beach here is incredible. I have never seen anything like it my life. The water is like bath water, it's probably around 75˚F. Everyone is very tan and very good looking. Also, everyone is incredibly kind. It's quite the place. O and don't call a tank top that, it's called a wife beater...
and for girls, it's called a tank top. And the trunk of a car is called a boot. Sun block=sun cream. Good waves = sweet waves. Sandals= thongs. Greasy Italians= guidos. (still the same.)

They have these things called beach soccer balls. I picked one up from Kmart for 5 dollars. Probably the best deal I have found here thus far. I have yet to try my hand at surfing. I met some guys from campus that are from Norway. Very nice guys. The two are 23, the other is 28 and played professional basketball in Norway for 10 years. I wasn't aware they loved basketball that much.

All of the Norwegians bought second hand boards for about 150 bucks. I am going to see if they will let me borrow it for a "sweet wave" next time we go out. They were more scared of Jellyfish than sharks. Apparently there is some kind that can like kill you right quick...? Hope I don't meet one of those while swimming. Yea, they can paralyze your leg and then the (juice?) travels up your body and can do some real damage I guess. So I will try my best to steer clear of that.

There is going to be an Iron Man competition on the Gold Coast this weekend. They were setting up with cameras and everything. There were like super strong guys running up and down the coast all day along with people practicing for the swimming portion. It looks pretty intense. Maybe, Ill catch the bus and go watch.


I don't really have too much more for now. I am hoping to go out to a tavern tonight and meet some more kids. There are too many Americans here. Like 40% of the school are Americans. Not really digging that whole aspect that much but they are all pretty nice for the most part so, you get what you get sometimes I presume. O and this is what Monopoly money looks like:

I made it, sucka

The first few days here.... (well it's only been 2) were a bit rough. I met some friends on the flights over, not to mention hanging out with Dwight Yoakam's drummer in first class. Even the flight into Auckland was quite the sight. My troubles began when I arrived in Brisbane. How many times have you sat at the baggage claim and wondered, how do they always get my bags here? Well the thought running through my mind was, I bet I don't see my bags. Well, turns out I was half right. I did get one bag. Amazed, I figured I would see bag two come through. Nope. Lets not forget that the bag that came through had shoes, two flags, 3 hoodies, and a few books. Not real useful when it is 88˚F outside.

As I made my claim the thought set in, chill out mate you're in freaking Australia. So with that in mind, i decided that i was going to remain calm and get my bag at some point. Making my way through customs was real easy.... almost like too easy but that's how it should be in my opinion. I then went to the coach travel office to grab the taxi to Bond. The Taxi pulled around about 20 minutes late but I didn't mind, I was tired and was happy I had made it to the country in one piece aside from missing material pieces. It was warm, the sun was out and the people were friendly.

The taxi ride was quite the trip. I don't know for a fact and may never know if the gentlemen sitting shotgun (left side, hah) was mildly retarded or not but was making weird sounds with his mouth, boppin around and playing a didgeridoo. He looked maybe to be in his 30s, buzzed head, tank top and black short shorts. This guy was weird. Like, real weird. All I could think at first sight was, "Well, I guess this really is Australia."

The taxi, which was like a bus that towed a trailer took us almost 2 hours to get everyone off the bus. I was second to last but I didn't mind, I was talking to the driver almost the whole time about how awesome the beach and city were. I started to get excited but was like, wait, I have no clothes. (Even at this very moment, I am still wearing the underwear I wore 5 days ago when I set out.)

The taxi driver was real friendly and even called the number for me on the papers from Bond to find exactly where I needed to be. The school had a beautiful entrance and reminded me of Florida but with like some bizarre European flare. It was cool, something I did not picture. I said my good byes to the remaining couple on the taxi and driver and headed to Bond.

I walked into the office and was incredibly tired and just wanted to throw my stuff aside and run into the ocean but... this is reality not a cool movie, or something like that. I got all my accomodations set in but had no clue where I was going. The nicest mom on planet earth (Aside from Laurie Karchon) said to me, "Would you like a ride to your place?" (with an American accent of course).... "Uhhhh yeaaa, that would fantastic. Thank you so much." She walked me to a car and explained how her son was going for a bachelors degree and that she, her husband and son were from California. They were incredibly nice, but the son was off somewhere else. She said, "Yea my son has been trying to ditch us since he got here." To which I replied, "I wish my mom and dad were here right about now." (Mind you, I had no clothes, was tired and noticed prices were outrageous.)



They proceeded to drive me to the housing and gave me great advice on how to do everything on campus. Very kind family. I knew at that exact moment that there is something about Americans when they meet another one in a foreign place. It's almost as if you share a bond, as if you are buddies, you feel almost obligated to help one another. It was a touch of home, like I wasn't alone. It made things seem not so bad when I thought about not having my clothes and being in a place where I knew no one.

The room is nice. Almost like something along the lines of what Aunt Barbra has up north in the room that is CJ's. It's like, very well managed, clean, and the furniture is all in the appropriate spots. I like it. I just need to decorate the walls. ; O

The second day was much better. I had a shower, got ahold of the people I loved the most, found my luggage, had a shower. Much better. I met a lot of kids, surprisingly many are from the US. You can kinda pick them out, they wear those stupid flat brim hats with basketball shorts and annoying clunky shoes. Lame. Some are just like me and kinda blend in but are in the same position, just on study abroad. I bought a phone, set up a banking account, got put on the list for adventure club (skydiving and camping ooooo) and met the soccer captain/manager. I wish my knee was better, I would be all over the soccer scene if I could, but yes, I know, gotta take it easy.

Well, I got my bag and things are falling into place. Got a security card, met some kids on my floor (they make me feel old because 3 of them are 17, one 19 and the others maybe 18). I guess thats when you get to uni here is at the age of 17. They look super young and they were excited when I said I was 21 and I was excited when they said they had a car. Rule one of buissness... what do you have that I want, and what do I have you want ; ) This will come in handy going to the beach and stores.

That concludes the first two days. I think I am going to eat some pizza.

O PS
Everyone should come here if not for the beauty but to see what socialism does. The fixed price wages in this country have caused everything to be incredibly expensive. Some of the Aussies act like this is a good thing. NO NO NO NO NO NO. When you have fixed price wages at... 17$ you decrease the supply of jobs because the employers can only employ so many to meet the wage rate set by government. The price of goods then climbs. This place is beautiful but backwards. I enjoy the reverse but not when it comes to common sense economics. This debate will be had many times with the law students... there are a lot here. Should be interesting...