Last Blog!

Over the past five months, I have been immersed into Australian culture. Luckily, thanks to my sports class, I had the opportunity to experience Australian sport and how it has shaped their culture. Throughout these five months, I have learned to appreciate the Australian culture through sport experiences. I am going to reflect back on all of the field trips I attended, and what it taught me about Australian culture.

My first field trip was the Maroubra Nippers. I was fascinated by the dedication and strength that the young Australian’s possessed. The amount of support and encouragement from their other teammates and surrounding parents was awesome to see. This reminded me a lot of sport back at home because when I was younger, I remember the amount of love and support I got from my family and friends when I was performing. It seems that in America, this changes as age increases. When kids are younger, it doesn’t matter who wins (well, for most people). But when you get older, there is an extreme pressure upon the kids to win and that being the best constitutes as being a winner. I have learned the Australians may show some competition, but sport is not so heavily forced and pressured upon their children, which is great!

Throughout the five months, I attended three rugby games. The first was the rugby league where the Rabbitohs played the Tigers. This was particular interesting because it reminded me of a game from back in America. There was a stadium with food and beers, which makes it a comforting place to be. I noticed a lot of groups and families- showing that it was exciting to watch the game with your friends and loved ones. This also reminds me of going to sports games back at home. When I do it is usually a big group of friends going where we all enjoy each other’s company and watching something exciting.

The second rugby game that I attended was rugby union at the Sydney University Oval. This game was very different from rugby league. There was a row of special members that got food and endless glasses of wine. The crowd was very tamed and not so into it as the audience was at the rugby league game, it seemed more professional and not so casual. This seemed a bit odd to me considering the first rugby game I went too people were very loud and obnoxious, rooting for their teams. And at this match, it seemed very business-y to me.

The third rugby game I went to was to see the La Perouse youth team play on the Yarra Oval. Now this game reminded me of back home in an instant! The snack bars, the immense groups of families wrapped up in blankets, sitting in their portable chairs, it all reminded me of youth sport back at home. What surprised me was how into the game the parents were; cursing, screaming, yelling, it was very comical! I enjoyed observing the sense of community the parents displayed with each other. This reminded me back at home because I remember when I played soccer as a kid, my parents were really good friends with all of my players parents so when I had a game, they were all cheering for all of us. Games like this seem very comfortable and casual; you get the real feel for a youth sports game with the sense of encouragement and support from everyone around you.

My last and final field trip was at the Sydney Olympic Park to see Australia’s wheelchair rugby team playing against Japan. Although I did not get to experience the whole game due to travelling issues, I was lucky enough to get a full lecture on the sport. After this I was very surprised at the determination within these particular athletes. Despite their disadvantages, they have found a way to take advantage of this and be the best they can be, which is very admirable to me. This has encouraged me to research sports involving disables athletes and try to support them because as the lecture mentioned, they do not receive very much financial support, which I think is ridiculous. This has led me to want to take an active role in doing what I can to raise money for sports teams like this.

Overall, this semester has been an amazing one that I will never forget. I am very thankful that I got the opportunity to come to Australia and take this course because it has widened my perspective of the Australian culture in respect to sports. I have had so much fun experiencing all of the sporting events with my friends in this class and it has made me appreciate the sporting culture of Australia. It has also made me enjoy sports more in general so when I go home back to America, I will definitely be more into watching the games on television as well as going to as many sports events as I can.  I have gotten to realize that sport is a big part of any culture and I feel like I could enjoy sports more by appreciating the culture aspect of it. By comparing Australian sport to American sport over the past five months, I definitely enjoy Australian sport more, but maybe that is because I never really gave American sport a chance. It will be exciting to see what I can discover about American sport and be able to draw more comparisons between the two countries, and maybe to other countries as well. I am very happy that I took this class. My experience abroad would have not been so exciting if I didn’t have the chance to experience this aspect of Australian culture. This has definitely been a blessing and I have taken everything I have learned to heart.