An Open society
Australia stricks me most about its open-minded people. Many people really wear few clothes in public, as the climate here is usually hot.
I once came across a men merely wore a short pant in the central train station (One of the major platforms of the entire Australia cityrail system). Girls in short T-shirt and shirts, leaving large area of their skin kissed by the sunshine are found here and there in the street. I could still remember once in the party,a boy from Banglandesh told me that when he first arrived in Sydney, he even didn't know where to look at, as these beautiful girls in the street really wear little.
In the park of my university (usdy), there's a big open-air swimming pool, many people in costumes just lay in the lawn nearby, taking sun shower for long hours. They don't care passersby in the mainroad not far away can see them directly. I was actually told by Colby (My landlady's boyfriend) that many citizens here hate the color of their skin. In their eyes, white stands for unhealthy, so they'd rather indulge themselves in the strong sunshine for long hours to make it dark, although there might also appear some stains.
Democracy and freedom are defined varied from that in China, since many activities here are legal, such as gambling, whoring, homosexuality.
Last weekend, I took the mini-bus to Casino, one of the most luxurious gambling houses in Australia, with my landlady's family. It's located in the Darling Habour, the most renowned bay of Sydney. In this huge and well-decorated tall building, various of recreational services are available, including gambling. The bus stopped on the ground floor with many other vechiles waiting for passenagers,all of which are free of charge, because more and more people are expected to be brought here. When I entered, I found a waterfall was rushing down the artifical flamethrowing mountain,and then converged into a huge pool with water lilys. It reminded me of the same splendid scene appeared in the opening ceremony of 2000 Sydney Olympic Games when the torch was lit up. I went upstairs by elevator, and waited in the queue to apply for my membership card. As I mentioned it's mainly a gambling house, so many gambling machines are over there, and plenty of people sit in front of it to seek for their fortune, but we just came here for the sake of free transportation, beverage, and relatively cheap food.
I don't know whether many Chinese first came here for the same reason, but I really noticed many young Chinese joined in the gambling activities not far from me. It occured to me the news story that once a student from Beijing got into the bad habbit of gambling in Australia. He ran out of all the money prepared for his oversea study, and had to go back to china secretly. He then worked as a servant in the local Hotel until he was found by his parents. I must say, environment is not always crucial to one's personal development, but it really paly an influencial role. Here in Australia, we international students aquire more opportunities to practise our English, but meanwhile, we have to guard against the decaying values towards life, such as gambling.
After we used our membership cards to order a couple of free drinks, we went outside to the Darling Habour directly, and then returned to buy some fish-chips for lunch. I noticed many gamblers had just finished their struggle, and gathered in the fast-food area to take something to eat. Some of them sat there, watching the three huge liquid crystal television on the wall, broadcasting horse racing, cycle racing and boxing programmes respectively via headphones. When we finished, we went across the great hall to the other side of hotel, there stands a new car, which was told as the trophy for its member. Obviously, the boss of this gambling house have tried every means to attract more people here. At that very moment, all I could think is a huge fishing net invite many willing fish to come into it... I don't think I will be there again, after all, it's all right for me to see what it's really like over there, and get to know one of the ture sides of Australia.
It's proved that Chinese take up a large percentage of population in Sydney, so Chinese newspaper get its position. Once I borrowed some to read out of curiosity from my landlady. To my great disappointment, it's not printed in simplified chinese charcter, but those often appear in Taiwan, with more strokes and complicated structure. Moreover, there're too many advertisements called Classified Ad, and ADs concerning sex service are found covering even a whole page, with disgusting descriptions. I even couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw it, but later I was told that it's legal here in Australia.
Furthermore, homosexuality is also legal, it's about the second Saturday after my arrival, gays in sydney had a parade near the Hyde Park, although it was pouring that day. Some of my classmates went to witness all the process, and some of the gays even took off all their clothes and truned out to be naked, likewise, one of my friends told me that there's a small bay called "Lady bay" in the Bondi Beach of Sydney. But this is for the reunions of gays. She happened to see them swimming with nothing on! I bet that's the most terrible thing I'd ever heard about this place, but I know it's probably to happen everyday, since Australia is such an open society.
