The Emerald City! or their equivalent

Monday our entire group took a trip to Canberra, the capital city of Australia. I was psyched for it, we hadn't been told we were going to go originally as part of the trip and BU paid to fly us there and back and take us to four museums. But when we woke up at 5AM two-thirds of the group was complaining, whining and being generally intolerable because they thought it was a waste of time. That's why I really hate with traveling with large groups of people; most people are too concerned with their personal comfort and not what's being done for them or the beauty of things around them.

The actual trip was really cool. Canberra was designed by Burley Griffin, an American, who won an international design competition to come up with a design for the new Australian capital. Griffin decided to dam the local river and put a lake in the middle of the city with the city built in a triangle around it. It's a little odd but for a city that is only now eclipsing 400,000 people it works.

We went to the Old Parliament House first and it was pretty unique. In our two hours there I got to see their old version of the Oval Office, the room where the cabinet met and where both houses of Congress had sessions. Their congress is interesting because it took bits and pieces from both the US and UK. They named their two houses the Senate and House of Representatives but the color scheme is the same as the Brits with one of the chambers being red and the other green (and other influences). The coolest part for me was checking out the press gallery and seeing where the journalists sat in both houses.

Next we traveled to two rather boring museums. The National Australian Museum was a bit too much on an empty stomach and little sleep. It was smaller than the Smithsonian but was just as comprehensive in describing Australian history. The National Film and Sound Museum wasn't great either but I stumbled across an archive of old film and television and clips and came out extremely happy. They had clips of Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) as a comedian, classic Australian commercials and old sports clips along with historical pieces that made the stay well worth it.

The best part of the trip by far though was the ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) War Memorial and Museum. Despite the fact Australia has only been a nation since 1901 and has not fought in nearly as many wars as the European nations they have great pride in the fighting tradition. The museum was tied for the world's largest war memorial and museum with one in England and was a place they said every Australian should visit. The museum was massive and detailed all of Australia's campaigns in WWI, WWII, the Korean War and Afghanistan and Iraq among others. But the memorial was what made it worth coming. Outside they had walls adorned with flowers and the names of every Aussie who had died in combat or because of their war wounds. In the middle of the monument they had a long pool with a undying flame at the end and inside they had the tomb of an unknown soldier underneath a spectacular dome. The whole thing was very solemn but inspiring at the same time. At the end of each day they have a bagpipe player close the museum with an ode as the sun sets-pretty unique and amazing.

I loved my time in Canberra despite the time it was so much smaller than our nation's capital. I hope you can see some similarities when you look through the pictures-the long grass fields between monuments, the terrific use of water and the overall beauty. The pictures are below:

Canberra

O ya and three days later the Labor party (the party in control) basically overthrew their leader (the prime minister) and replaced him with the deputy prime minister (2nd in command). Three years after winning a landslide victory and after being one of the most popular Prime Ministers in history Kevin Rudd lost his role to Julia Gillard (the first female PM in Australia). Three days after we left. My entire office was glued to the television all day Thursday watching this unfold after it had been first announced as a rumor Wednesday night. While I don't enjoy politics generally-the entire thing was fascinating and I couldn't help but watch. This was only the second time in history a PM had been replaced outside of elections. Now if only the US can continue their glorious run in the World Cup-gametime for today's Ghana game: 4:30 AM.