Last week was hard work. There was a meeting of a students’ association in Germany to which I had to contribute some work (as I’m the head of this association). I also prepared for a seminar and a workshop at uni (I came here not only to learn but also to teach) that turned out not to be sceduled on Thursday, as I had originally thought, but next Wednesday. And somehow it just happened that I spent a lot of time in the lab. Net effect: I was working and working and working and suddenly it was Friday. That explains the recent lack of posts.
Yesterday I went to a party to which a lot of “newbies” were invited, i.e. poeple who are new to this city. I met Belgian, Canadian, Irish, New Zealandish and Chinese people there, as well as Australians who had moved to Brisbane from other towns. One of them told me that he was from Townsville. I remembered that it’s in Queensland (same state as Brisbane) and replied: “Well, that’s not too far away.” His answer: “Yeah, only 1500 kilometres…” This country is just too large. 20 times the size of Germany, yet only a fourth of the population. I had been warned about the Australian accent, which turned out to be not too hard to understand, but no one warned me about the Irish accent. There were two Irish girls at the place whom I could hardly understand at all.
Me: “I know you don’t like the English but would you mind pronouncing your words in a more British way?”
She: *laughter* “I know, Irish is the wuhst ahcksend av Eenglish!”
The guy from New Zealand was quite nice and interesting. I never cared much about this country, regarding it as the group of Islands next to Australia. But contrary to Australia, New Zealand is rather progressive. They have a female prime minister, a strong Green Party in parliament and according to the claims of this guy a much better social system.
What my dear readers are possibly much more interested in is the solution of last week’s mystery. Creative guesses were made, none of which was correct, though. All right, here it goes:
After the concert the DJ kept spinning music, and good music indeed. Slayer, Nile, you name it. I kept banging my head for all it’s worth and had a great time, spending propably 70 bucks in this place. This, as you might have guessed, was quite exhausting and I decided to have a break. I sat down on a bench and leaned backwards, my feet still resting on the ground but my body in the horizontal. It did not take a minute until one of the bouncers approached me, trying to tell me something. I got up and asked him to repeat. His words were something like this: “If you want to sleep, do it at home.” To make sure I would understand he laid his hands on his cheek to symbolize sleep and then pointed to the door. He led me outside and that was it. Period.
I wasn’t sleeping, just resting. My eyes were open, I was just staring at the ceiling instead of in other people’s faces and planning to get up and go on dancing soon. Apart from that, what’s the crime in sleeping? Sleeping is probably the most peaceful thing to do. I did fall asleep in a club in Berlin some months ago – they just woke me up when the club closed and I left. But not in Brisbane, no, in this city you get thrown out for (allegedly) sleeping.
Generally, going out in Brisbane feels a bit strange. You want to strip off the restraints of civilization for at least a few hours but they won’t let you. There’s a bouncer for every 50 people at least, most often there are even more. They are hired externally, wear a uniform and have two-way radio. Plus, they don’t wait patiently in the corner for something to happen but wander around instead. There was a concert and they were audacious enough to walk through the crowd that was trying to get a view of the bands (that were separeted from the audience by a metal fence anyway). There is a strict zero tolerance policy enforced. No warning, no discussion, no opportunity to explain yourself. The bar staff are supposed not to give any alcohol to people they perceive as too drunk. A lot of clubs even have a dress code enforced. Some weeks ago I was denied entry to a club for wearing shorts!
Aussies are pretty easy going and extroverted people. But at the same time Australian society seems quite conservative and patronizing. Whoever made up these rules obviously didn’t think people would be able to know for themselves what to wear, how much to drink, how close to get to the bands – and in what position to rest.
To be honest, I was not completely on my own at that club. At the concert I noticed a guy who looked very much like someone I know from Darmstadt. And guess what – it was him! He is currently working on his Diplom thesis at Queensland University of Technology. It took him a few seconds to recognize my face, then he burst into laughter for several minutes. I was reminded of a post on a friends blog. He is currently in Lausanne and reports that it’s crowded with Germans. Same here, I keep running into Germans every day. University staff, students, backpackers… Stay the fuck away from me, I came here to meet Australians!
