| Wearing a Veil in Australia |
Tell all the female Moslem students, not to worry about wearing
a veil. I still wear my veil all the time. I happen to be the only one
wearing a veil in my class but it’s ok. My friends here don’t
ask much about religion, one of my close friend's doesn’t even have
a religion, but we get along well.
I guess they care more about what I think, my opinion and different
perspectives rather than what I’m wearing everyday. (Ria Hakim)
Women in veils, I think, are quite common here at St. Lucia (Queensland
Uni) campus area. In Australia everyone seems to have the right to dress
they way they want. An Australian woman once even made a kind of compliment
to a friend of mine about wearing her veil. She said, “you must
be a brave woman to wear the veil here, dear”! So, I think people
here do not judge you just by the clothes you wear…..
(Leny Raiyon)
The story happened when I was a newcomer in Canada. One day I was walking
along a wide busy street just to get used to the city. I stopped walking
and stood on the edge of the street because I didn’t have an idea
where to go next. But to my surprise, all the vehicles (ranging from bikes
to big trucks and buses) in the street stopped suddenly. I wondered “
Why do they stop at once? What is happening?” Fortunately I realised
that I was standing near a cross walk (zebra crossing) and it came to
my mind that perhaps the drivers were giving me the chance to cross the
street. Then, of course, I had to cross the wide busy street by accident,
because in fact I didn’t mean to. Well, it’s OK though because
I enjoy crossing the street as I could cross it in a relaxed way without
having any difficulty - not like in Indonesia. (Harto)
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One day my friend and I invited a guest from Europe to have lunch in
a famous seafood restaurant. We ordered plenty of food such as fish, shrimp,
squid and traditional vegetables. The food was very tasty and my guest
enjoyed it very much. Because we ordered too much food, we could not eat
all the fish. After finishing our lunch, there was still one big fish
that had just been eaten a little bit. So, my friend asked the waiter
to wrap the fish and put it in the bag while thinking that this fish could
be served again for our next meal. Suddenly, my guest said: “Yes,
it is a good idea, we also do it in our country for giving food to our
dog, we call it a doggy bag”. My friend and I were very surprised
and looked at each other. We spontaneously said: “yes, we do that
too”. We just realized that people are not accustomed in his country
to serve the remains of food at home. (Erick)
| Don’t you believe it Erick! It certainly is common in Australia
to take the leftovers home to eat later especially if they have hardly
been touched. Some people might ask for a ‘doggy bag’
but they certainly don’t intend wasting that delicious food
on their dog! It might be that they are embarrassed to ask for the
leftovers directly. |
One job that is done by almost all adult Australians who can drive is
petrol pump attendant. Why? Because unlike Indonesia where there are lots
of people to fill our tanks, in Australia we have to fill the tank ourselves
and then pay in the petrol station shop. Petrol stations are open 24 hours
and the prices are displayed on a large notice board so you can choose
the cheapest. Unleaded petrol is used which cuts down on pollution. (Eny)
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