Food. It is the single most driving factor, at least for me, on how you plan your day. You wake to eat, make sure you either pack a lunch or are able to get food around midday, then you make sure you finish your day in time to eat. Spanish cultures allow for a large break midday for lunch and then a nap. Each place has a food that defines them. You go to Italy to eat pizza and gelato and spaghetti. Food brings families together, celebrations are dotted with mass amount of food. It is simply just important.
I have always been willing to spend more on a nice meal than on clothes or anything else. To me I value eating. Call me a fat kid at heart, I really don't care. I just like food. So far I have noticed a few amazing things about Australia and their food.
1) Living in chinatown is the biggest blessing. Cheap food. Large quantities and it is authentic. I have loved it.
2) Pizza and Kebab places will always be cheap and always give you the most for your money. If you are looking for protein, go there. It will be good meat, lots of it, and cheap. The pizza is just a side product. On friday's, it works. Yay lent.
3) Thai is my new favorite type of food. I had the best dinner in their world. Six of us decided that a nice meal was in order. So we headed to an off the beaten trail to a tiny ity bity thai restaurant. It was packed so we knew it was going to be good. We had to wait an hour, and it was completely worth it. For those of you who know was Spoon is in Atlanta. It was sorta like that but better. We all got different decision, brought our own wine, and just ate. My staple Thai dish, Panang Curry, was even better here. It was spicy, delicious, and oh so good. Everyone else had completely different stuff. It was authentic, there was a lot of it, and it was cheap. Perfect meal in my book.
So if food defines the every day aspect of things, religion has to define the long term things. Think about it. Why did Australia start? Well, Britain needed a new place to send convicts. Why? The US just gained their independence so that was no longer available. The US was started in part for religious freedom. Why were aborigines treated as inferior, they were different. Their beliefs didn't match up with the Europeans. New Zealand was started to form a "Better England." Without all the troubles that Britain had, it was to start a place that had the potential to be better. Huge aglican churches dot these two countries, despite their natives not being Anglican or even being christian.
You become more aware of what affects a culture the more time you travel. Even the surfers had an attitude towards life that contributes to the culture. Their carefree, get the most out of life, ambitious in regards to how much the fit into their lives feeds to the culture. They might not go to church, they might not have a faith, but they believe in something. That affects their culture. It affects how they live day to day. They also value beer as a food more than the average person, but that's a different story.
There are many other factors that goes into a culture. However, the two I have noticed the most that are universally large are those two things. I miss food from home. I am glad I am able to go to mass anywhere in the world. I am glad I have been able to experience a new culture and see different views from what I get at home. At the end of the day, as long as I can get edible delicious food I don't care where I am.
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