{"id":8277,"date":"2016-02-13T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-13T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-09-12T16:29:54","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T20:29:54","slug":"so-your-character-is-from-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victoriagracehowell.com\/staging\/6258\/so-your-character-is-from-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"So Your Character is From Australia … Featuring Cait, Imogen, & Ely"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nThe first So Your Character is From Another Country post is finally here! Whoo hoo! I’ve been hard at work for the past two months getting these together, but it is well worth it. The content here is pure gold. This is a new monthly or bimonthly segment where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country. I’m hoping to encourage international diversity, break stereotypes, and give writers a crash course on how to write a character from these different places on our planet. Though these posts are going to be longer than my typical ones, this is a wealth of information. You don’t want to miss it!<\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s welcome Cait, Imogen, and Ely to the stage!<\/span>
\n
<\/span>
\nDisclaimer: The content below may be culturally shocking to some. Each of these posts are as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our Interviewees: <\/b><\/span>
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<\/b><\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

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My name is Cait and I\u2019m the evil mastermind behind <\/span>Paper Fury<\/span><\/a>
\nand a rabid devourer of YA books. I live in Australia on the East coast (about
\n80% of Aussies live near the coast!) with my family and my highly opinionated
\npuppy. I work from home as a writer and blogger and etsy store owner. Books are
\nmy everything. Well\u2026books and cake.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\nBlog<\/a>\/\/<\/span>Twitter<\/a>\/\/<\/span>Instagram<\/a>\/\/<\/span>Goodreads<\/span><\/a><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n
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Imogen is a writer, musician, and full time consumer
\nof tea and chocolate. She lives in a little village hidden in the bush
\nsomewhere in New South Wales, Australia, with three cats, a dog, and a.
\nincredibly patient family. When she\u2019s not writing or making music, she enjoys
\nreading, running, and practicing her evil laugh.
Blog<\/a>\/\/Twitter<\/a>\/\/YouTube<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n

Hi! I\u2019m Ely from <\/span>Tea & Titles<\/span><\/a>.
\nI\u2019m from an outer suburb of Melbourne, which is the capital city of the state
\nof Victoria. I do a lot of writing and reading, and travelling\u2014when this is
\nlive I\u2019ll be flying back to Melbourne from London where I\u2019ve been for the past
\n9 months. I\u2019m a full-time student. You can find me on Twitter <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\nWhat
\ndo you feel is unique to your country? Landmarks? Celebrations?<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
\nCait:<\/span><\/b>
\nOne of our biggest cultural celebration is Australia Day on the 26th<\/sup>
\nof January, where we eat lamingtons and pavlova and complain companionably
\nabout the summer heat.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nImogen:<\/span><\/b>
\nWell, there are our unique, crazy animals. We have some pretty strange wildlife
\nhere, such as kangaroos, wombats, emus, and the like. While they\u2019re unique
\nthough, many of them are considered pests, and most of them you don\u2019t want to
\nmeet in the dark in your car. A wombat can take out a truck if you run it over.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\nSome of our landmarks, include the Sydney Harbour
\nBridge, and the Sydney Opera House, which are probably the two most famous, as
\nwell as the Three Sisters rock formation in the Blue Mountains region. This one
\nhas a pretty interesting cultural story behind it as well. Then there\u2019s Ayers
\nRock\/Uluru and The Great Barrier Reef, to name a few landmarks.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nEly:<\/span><\/b>
\nI think we\u2019re a very unique country. Flinders St. Station in Melbourne is quite
\npopular with tourists, as is Federation Square (known locally as Fed Square).
\nWe celebrate Australia Day on January 26th<\/sup>, which was the date the
\nfirst fleet from Britain arrived in 1788. We also have Anzac Day on April 25th<\/sup>,
\nwhich is our national day of remembrance (and New Zealand\u2019s too). In Victoria
\nspecifically, we have Cup weekend\u2014a public holiday in the first weekend of
\nNovember when the Melbourne Cup, a huge horse race is on.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Uluru (Image not mine)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
\nTell
\nme about your country’s environment. What are some of your favorite places?<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\nCait:<\/span><\/b>
\nAustralia is pretty huge, so we have just about a zillion (very accurate
\nstatistic there) types of climates and environments. In the middle of
\nAustralia, the huge deserts and sparse population is pretty well known. But up
\nnorth we have rainforests and tropics. Down south, hellooooo to the snow and
\nmountains. I\u2019ve lived all over Queensland and in the tropics and at the beach,
\nand I have to admit \u2013 the beach wins every time. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\nImogen:<\/span><\/b>
\nAustralia has a reputation for being very hot and dry, and for the most part
\nthat\u2019s fairly true. We\u2019re often in drought, and the threat of bushfires in the
\nsummer is pretty much a universal concern here. But we do have a lot of
\ndifferent climates, being quite a large country in area. In the mountains, we
\nget snow (one place I know of almost had snow at Christmas one year!). I live
\nin a very temperate climate, while the top of the country is all tropical, and
\nwe even get rainforests. Also we\u2019re known for having absolutely gorgeous
\nbeaches.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\nEly:<\/span><\/b>
\nWe get a little bit of everything in Australia. Most foreigners just imagine
\ndeserts and beaches, but we also have rainforests and snowy mountains,
\nvineyards, cities, suburbs, and tiny little country towns. It depends what
\nstate you\u2019re in as to what you\u2019ll see. I\u2019m very biased towards Victoria\u2014I love
\nthe beach front towns, specifically a place called Queenscliff where I spent
\nall of my childhood summers. I also really like the little arcades we have in
\nMelbourne.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Gondwana Rainforest (Image not mine)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\nTell
\nme about your country’s food. What are some of your favorite dishes?<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
\nCait:<\/span><\/b>
\nWe basically eat everything you\u2019d find in any other Western country (like
\nBritain or the USA), and basically\u2026we eat just about everything. Australia is
\nextremely multicultural. If we see a dish we like? WE EAT IT. And then we adopt
\nit for our own. You\u2019ll see the average Aussie family eating lasagna, tacos,
\nmeatloaf, pizza, sushi, curries, fish and chips, pasta, and steaks.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nIconic Australian Foods:<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n