Tuesday 22 July 2008

"What cultural gift or golden nugget

...has your host country given you to take back to your home country?"

I started this post weeks ago and don't remember where I got the quote/question from, although I'm thinking it was Danielle (blog link on the left). The answer has been brewing but I didn't have enough of an example. I've got it now...the principle of 'Do Unto Others'. Yep, I learned this at Catholic school, but the examples weren't exactly present to back it up. I saw a great one from the bus today. The bus driver had closed the doors and was about to drive off, but there was one more person wanting to get off. That person spoke up but the driver didn't hear him and began to drive off. About half of the people on the bus started to yell, in a tone approaching panic as if it was themselves who wanted off, to the driver to stop and let this fellow off. Incredible...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I thought that because I grew up in Hawaii and spent most of my adult life in California that I lived in some laid-back places. Well, Australia is pretty laid back as well and the cultural gift I've received here is to be open and friendly and smile a lot. What's also amazing is that NEVER before have I ever really knew my neighbors...where I live, we walk into each other's houses to borrow a can of corn, a cup of sugar, you name it! It's such an amazing community that I live in and we all know each other by name and have cups of tea, dinner all the time. In California, no one wanted to get that friendly with their neighbors!