Oh, to be an American abroad...

Very cool place, but, alas, no photography inside, so this
is as close as you get.

Today, my graphic design lecture was cancelled for an excursion to the National Gallery of Australia, which I must say is an amazing place!  We met to tour the "Space Invaders" exhibit of street art and things of the like as a taste of the awesomeness expected from our class by the end of the semester... which is rather daunting.  The exhibit was really exciting and reminded me a lot of the wonderful random things found in the Art+ Architecture building at UT or in some of the First Friday galleries on Gay Street.

After wandering around the exhibit, a few of us went around to see what else there was to see, first coming across what seemed to be a section of Australian artists' works.  As a studio art minor, I at least like to think I have good appreciation for art and can find a way to appreciate most pieces that I come across, but I was definitely at a loss looking at some of the works in the room.  That's when the security guard came over to ask why I did not seem to be understanding what I was looking at.  He proceeded to give his friendly explanation about a couple pieces and I was happy for it since I was unaware of what Captain Cook looks like or the back story on some of the artists, apparently vital information for understanding what was going on.

It soon clicked with him that I was American, sparking an immediate turn in the conversation to what I have been waiting for since I left the country-- the "America is the worst place in the world" conversation.  For starters, the man was very nice and I later learned he is from Croatia, explaining the even more difficult accent.  He began talking about how America started out as a place for dreams, but is now a nightmare that is spewing out to take over the world with giants like Chase Bank and Google that watch our credit card purchases and Internet searches, always looking over our shoulders and making note of our every move.  He expressed his lament over globalization and what it is doing to our world, then warned me to not buy in to what the media and society are trying to tell me and to be sure to always think for myself because the world I live in does not want me to be my own person, but a puppet that does everything I am told.

He seemed like just another aged man who wanted to share his knowledge of the world to the younger generation and I was by no means offended by him sharing his thoughts with me-- this is probably only the first of many similar conversations of the like that will happen over the next few months.  I do enjoy learning how other people view the US, and I have already talked to many people with interesting thoughts on where I come from.  It only makes things that much more interesting.