National Liberal Party

Boyd is very involved with the National Liberal Party. From what I understand of the party (which is actually a coalition of two parties in Queensland but in the rest of Australia is actually two parties, the Nationals and the Liberals) it compares to the conservatives in the States: the Republicans. Now, regardless of my politic beliefs (yeah democrats!) I was interested in going to a young NLP get together they were having in Riverside. Boyd invited myself, Kirsty, Chris and Leslie. I wasn't really sure what to expect. In my over imaginative mind, I pictured a cocktail party with elegant violins in the background, snacking on cucumber finger sandwiches while discussing the state of Chinese takeover of national industry, complemented by fake laughs and cheerful outbursts. This was not the case. The gathering ended up being about twenty university students sitting in a big circle on the veranda of this nice house drinking and talking nothing about politics. I had asked Boyd before we left if there was anything I should not bring up based on my own political views...I semi-felt like I was a piece of steak walking into a lion's den. He told me not to talk at all. He kids, he kids.

The only Aussie who made me angry the entire evening was evidently the only idiot to talk politics: Gordon Terry (he just sounds like a jerk, hey?). Upon being introduced to him and him subsequently figuring out through his astute intelligence that I was foreign, he asked me where I was from. He got excited when I told him I was from the States; we shared the whole, "where exactly is Pittsburgh?" thing. He asked me what state I lived in and "what color" Pennsylvania was, referring to the blue or red of the political trends. When I told him we were a swing state, going both ways, he responded by saying "oh well then, so you are obviously a Republican then?" with this big-fake cheesy politician smile. Ready. Aim. Fire. "No, actually I am obviously a Democrat" I cheekily replied. He then got all weird and you can tell he was flustered, uncomfortable, and probably angry to be in the presence of one of Obama's minion. Shmuck - get over it.

Sorry, that was a total vent session. It just makes me angry when people make you assumptions and then treat you differently when they fulfill the cliche, making an ass out of themselves. That was the only downfall of the evening because I enjoyed great discussion about a lot of very interesting things ranging both in and out of the world of academia. Overall, good fun.