Yesterday, students received the dubious pleasure of being able to sample crackers spread with Vegemite and have their picture taken shaking the hand of a real honest-to-goodness Australian in front of the British (?!) flag. A new student actually asked one of the teachers why the British flag was hung in the doorway... Oops! (That student isn't likely to do well in our department's pub-free versions of pub quiz). And a politics major commented that he was disturbed by such a display of nationalism (insert suppressed giggle here)! Our Australian colleagues don't even know the words to their own anthem. I don't think Kurdistan needs to worry about misplaced ultra-nationalism or nationalist ego-centric behavior from our genial Aussie staffers.
All that aside, hope all of the Australian expats in Erbil had a wonderful Australia Day yesterday and managed to get to the T-bar for a pint of... Sorry, VB hasn't made its way here yet.
Next year, instead of vegemite, I think D should prepare stir-fried kangaroo rump, spiced barbecued lamb and Aussie pavlova for distribution at the uni... or at least giant Anzac cookies (oops... biscuits). I will attempt maple cookies for July 1.
