I suppose I should start by apologizing for not updating last week. I returned from Perth and intended to update this week but I just couldn't find the time or the energy. What I'll do now is update the last 2 weeks, minus my trip to Perth, and then post updates on my trip in the coming days.
The Winter Olympics have certainly heated up and Canada is performing especially well, far better than I, or probably anyone else expected. It all started with Alex Bilodeau winning his gold medal in the men's moguls. It was the first time a Canadian had won gold on Canadian soil. From there, the bevy of gold medals has continued unabated and at last count, Canada actually leads the gold medal count with 10. The United States leads the total medal count with 34 but Canada's 21 puts it in 3rd behind Germany with 27. However, we'll have to see how the men's hockey goes. Even though our women's hockey team has already won gold, for some reason it's the men's hockey that draws the most attention. I think that even if Canada won every gold at the Olympics save for men's hockey, Canadians won't be happy. Anyway, I wish them success.
Getting back to Bilodeau, it has been the topic of some discussion that the Australian who finished 2nd, Dale Begg-Smith, was actually born in Canada and moved to Australia due to a falling out with the Canadian skiing authority. Begg-Smith is a very successful and wealthy entrepreneur, something to do with computers, and it was the tug between work and sport that brought him into conflict with his Canadian coaches.
Although Begg-Smith was interviewed on Australian WIN TV, to Australia's great credit, they interviewed Bilodeau as well. I think it says something about the Australian way of thinking when they'll interview the winners from other countries. To be fair, Bilodeau does have a connection with Australia --- he trains sometimes at Jindabyne in the Australian Alps. Nevertheless it does great credit to Australia to be interested in athletes from around the world.
Most of my time in the last week has been taken up with the first week of university. Classes have begun and life has returned to the campus. Going into my final year, I'm pretty nervous as I do have some difficult classes ahead, like Property and next semester, Equity and Trusts. Already I have to think of assignments and how to plan them and I can only hope that my best will be enough.
In more bizarre news, a Ukrainian tourist was recently rescued from the cliffs of Sydney's Manly Beach. After a night of revelry, he climbed down the escarpment that abuts the ocean and became unable to climb back up. He was rescued by the local service but now faces a hefty bill for his rescue because he was the instrument of his own predicament. I wonder what'll happen?
Finally, I wanted to leave you with a thought I've been having, and that is on accents and dialects. Interestingly, linguists do not know how or why differences in language develop. If we learn to speak from our parents, primarily, then that should be a recipe for constancy not differentiation. For example, within 100 years, Australia had a distinct English accent. This may sound like a long time, but it's only 3 or 4 generations. One possibility is that accents of one language originally started as accents of the dominant language by speakers of another language. To take England as an example, the northern dialect reflects, roughly, the borders of the area once known as Danelaw, a region once under the command of Danish settlers/conquerors. Nevertheless, one would think that over time as people intermarried and communicated that accents would eventually disappear. However, that doesn't explain why Australia, Canada and to a lesser extent the United States are so linguistically homogeneous. The obvious retort is that the more time elapses, the more accents can develop but this seems a little counter intuitive, and if you think about it, can you even really talk of accents and dialects on a large scale? Each person's physiology and life experiences mean that they speak differently, both audibly and by using words they have picked up in their travels. In a fundamental way there are as many accents and dialects of a language as there are speakers of it. The next time someone asks what accent you have, you can reply your own and not be speaking with a forked tongue.
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