Studying Abroad- Actually just making me whiter...

I have come to the conclusion, with the help of Stuff White People Like, that studying abroad is not in fact making me a global citizen, but in fact, making me even whiter than I already am, which is pretty damn white.

Now in addition to wearing scarves with my Threadless t-shirts while standing still at concerts, eating delicious sandwiches, running in my New Balance gym shoes, studying for my arts degree (after completing thegifted program at my primary school) in Minnesota where I don't have a TV but will watch The Daily Show & The Colbert Report in the lounge sometimes or Arrested Development on DVD, listening to my favorite indie bands on my iPod and MacBook, going to Whole Foods every Monday night after volunteering, listening to public radio while drinking coffee, and loving Barack Obama, I can now add the following things to my white repertoire: studying abroad and an interest in Australian Football League.

Here are some especially relevant passages:

On my love of Vegemite & Cheese toast:
Study Abroad allows people to leave their current educational institution and spend a semester or a year in Europe or Australia. Though study abroad are offered to other places, these two are the overwhelming favorites.

By attending school in another country, white people are technically living in another country. This is important as it gives them the opportunity to insert that fact into any sentence they please. “When I used to live in [insert country], I would always ride the train to school. The people I’d see were inspiring.”

If you need to make up your own study abroad experience, they all pretty much work the same way. You arrived in Australia not knowing anybody, you went out to the bar the first night and made a lot of friends, you had a short relationship with someone from a foreign country, you didn’t learn anything, and you acquired a taste for something (local food, beer, fruit). This latter point is important because you will need to be able to tell everyone how it is unavailable in your current country.

On my newfound support of the Hawthorn Hawks AFL team:
Though playing the sport is the most common way for white people to become interested in Rugby, a great number of them pick up a taste for the game while studying abroad in Australia or New Zealand. Like soccer, they are given the chance to purchase a scarf of their adopted team, but more importantly they can acquire a Rugby jersey. Unlike a soccer scarf, they can wear this garment all year long which provides for a more reliable trinket that can be used to initiate conversations about their time down under. For extra credit, some white people will declare that they are into Australian Rules Football and not Rugby. If you wish to friend this person, it’s best to ask them about the differences in rules because they will be thrilled to tell you.

This is what I did in Melbourne. I was going to buy a scarf at the game on Sunday but Lindsey told me not to because she is going to give me one as a going away present.