Offending 750,000 people.... and counting...

This past week has been verrry uneventful, well it is Australia so there's always something going on, but uneventful compared to the last month. It was the first weekend I didn't travel anywhere. I had plans to go to the Blue Mountains, a mountain range two hours west of Sydney, but the trains from Newcastle to Sydney were under construction. I ended up spending Friday by the pool, followed by my first game of "Australian Rules Touch Football." They really don't like the American football game known as "gridiron." The rest of the weekend was low key, which worked out well since I had my first project/speech due in my Introduction to Aboriginal Studies class.

I worked relatively hard on the presentation and figured I would earn a high mark. I'm pretty good at PowerPoint so I whipped something together. When I went to give my speech, the teacher started by saying that he hoped mine would be a good example for the class, since I was one of the first ones to go, and the remaining students would do them each week the rest of the semester. I gave my speech, rather well I must say, and had some pictures, a video clip of Aboriginal students singing and another clip of their initiation. Everything went well, the class applauded and I asked if there were any questions.

My teacher, from the back of the classroom of 25, sat sort of staring into space. He replied, "Well I don't have any questi(mid-word), mayyybe this would be a good time to tell you what NOT to do in a presentation." I gave me a questioning sort of look and immedietly pulled my jump drive out of the computer, I figured I was in for it. I have a kind of history with getting yelled at by teachers. "Showing images, or videos," he continued, "is not only imoral but also illegal. There are some of us, including myself that needed to leave the room. It is also illegal to show images of children. I don't even know where you could have gotten those clips. I don't even know what I'm feeling right now, I'm kind of in shock." Students in the class began giving me awkward, I feel bad for you - this is so uncomfortable - I can't believe your still standing in front of the class, look (come on, you know that one). He continued for another ten minutes, and finished his monlogue with, "alright, maybe I handeled this incorrectly." You think? I spoke with him after class, and he understood that I had no idea the rules/laws and regulations of Aboriginals in Australia. To bad I had already offended a group of 750,000 people. A friend in another tutorial (the smaller classes to accompany a lecture), said that an announcement regarding my speech was given to his class. Then, to top it off, the lecturer in our lecture, made an announcenemt saying, "it might be better if we just don't use PowerPoint."