Entry 17

Tomorrow is my last day in Sydney. There aren’t enough words to describe the experiences I’ve had over the past five months. This last week in Cairns has been as good as any vacation I’ve had. After four exams I was ready to relax. Cairns (pronounced like cans), is one of the largest cities in Queensland (the most north-eastern state in Australia), and primarily revolves around tourism and the environmental attractions in the area. I booked a scuba dive with Passions of Paradise on the recommendation of a friend and could not have had a better experience. We shipped off at 7am and visited two locations on the Great Barrier Reef for about an hour each. I could have spent days underwater looking at the chromatic corals and kaleidoscopic fish and still be impressed by the natural beauty living under the ocean surface. I saw three clown fish, two angelfish, parrotfish, and massive Maoris all around me. The crew made us an amazing lunch, while my fellow divers and I suntanned on the deck. The entire week I was in Cairns it was sunny and warm. On my last day in town I went to the Dome Zoo, which is built on the roof of a twenty-story casino/hotel. The zoo functions as an open aviary, where talking parrots, cockatoos, starlings, pigeons, owls and other birds fly around you as you walk between exhibits. The coolest part of the zoo in my opinion wasn’t what animals I saw, but how I saw them. Inside the dome there were two ropes courses to climb and zip line up and down from one side of the zoo to the other. The final zip of the high-ropes course took me right over a crocodile pit! After the climb I got to cuddle with a koala and have our picture taken. The koala was soft and calm. I think one would make an excellent pet, but I’m not sure we would clear customs. Now back in Sydney its been sad saying goodbye to the amazing international and local friends I’ve made, but I know I will keep in touch, and have great people to visit all over the world. Wednesday morning is my flight back to the states. I can’t wait to see my family, my home, all of my friends in Wilmington, and a big bowl of Shrimp and Grits.

Entry 16

The past two weeks have been filled with adventure, and I couldn’t be happier that I made the trip over to New Zealand. My first stop was Queenstown near the bottom of the southern island. I checked into a backpackers hostel and roamed around the town the first day I was there. It was noticeably chillier than Sydney. In the native language of the country ‘Zealand’ means, ‘land of the long white cloud.’ The sky was crisp and blue on my first day, but low clouds began to circle the base of the mountains as the week progressed. On my second day I climbed the Queenstown Hill, which used to be a sacred place to the native islanders. The forest was dense with tall pines, evergreens, and even the random palm tree. Everywhere along the trail people had collected flat rocks and stacked them. The air was very still and only shards of sunlight managed to squeeze through the wintergreen canopy. The hike took about an hour and a half but once I finally reached the top, the trek proved to be well worth it. Never in my life have I been so mesmerized by a view. Snowcapped mountains surrounded the hill on all sides. Lakes reflected the blue of the sky and the jagged peaks. It was obvious to me why so many directors have chosen New Zealand for the backdrop of ancient or otherworldly movies. After filling up my camera with pictures and sitting, quietly entranced by the horizon, I made my way back down to the lodge. The next day I rode a gondola to the peak of an adjacent mountain and checked into the A.J. Hackett Bungy office. Yes, I was going bungy jumping. I’d never done anything like it before (unless you count riding double shot at the boardwalk). Queenstown is firstly famous for the natural landscape, but also notorious for supplying thrill seekers with a variety of adrenaline pumping activities. The bungy coaches harnessed me to the rope and gave me a few tips on how to jump. Most people expect to be nervous, but I was really comfortable the entire time. I heard the countdown: 3, 2, 1, then ran and flung myself off of the ledge. For eight seconds I fell from 400 meters above Queenstown. The sensation was so new and exhilarating my body forgot about everything. I screamed and laughed and then was reeled back up to the jumping platform. I can’t wait to go bungy jumping again! I spent my last day in Queenstown walking around the base of the mountain and feeding some ducks in the lake. My next stop was Christchurch, which looked very similar to Hobbiton in Lord of the Rings. Christchurch has had two earthquakes in the past few years that have really devastated the city. A lot of efforts to save historic buildings are being made, but most have had to been torn down and are now being rebuilt. I noticed a lot of modern art sculptures and large-scale graffiti. I think both are attempts to replace the culture that was lost. Some friends and I took the Alpine train to the west coast and got to walk through some amazing caves and under some massive waterfalls. The pancake rocks were one of the many geological abnormalities we saw. In Franz-Josef we got to see a glacier that attracts most of the cities tourism. The ice was so blue it looked almost like rock candy. Unfortunately due to global warming the glacier is melting almost 20 meters every year. I’m glad I had the chance to see it while its still there, and everything else that surprised me in New Zealand. Exams start this week, and in less than a month I will be back in America. After exams I will take my last trip up north to the Great Barrier Reef to do some diving!

Entry 15

Classes are finally over, and exams are two weeks off. I leave tomorrow for New Zealand, and will be there for ten days! This weekend was the Sydney Writers festival so I got the chance to go to three events in Town Hall, and Walsh Bay, featuring internationally acclaimed authors. Hearing people talk about their books was really inspiring. Friday night I heard lectures on topics of normalcy and etiquette, both of which were fueled by excellent wit and humor. Being a writer is about observing, but also about getting on the inside of a topic and fully understanding it. One of the most moving points of the night was a discussion in the first talk about the deaf community. I’ve written a few papers on Cochlear Implants, after taking three years of American Sign Language in high school, and one author spent years interviewing families and researching the threat this new technology poses on deaf culture. Most deaf children are born to hearing parents, who typically choose the route of cochlear implant operation. As more and more children assimilate into the hearing world with this device, the deaf community shrinks. Some people probably believe this is an amazing chance for deaf people to live the way hearing people do, but there is a loss. The Deaf community has a culture totally of its own; a language, theatre, literature… but now it’s losing its next generation. One thing studying abroad has made me more aware of, is how different people are, but also how amazing it is when we work together. My International Business class has taught me a lot about the differences between cultures and their values. Globalization doesn’t always happen smoothly, but it does give us a great opportunity to practice respect and courtesy when we meet people different from ourselves. I think traveling encourages more traveling, and now that I’ve lived for an extended time in another country I’m more eager to see the entire world and meet different people. I have gotten homesick, and miss my family and America a lot. I’m ready to enjoy my last month here, finish exams, and head back home to my side of the world.

Entry 14

Today is the start of my last week of class. All of my group projects have been finished and now its time to start prepping for finals. My first exam is accounting on June 12^th, and my other three exams are on the weekend after. I can’t believe next month will be the end of my junior year of college. UNCW has been a great place to learn over the three years I’ve been there, and I’m really grateful they supplied this opportunity for us students. This past weekend I decided to keep exploring Sydney, because there is so much to experience without doing any traveling. Saturday morning I went to the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art in darling harbor. I saw some great instillations and a few really stirring sculptures. From the rooftop I could see ships sailing around the opera house, and ferries leaving the circular quay docks. It was exceptionally sunny, so I got lunch at a café near Town Hall and then walked to the Chinese Gardens of Friendship. Being in the Asia-Pacific region of the world, there are many Asian influences in Australian culture. Chinatown is a bustling suburb further down the harbor with very busy markets and distinct Asian architecture. The Chinese Gardens are very serene. Two lakes, draped and encircled with willow trees, floating lily pads, and ripples caused by swooping cranes landing on the placid surface. Red painted meditation huts were set up all around the shores, shrouded by bamboo forests, and mossy boulders. After a few hours of afternoon strolling I headed back to Parramatta and finished reading another book.

Entry 13

Sydney is actually starting to get chilly. Since it’s in the southern hemisphere Australia is going through autumn while America is in spring. It never gets below freezing in Sydney, but now that its May its too chilly for shorts in the evening. Most students here are just starting to make plans for their winter break— I booked my trip to New Zealand and I can’t wait to travel to another new country. This past weekend I visited the Sydney Aquarium and got to see a ton of fish, sharks, and other aquatic animals. The platypus is one of the strangest animals I’ve ever seen— a nocturnal marsupial with the bill and webbed hands of a duck, but the tail and body of a beaver. When the first one was exported from Australia to Great Britain for genetic analysis at a zoology university, the scientists thought a prank was being pulled on them. The cuttlefish was one of the most surprising fish I saw because its mastery of camouflage is even beyond a chameleon. My favorite exhibit had to have been the octopus, because I think they are the coolest of any animal. Octopuses have three hearts, a beak like a bird, and are the most intelligent invertebrate in the world. Instead of having a central nervous system like humans, Octopuses distribute their neurons evenly. This means each arm has a mind of its own and even after detached from its body, an octopus arm will still hunt and attempt to feed a mouth that’s no longer there! Mexican food is not popular in Australia at all, but I found a burrito joint near my gym that’s almost as good as Chipotle (almost). Besides Mexican food I also miss southern brunch foods, and good home-cooked meals. Portions are smaller in Australia, a large coffee here is the same size as a small in America. While obesity doesn’t seem nearly as bad here as it does in the US, Australians are very critical of their countries health. The local government runs commercials fairly regularly to advertise federally funded weight loss/ healthy eating programs. Smoking surprisingly seems more common here, and after doing two research projects on the domestic and international wine industries I can say for a certainty that Australians drink more than Americans.

Today has been hard not being in America because I wish I was able to celebrate Mothers day with my favorite woman in the world. There are a lot of influential mothers and grandmothers in my life, but I’ve always looked up to my Grandmom, my Grandma, and my Mom. I hope everyone appreciated the mothers in their life this week.