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. 

Entry 12

This week marks the halfway point for my semester— I feel amazingly accomplished and ready to enjoy the next two and a half months of my trip. The Gold Coast was the prettiest beach I’ve ever been to. The gold sands that the area gets its name from really were stunning, but the water was what really impressed me. You could count your toes even when chest deep in the water, which I might add was very warm. I stayed in Surfers Paradise and spent most days reading on the beach or by the pool and then walking down the boulevard through the outdoor shops and bazars. I kept from getting burned and only used half a bottle of SPF 50, so I think I’ve finally achieved an Aussie “base coat.” At night all the palm trees were lit up by neon blue and white lights— the screams and sounds of theme park rides reminded me of summers at the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ. It was the most rejuvenating week I’ve had in a while. Unfortunately on Sunday, after waking up at five a.m. to check out and catch a bus to the airport to make an eight a.m. flight, the plane got delayed for four hours and I spent the morning in the Gold Coast Airport. I’m glad I had a book, and I’m sure it could have been worse. So far all my classes are going well, and even though I’m reluctant to get back to the grind after such a relaxing week, I’m also ready to wrap up my courses in the second half of this semester. International Marketing, and Consumer Behavior are still the two subjects I prefer, but International Business and Accounting have both proved more interesting and fairly easy. My sights are set on finals and my last weeks in Australia— ready to keep taking advantage of every opportunity down under.  

Entry 11

Crikey! First week of autumn break has been amazing. Midterms were last week and I was in sore need of some stress-relieving adventure time. My first excursion was to the Outback. I flew from Sydney to Ayers Rock, which is in the very center of the Australian desert. For three days I went bushwalking, learned how to throw boomerangs, and read a book about aboriginal dreamtime and its relation to the native art of dot painting. On the last day I was in Ayers I got to go to a camel farm and ride a super friendly one-humped camel named “Darcy” to the great rock that the town gets its name. Ayers Rock is over two miles long, 1,100 feet tall, and over a mile wide. It’s almost six miles around the base, and half of it isn’t even above ground! The native aboriginal name for Ayers Rock is Uluru, and it is a very sacred place for the local tribe. The different metal composites in the rock make its color drastically change in the setting sun— it truly was an awe-inspiring sight. On the return trip the stars began to pop out of the horizon— the Outback has the clearest night sky of anywhere I’ve ever seen. I had a hard time saying goodbye to the desert, but was excited to fly to the northern border of Australia, and spend some time in the city of Darwin. When I walked off the plane I immediately thought I had landed in Wilmington because it was so humid! Darwin is surrounded by some of the countries largest natural rain forests. On my second day in the Northern Territory city I woke up at 5a.m. and headed to a tour of two of the national parks. First was Litchfield, which had some of the most impressive waterfalls in the world. We were able to swim in two of the locations we went— the water was clear and clean enough to drink, and the pools were warm as a bath. After lunch we went to Kakadu national park, which is famous for its wildlife, specifically the giant jumping saltwater crocodiles. While we waited to get on the boat I got to hold a water python, which was fine until she licked the back of my neck— then my spin shivered and the snake tensed its muscles around my shoulders. On the boat our guide held bits of raw buffalo on fishing rods and to attract crocs. The very first one was a sixteen-foot male with a missing right arm (so we knew he was a fighter). Crocodiles are one of the few animals in the world that are cannibals. Their ruthless nature and genetic superiority is what has kept them unchanged and at the top of the food pyramid since the age of dinosaurs. The male croc only jumped half way out of the water because he was so large, but the female crocs we saw would use their powerful tails to get three quarters of their body above the surface to grab the meal. I’m really glad we went swimming before watching the feeding frenzy because now I am pretty hesitant to get back in the water in this country. On my last day in Darwin I went to Crocosaurus Cove, which was a zoo completely devoted to crocodiles and other reptile and marine life native to the Northern Territory. All ten of the most venomous snakes in the world live in Australia, alone with pretty much every other deadly animal you can think of. Now that it’s officially fall, and I’m back in Sydney its starting to cool off, but I’ve still got one more trip before the end of autumn break. Next week I’m headed off to do some serious relaxing in Queensland at the Gold Coast.

Special shout out to my parents who sent me an amazing care package Easter basket. I couldn’t have asked for a better support team back in America, and I miss my Mom and Dad every day while I’m here. I hope everyone had a great Easter in the states!

Entry 10

Biggest week yet by far! So much has been going on I feel like I’m being dragged behind a boat trying to keep a wakeboard under me. Tuesday was the Study Abroad Info Fair— all of the international students got a chance to answer questions about their home countries and talk to prospective exchange students about the experience. I talked up the dub as much as I could. After the fair the Study Abroad advisors at UWS had a meet and greet for past exchange students, current ones, and UWS students who had been accepted to a program for next semester. I remember last October I was so excited when I got my acceptance letter, I rode my bike in circles around campus for an hour. We played a game of international trivia, and yours truly won first place and three boxes of tim-tams (which is an Australian candy). Wednesday I headed into the city and took a walk around Hyde Park, then the botanical gardens. Hyde park is really beautiful— statues, fountains— the air was saturated with the smell of cut grass and the sounds of grade school tour groups headed to the art museum. I followed the kids in their uniforms to the free museum and spent a few hours looking at the classical and then modern exhibits of art. My favorite piece was relatively new— Cadence #1 by Robert Owen. Thursday I caught a flight to Melbourne and met up with Shannon to see a few comedy shows during Melbourne’s annual international comedy festival. The shows were hilarious— afterwards we went back to our hostel and met other backpackers from all over the world. Staying in a hostel was a lot like staying at Laurel Ridge— people are very friendly, the beds are horrible, and the showers never have warm water, but it was still a great time! Friday, Shannon and I went to the Museum of Victoria and saw lots of classical art, as well as an original Warhol in an exhibit inspired by the sixties. We went shopping in the Queen Victoria market and had some fish and chips in the food court. On Saturday we took a tour of the Great Ocean Road. Our first stop was a small surfing town where some of the most popular Surf brands were started. Ripcurl, Quicksilver, Billabong, and Roxy all had their headquarters in the small town. We went to a koala sanctuary, but they were all sleeping in the tops of trees. Koalas aren’t bears for one thing, their technically marsupials— they have a pouch to hold their babies and are nocturnal. We hiked through the Victoria rain forest and got to see the only species of meat eating snails in the world. Finally we headed back to the coast and saw the Twelve Apostles, which is hands down the most breathtaking view I’ve ever seen. Sandstone sediment and compounds of marine life created twelve formations that stuck out of the ocean, but three have collapsed back into the sea due to erosion. We also went to Loch Ard Gorge, were a famous shipwreck left two lone survivors of a fifty-four-passenger boat to sleep in the gorge’s cave for the night. It was a long day and an early morning getting back to Sydney but I’m very glad I got to see Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road. This is the last week of class before fall break— I may not have internet next weekend, but check back in two weeks for a wild update that will hopefully involve my experience on the back of a camel!