Week Seven

Me and Yanni

The elusive tree kangaroo

A not so manic Tasmanian Devil

A very friendly kangaroo

Hello again and welcome to Week Seven! Once again, I hope everyone is doing alright and that the transition back into school has gone smoothly. Sorry for the delay in this week's post, but as I mentioned last week, I have been away for a few days and without access to a good internet connection. And the reason why I have been away will be the subject of this week's post, and I think it will be the subject of next week's post as well. 

As I mentioned last time, I took a trip up to the Gold Coast in southern Queensland; which for those of us not well-versed in Australian geography is still on the east coast, although significantly further north of where I'm studying in Wagga. A quick fun fact for you: as Australia is in the southern hemisphere, it actually gets hotter as you journey further north and get closer to the equator. Conversely, traveling south brings you closer to Antarctica and cooler weather (although not miserably cold weather like you get in Missouri winters).So, as a result, I was able to spend a few days in a very pleasant sub-tropical climate. When I first arrived at the Gold Coast it was cloudy and rainy, and I was also very tired from traveling, so the first day was quite uneventful. The second day, however, was, to borrow an Australian expression- "heaps" of fun. And that will be the topic of this week's blog entry.

On Sunday August 24th, I paid a visit to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in the Gold Coast. It is a very large zoo-like place that has a bit more of an open natural feel to it: hence the name "wildlife sanctuary". However, I can confidently say that, in my experience, it is the best zoo I've ever visited. It has come to my attention that in my previous posts I have not been very good about posting pictures of myself. So hopefully these next two weeks will make up for that. Not only was Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary the best zoo I've ever been to, it was also the most interactive. The first photograph, quite obviously, is me holding a six year old koala named Yanni. I had to pay a bit extra to get to hold her, but it was well worth it. The second picture is, you guessed it, me fulfilling a life goal of petting a kangaroo. At one point in the wildlife sanctuary, there was a delightful open enclosure with several kangaroos bathing lazily in the sun. I was taken aback by how friendly these kangaroos were, they literally rolled over like dogs when you started to pet them. 

In addition to the cute and cuddly kangaroos and koalas, there were of course many other fascinating animals at Currumbin. There was a crocodile feeding show which I attended, which you can find photographic evidence of on my Facebook page, and all sorts of native Australian wildlife. I'd have to say that out of all the animals there, my favorite would probably have to be the bashful tree kangaroo. I didn't even know this creature existed prior to my visit to Currumbin, but after seeing it, I immediately loved it. As you can see, it's a bit smaller than the average kangaroo, and it has a very fox-like color to its fur. I was kind of disappointed that I didn't get to see it up close, but as it makes its home in the trees, it's not one for petting. Other than the tree kangaroo, I also particularly enjoyed the Tasmanian devils and the dingoes in addition to my aforementioned furry friends.

Well, I think that's about it for this week. Next week, I will discuss the other highlight of my trip: my full day tour of the rainforest and the Gold Coast "hinterlands". See you then!

Week Six

Hello and welcome back to my humble blog! I hope everyone is doing well and I'd like to let everyone know that I am still alive, still healthy, and still having a great time here in Australia. It's hard to believe this is already my sixth week of blogging. At the completion of this week, my semester will officially be halfway over. Wow! I've said this before, but I am really amazed at how incredibly quickly the time has gone by. Before I get started talking about this week's topic (Australian academics) I would just like to clarify something about the photographs in this week's entry. They are not in any way relevant to the topic, I simply haven't had many phot-ops (or at least haven't thinking about taking photos) so I just decided to include some pictures I thought were appealing (even thought I am still very much a novice photographer). These four photos were all taken during my trip to Sydney three weeks ago at the Royal Botanic Gardens. They're not important landmarks of any kind, they just look very lovely.

So, as you can guess, being six weeks into the semester means my workload has begun to pick up significantly. I must admit the stress I'm accustomed to feeling normally at the end of a semester has already hit me so far. Luckily, all the due dates have been outlined in the syllabi, so I am able to plan and manage my time around them. I have just recently completed a 2500 word essay and am currently halfway through another. One of the difficulties of going to school in a place like Australia, is that I often forget that I'm not simply on vacation and am actually going to school. But no worries, as I continue to take my studies seriously. In fact, I find I am able to devote even more time to my homework as I do not have the struggle of balancing my jobs on top of my assignments.

One huge and very obvious difference between Australian and American academics is the grading scale. In Australia, the highest attainable grade is a High Distinction or HD. The next highest is a Distinction, after that a Credit, a Pass, and finally a Fail. Getting As is something I strive for in America, and normally achieve after putting in the necessary amount of work. However, in Australia, an HD is almost like an A+ with extra credit, they are very rarely handed out, and only in honor of truly outstanding work. I did not receive an HD on my first assignment (a very small and short essay) but I hope to get one on every assessment from this point forward.

Another huge difference between the Australian and American university experience is the way in which students interact with their instructors. Australian culture seems to be slightly less formal than American culture. Students commonly refer to their lecturers by their first name, and there is a very level playing field between student and teacher, which I find very nice for facilitating discussion. However, I must admit I am a little uncomfortable calling my professors by his or her first name. I still from time to time refer to my lecturers as Doctor (insert last name) simply because that's what I'm used to, and it just feels right to me for some reason.

Well, that's all I've got for this week. The weather seems to be getting nicer and nicer each day in Wagga, and we've had a string of gorgeous days as of late. The majority of my days have been spent in front of a computer at the library, but I am taking a trip to the Gold Coast in Queensland next week so I'm quite excited for that. Because of this, next week's blog post will be later in the week as I won't have access to a computer during the first few days. But I can assure that there will be new and very interesting pictures to supplement my next few posts.

Week Five




St. Mary's Cathedral

 






World War I memorial in Parramatta Park

    



Hey all! Hello again and welcome back to what will be my fifth week's post so far! Wow! It's hard to believe I've been in Australia for five weeks already! In fact, last week on August 5th marked my one month anniversary of being in Australia! Time flies I guess. Anyways, this week's post will function as a brief  update on my day-to-day dealings as well as some extra tidbits on some of the historical stuff I saw while I was in Sydney that I forgot to mention in my last post.

As I said already, it has already been five weeks since I arrived in Wagga Wagga on July 8th, and I'm nearly halfway finished with the semester. As you would expect, my workload is starting to pick up a bit and my schedule is filling up more and more. Luckily, my assigments are spread out just enough to where I can manage my time effectively around them. I've worked and went to school at the same time consistently since I was a senior in high school, so I must admit I feel as if I have a lot more free time to do things and get work done. However, it is a solid 15 minute walk from my dorm to the nearest computer lab so it does feel like a bit of a hassle if I need to do work on the computer. Nevertheless, I do enjoy staying busy. It is a bit tough to be 10,000 miles away from one's family and to be alone without any sort of friends and support beforehand, so staying busy with school work and the like prevents me from getting too homesick.

Which brings me to some more good news. As I've mentioned in my earlier posts, Australians seem to be by default nicer and friendlier than most Americans, so I've had no trouble making new friends. I've also joined a church recently which has given me a strong sense of community and spiritual support doing much to sort of stabilize my time here. Charles Sturt University is not much larger than Missouri Southern, so living on campus has allowed me to part of a very close-knit university community. Having friends and nice people to talk to might just be the number one thing in staving off loneliness and homesickness.

My classes here at CSU have been progressing quite nicely. I've only had a couple of assignments that have actually been due so far, so I have yet to recieve a grade back yet, but I am quite confident I have done well. There is a two week break approaching in just two weeks that I look forward to immensely, as it gives me the opportunity to travel and see more of Australia. After that, if the first half of the semester is any evidence, the weeks will only pass more quickly as the semester continues.

To conclude this week's post, I will take a moment to shed some light on the pictures included in this particular blog entry. The two photographs above (taken by yours truly) are of St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney, and of the Parramatta Park World War I Memorial. As I said last week, St. Mary's Cathedral had to be one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen and I also mentioned how incredibly lovely Parramatta Park was. As for the two photos below, the top one is of the Government House in the Royal Botanic Gardens which I was unable to go inside of as it was hosting an official function on that day. The bottom photograph depicts Hambledon Cottage in Parramatta, the oldest still standing colonial building in all of Australia. Pretty cool stuff! Well, that's all for this week so you'll all hear from me again next week!



Government House





Hambledon Cottage

 

Week Four

Mrs. Macquarie's Point

Old Government House

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Well, it's about that time again! As I mentioned in last week's blog post, I will be discussing my recent trip to Sydney over this past weekend. I will be talking about some of the iconic landmarks I saw while there, as well as some places slightly off the beaten path that I found very charming.

 

The first thing that comes to mind when an American (or at least most Americans) think of Australia is probably the kangaroo. To us, Australia is the "Land Down Under" a strange, exotic place full of deadly spiders, snakes, koalas, and wallabys with a rugged terrain personified by its most famous landmark, Ayers Rock (or Uluru as it has been traditionally called by Aboriginal Australians). This was more or less the concept of Australia I had prior to doing more research and actually visiting the country. Australia is actually much more of an urban and suburban country, perhaps maybe more so than the United States. While it is certainly true that practically the entire middle portion of the continent is a remote, inhospitable desert (the "Outback") the vast majority of Australia's population live along the coast, particularly the southeast coast, or just slightly inland (like Wagga Wagga). While in Sydney, I witnessed vast suburban sprawls with houses that were closer together and had smaller yards (or gardens as the Aussie terminology goes) than most American suburban dwellings.

 

Nevertheless, for those of us that are aware of the fact that there are cities in Australia and that children don't ride kangaroos to school or carry boomerangs with them everywhere, the most popular image that comes to mind has got to be the Sydney Opera House. Needless to say, that was probably the thing I was most excited to see in Sydney, and it definitely failed to disappoint. It was a very vast, remarkable piece of architecture and I was quite surprised at how long it took to get around all of it. In most photographs you see of the Opera House, the most common backdrop is probably the lovely Sydney Harbour Bridge. While it is less commonly known than the Opera House (I didn't know the name until shortly prior to arriving in Sydney) it is certainly one of Sydney's iconic landmarks, sort of like their Golden Gate Bridge. The Bridge extends from one side of the harbour to the other leading to a lovely arrangement of buildings on hills on the eastern side. While I was in the area, I also paid a visit to the Australian Museum of Contemporary Art which contained some fascinating exhibits, my favorite of which were the installations by French artist Annette Messager.  

 

After I was done at the harbour, or Circular Quay (pronounced "key") I continued on to the Royal Botanic Gardens, which consisted of a lovely stroll through one of the most beautiful parks I've ever been to. A main attraction in the Gardens is Mrs. Macquarie's Point (named for the wife of Lachlan Macquarie, an early Governor-General of New South Wales) of which I have provided a photo above.

 

On Sunday, my second full day in Sydney, I spent most of the day in the western suburb of Parramatta, which I found to be a pleasant departure from Sydney's Central Business District. I have often heard Sydney described as Australia's New York, in that it is very large, somewhat difficult to get around in, and very busy and crowded. I have heard Melbourne, the second largest city, is more like Los Angeles in that it is very planned, very easy to get around in, and much more of a relaxed environment.  But anyways, it was in Parramatta that I found what turned out to be my favorite place in the entire Sydney metropolitan area. I had heard about Old Government House, one of the oldest buildings in Australia dating back to the late 18th century, from the lecturer in my Local History class. It was a very quaint building with a shingled roof (indeed a true rarity in Australia) and is in the middle of Parramatta Park, a very pleasant, European feeling park that I was fortunate enough to visit at sunset.

 

By the time I had finished in Parramatta, it was time to catch my departing train back to Wagga. The train was delayed a good 40 minutes, meaning that I didn't get home until 4 in the morning, which was not the most pleasant experience I had over the weekend. But overall, I had a wonderful time in Sydney and I'm incredibly glad I went and got to see things I've only ever seen before in pictures. For the sake of space, I've only included four pictures in this post, however more photos of my exploits in Sydney can be found on my Facebook page. Thanks again and you'll hear from me again next week!