7/3
After hurrying to finish packing, my trip
began in the afternoon at the airport. I flew from MSP to Chicago (Midway),
then to LAX, and then to Sydney. During my 4+ hour layover at LAX I met some of
the other students in the same program, and most of us were sitting near each
other on the plane. I spent most of the 14 hour flight sleeping or watching
airplane movies (21 Jump Street, Adventures of Tintin, We Bought a Zoo).
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| About to go through security at MSP |
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| My airplane at MSP |
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| My airplane at Chicago Midway |
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| My airplane at LAX |
7/5
We landed in Sydney at 7:30 AM local time.
I didn’t have any issues getting my luggage or getting through customs. The
people from IFSA-Butler had a sign and they corralled us by the exit to the
airport. After everyone had gotten through customs they took us to the bus,
which took us to the hostel that we were going to stay at. After breakfast,
meetings, and lunch, we went on a walking tour of Sydney. It lasted about 3
hours and took us to the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) shopping centre, Hyde
Park, Royal Botanic Gardens, and the Sydney Opera House. In the evening we all
went across the street to eat dinner. They were various pizzas we could try,
including one with kangaroo meat. I tried the kangaroo meat, but it tasted
similar to other meats except it was a bit tougher.
There was about 27 total students in the
group. One was going to go to the University of Tasmania. Only two are going to
Monash University (myself and Niya). The rest are going to the University of
New South Wales, which is in Sydney.
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| Sunrise as we near Australia |
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| Sydney Opera House |
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| Sydney Opera House from the side |
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| Sydney Harbour Bridge |
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| Myself next to Waiting, a statue |
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| There is an alley with tons of bird cages above it. |
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| Inside the QVB |
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| A speaking statue of Queen Victoria's dog |
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| The tallest building in Sydney |
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| Fountain and statues in Hyde Park |
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| Rub his nose for good luck |
7/6
We got up a little after 6. Ate breakfast
at 7. Left at 8. Drove for an hour, got to Featherdale Wildlife Reserve. They
had a lot of native species. Saw a lot of birds first. I got a snake put on my
shoulders. They had a bunch of koalas that you could pet, which I did. There
were wallabies, small kangaroos, and some other marsupials that they let roam
free; you could pet them as long as you only touched their lower back. Then we
had a 30 minute presentation from a zookeeper. She talked about an animal and
then brought it out for petting; she brought out 4 animals: Shingleback lizard,
brown snake, owl-like bird, and Mikey the koala. Then we had another half hour
to see the rest of the animals. I saw goats, a cow, small penguins, a lot of
birds, wombats, quolls, etc. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the Tasmanian devils
in their enclosures, and I only saw part of a dingo that was lying down. I would have liked to have spent more time
there, but we had to go on to our next site. We drove another hour to the Blue
Mountains. First, they gave us lunch in one of the tourist buildings. Then we
rode down the mountain a ways in what looked like a roller coaster, but did not
go nearly as fast. However, it did go down very steeply; it is the world’s
steepest incline railway. We walked up from the bottom with a tour guide (1000
steps), which took about 90 minutes, stopping along the way to rest and view
the scenery. Then we went inside the building to get a glimpse of the
Aboriginal culture. We were given boomerangs and paint and we painted on the
boomerangs. Then there was a presentation by a group of Aborigines. It started
with one of them giving a background on their history, then they played music,
sang, and danced. The instrument they used was a didgeridoo. After this we
drove back to Sydney, taking 2 hours. On both ways of the trip we watched a TV
show, Kath and Kim, on the bus. The show was very bad and only a few wanted to
watch it on the way back. We rested at the hostel for an hour, and then went to
a bar for dinner. I ate a Roo Burger, which was chunks of kangaroos meat on a
bun with beets and a type of mayonnaise, and it was pretty good. Kangaroo meat
is quite tough compared to other meats, but it tasted like other meats.
Afterwards I wandered around town a bit, stopping at the library where I was
able to use a computer with internet, but most sites, including Gmail and
Facebook, were blocked because it was a research computer.
7/7
I got up a little after 6 and jogged across
the bridge. It was raining lightly and cloudy, so I couldn’t see the sunrise.
We had information sessions until noon to prepare us for academics and other
relevant topics. Then we had free time for 6 hours so I walked through the
city. I went to the QVB, Hyde Park, and the Anzac memorial. Then I tried to go
to the opera house, but somehow I ended up a mile or two from where I intended
to go, so I walked along the harbor. I ended up at the Contemporary Museum of
Art, which had free admission. Some of it was interesting, but most of it was
just contemporary art. Then I walked to the opera house and went inside. I was
just a few minutes too late to catch a tour, so I just looked around by myself.
Later we went on a Sydney Harbour Dinner Cruise. We had the boat reserved just
for our group. It took us around the harbor from 7:30 to 10:00, which included
dinner on the boat. It was a lot of fun, and it gave a terrific view of the
harbor and the city.
7/8
We got up early to catch our flights or
buses to our respective campuses. We (Niya, the only other student in the group
going to Monash; Yogini, the coordinator for Monash; and I) ran into a few issues
along the way, but we all made it to the Clayton campus by the afternoon. Our
flight was into the main Melbourne airport. We flew Qantas, and every passenger
on the flight was given an iPad to use during the flight, which was cool, but
unfortunately I only made it halfway through the movie I was watching. The
first problem was that our shuttle from the hostel to the airport made a
handful of stops after picking us up, so we got to the airport very late, but
we ended up getting to our gate with ten minutes to spare. Then it turned out
that we were actually on two separate flights, at 10:00 and 11:00, so Niya and
I had to wait an extra hour for our flight. We met up again at the Melbourne
airport, but I had to wait for a second car to campus because they could not
fit us and our luggage all into one car. Once we made it to campus we went to
our rooms, which ended up being in the same hall and just one floor apart. The
program coordinator left shortly after helping us find our rooms. As we were
about to leave to get lunch we met a student who had a car who drove us to a
local shopping area. Later we walked around campus with a map and then ate at
Nando’s, which is just a block away but is expensive.
7/9
Orientation did not start until the next
day, so we had the entire day to ourselves. I went to the Campus Centre in the
morning. It was a huge place with a lot of restaurants and student services.
There are two banks there, so I opened an account. Around noon Niya and I
walked to a local shopping centre. We bought a lot of stuff at Kmart for our
rooms, and then some groceries from Coles, and then walked back to campus.
Later we explored the Campus Centre a bit more, then went to Nando’s again
because everything else was closed. A lot of restaurants and stores close
earlier here, which we had not taken into account earlier.
7/10
We had orientation sessions, which were for
all of the new international, exchange, and study abroad students, from 10 to
3:30 with a lunch break in the middle. They gave us a lot of information about a
variety of subjects. This whole week there are orientation sessions in the day,
and then an off-campus event at night. Niya and I went to the group event at
the Hawthorn Hotel, but we left a bit after everyone else. We had to take a bus
and train to get there, which was a good experience we have to use public
transportation a lot in order to get around. The Hawthorn Hotel was a
restaurant/bar at first, and then around 8 they removed the tables and chairs
to make it more into a night club setting. Their deal of the night was $4 and
$5 pizzas, but they ran out before we got there. The rest of the food was
expensive so we walked to a Pizza Hut down the street, which sold $5 pizzas,
which made them the most affordable restaurant I’ve seen in the country. We
went back to the Hawthorn, which was pretty awful: extremely loud music and
lots of people. We left earlier than most and went back to Monash by train and
bus.
7/11
There was one information session this
morning about enrolment, and then we all went to our respective faculties, mine
being the Faculty of Science. Here they took us one by one and enrolled us in
the classes we wanted. I am enrolled in a physics class, an astronomy class, a
math class, and an Australian culture class. In the afternoon there was an
event called the Monash Dash, where we got into teams of five, were given one
clue and then searched for the other twenty clues. I joined a team with four
people I didn’t know: one from Canada, one from Austria, one from Germany/UK,
and one from Norway. We had a lot of fun, but did not win because we didn’t run
like some of the teams did. Then they gave us a BBQ lunch. Tonight’s event was
downtown, which they call the CBD, central business district. One of the places
they were going was the tallest building in the city, which allows you to go to
the top floor and onto a glass room that hangs over the side of the building so
you can look straight down. Another place they were going was a bar that was
made out of all ice. They give you winter gear and you get to go in there with
20 people for half an hour. These places sounded quite interesting but they
also were quite pricey so I decided not to go.
7/12
There weren’t many orientation events today,
but there were some representatives from travel agencies that spoke to us, and
then we all got our student ID cards. On a more exciting note I got a response
from the coach of the Monash Aussie rules U19 team saying that they would love for
me to join them even though their season is already two thirds over. So I went
to their training at 6 pm. It was a lot different than playing footy back home.
First of all, the sun had already set, so we were playing on their oval with
the lights on. Secondly, the field was wet and muddy because it is winter here,
so catching the ball was a bit difficult. Finally, they run a lot more at
practices and are much more athletic. I felt awful by the end because I hadn’t
exercised that hard in recent memory. But it turns out that they have a game on
Saturday and are short players, so I will be joining them for that and I may
even get to have a go.
7/13
There was a final event for the week of
orientation, which was an event at the bar at the campus centre. I went because
it was free to go. They had some decent food, but it was loud and not very fun
so I left early.
