First ten days in Australia

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).

About to go through security at MSP

My airplane at MSP

My airplane at Chicago Midway

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.

Sunrise as we near Australia

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House from the side

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Myself next to Waiting, a statue

There is an alley with tons of bird cages above it.

Inside the QVB

A speaking statue of Queen Victoria's dog

The tallest building in Sydney

Fountain and statues in Hyde Park

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.