The End

Final Week: 6/23-6/26

The final in Quantitative Management went well and now school is completely finished! On Tuesday, Chuck and I did some shopping at the Queen Victoria Building downtown where we bought some gifts and I purchased the didgeridoo I’ve wanted all trip; its authentic aboriginal art carved and designed using wood and wax. That night was the premiere of Transformers 2 at midnight in the iMax. As I mentioned in my last entry, we bought tickets ahead of time, which turned out to be a good decision since the shows for the first two days were sold out by the time we arrived for our showing. I’m not the hugest Transformers fan, but seeing a blockbuster action film on the world’s largest screen was pretty awesome. The movie wasn’t great nor did it do the original Transformers series any justice, especially for Chuck who has been a follower from a young age, but it was entertaining enough. The next day was mostly spent sleeping and preparing for my last full day in Sydney. At night Chuck and I went to the fourth floor lounge, hung out with some of the University of Sydney kids, and had a few drinks, after which Chuck went to bed and the rest of us went to Lansdowne across the street. I ended up leaving before the rest so I could get a decent night’s sleep in preparation for a long Thursday.
I woke up at 11am and called Chuck, because we had tentatively planned on going to Tarongo Zoo in the morning before completing our gift shopping at Paddy’s Market in the early evening. It was a beautiful day relative to how rainy and cold it has been for a majority of the past month. We boarded a ferry in Circular Quay, took it across the harbor to the zoo in North Sydney, and got some final pictures of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House along the way. The zoo was pretty big, but nothing spectacular – I honestly didn’t find it much better than the Minnesota Zoo although there were a few more outdoor enclosures. I hadn’t been to a zoo in years either, so it was a nice way to spend the afternoon. We listened to a couple interesting zookeeper ‘talks’ at the Chimpanzee and Giraffe exhibits which were interesting – I could probably spend all of my time at a zoo watching Chimps, but we made the most of our time and visited a few more spots before heading home at 2:30pm. On the way we stopped at Paddy’s Market – I was surprised just looking through my previous blogs that I haven’t even mentioned this place yet. There are about four of them spread throughout New South Wales – each is a large building consisting of hundreds of small tent shops strung together, including large fruit and vegetable markets. Things here are generally sold at wholesale prices, which make it a great place to find souvenirs and affordable items. When my friends had visitors they would always go to the markets since they were within 15-20 minutes of UniLodge and right next to UTS campus. Coincidentally, while we were there we ran into Mike Condon (Luke’s college buddy from Mass that went to Fraser Island with us) so I was able to say goodbye to him. After we got back, I spent a couple hours completing some final tasks, including checking out, completing a couple forms, making final payments, arranging my 10 am taxi, confirming flights, and completing a majority of my packing. Afterwards Luke, Emily, Chuck, Julia, Jocelyn, Chelsea, and I ate dinner at Lansdowne together one last time. It was a very pleasant evening spent mostly at UniLodge drinking and celebrating our time together – additionally, I saw almost everybody I hoped to before leaving, which was a nice bonus. At midnight we wandered to Bar Broadway with the addition Evan and Jeff (U of Sydney and Mojosurf) for a couple more drinks and finished the evening at SideBar. Together we walked home and hung out a bit before saying goodnight and goodbye to Julia, Jocelyn, Chelsea, Jeff, and Evan. I had to wake up early the next morning to finish last minute packing and cleaning. Luke and Emily got up to see Chuck and me off, since we actually left in the same taxi together. Chuck’s excursion isn’t nearly over, but he won’t be seeing anybody from UniLodge for the rest of his time because he’s spending the next month traveling around Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji before going home to Detroit.
Everything went smoothly at the airport this morning and so here I am in Qantas Flight 11 back to Los Angeles. It seems like just a couple weeks ago that I was sitting on my flight out of Minneapolis pondering what awaited me in the journey ahead. I have to say that I really couldn’t have asked for much more out of my time abroad – I did nearly everything I wanted to and met some amazing people. I don’t think I can possibly articulate how special this trip was for me. I learned so much about the world and myself – I gained a true appreciation for other cultures, ways of life, and several things that I had previously taken for granted. It’s amazing how much smaller the world has become – I now have a friend in literally every continent and hope to revisit each one. Successfully traveling halfway around the world and establishing solid social and educational foundations has given me a great deal of confidence in my ability to explore my own horizons and discover all the things this beautiful world has to offer – I have acquired invaluable knowledge and a whole new capacity for self-efficacy. Also worth noting is my increased gratefulness for how precious all of life’s experiences are. No matter how small or insignificant we may consider certain events to be, life is short – there are so many opportunities and relationships we take for granted, but rarely do we consider how quickly it can be taken away. These have been five of the greatest months of my life and probably five of the fastest – I can’t believe it’s over but now I can’t wait to see what’s next. I miss my family and friends enormously and am anxious to reunite and share stories.
This blog wouldn’t be complete without saying some ‘thank-you’s. First of all, I thank all of you who read my blogs and supported me from overseas – this blog is for you and I couldn’t have done it without you. To Mom and Dad – thank you so much for your loving and caring support both before, and throughout the trip. You’re the ones who made this whole thing possible and I love you both so much for always believing in me through the good and the bad – you always keep me motivated and a square head on my shoulders. I owe you both dearly and look forward to paying you back in the years to come. To my brother Jesse – you know I always looked up to you and have always encouraged me to pursue my interests and be confident. And to everyone I met along the way – we have travelled, lived, loved, grown, and struggled together. Our bond has been forged in stone and I will never forget any of you, whether or not we meet again.
Chuck, you were my first and greatest companion in our travels and I am truly grateful to have had your company and unwavering friendship. Luke, you were just as special to have met and I appreciated all the time we were able to hang out and just enjoy life together. Emily, you were always easy to be around and are a great spirit – your and Lukes’ love and energy (although enviable at times) were inspirational and I’m glad that we were able to share some adventures together. Julia, it seemed like our relationship only strengthened with time and I will really miss you – you made me laugh and smile more than anyone and were an absolute joy to be around at all times. And finally Chelsea and Jocelyn – I can throw you two in a package, because you were always around UniLodge together and I will hold some fond memories of each of you and thank you for being there on my last night. To everyone else, it doesn’t seem fair to not mention you because you were all so special to me, but I just know I will see most of you again soon and will be counting the days until that time comes.
Well, our plane is preparing for landing and it’s time I check out. In approximately nine hours I will be back in Minnesota and the journey will officially be over. Thank you all again so much…until we meet again…

THE END

Finals

Weeks 19 & 20: 6/8-6/22

These have definitely been two of the most difficult weeks of the trip. The end is staring me in the face, but all I can do is study. Preparing for the Statistics final was just as overwhelming as I anticipated – Chuck and I spent Monday afternoon in the UTS tower, although he had a Thermodynamics final (very tough class, especially abroad) on Saturday followed by a Fluid Mechanics final Monday. I got a nice surprise Wednesday (6/10) when Brett Tuma called and informed me he was at Scruffy Murphy’s in the CBD down George Street. Brett’s girlfriend (who he was visiting) was the only other familiar face I have seen in Australia, so seeing my longtime friend was a much welcome distraction and began to excite me at the prospect of returning home – we had a few jugs of beer and parted ways. On Friday the World Health Organization announced that Swine Flu had officially become a Pandemic. Coincidentally, by the following Wednesday I had actually began to feel sick and show symptoms – I was coughing, sneezing, had a stuffy nose, and (more than anything) I was simply exhausted. This didn’t bode well for my studies leading into the Stats final, and in fact, I felt so unprepared and tired on the exam date that I decided to skip it. I had already been in contact with my counselor here in Australia earlier in the semester regarding Stats, and he informed me at the time that I could apply for something called ‘special consideration’, which is a form you lodge if you want special consideration on your final grade and have documented rationale. When I first looked at the form online, I also noticed one for an ‘alternate exam sitting request’ and this was actually the one I entered after missing the final. So after a doctor’s appointment (for documentation – and he didn’t even test me for Swine Flu, so I guess I’m in the clear) I lodged the form at the Student Centre, however I was quickly informed that the alternate final exams would occur during the beginning of July (and I’d be gone!), but they recommended I enter the form anyways. I was a little panicked at this point, but the lady helping me was really nice and suggested I contact my Professor directly to work out an alternative option and so this is what I did. I sent him an email explaining the situation, lodged the form for special consideration, and over a week later he finally responded (time of this entry / Monday) and told me that he would just give me a final exam score based on the average of students that had received similar grades to me on the two in-semester assignments or (in other words) he told me that I had passed!
Anyways, the weekend (week 20) came quickly and was spent studying for my last final in Intro to Quantitative Management. Father’s Day was Sunday so I sent Mark a corny animated e-card, but we will be celebrating as a family in earnest next weekend. I had wanted desperately to take one last dive (scuba) this weekend but the trip was cancelled. Scuba diving was definitely the one thing I wish I had done more of, but I’m still glad I got my diving license and plan on doing a lot of diving in the future when I have more time and money. In the mean time, Chuck and I will be seeing Transformers 2, which we picked tickets up for Tuesday at the iMax. The final activity of the weekend was spent with Chuck and the Canadians girls one last time in King’s Cross. These were the first friends I’ve actually had to say goodbye to and it was sad, but I feel as though I’m mentally prepared and believe I will be seeing everyone again making this transitional period tolerable. That’s it for now – my next and final blog will include my adventures in souvenir shopping, my final exam, and last week in Sydney; saying goodbye, leaving, and final comments. Stay tuned…I will see you all VERY soon!

NBA Finals + Sydney Harbour Lights Show

Week 18: 6/1-6/7

Monday involved a lot of writing and not much sleep, but I completed my final essay and so my two social science courses are now officially done. It turned out that the topics and requirements (2000 words and one textual example) for these two final essays were relatively similar, so I ultimately decided to combine them into one essay I wrote about American History X. Since I technically hadn’t handed in a graded paper in twice, I wasn’t breaking any rules. I handed the two copies in Tuesday and Wednesday and spent the remainder of these two days recovering besides training. Everybody else had finished with lectures as well so the weekend involved a lot of bars and celebration. Friday morning Chuck and I went to Cheers Restaurant & Bar down George Street to watch the first game of the NBA Finals. It felt a lot like back home, because Cheers is an American themed bar (based on the show and bar in Boston) and they primarily show American sporting events. We played some pool upstairs and had lunch (I got myself some fish and chips) together. Later in the night, some of us went to Sydney Harbour to view the light show going on. It was pretty cool – differently colored lights all around the area were used to decorate buildings, trees, or whatever else they could think of.

We proceeded to walk across the Harbour Bridge (which you would think I’d have done by now, but haven’t except on a bus) and I got a few more cool views of the harbor from above.

Shortly after stepping foot in North Sydney for the first time I got on a train and rode back home. Next week brings the final national holiday of the year for Australia being the Queen’s Birthday – yes, they celebrate the Queen of England’s birthday as a national holiday. It’s actually expected to be a little colder next week and carry snow to parts of southern Australia, which should make focusing on my studying a little easier. Also, a lot of girls from our hall our going to New Zealand starting Tuesday next week, but on the other hand, Brett just got here today, so I will most likely be spending at least one night with him over the next few days before he goes to Fiji with Danielle on Thursday for a week and a half.

One Month Left

Week 17: 5/25-5/31

Only one month left until my departure June 26th and there’s still so much I haven’t done, even in Sydney. I feel like I’ve done and seen so much in the past four months, which I have, yet I’ve probably only seen about 5% of what Australia has to offer. Consequently, during the week I began to create a list of different things I can still do before leaving. My main goal is to do at least two more dives (scuba) since I got all this expensive snorkeling equipment for my birthday before coming here and have only used it once. Chuck and I have discussed taking the three-day train ride across the outback to Perth in Western Australia for a couple days where I could dive at another beautiful reef off the southwest coast. I would also kind of like to try surfing one more time and could hire a board over there and do that as well. Now that I’m confident driving here I have also thought about driving a car up the Gold Coast north of Sydney. In Sydney itself I have yet to visit: Hunter Valley vineyards, Featherdale Wildlife Park (to revisit some tame kangaroos and wallabies), AU National Maritime Museum, Sydney Aquarium; or see a movie at the world’s largest iMax theater in Sydney Harbour. I will officially begin training for my second Twin Cities Marathon tomorrow giving me exactly 18 weeks to prepare for the October 4th race. Qualifying for Boston Marathon requires that I finish in 3 hours and 10 minutes which would require I cut about 15 minutes off the time I finished in last year. I’ve managed to stay in pretty good shape here although my weight has fluctuated more than it ever has in my life and seen me as high as 180 pounds and now right around 175 pounds (I’ll probably weigh closer to 165 by 10/4). Chuck and I actually completed are first full week’s workouts with four days of running (3 miles) and lifting, and an additional two days of longer runs for me. I know Drew, my roommate back home has also begun training so I look forward to getting back on some familiar tracks. Tomorrow I will write my final essay of the year leaving the following two weeks to study for my final exams in Quantitative Management and Math Stats, but probably just Math Stats. Hopefully I utilize my time well and get a lot done, so I can continue to see and do more. My friend Brett Tuma is visiting Danielle (girlfriend and mutual acquaintance) next week and traveling with her until the following week so it would be fun to hang out and take him around Sydney. Also, tomorrow (June 1) is the first official day of winter. Temperatures will generally see highs in the 60’s until my June 26th departure. Below, I've posted a couple more pictures of campus...they're both

taken from the same spot (one facing left and one right) in the Alumni Green behind the tower building.

Work + Sydney Swans

Weeks 15 & 16: 5/11-5/24

Well you are now pretty much finally caught up to the present! Congratulations and thank you if you read everything until now. Last week I got my Quantitative Management group assignment grade with a 10/10 and the comment “Thorough and technically correct…very lovely”…Whoop! At least three of my four classes are going well! Anyways, any time not spent working on my second 4000 words journal entry for Social Theory due the following week (16) or the presentation due in class Tuesday was essentially spent organizing pictures, writing blogs, in the gym, in my room, or at the bar. On Saturday, however, I did make it to another AFL game between our Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles at ANZ stadium. The Swans won in another close game.

This past week was really slow for once and even my Statistics lectures were cancelled (a gift). I got sick and wasn’t sure what it was at first, but it went away in three days and by tomorrow morning I plan on being back to 100%. I’m so excited to be caught back up on blogs and nearing the pre-finals break/study period. If all goes to plan, I will be contacting all of you (friends and family) in some fashion over the course of the week and look forward to catching up with you as well. This time, I'll leave you with a picture of my German study budy Hannes on his laptop inside one of the UTS buildings we frequent to work.

Luke Vincent's 21st + Fraser Island

Week 14: 5/4 – 5/10

Okay, so a little more going on again this week. To start the week, I worked on a group assignment for my Quantitative Management class which involved developing linear programs in Microsoft Excel and writing a report discussing the results. More importantly however, this was the week of Luke Vincent’s 21st birthday, so needless to say, a lot partying and celebrating to report. It began Tuesday night with Tequila shots (something Luke despises, but we poked fun at him for not taking some earlier in the trip) and ended up with us at Scruffy Murphy’s where we counted down the hours to midnight; even though the drinking age is legally 18 here, people in AU still celebrate their twenty-first, and we would learn the reason why later in the week. It turns out that before Vietnam, the drinking age was 21 in Australia as well, but about the same time the United States temporarily changed it to 18, so did Australia, but they never went back. Anyway the time came, we cheered and I joined Luke in the drinking of his first ever ‘Jaggerbomb’ I was more than happy to supply; Luke doesn’t remember it, but it at least it will always be a special moment to me… The next night began and ended on a lot better terms for the official celebration of his birthday – we just went to Lansdowne across the street for convenience and we all bought Luke some shots. Despite the two nights of celebration, the best part of the week had yet to come.

We left early Friday morning for Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world off the eastern coast north of Brisbane. Ten of us (Me, Luke, Emily, Jenna, Lauren, Liz, Julia, Christina with her friend Kristin, and Luke’s friend Mike from Boston) boarded a plane with our carryon luggage and nothing more than a reservation at a hostel that Emily (who booked it) couldn’t initially remember the name for. When we arrived we discussed as a group our options – the thing that nearly everybody does in coming to Fraser Island is rent a 4-Wheel Drive Off-Road SUV full of camping equipment and rough it around the island at various campsites for a few days to a week. We only had Friday-Monday morning and renting these vehicles generally requires at least a week’s advanced notice, which we obviously hadn’t done. Before leaving the airport, we called every single company that offered 9+ sized SUVs, and somehow managed to find one available for use Saturday. Well, Emily remembered the hostel’s name so we grabbed the next available taxi van and went there. It was nice having our own room at a hostel, but it was really quiet while we were there, so it really wouldn’t have made much of a difference being separate. After grabbing some lunch at the beachside grill across the street, we went and got all of our groceries and supplies necessary for driving around Fraser Island the next two days. To make it clear, we weren’t actually on Fraser Island already, but along the coast. I got to know Mike better as we played some Frisbee on the beach and afterwards hung out at the pool while Luke and Emily got picked up and went in to the rental center to watch a video and take care of paperwork for our excursion.

A couple hours later Luke and Emily got back in disarray. It turned out the truck had a manual transmission, which Luke couldn’t drive so this, along with the video they were shown, scared Emily. At this point, it seemed like the trip wasn’t going to happen, because in the contract it required we have two licensed drivers’ names on it. Although I can drive a stick shift, I didn’t have my American driver’s license, so a new challenge arose. Nobody else was twenty one or able to drive. After some thinking, I realized I could get a copy of my ID because I knew exactly where in my room it was and could authorize my friend (Chuck), who ironically couldn’t come on the trip because of a project, to enter my room (fortunately it was still early enough in the night for the front desk to be open). He procured the ID and had the front desk at UniLodge fax it to the front desk of the hostel I was staying. After 20 minutes, it still hadn’t arrived, so Chuck ultimately had to take a picture and email it to the hostel. They finally received it and printed it off for me. Luke immediately called the company supplying the SUV, because they had until before it closed to let them know if we wanted to cancel or not. Of course it was closed, so Luke got the hold of a late night emergency line, and after explaining the situation was told that we should be able to replace Luke with me as the second driver. Early the next morning, Luke called first thing and found out our pickup to go and get the SUV was already on its way. Emily, Luke, and I went to the center, I gave them my license information, and I watched the video. It wasn’t bad and basically all common sense precautionary warnings along with some others unique to the island to be aware of. It discussed how to navigate the sand roads of the island, driving etiquette, and to never feed or touch Dingoes which inhabited the island – it can be a $1000 on-the-spot fine if you get caught doing it. I paid close attention to everything and learned a little bit, but most of it was self explanatory. We then had the truck pulled up front for us where we inspected it for any preexisting damage and got a quick rundown in the front seat before taking off. I was the first t drive and found the transition to the left side of the road much less difficult than I anticipated. Driving manually was the same except I was shifting with my left hand, which I preferred more actually because I could steer with my right. Our next major concern was that this van was a nine-person SUV which had been converted from initially being an eight-person – we also, told the company we had only nine people (which we didn’t :-/). This never gave us any problems because we just took the SUV off by ourselves with just the three of us and picked the rest up at the hostel. We packed up all of our gear, filled the tanks with Diesel, and set off to the barge that would be taking us across the channel to the island. Backing the big SUV into the barge was little awkward from the opposite side of the car at first, but my valet experience came into effect and helped me park it snug. After the thirty or so minute cruise, we got back into the van and started on to the island. Driving was actually a lot of fun through the bumpy, off-road paths.

Signs were all over the island and the company we rented from provided us with a huge map along with an entire itinerary of what we could do in our two days if we chose to follow it. We pretty much stuck to it the whole time: first stop was at little forest walk where we saw a crystal clear creek running (literally could see directly through to the sand basin); second was amazing Lake Mackenzie which was also crystal clear, it felt like I was swimming in drinking water, and where we had lunch; our third and final stop for the night was at our campsite, which were scattered all over the island.

At about 5pm we had to be off the beach with our SUV anyway, because it was dark and the tide was starting to creep in, and getting any excessive amount of salt water on the electrical wiring beneath the car would result in damages (not to mention getting the car bogged down on the beach). First things first, we set our tents and prepared everything before it got too dark and we were too uncoordinated to accomplish anything. We spent all night around the van with our little gas burner as the only source of light beside the moon that came out much later. Actually, it looked like a storm huge storm was going to clip us for a long time, but it eventually made its way north of us. A lot of drinking and playing along the beach ensued – it was hot dogs for dinner and a sandy salad, because getting sand in absolutely every crevice was unavoidable. Most went to bed before 10pm because we decided we wanted to get up at the crack of dawn the next morning to watch the sun come up behind another infamous ship wreck that was on shore about 20 minutes further north.

The clouds made this rather disappointing, but the view out over the ocean in the morning was still just as beautiful as ever. We went to one more site before the tide came back in for the morning called The Pinnacles which are some tall stone formations that have been weathered by sand and wind to reveal a cool, streaky, layered pattern in the cliff face. We napped until the tide went back out and drove down to another crystal clear creek that we could swim in, but we decided we rather go to a lake to spend the last few hours before catching the barge ride back. The lake we initially planned to stop at turned out to not be very conveniently located, so we ended up back at Lake Mackenzie for an early morning swim. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the Dingo citing we made while packing our tents in the morning. As we were loading the SUV, a pack of four or five Dingos calmly trotted past the front and continued down the beach in the moon light. The reason I remember this is because I saw another lone Dingo in the parking lot as I was changing by myself back at Lake Mackenzie. Unfortunately, my camera had just run out of batteries, but he walked right past me and I was able to observe him up close, which was very cool – this was a great way for me to cap our time on the island. Emily drove us back to the barge and I had my first experience of riding in the very back of the cramped SUV and quickly understood why people were getting sick sitting back there after the long intervals of off-road driving. The barge returned to mainland some time before sundown, we dropped everybody back off at the hostel, and returned the SUV. Of course, when we brought it back in, the mechanic that first inspected it saw that it was still in four-wheel-drive which is apparently “very bad” to do for even short stretches on paved roads. He was “certain” that there would be damages when the lead mechanic came in the next morning for inspection and said we should just hope it’s low. We tried to not worry about the fact that we might get swindled, and enjoyed a long overdue hearty meal with everybody after we got brought back. To further distract ourselves, we brought the remainder of our goon (boxed-wine, remember?) down to the beach and engaged in some hilarious activities including burying all of our feet in sand and taking pictures of it. Another early morning brought us back to the airport and home to Sydney.

Week 13...and That's It

Week 13: 4/27-5/3

Well, break is over and it’s time to face reality – I had a long overdue Journal entry that I got an unspecified extension for, but not wanting to push my instructor’s leniency, I sat down and cranked out 3000 more words. It’s stressful getting back into things – I am way behind on my blogs, still lost in Statistics, and playing catch up in Social Theory. Not to mention, my time here is beginning to near its end and there are still so many things I would like to, do even in Sydney. The only noteworthy event of the week occurred at the end of week when we decided spur of the moment to organize a city scavenger hunt. We convened in Julia’s room and made a long list of items that you can find in any large metropolitan city. It began with great excitement but soon we discovered we hadn’t prepared it well enough and that there were too many discrepancies which ultimately resulted in us meeting at Three Monkeys Bar. That’s it, can you believe it? I threw in a picture of UTS for your enjoyment!