Semester in Australia

Australia E-Mail #1 (2.20.06)

Hello Everyone!

It has been quite the week. But I am safe and sound in Sydney and having a great time.

On Monday afternoon I left from JFK Airport at 2:30 PM and made it smoothly to LAX Airport (despite the two feet of snow on Sunday) by 5:30 PM. Then I had the pleasure of waiting in the bleak and food-less International Terminal at LAX Airport. However, I was fortunate enough to make some friends quickly, as several people made the same mistake as I did and were stuck in the terminal for six hours. Attached you will see some pictures of some of the friends I made. In total there are 80 students attending the University of Sydney through my program, IFSA-Butler. The plane left close to on time and it was one long plane ride. Out of the fourteen hours on the plane, I was able to get about six hours and spent the remainder of the flight discussing Australia with the Ryan, the Australian I met at the airport and sat next to. He was very helpful and explained around of differences between the U.S. and Australia, as he just spent the last three months in the US. He lives in Sydney and studies Law in Brisbane and was very friendly.

Taylor, Brian and Alex at LAX

Our flight landed around 9:00 AM Brisbane times (they are in the same time zone as Sydney, but Queensland refuses to do daylight saving time). After landing and meeting our program people we all loaded a bus and drove two hours north to a place on the coast call North Noosa Shore Resort (it is located in Noosa Shore National Park). We spent three days at the Resort, spending the time meeting the people in our group, adventure activities and orientation sessions. In order not to bore you all, I will not tell you everything we did, but rather just summarize the big stuff. On the second day I got to get a surf lesson. This was my first time swimming in the Pacific Ocean and it is unbelievably warm and beautiful here. I am used to Maine water at 60 degrees and it had to be about 90 degrees outside and 75 degrees in the water. I did very well, if I may say so myself, at surfing. I got up the first three times and then was able to move out farther and catch the bigger waves. It was a lot of fun and I am already making plans to continue surfing while I am in Australia. There were only two problems while surfing, first there were jellyfish on the beach called blue bottles and are about the size of a human thumb. When they sting your skin they only sting for a while but are luckily not deadly (one of the few things in Australia that isn’t). I was lucky not to get stung (some others did) but there was one bigger problem. About an hour into being in the water, I was pretty far out and noticed that everyone else was tired in out of the water. However, when I turned to look for the instructors they waved me in and I caught the next wave. It turns out that there was a huge school of fish a little past me and the school was attracting a lot of sharks. I found this out when I got to shore and as well I realized I had cut both of my feet and was bleeding. So I count myself as lucky, but also it was surprisingly thrilling. I wasn’t let back in the water, for obvious reasons, but surfing was great nonetheless.

The next day we spent the whole day taking a trip to Fraser Island, which is a World Heritage Wildlife refuge and is the largest sand island in the world. The amazing day trip started with a bus ride on the local major highway. That local highway happens to be the beach. It was high tide, so it was a thrilling/scary ride involving a lot of dogging of waves and swerving. Our driver was very funny and friendly and was gracious enough to explain all the times we were near death and why. After the two hour or so drive, we arrived at Fraser Island, which is one of the most amazing places I have ever been. The island itself has five separate environments, including a rainforest, jungle and beach. We continued to drive for another hour or so, however we went from the beach to a very small, tight and bumpy path through the jungle. I learned tons about the island and the history of it (which to know yourself you will have to visit yourself). Our drive took a break at a natural lake located in the sand dunes of the island. It seems impossible, but easily explainable with the appropriate time. Attached you should also see pictures of this lake. It is one of the seven best places to swim in the World. The PH level is so low that it is equivalent to shampoo or conditioner and the water, combined with the starkly white sand, makes for a free top-rate spa treatment. You are only allowed to swim in the water for an hour, in order to help preserve its delicate environment. After the swim in the lake we stopped in the rainforest and saw the most endangered fern in the world (there are only 24 left and seven are in the Fraser Island rainforest), I also saw a rare Fraser Island bird and a fresh water eel. The trees on Fraser Island vary amazingly and some range to over two hundred and forty feet and approximately ten feet in diameter. Attached you will also find some pictures from the rainforest.

We finished the trip by having a terrific lunch in the main town on the Island and making the drive back to our “resort” while making a few more stops on the way back as it was low tide and easier to drive. Also you might be interested that the airport on the island is also the beach and their planes can land and take off in sixty feet apparently. We made it back to the “resort” fine and had dinner and watched an Australian movie under the stars. Oh and by the way the whole resort was full of roaming kangaroos and they are amazing animals, but extremely dangerous apparently (as are most things in Australia). We left early the next morning for Brisbane Airport and took a short flight to Sydney. I arrived at St. John’s College (my home for the next five months) at around 5:30 PM and was greeted by some students at the college. However, there are only about 15 students living in the College now because classes haven’t started yet. Soon there will be around 180 students living here. I live in a single (with not such a great view), but I have my own sink and am right next to the co-ed shared bathrooms and the laundry room. There are seven other students from my program that are staying here and three of them are very friendly and I spend a lot of time with them. Unfortunately I don’t have internet for a while (writing from a café) and we don’t get served food for another two weeks. It is sometimes lonely and confusing here, but it gets better everyday as I get a hold on more things.

The first night I went to a friends building, which has an amazing roof top view of the Sydney skyline. Next, a bunch of friends and I went to a local bar, which has a five and ten dollar menu when you buy a beer (cheap food and beer, a favorite already). The following day, Saturday, I went for a little necessary shopping and explored the campus area. At night, some friends and I had a BBQ on the roof of their building, which has an amazing view as well. After dinner we took the bus down the Circular Quay (pronounced Keey), which is right on the harbor between the Sydney Bridge and the Opera House. The night was amazingly beautiful, a perfect temperature of about 75 degrees and a light breeze. The Sydney Bridge and Opera House were even more beautiful than I could have imagined. They were awesome and we spent about an hour at the Opera Bar, which is right on the water under the Opera House.

Today (Monday here in Sydney) I started Orientation for International Students. From 9:00 AM until 4:00 PM I had information sessions and activities to attend. It was actually very nice, mostly because it was something organized to do and because it helped make me feel like I was a little more in control of the things I have to do. I still haven’t figured out paying for internet here, it is very strange they pay by the download so every web page is a certain amount of space and thus it limits the amount of web pages you can go to. I almost understand it, but it is very confusing and illogical, especially when we American college students are so used to using the internet whenever and however we want.

Tonight some friends and I will be going back to the local bar for a cheap dinner and then watching a movie so that we have plenty of sleep (I and everyone else wake up every morning at around six or seven because we haven’t gotten over the jetlag yet) for the second day of our orientation tomorrow (Tuesday).

I am sorry that this was so long (or that I skimmed over some things, depending on how much you were interested). If you have any questions or comments or anything please feel free to e-mail. However, please don’t be insulted if I do not respond immediately, as I will not have internet readily available for a few more days. Also, when I do have e-mail I will most likely be limited in my usage and might not be able to use internet phone services, but I will let those that are interested know my situation when I do.

I hope this finds you well and again I would love to hear from all of you. Also, if you don’t want to get these long summary e-mails from me, please just let me know. I won’t be insulted or hurt. The same goes for the photos I attach, if they are too big for you to keep getting, just tell me and I won’t send them to you.

Also, if you were wondering, it is free for me to receive calls from anywhere in the world at the cell phone number I sent in the first e-mail. So if for some reason you have an international phone card and feel like talking to me, please call (just remember the time difference!).

I do have to go now and I will hopefully be able to write you all again soon and possibly use better grammar (sorry) and more interesting writing style then.

Love,

Jon

(the rest of the pictures are below)