Semester in Australia

May 15, 2006

Hello!

You may have noticed that it has been longer than usual since I have last written an update of my time here in Australia. I did not write an update for the week of May 1, 2006 for several reasons. First, I was extremely busy with school work; between preparing for a big presentation for my Southeast Asia class and the two papers I had due on May 10 and May 11. Since I was busy writing and researching for these, I did not have time to do anything exciting enough to write about. Therefore, I put off writing a new update until now, when have some time and some things to write about after spending the weekend in Victoria.

As I mentioned above I have been doing a lot of work lately. It feels as though ever since I came back from my break, on April 21, I have been working a lot. Between researching for my presentation on Thailand for my Southeast Asia tutorial, the two papers I had to research and write (for Australian Social History and Southeast Asia class) and my regular load of reading and assignments I have worked most of the days since my return from break. This may not sound like what studying abroad should be, but it has not been all bad. I have managed to still have a social life, though limited, and get out every once in a while. I will not go into detail on my work and research, but rather mention the assignments and move on. The presentation for Southeast Asia was on Thailand and its (now former) Prime Minister Thaksin. My partner and I gave a 50 minute presentation on the question given to us and wrote a 10-page report to go along with the presentation. I thought it went very well, and apparently so did my Professor. She gave us both what is called an HD (High Distinction) marks. Though our mark was an 85, this is very high on Australian standards. The HD range is 85-100 and is basically near perfection. On average about 1 to 5 percent of a class finishes the semester with an HD, if that many. Next I had to write an essay for the same class, Southeast Asia. I wrote my paper on Overseas Chinese Business Networks and that was 8 pages; have not received my grade back yet. Finally, I wrote a paper for Australian Social History on the changing perception and observance of ANZAC Day (explained in the last update) in Australia. That was a 10 page essay and, as well, I have not received a grade back yet, and won’t for a while.

With the details on schoolwork out of the way, I can move onto more interesting topics. Now as my last paper was handed in on Thursday afternoon I had been working everyday up to that. However, I planned a trip with two of my American friends, from the program I am here with, to Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road. The two friends are Brian and Jamie, and Brian I believe has been in a few pictures that I have put up before. I had originally planned on going just to Melbourne by myself, but found out that both Brian and Jamie were interested in traveling the same times and needed other people to travel with. Brian was good enough to do most of the planning; i.e. renting a car and finding some hostels. So on Thursday night at 7:15 PM the three of us flew from Sydney Airport on JetStar (a small, low cost airline) to Melbourne. We did not land at the main airport in Melbourne, but rather the Avalon Airport that is used by JetStar and located approximately 40 minutes southwest of Melbourne. We landed at night and picked up our rental car. We then drove to a small town called Queenscliff, which is located directly to the east of the start to the Great Ocean Road. The three of us stayed in a decent hostel in Queenscliff over night and then woke up early Friday morning to start our drive.

We got a quick breakfast in Queenscliff we started towards the town of Torquay, the first town on the Great Ocean Road. Now would be a good time to mention that the Great Ocean Road is a highway that stretches from Torquay in the east, along the Pacific coast, to Warrnambool in the west. It is hard to say exactly how long the highway is, as it winds and twists non-stop, but we drove approximately 350Km (217 Miles) from Torquay to Port Campbell, a town roughly 80Km east of Warrnambool. At the beginning of the Great Ocean Road the highway does not actually follow the coastline. Rather it goes inland for a fair amount of time before really hugging the coast. There is not much that I can really write about the Great Ocean Road and what we saw, besides showing you the pictures (below). I will say that though it is a beautiful road, it is also a dangerous one. Though we took our time and were safe. Also, because it is fall in Australia, the powerful weather systems from Antarctica are racing into the coast of Australia. This in effect creates almost constant cloudiness, as well as, frequent showers and mists (aka – the rainy season). We were fortunate to get a fair amount of sunshine and warmth for the most part of our trip, though it did become more overcast and misty towards sunset.

We made over twenty stops along the road during our first day. However, almost none of them will mean anything to anyone and therefore I will restrain myself from listing them. We did stop at the Twelve Apostles before the sunset and spent about 90-minutes there. Unfortunately it was so cloudy that we realized that we were not going to see the sunset on them. Despite this, it was still nice to have visited them and overall the first day was a success and a good time. We finished the first day by moving into our hostel for the night, in Port Campbell. After grabbing a very good dinner at a local restaurant, we entertained ourselves until we were tired enough to sleep.

The next morning we tried to wake up early again, but ended up getting started around 9:00 AM or 9:30 AM. After grabbing a quick breakfast in town we drove to see a little more of the coast before heading to Melbourne. We went back towards the Twelve Apostles at first, visiting the Lord Arch Gorge (including Thunder Cave and the Blowhole). We then went back through Port Campbell and head farther west on the Great Ocean Road. This took us to a lookout over Port Campbell, then to the Bay of Martyrs, Bay of Isles and the London Bridge. I personally thought that the Bay of Isles was more beautiful than the Twelve Apostles, though I can only imagine that the Twelve Apostles was better when there were actually twelve of them. Unfortunately, because the Apostles, and the other ‘rock islands’, are made of soft limestone, they have eroded quite quickly over the years. Some have all but disappeared, and in fact when I visited you could still see the rubble from where one of them had once stood. The London Bridge had the same problem. The formation used to be connected to the shore, therefore forming a double arch that resembled the London Bridge. However, the arch connected to the land fell into the ocean in 1990.

All of these stops were very nice, and the weather on the Saturday started off fairly well. After visiting these last few stops on the Great Ocean Road, we said good bye to the Tasman Sea and took the inland Freeway towards Melbourne. Leaving the Great Ocean Road at 11:00 AM, we did not get to our destination, Philip Island which is located an hour and half to the southeast of Melbourne, until 4:30 PM. It was basically a day full of driving, though it rained most of the time so it was not too bad. After navigating Brian through the Highway system that is Melbourne, I drove us the rest of the way down to Philip Island. Philip Island is a fairly good sized island on the Tasman Sea southeast of Melbourne. It is a very popular resort island, but more so in the summer. The main attraction on Philip Island is the Little Penguins, or typically called Fairy Penguins. These are the smallest penguins in the world and everyday after sunset they emerge from the ocean in groups, called rafts, and they cautiously waddle their way from the water to the safety of their boroughs located a bit inland. A Park has been set up to protect these penguins, however they have also built a visitors center and a boardwalk/viewing area so that people may come and see this Penguin Parade. Unfortunately, they do not allow photography of any kind and therefore the pictures I have put up from there are very sub-par. However, the penguins were very very cute. After enough of them had waddled their way across the beach and into the bush, we walked the boardwalk to find them. Several of them were right next to the boardwalk, either traveling to their boroughs or at them. I have to say, these penguins were very cute, especially when they tried to walk really fast and just ended up waddling and bobbing until they sort of tripped. They were so cute that eventually we had to leave because my friend Jamie was becoming very tempted to take one with her.

After leaving the Penguin Parade and Philip Island we drove up to Melbourne and found our hostel. It was a very nice, clean and brand new hostel right across the river from the main downtown section of Melbourne. They were very friendly and helpful and it was really well located. After getting settled there, we walked down by the Yarra River. After a little walk we found what is called the Southgate Complex, which is basically a few levels of shopping and food. The Food Court was just closing up and so the food was heavily discounted. It was a great find, as the only thing better than Chinese food is cheap Chinese food. After eating the first meal in a long time we did some more walking and crossed the river for a walk down Flinders Street. However, Brian and Jamie were very tired and wanted to sleep. I couldn’t argue with that, as I was worn out myself, and so we went back to the hostel and slept.

On Sunday we ended up starting the day around 9:00 AM. After a free, but limited, breakfast at the hostel we started our walk around Melbourne. Unfortunately it was overcast and threatening rain all morning. Our first stop was the Melbourne Observation Deck, which is located on the top of the Rialto Tower. After watching a terrible tourism video about Melbourne we made our way to the top of the 48 story building. However, once at the top we could see barely any of Melbourne, as fog covered most of it. The observation deck was not completely fogged in, as it would be later in the day, but was pretty close. We got a slight view of downtown Melbourne, as you can see below, but nothing spectacular or worthwhile. After coming down from the observation deck, we walked north towards Queen Victoria Market. This is a very large market that is open 5 days a week and has been around for quite sometime. Although, the market was not too impressive as it had nothing any different then any market I have seen in the States. As well, by this time a constant mist had started that would last most of the rest of the day.

In light of the mist we decided not to walk the extra blocks and see the University of Melbourne campus, but instead head straight over to the Parliament building. We only saw the Parliament building from the outside, after making a quick stop at the Hard Rock Café, though it was quite impressive. It was the originally seat of government after Federation in 1901, and was so until 1926 when it was officially moved to Canberra. With the mist continuing we made our way to Federation Square. This has several museums, art galleries, churches and Flinders Station. Making our way passed Federation Square we headed back to our car, which was parked at the hostel, and decided to drive to the Royal Botanic Gardens where we could see the Shrine of Remembrance and Government House. After an unnecessarily long walk from our parking space to the Shrine of Remembrance, we walked around the outside the shrine and then went inside and up to the top of the shrine and got a good view of Melbourne. From there we tried to get to see the Government House. However, after some walking around and then driving we drove up to the front gate of the Government House. Only to be informed security that it is called the Government House because it is where the Governor-General of Victoria lives. Therefore, we as ignorant American tourist were not allowed to go inside.

After being turned away by security, we decided to go back to the Southgate Complex to get something to eat. After a late lunch we decided to go on a search for Tim Tam Cheesecake at the Casino food court. We only found Death by Chocolate Cheesecake, which Jamie and Brian ate. From there we decided to venture back to the car via the Casino. When we entered Jamie was asked to show her proof of ID, guess she looks 16, and while she produced her ID Brian proceeded to the first slot machine, inserted a dollar coin, pressed approximately 5 to 6 buttons, proclaiming he knew exactly what he was doing, and had accumulated a large amount of ‘points.’ Realizing that he had a lot of points he asked how to cash out, I pushed the button and one-hundred and sixty dollars in coins poured out of the machine. Brian immediately became hated by both Jamie and me, for his luck. He went on to win another thirty or so dollars on the slots, which he fell in love with. After losing a few dollars on the slots I decided to use only five dollars and play the tables. With some luck on the roulette table I was up to forty-five dollars at one point. In the end though I was up only twenty-five dollars; not too bad for a first time, and responsible! The casino was a fun time, especially on such a rainy and miserable day. Unfortunately though, Jamie was not confident of her luck and decided to watch most of the time. She did win three dollars on the slots, but was even by the time we left.

After leaving the casino we got back in the car and decided to head towards the airport. Our rental car had to be returned by 9:00 PM and we had to get some dinner and scope out the area around the airport. Our flight back to Sydney was not until 6:00 AM the next morning and we had been told that unfortunately the airport, a small regional one, closed between 11:00 PM and 4:00 PM. And during this time we were planning to either ask to stay in the airport or camp outside in a bus stop like area. However, at 10:30 PM security kicked us out of the airport and told us that, not only were we not allowed to stay in the airport, but that we couldn’t be on the airport property at all. This posed a serious problem as the ground was still pretty wet and that the nearest town was 15 Km away. A taxi both ways and a hotel room would have been more than we saved on the plane tickets by flying out Monday morning, so we ruled that out. Finally, after some pleading with, and sympathy by, the airline staff we were offered a ride to a BP station a few kilometers down the highway. We had to stay there for four hours and then called a taxi at 4:00 Am to take us back to the airport. It was a very long and tiring night, but we made it back to the airport, onto the plane and back to Sydney.

Once I got back to St. John’s I was very tired and ended up sleeping for about six or seven hours before trying to get my life back in order. The rest of Monday was spent catching up with e-mails, news and some work. Tuesday was full of classes and more work. I have a large research essay due next Tuesday or my Australian Politics class and a large presentation on Wednesday for my Australia and the World class. So the rest of my week will be filled with work and research. Although, on Wednesday I will hopefully be able to take sometime from work to go to a big rugby game for St. Johns and to go out and celebrate my friend Katie’s birthday.

Besides all of that, I have officially booked my trip to Asia at the end of the semester. I will be leaving Sydney June 27^th and traveling for nine days through Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Then I will fly to China and travel for fourteen days from Shanghai to Beijing and everything in between. This will allow me to return to Sydney on July 25^th, spend two days in Sydney and have one last formal dinner at St. John’s, and then fly to Hawaii for three days before flying to Boston, finally arriving in the USA on July 30^th. As well, I am going to be visiting Perth at the end of classes, June 8^th to June 11^th, and hopefully Ayer’s Rock right after that. And I hope to get to Tasmania still, though the chances of that happening are not looking so good.

Sorry for this being so long, but it has been two weeks since I last wrote. I hope you are well and if I have been tardy in replying to your e-mails I hope you understand and I will respond shortly. And as usual I always appreciate e-mails or letters. I am still having a great time here in Australia, but at the same time I can’t wait to be back in the States and see everyone.

I hope everyone is healthy and safe. If there is any news from home, please pass it along. You will find some pictures from my trip below.

Love,

Jon

p.s. I apologize for the possible bad form and/or grammar of this, because I am pressed for time I have not been able to read it over. Hopefully it isn’t too bad.

Brian and Jamie in our rental car!

Queenscliff, very busy.

Our hostel in Queensclif.

Bells Beach, home of the World Surfing Championships.

Surfers on Bells Beac.

Start of the Great Ocean Road

Helpful Australian Sign.

Beautiful lookout on the side of the Great Ocean Road.

The Otway Lighthouse.

Another beautiful lookout.

Erksine Falls, one of our detours.

Brian and Jamie at one of our 20 stops.

Another view from a stop.

And Another.

Me on top of Marriner's Lookout, overlooing Apollo Bay. Very humbling view, just like the book said it was.

Another view.

A famous lighthouse that we didn't want to pay to get into.

First shot of the 12 Apostles.

Another shot of some Apostles (they are as tall as they look, very tall)

The two Apostles on the other side.

Some more Apostles.

Me and some Apostles.

Loch Ard Gorge, home to a famous shipwreck.

Jamie standing on unsafe, highly unstable limestone cliff, but a nice view.

What we could see from the unsafe viewing point.

The Blowhole, but now blowing, not high enough seas.

Walking into Thunder Cave

Thunder Cave, with no thunder.

London Bridge, used to connect to the mainland on the left.

A cool arch, has a name, didn't remember it.

Bay of Martyrs

A view of Port Campbell, pretty much fit it all into one picture.

Bay of Isles

The beach where the Penguin Parade was about to happen on. Only picture that I got without getting in trouble.

To give you an idea of what the penguins look like (they weigh 1kg or 2.2 lbs on average)

So very very small, and cute, and wobbly.

Funny sign on the way to the parking lot after the Penguin Parade.

Melbourne at night.

Water foutain outside the casino.

The Rialto Tower, on the way over to the observation deck. Looks pretty clear, right?

Brian enjoying all $8.50 of his view.

More of the great view.

And more. Keep that tall building in mind, it shows up in other pictures.

Brian and Jamie at the Queen Victoria Market

Hard Rock Cafe, and the great sign.

Later in the day, somewhere in that fog is the Rialto Tower.

Brian is pointing at where we parked the car (the first spot on the road into the Gardens), and if you can see that black square on the far left of the map, that is where we wanted to go. That whole gray line was full of empty parking spaces. We didn't know that. Jamie did not enjoy the walk.