Getting the Ball Rolling

We have been in Australia for almost three weeks now, and we are all really starting to get in the grove of things. We have memorized our schedules, learned our way around the city, and even mastered our internal clocks.

My schedule was not too hard to master. I work three days a week for a total of 24 hours. So far, my job has been slow to start because they are still getting acclimated to having me around. It’s been an effort on both parts and Caritas employees have been very friendly. In the upcoming weeks, I hope to take on more difficult tasks, but until then I will continue to showcase my Excel skills and my ability to take detailed notes during the finance team meetings. Apart from work, we have a political science class 2 days a week for 3 LONG hours each day. Don’t get me wrong, the class is interesting; however, it’s sometimes hard to follow because to truly understand political science, you need to know the history behind the laws. Nonetheless, our professor does his best to bridge the gaps between Australia’s history and its political system.

Naturally, learning our way around the city was a little harder to do than simply memorizing my work and class schedule. The public transportation system in Sydney is really good in that it encompasses the whole city; you can get almost anywhere in or nearby Sydney by bus, train, or ferry. However, the transportation system has one major flaw… the buses are NEVER on time. I have learned to expect buses anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes later than they were supposed to be there. Despite the unpredictable buses, we have still managed to learn our way around and truly experience Sydney in both the day and night!

We have had the weather on our side these past weekends, so we took that to our complete advantage!

The koalas at Sydney's Wildlife Park

And the kangaroos

Since the weather was so nice we decided to venture out of the city because many Australians have told us that Australia is not a city-dwelling country; instead it is a country that enjoys its outdoors. This fact was not at all surprising. Australia is home to a few of the natural wonders of the world and many breathtaking sites.

We are still working on making our way further out of Sydney and into places like the Blue Mountains, Port Stephens, Great Barrier Reef, and hopefully the Outback!

Until then…

On the ferry leaving Sydney

Surfing is a huge deal in Australia and everyone does it. We saw everyone surfing--from young boys and girls to old men. It is important to remember that it is winter here! Despite what you might think, it does get a chilly in Australia, which means the water is freezing. However, freezing cold water does not stop these Aussies!!

The ferry ride home was beautiful…

Harbour Bridge at sunset

The view of the city

The Opera House was lit up for Vivid Sydney, a festival of music, lights and ideas

Getting out of the city was amazing because in the city you can sometimes forget you are in Australia, so going to Manly Beach was a great reminder.

Memorizing my schedules and learning my way around was no big deal compared to how hard it was to master my internal clock. My first week here, I had to fight of sleep every night, and most nights I lost the battle. But now, my internal clock is synching itself with Australia time and I am having no trouble staying up.

We went to Luna Park, which was fun but it was a high school hangout… OOPS!! Well now we know!!

We went out to celebrate Dan's birthday

The next weekend was Matt’s birthday so we had to do it all over again...

Sonia got a free sombrero for being Mexican at Mexico night

We have finally started to enjoy Sydney’s nightlife, and a thriving nightlife it is!!

Hooroo!!

Weekend. Welcome. Work.

Weekend.

After Saturday, we had the weekend to ourselves. We spent our time getting necessities and exploring Sydney. Our first task was groceries. To my surprise, grocery shopping took over an hour. It was a real task trying to find food that was comparable to what we have in the States while still being affordable. Nonetheless, we all managed to find the basics in the grocery store; so it is cereal, sandwiches, and pastas from here on out. But with groceries out of the way it was time to get into the fun things that Sydney has to offer.

We explored some of Sydney’s main attractions…..

Opera House, one of Sydney’s most famous attractions

and some “not-so-main” attractions.

A random smashed car… I think it is supposed to be art??

Extremely random “tree men”

Unfortunately, the sun did not grace us with its presence this weekend; instead, we spent our weekend dodging the rain. I am sure you are thinking how do you dodge the rain, but trust me it is entirely possible to dodge the rain in Australia. It only rains hard for about 4 minutes at a time then you have about 10-25 minutes of on and off mist. Therefore, you can dodge the rain by strategically walking from place to place. The key is to always walk by buildings that have extended roofs aka a 4 minute shelter. Oh and I guess you can always dodge the rain by buying an umbrella but there is no fun in that.

CAPA got us some tickets to an AFL rugby game. We watched the South Sydney play Canberra. Unfortunately Sydney lost according to the score but if the scoreboard wasn’t there, I would have left not knowing who won. Rugby is a very confusing game but it is a huge deal in Australia so I hope to understand it better before I go to my next game.

They start kids on rugby at a young age.

They cut kids in line to get a picture with the South Sydney mascot.

Our weekend came to a close pretty soon largely because we are still on North America time so we are usually out by 10 o’clock, 11 if you’re daring. Ryan describes jetlag as feeling like an old man all day, weak and weary until you cannot fight off sleep any longer. I would say that’s about right.

Welcome.

Monday and Tuesday were our orientation to CAPA. On Monday, we learned more about the CAPA program and the classes we would be taking. Zara also filled us in on some words that mean different things in Australia. For example, in Australia biscuit = cookie, rubber = eraser. I think the hardest one to remember and definitely the most embarrassing one to get wrong is napkin = sanitary pad, here they say serviettes. To avoid potential embarrassment, I am just going to point or gesture when I need something.

CAPA treated us to lunch after our Monday orientation.

Tuesday was our internship orientation, where we discussed interviews, professionalism, and pub culture. The discussions on interviews and professionalism were pretty standard but the talk about pub culture and its place in the work place was interesting. Our CAPA representatives explained that Australia has a very strong pub culture and drinking is naturally the social and cultural behavior of Australians. Therefore, it is not uncommon for workers to go to a pub during their lunch break and then return there when they got off work at 5PM. Drinks at lunch would never fly in the States. I am interested to see what other differences there are in the workplace.

Work.

My interview is tomorrow. I have planned my travel route, picked out an outfit, and practiced interview answers. I hope tomorrow goes well.

Hooroo.

Arrival in Sydney

Airplanes… can’t live with but most certainly can’t live without them. On May 28th, we boarded what was supposed to be a 5-hr flight but instead turned into a 7-hr flight because of a mini-thunderstorm and poor timing. Of the many times I have flown out of Dulles, I think I have left on time just once. Therefore, it was no shock to be leaving late. My only concern was arriving to LAX in time to board my flight to Sydney. Fortunately, my concerns were unwarranted and we arrived to LAX just in time to be the last people in line to board the flight. I had a 13 hour and 26 minute journey ahead of me and I was not at all looking forward to it.

To my surprise, the plane was comfortable, the food was decent, and the movies were interesting. So 3 meals and roughly 14 hours later, we arrived in Australia at 7 a.m. on May 30th. (Yes, May 30th, when flying to Australia you lose a day and then when you fly back to the States, you gain a day.)

Apparently, Australia has a number of vacationers this time of year; the customs line weaved through the “retractable maze” and then continued on out the doors. It was interesting to see that the line was a clear representation of the diversity that is present in Sydney. After a while, we made it through customs, got our bags, met our CAPA representative, and headed outside to board the shuttle that would be taking us to our apartments.

Our apartments are just 15 minutes from the airport. Unfortunately, when we arrived we could not check in right away. However, that gave us time to take a tour around town. When we returned to the apartment complex, we were given a brief lecture on the rules and safety before checking into our rooms.

In the courtyard of our apartment complex

The rooms are extremely nice. I am in a 4 person bi-level apartment with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a full kitchen, living room, and four balconies. I think the front desk accidently gave us the presidential suite. Lucky us!!

After getting unpacked and realizing it was only 1PM, Alexie, Sonia, and I went out to find a place to exchange our money and buy a broadband internet connection for our rooms. Coming to Sydney, I knew that I would be without my cell phone and high-speed internet; however, when I got here and realized that I had no way to contact my family or friends I knew something would have to be done about that. Getting a phone was too expensive so a broadband modem was the next best alternative. Thus, the search for internet began.

Downtown Sydney


A cool way to see the downtown Sydney

We stumbled across a fountain and a park

We followed the roads that our guide, Zara, took us on earlier today during our tour and with a bit of improvisation and luck we wound up at a mall. The mall was huge; it had a number of stores I have never heard of before and a lot of great sales but I fought temptation and found a place to purchase a modem. SUCCESS, we had internet!!

We thought we had spent a great deal of time at the mall because when we left it was dark outside; but it was only 6PM. I had no idea it gets dark here at 5PM. With the darkness and the onsets of jetlag, by the time we got back to our apartment we were really tired. However, we all decided that we were going to stay awake until 10PM so that we wouldn’t be terribly jetlagged tomorrow. We watched a movie then played UNO for two hours as we counted down until our 10PM bedtime. When 10PM rolled around everyone darted to their respective rooms and turned in for the night. I am pretty sure I fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow. Tomorrow is another day and I am more than excited to see what it brings.

Hooroo!!

10-day DC Seminar

You will be amazed the number of things you can squeeze into 10 days. In our 10-day seminar before we left for Australia, we did everything from DC exploration and mock interviews to guest lecturers and cookies and coffee at the Australian embassy.

The Metro station is conveniently located right behind our apartment complex which made it pretty easy to get around DC. One of our assignments for TWC was to explore the city in preparation for all the exploring we would be doing when we got to Sydney. Our “Sydney group” split in half and set out to see most of DC in day. If have been to DC before you would know that it is a grand feat to try and see it all in day because of DC size and overcrowding; yet, we were destined to get it done. My group of five visited seven landmarks that were spread across DC.

Columbia Heights, where we began our journey

Memorial Day Weekend Parade on U-Street near the African-American Civil War Museum. The parade was commemorating the African-Americans that had served our country.

At Friendship Arch in Chinatown trying not to get run over by the bikers participating in Rolling Thunder

See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil at the Folger Shakespeare Library

Although we did not get to see all of DC, we did see a great deal of it and lots of fun exploring.
Our first day of the seminar was pretty much the standard day 1 introduction. The only exception being the mock interviews, where we had an opportunity to practice for the interview we would have at our internship site.

The first day of the seminar was a bit redundant but the days to follow were much better. The seminar combines education with experience. We had read a number of articles about Australian culture, government, and the environment. Our readings were backed up by guest speakers that were either Aussie-natives or just extremely knowledgeable about Australia. The speakers were honest, sometimes brutally, about what we should expect in Australia. But I appreciated their insight, advice, and jokes.

The interns during our lunch

The sites we visited were also a great supplement to our readings about Australia. We sipped coffee and ate cookies and chocolate covered strawberries with the personnel at the Australian embassy, where we also got advised about main attractions and nightlife in Australia by the head of customs and traditions.

That was one of my favorite site visits. We also visited the CATO Institute, where we heard from an Adelaide native, Salli James, about trade and economics in both the United States and Australia.

Some other places we visited include: Oceana, Asia Society, and Capitol Hill. Capitol Hill was one of the most memorable visits for most people because we were able to see a few rooms that people usually only see on TV or never see at all. For example, we got to sit and take pictures in Nancy Pelosi’s private office.

At the end of the seminar we paired up and gave a 20 minute presentation on a specific topic that dealt with Australia. The presentations reiterated everything we had learned the last nine days and made us even more prepared to leave for Australia. The last event of the seminar was the farewell dinner that TWC hosted at Elephant and Castle.

The seminar is over now and it is time to re-pack my bags and mentally prepare for the long journey I have ahead of me. Tomorrow I will begin my 21 hour trip to the Down Under!! It is hooroo to DC and g’day to Australia!!

A perfect way to explain what we have done in DC and forecast what we will do in Sydney

Hooroo

Arrival in Alexandria, VA

It was the night before I had to leave for DC, I had just finished packing, when it dawned on me that in ten days I would be on my way to Australia. Now that my trip was so close, my anticipation was at its highest. I couldn’t wait to meet the ten people that I would be spending the next 10 weeks with. Despite modern technologies, most notably Facebook, attempts to spoil the surprise of meeting new people, there is still nothing like the first interaction with a person.

I arrived at our Alexandria apartment around 2pm on Monday in hopes of meeting all my fellow Aussie-bound interns. Unfortunately, I had to wait for everyone to arrive. My roommate Kelli was the first person I met then a few hours later I had the pleasure of meeting my suite mates Alexie and Sonia. The three of them were extremely nice and just as excited for the trip as I was.

Our first activity as TWCers was the RA meeting at 9 pm the night we arrived. Like all intro meetings, the RAs discussed rules, regulations, safety tips, and contact information. Thankfully, they kept it short so we had some time to mix and mingle with the other interns. There are about 27 students going to London and 11 of us going to Sydney. Due to our small number and previously made Facebook group, it was easy to spot the “Sydney kids.”

Eleven is a perfect number. For example, there are 11 players on both soccer and cricket teams; not that we plan on forming a sports team but it is good to know that we have the perfect number to do so! All jokes aside, a small group of eleven is perfect for coordinating schedules, going out together, and becoming closer through this shared experience. Despite our somewhat small number, our group is made up of students from different colleges and universities from all around the world. We represent a broad range cultures and experiences.

Meeting everyone has only made me more excited for my trip to Oz (Australia) and I will be counting down the days.

Hooroo (Aussie slang for farewell)