What do the Zoo and Chocolate have in common?

We all had a quiet week at work so we were looking forward to an eventful weekend. Unfortunately, things didn’t go exactly as planned but even with the setbacks everything ended up working itself out.

Since we generally don’t work Fridays we decided to go to the zoo hoping it wouldn’t be too crowded. We took a ferry out to the zoo early Friday afternoon and were determined to see every animal in the zoo.

There was an Australian walkabout in the zoo where kangaroos, wallabies, and emus were allowed to roam freely. One kangaroo even hopped its way right in between a family of five that was getting ready to take a picture.

Matt petting a wallaby

The Taronga Zoo is very pretty; the best thing about it is the view of the city from almost every part of the zoo.

CHOCOLATE…

Sagar found this famous desert restaurant called Max Brenner’s. I had never heard of the place but I figured you can never go wrong with a place that specializes in chocolate! We spent our Saturday walking around the Harbor and perusing the small markets. Max Brenner’s was our last stop and it was a great way to end the day!

So what do the zoo and chocolate have in common? They make for a great weekend!

Hooroo!!

Different Agendas

It was 4th of July weekend in the U.S. but here it was just another weekend and we all intended to spend it in different ways. Some traveled, others stayed home and relax, and I shopped!

Sonia went on a 4 day getaway to Cairns with several other CAPA students. The trip was arranged by a travel group that CAPA hires to set up a number of organized travel options for interns to choose from.

They saw the Great Barrier Reef, went skydiving, hiked through a rainforest, took a boat through a crocodile pond, and the list goes on. The Great Barrier Reef was voted one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and from what I heard it is truly amazing.

Anna and Kelly took a weekend trip to the Blue Mountains along with Kelly’s family, who were visiting for the week.

View from a lookout

When we visited the Australian Embassy in D.C., one of the speakers suggested we go to Canberra and celebrate the 4th of July at the U.S. Embassy. Unfortunately, the celebration was only for diplomats and no one could pull any strings to get us in. Although there was nothing going on at the U.S. Embassy, the boys still decided to take a bus to Canberra. Canberra is home to the Parliament House, several other government agencies, and a number of museums. Despite Canberra being the capital of Australia, there isn’t much draw to the city and I wouldn’t say it’s a typical tourist site for college students. I think the guys would strongly agree! They spent two days in Canberra visiting museums and touring different government buildings. Did I mention that they had to walk everywhere too, that may be why they didn’t have such a great experience.

I, on the other hand, had a great experience shopping! Sydney is a shopper’s paradise. They have everything from large elegant malls to small chic boutiques.

The Queen Victoria Building is one of the nicest malls I have ever seen. Naturally, I couldn’t afford anything in the mall but it was nice to see how beautiful the design of the mall is. With its rounded arch ways, high ceilings, ceramic moldings, and bold paint, the QVB is truly a site to see… even if you don’t buy anything!

The Forever 21 of Australia

The last item on my shopping list was UGGs. I figured since I was in Australia I had to get a pair of boots from the place where they originated! It’s interesting that UGGs, a boot made from cold weather, originated from such a hot country; but then again Australia is interesting.

Hooroo!!

Ordinary Weeks…Extraordinary Weekends

It’s funny how easy it is to get into a routine after doing the same things for a while. The weekdays are very routine; it’s work, class, TV/internet, sleep, and sometimes the occasional movie or UNO game. The weekdays can definitely be redundant but the weekends always make up for it!

Just like in college, weekends start on Thursdays. Most of us work 4 days a week so we usually have Fridays off. CAPA (TWC's partner abroad) sponsors a number of events for us to do on the weekends. They offer a range of events, from social and cultural events to experiential trips. Over the past two weeks we have gotten to take advantage of the entire range of events CAPA has to offer.

In terms of social events, Sidebar (a popular nearby pub) hosts a Thursday night event for interns. The event is the perfect intern get away. It gives us time to relax and unwind with our fellow students, Australian mates, and the rest of the world (because Sidebar is just below a hostel, so there are people from all over).

After experiencing the social scene, it’s always good to mix it up with a bit of culture. Each week CAPA sends us a Monday Memo; the memo states all the events that are going on in Sydney for that week.

A 3-D replica of Sydney was built on the floor of the Customs House

Sydney is a very lively city and there is always something to do so it is good to have the Monday Memo to tell us which events will be worth our while! The most recent cultural event that CAPA informed us about was a comedy show at the Opera House. CAPA managed to get a group rate of only $15 per student to see the show. $15 is extremely cheap for the Opera House so the tickets were a steal. Unfortunately, the show was in the Playhouse which is a smaller stage than what we expected for the Opera House so I am sure we will be going back again to see a show on one of the grand stages. I am not much of an Opera fan, but you cannot come to Sydney and not see a show at the Sydney Opera House…that’s just unheard of!! So I intend to sit through a however-long opera filled with funny costumes and high-pitched singing.

Although Sydney is a great city, we have all been dying to get out of it and these past two weekends our wish came true. Our first weekend out was an escape to Hunter Valley, where we went wine and cheese tasting. At Hunter Valley, we stopped at two wineries and one brewery.


We tasted a number of different wines… some good, some bitter, some absolutely unbearable! My experience was a good one but I don’t think wine is for me so I am sure that will be my first and last wine tasting.

The following weekend we set off for Port Stephens. It was a long drive but it was well worth it. We began our first day there with a trip to a shark and stingray zoo.


Everyone had a chance to feed the sharks and stingrays and a few people were actually brave enough to get in there and swim with them. I was not one of those brave souls; instead, I watched from a comfortable distance. A few scares and laughs later, we left the sharks and sting rays and headed to the sand dunes of Birubi Beach.


The dunes were pretty steep and once again I was the scaredy cat and was slow to get out there. But in my defense, a few people went before me and I think only one of them made it to the bottom without wiping out and getting a mouthful of sand!! Well I took my chances, got one the board, and sped down the sand dune… I almost made it the whole way before eating sand. The next times down the dunes were much better and it was a tiring but extremely fun time!! Before heading back to our hotel we stopped at the beach to enjoy some waves and the sunset. It was absolutely beautiful!!

The next day was much more relaxing. We went on a 3 hour whale and dolphin watching cruise. It is whale season in Australia so we were guaranteed to see a whale…

the dolphins were just a bonus!

We spent the rest of the day shopping and dining at port… oh and jumping on a trampoline!!

As the weekend came to a close, we prepared for hop back into our weekday routine and remained hopeful that next weekend would match or exceed the previous one!

Good and Bad

Like all things in life, there have been both good and bad parts to my intern abroad experience, and the past two weeks have been the perfect example of this. Before you read this I want to make it very clear that this is not at all representative of my overall feelings; instead it is meant to touch on some of the problems I have encountered in the past two weeks. So optimists beware...the following may be hard to read.

On the bad side...

Courses

• Our Perspectives on Experiential Learning Abroad (PELA) class, which is supposed to support us in our internship and help us gain insight into the Australian workplace, turned out to be very redundant. As others in the program realized that PELA was not important to them, they started not participating, carrying on side conversations, and overall just making the class even more useless.
• The political science course is very long! But seeing as it is a 6 week course, it makes sense that the class meets for 3 hours twice a week.

Work

• Finance is a tough field for interns to enter because to do most of the highest level work, you need real experience that extends beyond introductory courses and extracurricular activities. Since finance is already a tough field, the best internships are with companies that have a specific procedure for interns. My original placement site didn't have one in place.
• In my last blog I spoke about my optimism and my hopes to be given more worthwhile tasks; unfortunately, that optimism died and I realized that my old site would not be able to provide me with the experience I had hoped for. Two other Finance interns had similar troubles.

Switching internships

• TWC's partner abroad was unable to immediately respond to our internship problems. They have a strict procedure and timeframe for acting on problems with internships; however, we have only limited time left here in Australia and we felt that a switch should have been made more quickly.
• In my opinion, a lot of the problems that some of us have faced at our internship sites could have easily been avoided if more research had been done on the companies we were placed in.

Economy

• The effects of the U.S. economic downturn are present here in Australia. The fluctuations in the exchange rate make it very difficult to exchange money because you are always in search of the best rate.
• The cost of living is high in Sydney. Yes, it is manageable and not as expensive as LONDON (sorry London TWCers) but I find myself going through money pretty quickly here, and I am a very frugal person, so it is saying a lot to say I spent money.

Time

• Time goes by way too quickly! We only have just under 3 weeks left!
  

Okay, optimists, you can read easy from now on. The bad is over and there is a lot of good to come!

On the good side...

Classes

• There is only 1 week of PELA left (since we have class only 6 of the 8 weeks we're here), which clears up our last two Thursdays in Australia!!
• We are going on a field trip!! Our academic course professor was given money for us to go and see the Hyde Park Barracks and to sip tea at the Parliament House.

Work

• Although we thought TWC's partner was slow to respond to our troubles, they did come through in the end and they have found new placements for all three of us finance interns who had complaints.
• The other eight interns have really enjoyed their placements. Some of them have been given opportunities to do exciting work! For example, Dan is getting to write horoscopes and short pieces for the tourism magazine he works for. Sonia is working on one of Greenpeace’s major campaigns.

Switching internships...

• TWC's partner abroad listened to our problems and decided to make some changes.
• They had us fill out some surveys and they really seem like they are going to make changes. We are the pilot group, so bumps in the road are expected, but I am sure next year will be much better.

Economy

• I have only become more frugal so in the long run I will save more money!

Time

• Time only goes by fast when you are having fun… so it’s clear we are having fun!!

We are going to make the best of the time we have left by doing and seeing everything Australia has to offer us (within our budgets of course)!!

Hooroo!!