Approaching the Half-Way Mark

Sorry for the long delay since the last time I posted, but I’ve just been pretty busy with class and other important things (enjoying the beach, attending barbies and hanging out with Europeans).

So anyway, last week I attended my first professional soccer match and it was a really fun time. Sydney FC is playing in the Asian Champions League and last Wednesday the match was against the Urawa Reds, probably the best team in our group, so we weren’t expected to win. However, Sydney scored after the first minute and then took a 2-0 lead later in the first half. It’s really cool the atmosphere and the coordination of the cheers by each team’s big fan club located behind each goal. The match ended up in a draw 2-2, but I still had a really fun time. Of all the sports that I could have really gotten into over here in Australia, soccer is the last one I would have picked, yet it’s provided the most excitement and interest from me so far. I’ve even gone so far as to check out the schedule for the US National Team to see when they’re playing!

This past weekend we had a pretty massive barby at our house for Maya’s birthday. It’s just so cool having all these people from so many different countries all in one place having a good time. It’s amazing, really, and I absolutely love it! The most common everyday things in America can be funny when you are talking about it with someone from a different country. We make fun of the different words that don’t make any sense and even the English words that Americans use that Australians think are silly and vice versa. For instance, Shannon, one of my housemates, thinks it is so stupid that we say “flip flops” instead of “thongs”. One of these days I am going to have a post about all the subtle differences from Australia to America. You’ll be surprised, it’s actually pretty funny some of the things I’ve noticed.

I’ve also recently started getting into trying out some of the different wines that Australia has to offer. They are also very cheap to buy, so I figure I might as well take advantage of it while I’m here. So far I’ve tried a few different types of Shiraz and I like that a lot, not to sweet, but not too dry. It reminds me of Grandma and Grandpa Lamppert’s wine, yet not nearly as strong as theirs! J

Yesterday was the Global Exchange Expo here at UNSW, which is where representatives from universities in countries all over the world all come together so that UNSW students can explore some opportunities for being an exchange student. So, I was there for the afternoon trying to help out people that had questions about USA. I gave a presentation on Purdue as well and I was actually the only representative from the USA to get the opportunity to give such a presentation, so I’m quite proud of that. It also fills a big part of the requirement for my travel grant, so that’s very good as well! It was sort of frustrating though throughout the afternoon trying to help students that wanted information about schools in the US other than Purdue. I realized that I really don’t know too much about other universities as I probably should. People would come up and just randomly ask me where is a good place to go for food science, so naturally I say that Purdue has a food science program, but aside from Purdue I really have no idea of any other places that have good food science programs. UNSW students are also somewhat limited to what universities they can go to as well. But I think the day went well. Hopefully a lot of people will want to come to Purdue now, so that students from Purdue can come here and have the same great experiences that I’m having!

Now, as per many people’s requests, I’ve added a few pictures to some of the previous posts, because I got heaps of good photos from Dom the other day, so sorry for the delay and I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Cheers, mates!

What a Weekend

It was a quite an exciting weekend here in Sydney, but just as much so back in the US where my Boilers were battling their hearts out in the NCAA Tournament. The first round victory over Arizona was late in the day on Friday, so it was 10 am on Saturday here in Sydney, which worked out perfect. However, for the second round game against Florida the game was at 2:15 in the US, which meant I was up at 5:15 this morning listening to it online. It was well worth it, even though the Boilers lost. No shame in losing to the defending champs and playing them extremely tough like we did. So now there’s no more Purdue basketball that I have to worry about missing out on and I already can’t wait for next season. Should be a fun one!

As for the rest of my weekend, I spent a lot of time downtown. On Saturday, me and the fellas went to Circular Quay for some food and then just relaxed and had a few beers at the Opera Bar. It’s a great place to hang out, because you can just sit on the wall right along the harbor and look to your left and see the beautiful Opera House all lit up in the night, to your right is the CBD (Central Business District, downtown with all the massice buildings) and then behind you is the Harbour Bridge. Not to mention, right in front of you is the edge of the Royal Botanical Gardens. So it’s just an awesome place to relax and spend time with friends and these guys are probably the closest of friends I’ve got here in Sydney. Dominik is from Germany and is just a real nice easy-going guy who is really into sports, but mainly the big German sport, handball, which I’ve never seen, but soon will. He’s also been teaching me some German words and says that my pronunciation is actually very good. This weekend he was reading a text from a friend which was written in German and I just started reading it just for kicks and he said that my pronunciation was quite good, at least compared to most other people. Pretty neat considering I’ve never studied German or anything, only heard it in the movies and from Dom and my housemates, Jochen and Kati. Anyway, the other guys with us who I spend a lot of time with are Harry, from Virginia, who reminds me so much of my buddy at Purdue, Kenny Stauffer, because he’s so into basketball and sports, and then also Rafael, who is from Brazil. There is so much that we all have to talk about since we have such diverse backgrounds and for Harry and me it’s just fun talking sports. I think he’s into sports just as much as me, if not more. So it was a nice night of chillin at the Opera Bar before we went over to Pancakes on the Rocks, a 24-hour stylish restaurant, with seriously the most fabulous pancakes ever. Gotta give it up to Matt Mechlem for that recommendation. We were absolutely stuffed after eating at Pancakes and got tired awfully quick, plus Rafael had to be up really early the next morning to pick up his wife at the airport, so we headed home.

Sunday ended up being much more enjoyable than I was expecting. I woke up and got to watch a little bit of the NCAA Tournament on ESPN here at home. It’s ESPN Australia so there’s only a little bit of American sports that are shown, so this was a treat. But anyway, I got to see some close, exciting games as is the norm for March Madness. However, Sunday was a very special day, because it marked the 75^th anniversary of Sydney’s Harbour Bridge. So they made a nice little celebration out of it, which to be honest, isn’t very surprising, because here in Sydney there is always something to be celebrating; Mardigras, St. Patrick’s Day, Harbour Bridge’s B-day, always something. But in honor of the Harbour Bridge turning 75 years old, the bridge was completely shutdown all day and people could walk across it from North Sydney, down into The Rocks, Darling Harbour and the CBD. Now, when Dom asked if I wanted to go along, I figured, sure, why not? It’ll be a nice little stroll across the bridge, and when else will I ever be able to walk through the middle of one of the busiest highways in Sydney? So I was in.

We went around 7:30, thinking it would be a good time to go with the sun setting and it wouldn’t be too hot or anything. Turns out it was cloudy and overcast the entire day. So continues my run of crappy weather on days when a nice, sunny, normal Australian day would be just great. It ended up not being a big deal after all, though, because it got dark a little bit sooner, allowing the lights on the bridge to be that much more awe-inspiring. There was also a soundtrack to the walk through the bridge. As we were first walking up to the beginning of the bridge the music was something you might hear at the beginning of a movie. Sort of an up-lifting, here we go type of sound coming from some massive speakers. Then, as we got further in there, there was more upbeat dance club type music playing and it was like being in an outdoor club or something with all the crazy lights and heaps of people. Even further along, they would have various clips of speeches or news casts playing. I’m guessing it was all things that had happened around the world over the last 75 years. I remember hearing, “Germany has invaded Poland,” and also Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. But they were mixed in with music of that time, like The Beatles, so I was really impressed and thought it was done very well. They also used some artificial smoke in certain places, which added to what I described to the guys as a euphoric atmosphere. At the end, of course, there was that accomplishing, “we made it” sounding music that you might hear at the end of a movie. So the whole thing was kind of like we just took a journey through a movie and it even took us a little over an hour, so yeah, sort of like going to the movies, except this didn’t cost anything!

Oh, I almost forgot. At the beginning of the bridge walk everyone was given free hats to wear and the hats had little lights on the front of them. Well, when we got to the end of the bridge at the other side, it was really neat to look back and see all the little lights marching toward us. When we were on the bridge, we wondered why we could see all the lights up ahead as if people were turned around, but when we got there we found out why. Unfortunately, my camera isn’t anything really special and can’t take very good photos at night, so as usual my photos do not even come close to capturing the brilliance and grandeur that I saw that night and it especially can’t describe the enjoyment that I had.

The Blue Mountains

This weekend’s trip took me west of Sydney to the Blue Mountains where I got to experience some spectacular views of the Jamison Valley, Wentworth Falls, The Three Sisters and Katoomba Falls. The weather up in the mountains was just beautiful. It was very clear and the air was very fresh and crisp. The temperature only reached about 19 degrees Celsius which is about as cold as it gets in the middle of the night in Sydney these days. I also got to ride the steepest railway in the world!

The day began with a quick stop at Olympic Park, home of the 2000 Summer Olympics. It was pretty neat as we got to see markings of the heights and distances for long jump, high jump, triple jump and pole vault. Let me tell you it was extremely impressive. It’s a bit hard for me yet to be able to comprehend exactly how long and high these measurements were because it was all in meters, but just looking at it was astonishing. Then there was also a gazebo-type building that had TV screens surrounding you and it had the sights and sounds of all the big events and it was cool because you really got to feel what the atmosphere was like during the actual events. The most memorable one was probably the sprinting events where Michael Johnson dominated with his gold shoes. I got the chills from watching him blow everyone else away and listening to the crowd in surrounding me was neat, too.

After Olympic Park we headed to Featherdale Wildlife Park which is a small zoo on the outskirts of Sydney. It was all pretty much the same things that I got to do at the Cairns Tropical Zoo, but it was very fun to play with kangaroos and wallabies again and pet the koalas. They also had lots of beautiful birds there and I even got to see a joey (baby kangaroo) that one of the staff members was holding as well as one that was still in its mother’s pouch. It was so funny because it was down in the pouch, but then the mother got scared for a little bit and hopped for a few meters and then when she stopped the little joey poked its head out of the pouch to see what was going on and make sure everything was alright. Too funny!

After Featherdale we moved on along to Wentworth Falls which is where I got my first glimpse of the Blue Mountains and Jamison Valley. In case you’re wondering, the reason they are called the Blue Mountains is because there is a high concentration of oils in the atmosphere from eucalyptus trees and when that oil mixes with the air it creates a bluish color that surrounds the valley in certain areas. Now, the Blue Mountains aren’t really mountains at all. This area is actually a series of plateaus surrounding the Jamison Valley, but it is at quite a higher elevation above sea level than Sydney and it does snow sometimes in the Blue Mountains, so it has the feel of being in the mountains. Anyway, at Wentworth Falls we took a short hike down to a lookout to get some good views of the waterfall and the valley, but we didn’t actually walk down to the waterfall. That would have taken another couple of hours.

From Wentworth Falls we stopped for lunch in a small town called Leura, which is the Aboriginal word for lava. Then we moved onto one of the more noted landmarks in the Blue Mountains, The Three Sisters. This rock formation, like most other landmarks in the area is given its name from an Aboriginal story. This one had something to do with three brothers who fell in love with three sisters. The three sisters were turned to stone by a witch who said that when she returned from fighting in the war, she would return them to their human forms. However, the witch perished in the battle and so the three sisters have been stuck like this ever since. That’s the short, condensed version of the story, but it gets the point across. Anyway, I got to hike down the side of the cliff and touch the Three Sisters and you also get a really good view from out there as well. It’s a bit scary though walking down the side of the cliff because it’s so steep and such a long way down, but I made it out safely.

ScenicWorld was our last stop of the trip. This place is built at the top of a large coal mine that is no longer in use. We took a nice stroll down the side of the cliff once again, and unlike our previous walks, we did not have to walk back up this time, since we were going to ride the Railway back up. Anyway, this was the best walk of the day and we really got into some deep forest where it was pretty dark and cool, but also sort of mysterious. I enjoyed it a lot because it gave me that feeling of a rainforest again, sort of like at Cairns. There were all sorts of overhangs on the side of the cliff where the aboriginals would seek refuge from storms and bad weather. We also got some great views of Katoomba Falls from the walk, which was just like Wentworth Falls, it didn’t contain a whole lot of water falling at once, but it fell really, really far where toward the bottom it looked like a lot of the water had pretty much turned into mist. Once we finally got to the end of our walk, we arrived at the Katoomba Scenic Railway, which is the world’s steepest inclined railway. It was used many years ago for the coal mining. They used it to get the coal from the bottom of the cliff to the top and also the miners would ride it up and down as well. They still had a lot of the equipment and railcars that were used many years ago on display. Riding the railway was cool, because when you first get into the railcars, you are leaned way back, so you know it’s going to get real steep and it sure did. It was like riding a rollercoaster up the first big hill and we did it backwards. However we knew we wouldn’t be going back down it really fast on the other side. Once we got back to the top of the cliff we had to scurry to the bus because we were already behind on time, but that was the end of the trip and we headed back home to Sydney.

I was very fortunate to pick a good day to visit the Blue Mountains because apparently the weekend before, it was very cloudy and you couldn’t see anything. In all honesty, there isn’t too much point in going to the Blue Mountains if you can’t see out into the valley or see any of the waterfalls, so I was grateful to be blessed with such good weather!

Back to School

Alright, it’s time for the post that describes the real reason that I am able to be here in Sydney and that is school. After all, I am “studying” abroad and I will apologize now that this one may not be as exciting as my other posts, but I know at least one person will be very interested in the outlook of the classes I’m taking. Enjoy Dad!

Well I only have class four days of the week, Tuesday through Friday. My class on Tuesday is Managing People. This is a required human resources class that I need to take to fulfill a requirement back home. The class looks like it is going to be very basic and fairly easy to do well in, but I can also sense that it is going to be very difficult to stay focused for 2 hours of lecturing. It was already a struggle on the first day and we were only there for an hour. Hopefully, somehow, the material gets interesting, but so far we just talked about organizations; all the different types that exist and what their purpose is. Pretty basic stuff, but it was the first day and that’s more than we did in any of my other classes. In addition to the lecture on Tuesday for Managing People I also have a one-hour tutorial, as well as a one-hour tutorial on Thursday. Since this was the first week, though, we didn’t have any of those tutorials.

Wednesday is a very easy day, since I only have a one-hour lecture for Australian Wildlife Biology. This class should be pretty interesting as we get to talking about the different types of animals and plants that are native to Australia and why they are here. So far, we just talked about how the continents have shifted over many millions of years to where they are now and also how they are still moving today, although only at a rate of about 2 centimeters per year. Evidence shows that millions of years ago a lot of the continents were together as one landmass which proves how the same animals are found in different parts of the world, they traveled across land. Anyway, that class should be pretty cool and in addition to the lecture on Wednesday, there is a two-hour lab on Thursday evening. I am also required to go on a weekend excursion to Smith’s Lake to observe some of the flora and fauna that we will be talking about in class.

Also on Thursday I have what projects to be a very interesting and fun class, The Marine Environment. Now, this is a class that has the potential to be the one where I learn the most, even though it will require the least amount of study, I just think I will find the material to be very fascinating and therefore it will be easy to stay focused. There are three compulsory field trips that I must attend. How awesome is that? I have to go to places like Botany Bay and the Sydney Aquarium. Don’t think that will be too difficult of an assignment. And the best part of it all is that these field trips account for 40% of the total grade! Booyah!

As for Friday, well I’m not going to get my hopes up. It’s an Economics course on the history of Australian Economic Development, another class that I’m required to take for my Management major. It could be worse I suppose, but it doesn’t appear that it will be too terribly interesting or engaging of a class. I don’t see if being extremely difficult though either, so that’s a plus. I have that class for three hours on Friday morning.

Overall, the classes here are held in a pretty different manner than in the US. Most of the classes require you to complete just a couple assignments throughout the semester, usually an essay or two, and then take the final exam. Now, this does not mean that I can just slack off and try to learn it all in the last month or anything and hope to just do well on the exam. The exams here are not multiple choice like most in the US. Here, the exams are all in essay and short answer format, so I will actually need to learn the material very well and not be able to guess if I don’t know the answer. I’m not saying that I never studied hard or that you don’t need to know your stuff for classes in the US, it’s just that having to write essays is a little bit more intimidating than if I could take a multiple choice exam. I think by having exams like this I will learn a lot more anyway, so it might be for the better.

One week down, 13 more to go!