24 days we'll call it...the time I've been in Australia thus far. 24 days filled with meeting new people, gasping at high prices, partying in themed attire, and lots and lots of sunshine. In fact, as I write this it's raining a bit. It's yet to rain for more than a few consecutive minutes in these 24 days, so power to you, mother nature, we're all a bit healthier now.
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| This is Broadbeach. Bond provided free buses for students during Orientation Week. Sorry for the terrible photo, just wanted to show you some of the coast. |
Of course three and a half weeks has given me more to talk about than I could possibly expect your attention span to deal with, so I'll try and generalize and keep things to a reasonable length.
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| The Bentley Group! Missing two of us in this photo taken at Burleigh Head National Park. |
My first observation is with regards to culture shock, or lack thereof. In comparison to the rather exotic places I've seen of late, namely Nicaragua, Ghana, and Thailand, it's not so different here. Calling the Gold Coast an extension of California isn't too far off. Now is this a bad thing? Well, to some people it might be. If you're looking for an entirely new experience and you want to have it shoved down your throat so that you have no choice but to change your lifestyle and adopt new perspectives, then Bond University is not the place for you. But, if you're willing to be a little adventurous and really look, there's plenty of culture to experience.
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| THIS is truly part of Aussie culture. Rugby! I had the pleasure of watching an international game between Australia and Argentina at Gold Coast's stadium. |
The above photo is actually of some passionate Argentina fans. You might notice the apparent lack of hostility towards them. This is culture! Think about it, how would Red Sox or Yankee fans react if the opposition did this at their home stadium? These people are truly laid back.
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| Opening ceremonies |
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| The Scrum |
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| The Line Out |
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| I'm going to make a serious effort to give everyone in our Bentley group a shoutout in this entry. That's Diana on the left, Melissa (of course) in the middle, and Sean on the right. |
What's unique at Bond, though, is that all of this culture isn't necessarily Aussie. In fact, Bond's student body is about 50% international. Of those living on campus, the overwhelming majority of students are foreign. Unfortunately, the number of Americans is quite high. I say "unfortunately" with sarcasm of course, but hey, it's a bit boring to meet your own kind over here! But fortunately, there are more than 70 nationalities represented at Bond with noticeable Asian, European, and even Canadian influences on campus. The group of Bentley students (there are 14 of us here) have become quite close with a group of German students whom you can see below. In addition, I've had the pleasure of befriending a Ukrainian student and a number of Australians so far.
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| That's Nico, the finest chef in all of Gold Coast, on the left, Dennis in the middle, and Leo on the right. |
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| Leo and Nico enjoying some of their finely prepared cuisine (with nice eating utensils too...) We spent the day at their place
yesterday for a barbecue. |
So while yes, even Aussies will admit that the Gold Coast lacks culture and no, there aren't 'roos running around all over the place (you have to go about 20 minutes down the road to the nearest golf course to see them in the wild), there is a different type of culture to be found here and it just takes a bit of courage to find it. Also, just because Aussie's aren't THAT different doesn't mean they're one and the same. The accent is still entertaining and they have plenty of unique lingo to accompany it, which keeps conversation interesting. They truly are laid back for the most part and yes, many love to surf. This definitely isn't true of everyone and Aussies are wary of stereotypes that portray them as lazy beach bums rather than creative, hard-working people, so they are making efforts to change this.
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| This is Max La Cava, the most confident and hilarious half Italian half Venezuelan student to ever grace Bond's campus. |
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| You'll have to forgive me as I haven't yet taken photos of Bond's beautiful campus. You can see a bit of it in this photo, though. |
I won't contend that Gold Coast can match most places in the world for richness in culture though and it's true that cities like Sydney and Melbourne can offer more in this regard, but that's alright, not every travel experience has to be rich with culture. This is especially true when other factors, like the weather, the scenery, and the personalities, are so incredibly enjoyable.
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| A common sight at Burleigh Beach. Enjoying the water. |
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| Laid back? Yes, definitely. |
And what would a discussion of Australia be without mention of the beaches. Broadbeach, Surfer's Paradise, Burleigh Heads, Sunshine Beach, Rainbow Beach, Byron Bay...the list of beaches goes on and on. What Australia is best known for, the sun and the surf, meet beautifully at these beaches where one could easily spend the entirety of the day doing next to nothing at all.
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| Thank Melissa for the idea to climb down here. Love the view of the Gold Coast. This is Bianca, Nicole, and Melissa. |
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| Trademark blog pose continues in Australia. |
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| Mom, Dad, have I scared you enough with this photo? I promise it's not as dangerous as it might look. |
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| We consider ourselves adventurous people. |
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| Diana on Burleigh Beach. |
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| Ken. Sorry for the less than stellar photo Ken, wish I had something better but you were a bit late to the party at Burleigh Head. Next time... |
Ah, sometimes I forget that my semester here is called a "Study Abroad". Just kidding family, I promise I'm working as hard as I need to guarantee high marks come exam time. The structure here is a bit different - more European in style - meaning more emphasis is placed on exams and less on assignments along the way. It's good for us travelers as it allows more time to explore the country, but also means high stresses around midterms and during finals.
I'm particularly enjoying my photography class. What a nice change of pace, to get away from the grind of tough business course after tough business course and get to explore my favorite hobby. I know most of what is being taught right now, but I've learned a few new things already and am looking forward to what's to come.
Part of the fun of my photography class is the weekly photo submission I'm required to do. Here are the first two:
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| The assignment was to take a creative self-portrait expressing who you are or what you're experiencing. My explanation is that I feel like I'm in paradise, yet I'm here to study. To get this shot I lugged a lounge chair across half the campus to put it here, changed into these clothes despite it being quite cold, put on my shades, framed the shot to include an academic building in the background (hence the "study" part), had Melissa press the shutter and then paint me with a flashlight. Quite the ordeal indeed, but good fun! |
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| The assignment was just to display something cool taken during the week. This is a simple shot made more interesting with the help of Photoshop. |
I know that this has been unorganized and I hope that it hasn't been impossible to follow. I wanted to get all of my thoughts down before posting photos to avoid rambling on about what I did, where and when, yadda yadda. Not sure if it helped to keep the thoughts focused but here are a few more I couldn't fit in.
Other things I've done:
Attended an exclusive "secret location" party at Movie World, one of Gold Coast's many theme parks.
Fallen in love with kebabs (NOT shish-kebabs)
Attended a music festival at a nearby hotel/bar/club
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| Left to right: Melissa, Clara, Max, Nicole, Diana - before the music festival. |
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| The Jungle Giants at the Music Festival. Pretty good and apparently relatively famous in Oz. |
Witnessed the Rugby 7's tournament grouping announcements on Bond's campus
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| These costumes are the traditional wear of fans at the Rugby 7's games. Supposedly it is an absolute blast to attend. |
So there it is. 3 and a half weeks of time in Australia summarized in a blog entry of what is hopefully to the reader a reasonable length. I have some BIG travel plans for the month of October but I won't unveil what those are just yet. Maybe I'll save it as a surprise. All I can say is that the photos should be stunning if I'm able to do the location(s) justice.
I can promise more frequent updates moving forward and I'm even considering doing a 365 challenge starting October 1st. This would mean taking one quality photo every day for an entire year and posting it to my blog for all to see. This is a common practice among photographers and serves as a great way to continue improving and refining skills - I'll make the commitment to do it or not in the next few days. Now that I've covered all of my Asia photos and updated you all on Australia thus far I'll have no excuse but to be out taking pictures for you and I to enjoy.
Until next time, g'day mate.
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