2013.06.17 The End

Today marks one week before I leave Australia and end my semester studying abroad.  This will be my last post, summing up my experience, final exams, and saying farewell to the students that became my closest friends throughout my four months here.

Final Exams

I'll start with a quick review of final exams for any future students that study here.  This blog is, after all, being given to my home university to give future students a better idea of the opportunities and experiences they'll have studying abroad in Melbourne.  All students are given a week off before any finals can be scheduled, giving much more free time before hand to study than I am used to at home.  Additionally, finals are generally scheduled pretty far apart.  I had a big break between each of mine (June 11th, 14th, and 17th).  

I wasn't taking my normal engineering courses (intro level business classes instead, using up all of my electives so I wouldn't have to study much while here) so my exams were much more essay based.  They were also much more open ended than I am accustomed to - most professors gave little direction as to what to focus on or how to study.  My International Business professor did narrow down the essay topics that will be in the final to a list of possibilities, which knocked out some stuff I didn't have to worry about so I could study those more.  But on the other two exams, very little direction was given.  As a suggestion to future students, I'd try to pick up on hints in the last lecture for each class.  

Other than that, the test taking procedure and set up was similar.  They're worth more than I'm used to (final exams here can be worth up to 60% of your total grade, probably even more in some cases) and they're test taking procedure is more strict (you're assigned seat numbers, they come around and check IDs) but other than that, the rest is the same, a test is a test.  Good luck!

My Experience, Overall

Studying abroad in Melbourne was one of the most unique and new experiences I've had in my life.  Even looking at it as a list of things I've done, it's remarkable.  I've:

• Held a koala bear, even spotted them in the wild
• Pet and fed wild kangaroos
• Gone camping miles outside of the city in the Grampians National Park, even partying at night and ending up covered in paint next to a bonfire with kangaroos hopping around in the dark
• Gone hiking in the Grampians, hiking down waterfalls or up enormous mountain peaks, sitting at the top and hanging my legs over the edge
• Drove the Great Ocean Road, seeing the Twelve Apostles, the London Bridge, Lorne and more
• Saw an AFL game, and a fantastic one at that
• Taken a cruise through the Melbourne Harbors and into Phillip Bay
• Toured Sydney, entered the Opera House and heard a full orchestra play in the concert hall, walked across the Sydney Harbor Bridge, sat on both Manly Beach and Bondi Beach, watched fireworks over Darling Harbour, partied in Kings Cross.  I even took a nap on the Opera House steps
• Scuba dived the Great Barrier Reef
• Bungee jumped over the northern Queensland tropical rainforests
• Toured those tropical rainforests, spotting venomous snakes and "the stinging plant"
• Explored Cairns including Palm Cove, riding bikes to the botanical garden, swimming in the Lagoon and partying until we saw the sun coming up over the hills to the east
• Eating vegemite (could have gone without doing this one)
• Walking the Kadoka Walk
• Surfing in Ocean Grove and Torquay
• Visiting the Queen Victoria Night Market, eating kangaroo burgers, emu burgers, and all sorts of other oriental foods
• Partying in clubs throughout downtown Melbourne
• Wrapping native Australian snakes around my neck
• Enjoying the warm weather and beaches around Melbourne like St. Kilda or Brighton Beach
• Experiencing one of the largest music festivals in Melbourne, White Night
• Meeting friends that I'll have with me for the rest of my life, from all over the world including Finland, Germany, Italy, Canada, Mexico, Bolivia, France, Venezuela, the U.S. and of course Australia

But even better is the experience of doing something so culturally mixed, where you learn more intimately the differences between Australian, American, Latin and European cultures, the differences in languages, and how classes and education are done differently in another country.  When the friends I had met just a few months ago had time off, we'd find ourselves showing each other things we see all the time in our home countries but other's never even heard of, or how to correctly pronounce words in another language, or how to play a sport I never even really knew about before, or trying a food a friend cooked that I didn't even know existed.  There's so much more that you get out of it that I couldn't get onto paper if I wanted to, and I'm glad I was able to do it.  I don't think I'll ever be able to experience international travel in this way, with dozens of other likeminded, open students that also want to have fun, explore, and share.

Farewell

So with that, farewell to all of the students I've met in the last four months of my life here in Melbourne.  The word "bittersweet" comes up a lot when we talk about going home, knowing we'll miss the people we've seen every day here while we're excited to see the ones we left in our home countries.  Thanks for all the times you've left me crying from laughing so hard and the once-in-a-lifetime adventures we've gone on together while we're here.  And if I ever get a chance to travel to your country, thanks in advance for letting me crash on your couch.  Studying in Australia wouldn't have been the same without any of you.

2013.06.07 Australian Rules Football: Essendon v. Carlton

Just as football is among the most popular sports to watch in the U.S., Australian rules football (also called Aussie rules, footie, or AFL for Australian Football League) is one of the most popular in Australia.  Despite there having been several games free for international students prior to June, this was the first one I was actually available for to go!  So Wilfrido, Sergio, Justin, Ally, Leanne, Marco, and more signed up to go.

The tickets were provided through a program called GLoBALL, geared towards letting international students experience AFL games for free, which was pretty awesome.  Groups of students had access to an ambassador throughout the game, who told us about the background of the game and the teams, the stadium, the rules, etc.  By the time the game started I had a pretty good idea of what was going on and how the team was going to be played.

The History of AFL

For a bit of background information, footie (the most common way Australians call the sport) started in Melbourne, the first experimental game ever being played at Yarra park in 1858.  It was initiated by a man named Tom Wills, now thought of as the pioneer of footie, who was a cricket player and secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club at the time.  He sought a way to keep cricketers in shape during winter months and invented footie as the answer.  The sport spread quickly among colonies and even internationally around that time.

Despite quick spread, the sport remained a primarily Victorian state sport, the largest league being the Victorian Football League.  Other Australian states did have leagues, but competition between states was not as common and there was no national league.  It wasn't until the 1980s, over 100 years after the sport began, that interstate competition and activity increased, causing the VFL to rename itself as the Australian Football League in 1989.  Over the next several years the best state teams across the country joined the league, which now has 18 teams and is considered the most elite footie league in the country.

Essendon v. Carlton

Because of the way the sport is made, many teams are named after suburbs rather than cities as is common in the U.S.  The two teams playing that day were the Essendon Bombers and and the Carlton Blues, both from suburbs of Melbourne.  In fact, in the national league it is common to have a couple teams from each city within Australia, where teams form the same city are frequently rivals.

The game we were going to was a perfect one to go to for many reasons.  For starters, Essendon and Carlton definitely are rivals, and are even the two most successful teams in the league.  To be exact, both hold 16 league championships, the most any team holds in the league.  Secondly, it was being played in the Melbourne Cricket League Stadium, which is located in Yarra park, the same place the very first footie game was ever played!  The stadium is on the National Heritage list for this reason.  The stadium is located around several other sports stadium, and the area had even hosted olympic games in the 1950s.  The third reason is because of how good the game would turn out to be, which I'll touch more on later.  

To sum it up, I was watching the two most successful teams in the Australian Football League play each other, both rivals from the same city, playing at the very location the sport had been invented at.  It couldn't have been planned more perfectly.

The Rules

After we arrived at the stadium (only three train stops away from our campus, towards the city) we found the GLoBALL tent, got our tickets and were assigned our ambassador.  Before heading into the stadium he gave us a run down of the game, here it is:

Time Limits

Although the ball is shaped similarly to an American football, the game is played quite differently.  In fact, there are few breaks - like soccer, the game is played continuously with little stops or time outs at all.  There are four quarters, each lasting 20 minutes in the AFL plus any stop time due to a goal, going out of bounds, etc.  

The Field and Scoring

Above: An Australian rules football field.  Note the four goal posts at each end.

The goal of the game is to get the ball to pass in between the goal posts at the end.  If it passes through the center two it is worth 6 points.  If it passes through either of the outside goal posts, or if it hits a goal post, it is worth 1 point.

On Offense

A team can move the ball down the field in several ways.  

1) They can run with the ball, but they have to bounce it every 10 or 15 minutes. 

2) They can handball it.  This means they can hold the ball in one hand, and hit it with the other, sort of like serving a volleyball underhand.  Because you cannot throw the ball, this is the best way to pass it short distances.  

3) You can punt the ball at any time you have the ball.  

3a. If you punt it more than 15 meters and your teammate catches, he can either keep playing right away or stop, go back to where he caught it, and punt it again from there without being interrupted.  But even when they go back to where they caught it and punt for free, they do very quickly, within two seconds or so. 

3b. If you punt it and it bounces around or isn't caught, whoever picks up the ball gets it and keeps playing right away, just like in soccer.  There's rarely any stopping unless somebody catches a long punt.

On Defense

The other team can try to stop them or get the ball in a couple of ways.  They can tackle anybody running with the ball, or try to intercept or deflect a handball or punt from the other team.

Watching the Game

Having gone to plenty of games in Philadelphia (hockey, baseball and basketball mostly) this was one of my favorite games to watch, and was definitely the best match I've ever seen live.

Above: Wilfrido and Sergio watching as the teams are just about to run out.  Those white spots are all birds - they are very persistent, and in fact are constantly on the field, moving to wherever there's space on the field.  At any time throughout the game, even when playing, I counted at least 30 birds sitting on the field.

Above: My view of the field at halftime while children played little mini-games on the field

Above: Game play towards the end of the game.

The stadium was pretty much filled with attendance at over 82,600 people.  From the beginning I randomly picked one of the teams to root for: Essendon.  Essendon was up just a few points after the first quarter, 13 to 10.   But as soon as the second quarter started Carlton began taking a lead, scoring point after point throughout the second quarter, ending at 41 v 22 with Carlton in the lead.  

At this point Essendon was looking pretty bad, it was cold, and we had been at the stadium for over two hours, so Wilfrido and I decided if the gap kept widening we'd leave.  And at first, it did.  At 9:25 pm Carlton scored again, widening the gap.  But then Essendon started coming back, scoring at 9:30 pm and 9:30 pm again.  So we stayed, even though there were no more scores in the third quarter with 43 points for Essendon and 57 points for Carlton.

The fourth quarter is when it got really good.  Carlton scored right in the beginning, widening the gap.  But then Essendon scored, and again, and again, taking the lead and making the score 69 v 64, with only 10 minutes or so left!  Now the team that had been behind the entire time was in the lead, it got exciting.  Soon after, Carlton took the lead again, making it 69 v 70, neck and neck.  Over the next couple of minutes each team hit the posts several times, getting only one point each, taking the lead from each other back and forth.  And finally, with only two minutes left, Essendon scored one last time, ending the game at 77 Essendon v 72 Carlton.

Because both teams were from Melbourne, there was an equal representation of both at the stadium, so cheering was loud throughout the entire game.  Between the huge comeback with three scores in a row in the fourth quarter, and the lead going back and forth up until the very last minutes, the game was awesome, and was the best way I could have seen one for the first time.

2013.05.31 Party Cruise

One of the organizations at Swinburne offered a party cruise for students to go on in May, taking off from one of the harbors in Melbourne and traveling throughout the harbors and out into Port Phillip Bay over three hours.  I signed up to do this with many other friends and was sure to be fun.

On that Friday all exchange students had to attend a mandatory going-home orientation session about what needed to be done before leaving the school, making sure financial and academic records were settled, etc.  This ended around 5:30 pm, and directly afterwards we got together to kick off the festivities for the night.  The cruise was themed, and we were told to wear either boat-themed or geek-themed attire.

Anybody that had clothes to match the theme or had time to get some got changed in the hour before, and/or began drinking.  Unfortunately I had been hospitalized shortly prior to the party cruise (a now-recurring problem with my pancreas... long story) so I wasn't able to join my friends in drinking.  None the less, a quick hour flew by and we headed to the train to get to the harbor.

Above: Philippe and I

Getting off at Southern Cross station, we made the short walk around Etihad Stadium and boarded the boat.

The DJ was already playing music upstairs and in about 15 minutes the bar and food was made available downstairs.  Shortly after that, the boat disembarked and we were off.

After that, three hours of fun began!  Unfortunately the weather was terrible, switching between drizzling and raining all night.  Otherwise the night was perfect, with free food and very cheap drinks for anybody that wanted it.  Here are some pictures of the night : )

2013.05.24 The Great Ocean Road

Another one of Australia's national heritage listings is the great ocean road, a stretch of road along the southeast coast of Australia, beginning by Torquay, just a bit southwest of Melbourne.  The road is among the most famous coast-side roads in the world, hugging the coastline of the Surf Coast with nothing but a drop to the ocean below on one side, and steep hills and mountains on the other.  Additionally, there are several prominent landmarks that are accessible from the Great Ocean Road, including the Twelve Apostles and the London Arch, as well as beach towns such as Port Campbell and Apollo Bay.

Above: Aerial view of a section of the Great Ocean Road

The apartment complex I was living in was offering a subsidized one day tour of the Great Ocean Road for only $15, so of course I grabbed a seat on the trip along with a handful of other exchange students.  Granted, one day isn't enough to see all of the sites along the road but it would be enough to see several key landmarks.  The bus was due to leave at 7:30 from Melbourne Central that Friday, which meant we had to meet at 6:30 am on campus to leave for the city to have time to grab food, etc.  Once we were awake we walked to the train station and headed for Melbourne central.

On a side note, since I've been here there really hasn't been too much "Australian" food to experience.  I mean, outside of the kangaroo and emu burgers I tried, vegemite, and some chains like Boost there is more Asian food than anything else!  But there was one thing I'd seen but hadn't gotten a chance to try: meat pies.  They are very common hear, sold at sporting venues, stands, etc.  A bakery was one of the only things open so early at the station so I finally got around to getting one.

And it was good, sort of like a cheesesteak in a bite sized pie.

Anyway, shortly afterwards it was time to load onto the bus.  Enough people had signed up that there were actually two busses, we picked one and grabbed our seats.

The trip started with familiar highways and bridges leading out of Melbourne.  Even the highways taking us to Torquay was familiar, but once on the far side of Torquay the Great Ocean Road began.

1. Torquay, the beginning of the Great Ocean Road

Torquay is where the road begins, with a huge sign you can't miss to signal it's start.  We didn't actually stop in Torquay (I had been in Torquay before during a surf trip) but instead drove through.

From this point on most of the entire trip was on a road between the coast and a steep hill.  I was seated on the right side in an aisle seat, truly the worst spot I could get.  I didn't have a window, nor was I on the right side of the bus to face the ocean on the way out, I should have thought ahead when I sat down.  But I grabbed some of my friend's pictures from online to try to give you an idea of what the road looked like while driving along it.

 Above: A picture inland just before reaching the ocean

 Above: You can see the road continuing along the cutout on the far hill

 Above: The road was constantly winding, hugging the hills along the coast.  The elevation was constantly changing as well, from running just along the beach to at least 150 m above the water.

 Above: The view of the left side of the bus from my seat

Above: A long stretch of the coast we had just driven along

Just about the entire day of driving was on the Great Ocean Road with these sites outside of the window the entire time.

2. Lorne

The first place we stopped at was Lorne, a beach town on the Louttit bay.  During out of season months it is quiet, but during the summer it can be a busy beach location.  For example, on New Years (remember, that is the middle of the summer for Australians) up to 12,000 people flock to Lourne.  Additionally, around the same time of the year it hosts the Pier to Pub swim, where 20,000 spectators watch the Guinness World Record's largest organized ocean swim in the world, with up to 4,000 competitors in it each year.  The town has cafe's, shops, etc. as well as fishing piers and docks.

During the middle of May while we were there, well into the fall season, it was quiet.  But we were glad to hop off the bus, stretch our legs and explore.

 Above: a section of the seaside shops in Lorne

Lorne was also filled with cockatoos and wild parrots, such as the one above.  They look neat, but their squawking becomes quite annoying over time.

After going in shops, walking through town and on the beach, we were called back to the bus to hit our next destination, Apollo bay.  On our way there, though, we stopped in an area that has many Eucalyptus trees and is known to be home to a good amount of wild Koalas.  The busses stopped and it took less than a minute to spot one.

Above: Wild koala bear along the Great Ocean Road, outside of Lorne

Although I had seen them a couple of times in zoos and pet one at a sanctuary, it was still neat to see wild ones just chillin in the trees along the road.  After some ooh-ing and ah-ing we got back on the bus at got to Apollo Bay.

3. Apollo Bay

Apollo Bay is another seaside town, very similar to Lorne.  It is considered quieter and less popular than Lorne, but it set up all-in-all set up very similarly.  It had a beach against a large open park area, with town shops and restaurants behind it.  Due to the considerable driving between each location and our stop at Lorne it was now lunch time, so we set off to explore as well as find food.

Apollo bay, similar to Lourne, hosts sporting events and music festivals, but not to the scale that Lorne does.

 Above: The beach at Apollo Bay was not nearly as nice as the one at Lourne for a beach day

After scoping out some places for food we settled on a small italian diner, the three of us that wanted to eat here grabbed their lunch special for the day.

Because it was later in the day it was a bit busier so we walked into town a bit more and continued to kill time before we were called back to the bus to head to the next location.

4. The Twelve Apostles

The Twelve Apostles is the most famous landmark we visited on the Great Ocean Road and the one I looked forward to most.  The Twelve Apostles is a famous collection of limestone formations off of the hill side, formed by erosion over millions of years.  As shown in the pictures below, they are in the form of large vertical rock formations set out into the water.  It is located just outside of the town Port Campbell, which had constructed walkways along the cliffside to take pictures of and see all of the apostles.  There was even a helicopter tour available if you wanted to pay for it.

Despite the deceiving name, there were only ever 9 limestone stacks to begin with, formed by the waves eroding the cliffside into caves, and then bridges, and ultimately collapsing into these stacks.  In 2005 one of the stacks collapsed, leaving 8 left.  They erode at a rate of 2 cm per year at the base, and eventually all will have collapsed.  But erosion into the cliffside may cause new ones to form over years and years.

From the parking lot we jumped out of the bus and headed down the walkway towards the cliffside.

Once we reached the cliff, there was a very long path to walk along and look at the Twelve Apostles and take pictures - here are some of the best ones. taken from various spots.

 Above: Some of the other exchange students I had signed up for the trip with

After time here and reading about the site at the information center it was onto out last major stop.

5. London Bridge

The London Bridge is another limestone formation, formed in the same way the Twelve Apostles were.  Remember how I said the apostles are formed by waves eroding the cliffside into caves, then a "bridge," and finally collapsing into these stacks?  Well the London Bridge is, obviously, in the bridge stage.  It wasn't much longer of a drive to this formation, and was another cool one to see.

The bridge was originally connected to the mainland on the left with a cafe running underneath similar to the cave you se above, to the right of the gap between the bridge and the mainland.  In 1990 that bridge collapsed, separating the London Bridge off the the side as an Island, as it is today.  Eventually, the London Bridge will collapse into two pieces and form stacks just like the ones at the Twelve Apostles.

When the arch connecting the London Bridge to the mainland collapsed, there were actually two people that had just walked across it and were then stuck on top of the London Bridge!  A helicopter had to rescue them, they must have felt lucky that they weren't standing on the section that collapsed when it did.

We made a few more stops after this into some towns, as well as visited another surf beach, but the spots above were the highlights of the trip.  Having left Melbourne at 7:30 we started our drive home by 5:30 pm to be able to make it back by 8:30.  It had been a long day and a good trip, one of my very last adventures in Australia.