Technological Wonders

It’s so bizarre to me how efficient this school is. OWU was technologically challenged. They didn’t even have online scheduling until my schedule semester there. Yet Macquarie manages to not only organize their complicated system of lectures, tutorials, and practicals, but they have it all online for students to arrange their schedules as they deem fit at any time.

In addition to having the schedule online, every lecture is recorded and put onto a website along with the course guide (or syllabus) for each class and information regarding the upcoming readings for your tutorials. There are also special sections on this website for online discussions, which are optional but generally have a high participation from what I’ve seen due to the high amount of external (or online) students.

I’m still amazed that if I miss a lecture I don’t have to bother asking to borrow someone’s notes. I can just go online and listen to it whenever I want as early as two minutes after the original in-person lecture ended. It makes me really wish that I had unlimited wireless internet in my room. It would be so useful.

I think I’ve finalized my schedule at this point. I had to do a little bit of moving around because certain classes weren’t what I expected, but here’s what my schedule looks like for the semester:

First Day of Classes

My shower won't stop dripping, no matter how hard I try to turn the faucets all the way to the right. It is slowly driving me insane. I really enjoyed my first Aussie class today. I think Travel, Tourism and Cultural Production definitely has the potential to be my favorite. Even the readings fascinate me, which I learned when I bought the course reader (put together by the professor instead of having students buy a textbook). I'm taking four classes but amazingly I only needed books for two of them and together it cost me $78. I've been complaining for almost a week about how expensive things are in Sydney, but books for class definitely do not make the list of expensive things. After class, I was so excited to see the school store had gotten more sweatshirts in stock. Paired with the scarf I bought yesterday while shopping with Sarah, I will no longer be cold in Sydney! And I have an automatic souvenir from Macquarie this way too.

Sightseeing in Sydney

Yesterday, I had to run around campus and get my room and class situations straightened out. The cold water (not that I need it right now) valve in my shower wouldn’t turn on, so I needed to report that to the residential office as well as have my photo taken for my house keycard. Then I went to the main campus building to get my campus ID printed and turn in my add/drop form for classes, which she straightened out right away. I’m in enrolled in all of the classes I wanted now and I don’t have class on Tuesday and Wednesday. After inputting my schedule into my calendar, I even found some other interesting classes that I might want to sit in on the lectures.

I’ll be taking Children’s Literature; Travel, Tourism, and Cultural Production; Identity and Difference: Introduction to Anthropology; and Societies of Europe this semester. I’m also considering sitting in on Introduction to Sociology as well as Human Evolution and Diversity. I’m still amazed by the sheer amount of classes that I find interesting in Macquarie’s course books. I really should have gone to a big school.

The library here is huge. It has 5 floors

I spent the afternoon on campus before meeting up with Sarah to head into the city. Macquarie put together a evening harbor cruise for the international student orientation, but we wanted to wander around a little bit before it started. We ended up not having to pay for our train ticket for the 40-minute journey there because the computer systems weren’t working and they told us to pay on the other end, but we snuck out instead.

The city is so pretty at night. The sun was setting on our way there, but when we got to the city there were so many lights. We looked in a couple wine and souvenir stores before wandering down one of the more expensive streets in the city. It had the Ralph Lauren and Ugg stores on it, among others. It was so pretty to walk down though. All of the men were walking around in suits, fresh from the offices. The storefronts were painted in various old school village colors. But here’s a picture, instead of me describing it.

The Sydney Bridge at sunset

Expensive shopping street downtown

The harbor cruise left from the Man O War steps, which took us forever to find. When we finally did, we realized that they had just told us to get there at 6:30 and the boat didn’t actually leave until 7, so we sat around shivering with probably 200 other international students. Everyone seemed like they were in groups or already knew people, which makes sense because orientation for them has lasted all week instead of just starting on Wednesday. I was relieved to see the boat had an enclosed dance floor on the first floor when it actually pulled up. There is no way to describe it though other than a party boat.

Our view while waiting to get on the boat

We devoured the free pizza the moment we stepped onto the ship and then everyone raided the bar. It was way too expensive for me though. Beers started at $6 for a bottle and that was the cheapest option. Smirnoff Ice went for $10 a bottle. We spent the three-hour cruise alternating between dancing on the first floor and taking pictures from the top deck when we got too warm inside. The views were really pretty. If the point of the cruise was to meet new people, then it wasn’t really successful. We talked to a few girls that live in the village, but nothing really came of it. I figure I’ll meet more people once classes start.

Makenzie, Sarah, and Miranda on the boat

Going under the bridge

A fair we passed

At the end of the cruise, I did start talking to one of the guys who worked on the boat though. He’s apparently a full-time engineer that works in the Papau New Guinea area and works for his friends that own the boat on the side. He seemed really nice. He was telling me about his travels. I think it would have been fun to meet up with him at some point later on so he could show me around Sydney, but that would have been awkward to bring up. I mean, he was at work.

We did have to pay for the trip home on the train, once we finally found the train stop (the boat let out at a different place than it started). It was only $2.40 for the trip though, so that isn’t too bad. I wasn’t exactly excited to walk all the way across campus in the freezing cold when we got back though. I passed out the second I walked in the door.

It’s good that I got some sleep though because I was up bright and early again this morning at 8. Our Sydney city tour, scheduled especially for our group, left at 10:30 and we stopped at a couple of lookout spots around the city and took classic tourist pictures in front of the bridge and the opera house, as well as the edge of the harbor. We also went to Bondi Beach, which was nothing special. There was barely anyone in the water except for surfers because it’s so cold. I took a few pictures and wandered into the beachfront stores, but everything was really expensive. I was glad that I ate before and didn’t have to buy lunch. One of the guys in our group was impressed he was able to get a full meal for $12, but that still sounds expensive to me. I don’t think I’ll be eating out very much here. Things are so much cheaper in Ohio and Michigan, especially my Qdoba burrito for $3.15.

Bondi Beach

At the end of the tour, we stopped at the Cargo Bar on the waterfront and were given a free glass of wine or beer. I got the chardonnay. It was okay, not the best. It was nice to sit on the patio and people watch though. I also found out that they sell pretty good $10 steaks Monday-Wednesday to attract business. I was impressed by that considering their drink specials on Monday-Wednesday are $10 cocktails.

The night was spent with more grocery shopping, but this time at a large market instead of the ones in the mall and it’s a good thing we went because we found out things are a little bit cheaper there. Then Sarah and I hung out with her roommates, who all seem really nice. One of them has a job on campus and he was instructing me on how to apply. I’m trying to convince one of the two who have a car to go on a road trip to Melbourne during exam period.

Studying the Fijian Culture

My room is off of the kitchen, so I didn’t get much sleep last night. I went to bed fairly early because we didn’t have anything else to do, but the family was still up, so I didn’t get to actually fall asleep. I kept drifting in and out of sleep in the morning too because I could hear animals making noise and moving around outside. I finally got out of bed around 6:30 to get ready for our first and only day of classes at the University of the South Pacific.

Some of the campus buildings at USP

Traditional house built on campus -- apparently the roof is leaking right now

After a breakfast of egg salad sandwiches and cereal with warmish milk that I couldn’t figure out how to open, we drove to the campus. We had a total of four lectures today focusing on the climate change and globalization practices of Fiji. The lectures were interspersed with morning and afternoon tea breaks so that included some really good food. I finally got my chocolate cake :)

Lunch was basically inedible to me. I subsisted on some spicy chicken, but our afternoon tea had amazing banana bread so I was content. I had thought we might have to pay for lunch today, but that didn’t turn out to be true, so I was happy.

We were given sulus to wear on our village visit tomorrow and also met some of the school’s resident artists. A lot of the girls purchased pieces from them, but I’m just not interested in art to the extent that they seem to be. I mean, they were nice to admire, but I don’t want to spend the equivalent of $40 on something that seems abstract to me.

All in all, the lectures were rather difficult to sit though. The only one that involved a good deal of discussion irritated me because I felt like each comment someone in my group made was offensive to Fijians and their way of living. I also couldn’t get a word in edgewise and, even when I raised my hand, it seemed as if the professor was ignoring me. I’m not sure what was up with that.

After classes, we went back to our host family’s and Nina, who we’re now fairly sure is the housekeeper, took us for a walk along the sea wall. It’s really scenic and only takes about ten minutes to walk along it into town. I think I might go running along it tomorrow. The whole family has said it is very safe, so I guess I have my seal of approval.

Dinner tonight included this amazing, light, almost buttery rolls and breadsticks. I couldn’t stop eating them, which is good because the other food was a little spicy for my tastes. I had some more of the leftover chop sui from last night though; I just might be coming around to it.