Wine Tasting:
The University of Newcastle is closely located to the Hunter Wine Valley, where many award
winning wines have been crafted. The Uni's UNDIES (University of Newcastle Delegation International
Exchange Students) group sponsored a trip to visit
three of the wineries. Kristin, Kevin, and went of the tour along with many of our peers. The tour
started at one winery where the lady really enjoyed us, instead of the regular five or six wines people
generally taste we tried ten wines and two liqueurs. The three of us were having a good time and
were getting to know two of the group leaders pretty well. The five of us decided it would be a
good idea to drink an entire bottle of wine between each of the wineries. By the time we got
to the last winery Kristin, Kevin, and I all had switched tee-shirts and name tags so we could
confuse everyone. We were making such a scene that some on English speaking students and tourists
were asking if they could take our pictures.
University of Newcastle:
The entire reason I had the opportunity to go to Australia was because of St. Norbert College, while
at SNC I was told I should study abroad for a semester, and I'm super glad I did! While in Australia
I attended the University of Newcastle. Over there college is very different than in the US. First of all
they don't call it college they call it Uni, as in "What Uni do you go to?" Classes are step up differently
than what I'm used to. Each class had once lecture per week and one tute (tutorial). The lecture could have as many
as a few hundred students in it, while the tute had approximately ten to fifteen. Well my friends and I were careful to
register for classes Monday through Wednesday so we could have extra long weekends for traveling. The courses I took were:
US History After the Civil War, Marketing Concepts, Believing in Australia (a religion class), and Traditional Aboriginal
Society. The grading scale over there is also very different for example an HD (High Distinction) is the highest grade followed
by a D (Distinction), P (Pass), C (Conceded Pass) and F (fail).
Along with a different style of learning the Uni had a different way of dealing with student drinking. Since the drinking age
in Australia is 18, our Uni sponsored quite a few drinking activities. The one that stands out the most in my mind is, Autonomy
Day. This day the University of Newcastle celebrates its breaking off of the University of Sydney
and becoming its own University. To celebrate the bars on campus offered drink specials and a
sausage sizzle. The best part was the eating/drinking contest. Contestants would have to eat a gross
food and chase it with a warm schooner of beer, run a lap and then move on to the next food. The winner was the person
who did it the fastest without throwing up. Oh but don't worry if a contestant does get sick he or she has the
option of eating his/her barf to be allowed back into the contest. Lets just say I saw a lot of people who really
wanted to win.
Sydney:
We spent quite a few days in Sydney but only one night. One of the first weekends we were in Australia we decided to go to Sydney for Thursday night and head back to Newcastle Friday evening sometime. Well Kristin and Dawn left right after their last class, Kevin and I left later cause our classes didn't get done till Thursday evening. Kristin and Dawn met us at the train station with some guy they met at one of the bars they were at. We decided to go straight to the bars, no need to check into the hostel yet. The bar we were going too was less than two miles away but the "random" guy who was with us thought it was necessary to catch a cab, by the time we actually got a cab we were less than 3 blocks from the bar, but we took the cab anyway. So after the shortest cab ride in the world we arrived at "Cheers". It was fun, we played a lot of pool and met a bunch of people. It was pretty late when we finally decided to go and find a hostel, the first one we found had rooms so we stayed there, that night it didn't seem too bad, but the next day when we all woke up itching with flee bites, we realized how disgusting and rundown the place was! That was our last night in Sydney!
We mainly spent the day in Sydney if we were going someplace for the weekend and our connecting train was in Sydney, we'd take an early train and just bum around the city for a few hours. We checked out the Olympic Park, St. Mary's Cathedral, and the ANZAC War Memorial. We also frequented the Kebab stands, they have the best kebabs in the world in Sydney!
Blue Mountains:
Our Uni sponsored a day trip to the Blue Mountains, near Sydney a four hour drive from Newcastle.
The reason they are called the Blue Mountains is because the Eucalyptus trees emit gases that creates
a blue hue and makes the forest and mountains appear blue.
The fist sight of interest was Echo Point. From Echo Point you get a great view of the Three Sisters.
The Three Sisters are a rock formation that the Aboriginals told Dream Time stories about.
After snapping a few pictures of the sisters, we hiked down then up and over until we were
actually standing inside the first of the three sisters. It's hard to tell from the picture but
that's where we were. We took a train back to the top of the mountain, well its called a train
but it was unlike any other train I've been on. The tracks were at a 55 degree angle and it
went up the mountain backwards! Of course we sat in the front seat and I sincerely thought
I was going to fall out and die, but luckily we made it safe and sound. There was a roller coaster
built on the mountain right next to where the train we took was, but it didn't pass the necessary
inspections and was never opened for public use (just to show that I'm not a total wimp). The ride
back from the Blue Mountains, I sat with a guy from Botswana, it was really interesting to learn
about his country and how he perceived Australia.
Coffs Harbour:
Kristin, Dawn, Kevin, and I spent our first weekend of school in Coffs Harbour. While there we went on a whale
watching tour, while in Coffs Harbour. Unfortunately we didn't see any whales, but we did see quite a few dolphins.
The captain of the boat offered to let us go in the buoy net and "swim" with the dolphins. Dawn and this fifty year
old woman were the only ones willing to swim in the cold water, I thought about it but then decided against it when
the dolphins swam up right next to the boat, they were close enough for us to figure out that they were making
babies...that's right they were "doing it." We also went on an amazing tour of Dorrigo Mountain. Our tour guide was an
older man, who spent his childhood living in one of the foresting camps. He took us to his old watering hole, a pristine
lake with clear water, it was just amazing! He said he could remember being a kid and sitting out there silently for hours
waiting to see a platypus. The mountain barely showed any reminisce of the people who lived there, when the wood mill shutdown
all the people left and mother nature took her land back. Parts of the old mill where still standing but were covered in
molds and plants.
Dubbo:
The way we planned most of our trips was by looking through our travel books to see what
festivals and things were going on and where they were. Well for the first and only time
out travel books let us down. We decided to go to the city of Dubbo for a weekend to attend
a Jazz Festival. When we told one of our Aussie friends our plans he laughed and said that he
would check with some his friends who live there and see if we could stay with them. Damo
came through for us and we stayed with his friend Lisa. We got there on a Saturday in the
afternoon and didn't want to call Lisa yet, so we went to a movie. When the movie was over
we were pretty hungry so we grabbed an ice-cream cone and called Lisa, it turned out that she was
at a bar just down the street from us, so we met he there ice-cream cones in hand. We took a lot
of teasing for having ice-cream at a bar, but Lisa and her friends were pretty cool. We hung out
there for a while, then went to Lisa's to grab some dinner and drop off our stuff before going
out. We decided to go to the bars and hit the Jazz Festival the next day. The bars in Dubbo
were pretty crazy, people were doing hat dances while others were competing in pole dancing
competitions. The next morning was a little rough, Lisa suggested the traditional Aussie cure
for a hangover, some Vegemite on toast, well after one bite of that I was not only cured, but
sure that I'd never eat another bite of that stuff in my life. Lisa had plans for the day so she
dropped us off at the Western Plains Zoo and told us to call when we needed to be picked up.
The zoo was awesome, we spent the entire day there. The animals were all in big open areas, not
really caged in at all. We saw Australian animals such as kangaroos, wallabies, dingoes, wombats, and
echidnas. We also African animals such as lions, tigers, and zebras (by the way they are black with
white stripes). The zoo was just like any zoo I've been to animals from all over the world.
That night we went to the much anticipated Dubbo Jazz Festival, it was at the RSL Club, which
we didn't realize was the Returned Services Legion, which pretty much meant everyone there was
at least fifty years old with the majority being a minimum of sixty, and then there was us. We stayed
there for three acts and left. The Dubbo Jazz Festival was not at all what we anticipated it would
be like.