I do have an answer now to the question I asked myself in the blog one week ago: YES, we have a lot of work to do! We definitely do not have enough spare time. We have to put 12 weeks of a normal college quarter into 8 weeks, since the program is all in all 10 weeks long, but we have 2 travel weeks. You can imagine how stressful that is, can’t you?
Ever since the orientation meeting in December last year, we have a mantra: Work hard, play hard. Bruce keeps reminding us about it all the time and he actually is right. Still, it is harder to do it than expected. This is how our week looked like:
Monday (01/14): Starting quite relaxed into the first day of class, all of us gathered together in the Academic Center here at Newman College. We got our books- thank God we do not have to buy them!!- and Bruce and Megan provided us with an overview of the whole program. Right after that, Pete, another instructor, prepared a Quiz about Australia for our first lesson with him. Almost everyone failed it, which is kind of shocking, but we will learn a lot about this country while we are here!
In the afternoon, we went to the Melbourne Museum, situated about 20 minutes by foot away from Campus, to see the Aboriginal- Exhibition. Our homework was to answer some questions about the culture of the native people.
Tuesday (01/15): We had our first Biology lesson with Annette and continued with talking about Australian Culture with Pete and Megan. After dinner, two employees from a travel agency presented some trips we could do during our travel week, so I guess one can say that this afternoon was more for fun! That day, me and a friend also did our laundry for the first time here. We had to walk a while because the laundry here in the college is being renovated… In the evening, all of the students had to watch a movie, except for me. No, it was not because I am such a good student that they gave me an evening off 😉 I had a really good reason for that: Currently, the Australian Open take place in Melbourne and through a very lucky coincidence, I got a CHEAP ticket to see a famous AUSTRIAN tennis player!!!! I was so happy that day and I am so thankful that it was not a problem to miss the film. Well, I have to watch it anyways, but the AO were a once-in-a-lifetime-experience and I am so glad I got the chance to sit there for 6 hours and see them playing tennis. Since we had to get up pretty early the next day, I decided, I would leave at 2am. 10 minutes after I left, the match ended, so I did not miss much.
Wednesday (01/16): This was the first day that we saw animals since our arrival, besides from the Possum which somehow found its way into our stairwell. We took the train to go all the way to Healesville Sanctuary (about one and a half hour). There we saw Koalas, different Kangaroos and Wallabys, Possums, all kind of birds, Platypus and other typical Australian Animals. Unfortunately, I did not see the Tasmanian Devil (or the cuter from: Tassi Devil), and the Emu. Those animals are still on my “Bucket List”.
Thursday (01/17): Nothing special happened on this day. We had classes in the morning and after lunch we all went to the National Gallery of Victoria to get some impressions of the Aboriginals Art. Their paintings are colorful. Each of them tells a different story but I am not able to tell which story they hold because I do not know what all the dots, lines, figures represent. We are learning more about the Aboriginals everyday, which is pretty cool because there are not many people who know the stories of the native people of Australia.
Friday (01/18): After a Biology Class in the morning, we did the so-called “Golden Mile”-Walk. This is a walk through Melbourne, focusing on some Aboriginals aspects, a tourist would never notice, like paintings or their flag hanging at the top of the Town Hall. We kept it short and went shopping afterwards. I did not want to spend a lot of money but I found this cute little Vintage-shop and since the woman who worked there was so friendly, I ended up buying two dresses, one pair of shoes and a purse. But I also had another reason to buy those things…;-)
Saturday (01/19): On this day, I taught a friend of mine how to swim or at least I did my best to explain it since she wants to dive at the Great Barrier Reef during our Travel Week. As a reward, we treated ourselves with lunch at “Vertue”, where we once had this amazing breakfast! It is a secret spot. We know it because the IT-guy from the college told us about it- Thank God!
We spent the rest of the day at the Aquarium and I can totally recommend that! I have never seen a better Aquarium before so it is definitely worth the entry fee. After the visit, we met another friend and went to the famous Shanghai Dumpling House in Chinatown- YUMMY!!
Sunday (01/20): Some days ago, I booked a tour online to the Great Ocean Road. I did the tour alone and I have to admit it was nice to get away from the group for one day. On this tour, we started at a Chocolaterie, where I could have bought everything since it looked delicious. Then we drove to the “starting point” of the Road- the Memorial Arch. We had our Lunch break in Apollo Bay, which is a very small village. The highlight of the tour came in the afternoon: the Twelve Apostles and the Loch Ard. I now can say that I have been to this famous road but one day is not enough. We spent more time on the bus than walking around and it was pretty stressful too.
It was a busy week but the upcoming two weeks will be even busier! Stay tuned for the next blog.
Let the memories begin 