It’s October now, and I am two thirds through my time in Australia. I have set a date for my return to England, which is the 25th December, yes, Christmas day! Ideally the day will be spent roasting Kangaroo on a barbeque on the beach, before departing Adelaide at about 10pm. I’m passing through Dubai, to spend 24 hours sightseeing, before arriving at Heathrow on the 27th and catching a coach or two back to my home near Bristol. Although I will then step into a freezing cold England, I look forward to a great Christmas holiday catching up with friends and family and getting prepared for Semester 2 in Southampton! I am still not certain if I have a house yet from January to July but I am fully prepared to find a tent and study in a field if it comes to that. Shouldn’t be a problem.
For the run up to Christmas I’ve already planned my travels, including taking trips to Bali and New Zealand, as well as going to Sydney, Cairns and Flinders ranges in the Outback. I recently booked a return to Canberra from Sydney for just forty dollars, so I get to see the capital city too. A month ago I returned from a brilliant week’s trip in the state of Victoria. I was based in Melbourne and explored the surroundings, including a 35km uphill walk around hanging rock (an extinct volcano) and the Macedon ranges, and climbing Mount Dandenong. I met a Chinaman and a Malaysian who had both lived in Bristol where I was born, and we drove along the Gold Coast to see the twelve apostles (huge rocks in the sea, but only eight actually remain). I also visited several beaches. The sunset over the pier at St Kilda was completely unreal.
There’s plenty to do in Melbourne. The Victoria Police museum was one of the highlights, (I hope to become a Police Officer in the future) and I could not stop buying souvenirs there! Other great sights included the star observation wheel (a large illuminated Ferris wheel), the Eureka Skydeck (the largest skyscraper in Melbourne, which offers astounding views), Melbourne museum, the Shrine of Remembrance, the Royal botanic gardens and the Old Treasury Building. But the view from Burkes lookout in the Dandenong ranges was astounding, and can’t be adequately captured by a photo.
Although Melbourne was terrific, it felt great to arrive home. It’s strange I am already calling Adelaide home but it really is a comfortable place to be. It’s the capital city of South Australia and has a population of about 1 million. For me it has the perfect balance between the liveliness of a city on weekend evenings, and a cosiness and tranquillity found in the suburban areas where you pass through verdant green grassy parks, winding bridges, and can spot colourful parrots and possums. I did actually see a snake the other day believe it or not! I missed my flight to Melbourne so had to pay 85 dollars to catch the next one instead. While I was killing time walking along some footpaths by the airport, I caught sight of a brown snake; I suppose about one and a half metres long, slithering away into the bush. I’m still not sure whether or not it was poisonous, but it was quite an experience to see one outside of a zoo. But despite seeing the snake just outside of the city, I didn’t see so much as a rat during my exploration through so many national parks in Victoria, so I’m not too concerned! I also talked to an Australian who assured me she had never seen one in her twenty years of living here.
My studies have been generally going well: as of yet I have only received one grade, which was for a presentation. I achieved 73 percent, which in Southampton would be a 1:1, but here it is more like a 2:1, which I am still very pleased with. The system here is fail, pass, credit, distinction or high distinction. I have written three or four essays, ranging from 600 to 2000 words, and they have a large breadth of topics. I have written about whether or not Charles Darwin’s autobiography promoted social and scientific progression, about gender, race and ideology in novels, and about differences between Petrarch’s Rima 190, and Spenser and Wyatt’s translations. Wait a second- I have just looked at my emails and have just received another grade- 78- distinction, get in! That was timely. Anyway, as I was saying- next up is a presentation on performance poetry and a researched Renaissance essay on the attractions of immediate worldly/ material pleasures versus the promise of future unworldly/ spiritual reward in the poems of Marlowe, Donne and Raleigh. Quite a mouthful, and that topic may sound quite mind-numbing, but I think it should be a really unusual and interesting essay! As you can see, the scope of the topics is really wide, and you can choose many of the essay questions yourself.
As for my accommodation here, it is actually pretty decent. For just $140 per week, I have a shared apartment within private student halls, in which we have two en-suite showers and toilets, a sink, and a lounge with a sofa and television. Downstairs are two large kitchens, a large dining area, an even bigger television, sofas, a laundry facility and an outdoor barbeque area. Something of this quality would be a lot more expensive elsewhere in Australia. The weather is gradually getting rather warm now, which makes a nice change to the freezing weather in July. My most recent adventure began on the 22nd of October, I flew out to Cairns to see the Great Barrier reef, Mossman gorge, Daintree rainforest (yes, they do actually have a few rainforests in Australia), Mission beach and much more. I’ll talk in detail about this incredible trip in my next blog, which I’ll post before I travel to the Outback!
