Finally home!

After 33 hours of no sleep and 12 hours of total delay time, I have finally made it home--so much for gaining back that day that I lost. I think I experienced pretty much every delay possible, from defective plane parts (which Qantas had to let us know was installed by the AMERICANS!), to missing my connecting flight (due to the first delay), to being selected for an extra security check and pat down, and finally to my 2 suitcases arriving at different gates in Dallas!

It is around 80 deg F/27 deg C and very humid in Dallas. I think I might prefer the dry Melbourne winter, but thank goodness for central air conditioning.

Hope you're all well. Stay warm or cool, depending on where you are :)

Farewell Oz

Today is my last day in Melbourne and in the land down under. It is hard to believe that tomorrow (or early Saturday morning in Australia) I'll be nearly ten thousand miles away from this place I've called home for the past year. It hasn't quite sunk in, but perhaps it will when I start sweating in the hot summer heat, hearing American accents all around me, seeing people driving on the right side of the road, eating oversized portions, and using my fork in my right hand :)

I haven't had too much time to reflect on my past year, but I'm sure that there are things that I've learned or gained that I won't even realize until a few months down the line. I'll save some of my thoughts on that for another post, perhaps my last for this blog.

But for now, I can say unequivocally that my time in Melbourne/Australia has been one of the most enriching experiences of my life. Melbourne has been a great place to call home, in large part because of wonderful friendships I've made here. To my friends here, I hope it won't be too long before I come back or see you again. To my friends at home, I look forward to catching up with you and hearing your news.

Farewell for now...

p.s. To see pics of my farewell party, click here

The end is near...

I handed in my last assignment of the semester and of the year today. Of course, it's great to be finished with all those essays, but I can't help but be a little sad because it also means that my Australian adventure is almost over. In two weeks, I'll be heading back to the States, and by the end of this weekend, I will have packed all my things and left the flat that I've called home. I'll still be hanging around Melbourne, though, enjoying the city despite the rain and cold of winter that welcomed me when I first got here.

But I won't get too sentimental now. I hope you're all enjoying summer. I can't wait to soak in the summer sun again and keep up the tan I've managed to get while I've been here.

Perth and Western Australia

I'm sure it seems like all I've been doing this semester is traveling, other than my school work. That is partly true. I also haven't had as much time to write about anything else. Since I didn't do that much traveling my first semester, I went into overdrive this semester with taking trips to see as much of this beautiful country as I can before I leave. It's amazing what limited time does to one's priorities. In the past, I haven't been much of a traveler, and I've seen relatively little of the U.S., but now I think I'll be motivated to do more travel at home.



Anyway, I took my last big trip in Australia last week, going to Perth, which is in the largest Australian state, Western Australia. (and now, I have been to all but one of Australia's 8 states and territories). As you can see from the map above, it is huge, occupying about a third of the Australian mainland. In its introduction to the state, my Lonely Planet guide writes, "Ever heard the expression 'bigger than Texas?' It applies here. You could fit Texas into Western Australia and still have room fro New Zealand." I guess it well known throughout the world that Texas is big and that Texans are proud of it. Well, at least we Texans can still take pride in the fact that its vastness is used as a reference to show just how big a place is.


Perth has the distinction of being the most isolated city of its size (1.38 mill) in the world. The closest of the six or so large cities in Australia would probably be Adelaide, which is 2,624 km away by road distance, though closer by plane. Geographically, it's about where Los Angeles is in the U.S., and it shares some of the features of that area: lots of sun (I think it's the sunniest city in Australia) and beautiful beaches. It has a relaxed atmosphere and a bit of sleepy feel. Riding the bus from the airport, there was a man strumming away at his guitar (he was also strumming at the bus stop), the perfect soundtrack as we wound our way past different neighborhoods and into the city.




Now, as usual, I didn't spend that much time in the city itself. Of the three days I was there, I spent two and half exploring its surrounding areas. My first full day--my favourite--I went on a four-wheel-drive tour of the unique Pinnacles Desert in the Nambung National Park, where thousands of limestone pillars rise out of the landsape.

Then--and this was the best part--we went to Lancelin, where we went four-wheel driving and sandboarding on these magnificent white sand dunes, under a brilliant full moon, watching the Western Australian sky change color as the sun set over the Indian Ocean. I've never seen anything like it (i,.e. the dunes , mainly) and could barely keep my jaw from dropping or my camera from snapping :)

It was also my first time seeing the Indian Ocean, and it seemed bluer than any other body of water I've seen. I got to actually dip my toes in it the next day when I took a ferry to Rottnest Island, southwest off the coast from Perth. Visitors aren't allowed to bring their cars on the island, so there are no traffic signals and everyone (other than shop owners) pretty much bikes around. On the island, you can also see Quokka, another Australian marsupial, this one native to southwestern Australia and Rottnest Island.

Finally, I spent half a day in Fremantle, aka "Freo", a town 30 minutes south of Perth, and at Cottesloe Beach, soaking in the sun and warmth that has almost disappeared in wintry Melbourne.


To see the rest of my pics, click here.

My nine-month pain in the butt

During orientation week at Melbourne Uni last July, my friend Monica and I went to a "bushdancing" event, mainly to enjoy the free food that was advertised. It turned out that most of the people there were undergrads, and we felt quite out of place as two "old" postgrad students. The event was quite cheesy, and we didn't even get our free dinner because we had to get through a lot of cheesiness before it was to be served, and we just couldn't be bothered. During the hour or so that we were there, we met Eshwan Ramudu, a first-year student from Mauritius. I must admit that I didn't even know where Mauritius was at the time. From the first moment, he proved to be quite a character, and while Monica and I jokingly made condescending remarks about feeling out of place with the "babies," he assured us that as "old" people, we were definitely out of place. He gathered that after having "collected" all my degrees (BA, MA, and now another postgrad degree from Melbourne), I must be fifty by now. Being quite cheeky myself, I liked him immediately. (My age became a recurring theme, and he later surmised that I must have been around when Mauritius's native extinct bird, the Dodo, was).

It wasn't until a few weeks later after classes had started that I ran into him again on the street, and he informed me that he had been looking for me, not an easy task at a university with over 25,000 students in just the undergrad student body alone. He wanted to transfer to a university in the U.S. and asked for my help, knowing only that that I went to Columbia (for my MA). Well, I happen to have been a college advisor, so I was happy to assist him with preparing for the SAT and the whole application process.

Nine months later, after many sessions of the mutual "torture" that generally characterizes my student-advisor relationships and after countless hours of some of the hardest, most disciplined work I have seen by a student, Eshwan learned yesterday that he was accepted for transfer into Harvard. There were over 1100 applicants for only 40 spots--that's a 3.6% acceptance rate! I am so happy for and proud of him.

Working with Eshwan has been one of the delights of my year, though I have come to affectionately call him "the biggest pain in the butt."

Sydney

I finally made it to Sydney last week, after I finished my last mid-term paper. I planned the trip several weeks ago, giving myself something to look forward to. I have never been more eager to get on a plane.

When my brother visited last September, Sydney was his first stop, and he told me that if Sydney were in the U.S., he would live there. I only went for three and half days, and while I think Melbourne might be a better city for living in, I have to say that Sydney is a truly beautiful city, and I definitely wouldn't mind living there.

It's not just the Sydney Harbour, which is magnificent. The city gleams in the sun by day and is dazzling at night. The buildings give off a bright, warm glow that make the city look happy. It reminds me a lot of San Francisco.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect while I was there. It's Fall, but the temperature was in the mid-to-high-70s and sunny. I basically walked the entire city, enjoying its parks, gardens, architecture, and major icons from every angle. I toured the Opera House, walked across the Harbour Bridge, and took a few ferries on the Harbour to some places outside the city. I lucked out and was able to get student rush ticket to see the Sydney Symphony perform at the Opera House, too. Unfortunately, it was all modern classical pieces, which are not my favourite, but it was a nice way to spend the evening. To top it all off, I got to see my friend Mina, also from Teachers College. She's doing her PhD in Sydney. It's so great having friends all over the world!

The only thing that detracted a bit from Sydney's glamour and charm were the bats in the botanic gardens. Yes, there were heaps of bats hanging from the trees in gardens. It was such a strange sight and a bit scary. But I guess it makes the city that much more interesting.

To see pics, click here.

New Zealand

aIt's been so long since I've posted anything, I almost don't know where to begin. Not that so much has happened. As boring as this sounds, I have pretty much been a paper-factory since my last post--today, I handed in my seventh paper in as many weeks. I did manage to go on couple of great "bushwalking" (hiking) trips, though.

The major highlight over the past few weeks was my trip to New Zealand, which I took during my week off for Easter. With only six days, I traveled only to the south island, which is supposed to have the more spectacular scenery. My first two days, I had the pleasure of traveling with my friend Sylvia, whom I met at Teachers College and who is teaching in Hong Kong right now. We happily discovered that we'd be overlapping by two days and that we are great travel buddies. It was great to have her with me, especially after we discovered that the car that I rented cheaply only had a cassette tape player. For better or for worse, the car company lent out cassettes for the road and the best Sylvia could fish out were titles like "80's hits" (bad covers of them), the Village People, "Sounds like Abba", and Ultima Kylie. Let me tell you, I was getting pretty desperate on my seven-hour drive days after Sylvia left. The only saving grace was that I bought a cassette tape adapter to plug into my Ipod nano. That lasted me about 6 or 7 hours throughout whole trip, and only that long because I borrowed someone charger at a hostel. Aside from that glitch, it was an amazing trip.

If I had to describe New Zealand in one word it would be "enchanting." I have not seen The Lord of the Rings trilogy (hard to believe, I know), but I can see why they filmed it there. In the south island, it's all about the mountains and lakes, which were probably the most beautiful I have ever seen. An ethereal mist seemed to cover the whole place, and I felt as if I could believe in fairy tales there--I half-expected to be greeted by Shrek characters wherever I went.

Though that pleasure wasn't to be granted, there was a sweet small-town innocence that reminded me of another age. The entire country only has 4.2 million people spread across many lakeside towns. One of the days, I took a tour with this company, and on the 1.5 hour van ride from Te Anau to Milford Sound, where we took a boat tour, we delivered three newspapers, picked up a mail bag, and checked up on a man whose wife wanted to know if he was still out hunting. Unable to get cell phone reception on the road to deliver the message, our driver decided to stop by a local's house to use his phone and in the driveway of the man's pickup truck was a dead deer that we were later informed was shot by the man's boy Matthew the day before. The driver didn't end up making the call because the owner of the house said he would pass along the info. That was probably one of my favourite parts of the trip!

Anyway, enough of my commentary. There are links to pics and videos on the right sidebar, plus some videos of Tasmanian devils from my trip in December. (I just now got onto the YouTube thing.)