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November 07, 2007
After returning from New Zealand and a long Spring Break, it was hard to get back into "school mode." October was a busy month for me and Tsehaye as we had papers to write, presentations to complete, tests to take, and we were also reaching the peak of our mileage. Despite all of this, we were still able to find some free time to have a good time. The highlight of the month came when we won tickets to Australian Idol.
Earlier in the month, my roommates, Tsehaye, and I all decided to apply for Australian Idol tickets, seeing how it is filmed in Sydney and we watch it every weekend. We had to log onto the Australian Idol website and write a short, 25 word sentence as to why we should get tickets to the show. I applied first and wrote something about how I was from America and I could see some of these kids making it on an international level (which is true). Then, when Tsehaye was getting frustrated and did not want to apply, I wrote her answer for her, but I remembered that I heard that you had to be creative in your answers to stand out from everyone else. I ended up drawing a stick-figure singer using the characters on the keyboard and just wrote "Australian Idol Rocks." After I submitted, I immediately felt confident that we were going to win some tickets with that response. Sure enough, a couple of days after applying, Tsehaye got a letter in the mail with four tickets to see the final six performers. We were excited that she won, but it was hard to be too happy when we knew that two of my roommates were going to be left behind. Fortunately, about 4 days later, after my long run, I found out even better news. I, too, received a letter with four more tickets to Australian Idol, so now I could take all of my roommates and Tsehaye was able to take two of her roommates. When the day finally arrived to go to the show, we left early to try to get good seats. Unfortunately, thanks to our bus driver (who didn't tell us when to get off for Fox Studios even though we had asked him to) we ended up missing the stop and had to walk a mile to the studio. By the time we got there, we were one of the last ones to arrive so we had to wait at the back of the line for over an hour before they took us inside. The studio was surprisingly small, which was nice because we had to stand at the top of the bleachers. The theme of the night was "Judges Choice" so the judges chose one song for the Idol to sing and then they each chose another song to perform later in the night. There were three "touchdown" performances (term used by one of the judges when he thinks the Idol did a perfect job), which was the most he has ever given out in one show, so we really lucked out with seeing good concert. The other highlight of the month came when I ran to the Sydney Olympic Park on my long run to try to win free tickets to the ARIA Awards (basically the Australian version of the Grammy's) from Video Hits (similar to MTV or VH1) who was on site. I was just standing there, drenched in sweat, while everyone else was there with balloons and posters to win free tickets. I tried to persuade one of the TV hosts to give me passes to the award show because I ran "20 miles to win tickets" but instead of giving me some, he brought me on camera with Damien Leith, last year's Australian Idol, and introduced me as "running man" to the entire Nation. Then, Damien gave me his bandana and autographed it for me. Also, as I was heading back home, I saw $50 dollars lying on the ground, and when I picked it up I found another $50 tucked inside of it. So within my 2 hour long run, I was on National television, met a famous singer, and found $100. Overall, it was another great month for us "Down Under" and we both cannot believe there is only a month left before we come home. It will be nice, though, to see everyone again and actually have some people to run with.
October 1, 2007
After seven weeks of adjusting to the structure of classes and teaching methods here in Australia our two week, mid-semester break was well needed. We had decided a month prior to our break that we would be traveling to New Zealand. We began our journey landing in Christchurch, where we began traveling the country heading southwest to Mt. Cook then to Milford Sound staying at each location for only 24hrs. Both locations did not have much to offer besides the hiking trails and cruises that we took advantage of. The scenery in both locations was all you really needed though, Jank and I would both agree that the mountains and waterfalls we saw were breathtaking.
Our next stomping ground was Queenstown for three nights which was nice to spend a few days in one area. Queenstown was a good place to stay for this long too because they actually had activities and sights to keep you busy for the three days we were going to be there. We had decided that this would be the location that we would do something extreme for our trip in NZ. After a lot of bickering back and forth of what to do we decided that we we would do the “World’s Largest Swing” called the Canyon Swing (which was a 109m drop and you swing out in a 200m arc) and go White Water Rafting the next day. A side note you must know about the both of us is that we are both deathly afraid of heights so this was going to be interesting for the both of us. The bet was you owed $50 bucks to the other person if you failed to jump off the ledge. When the day finally came, though it took the two of us a couple of minutes to jump, we were both successful to taking that frightening leap. After jumping we had an hour before we had to be at our location for white water rafting. Little did we know that our drive to the top of a mountain for rafting would be our most thrilling and nerve racking moments of the trip. The drive up was about forty minutes which is where they fail to tell you in the waiver or in person that you would be traveling on dangerous roads up to the top that could be life taking. At one point in time we were told by our guide on our van to all get on the left hand side of the van so we could distribute the weight off the edge of the cliff so we would not tip over and fall off the side of the mountain. When we heard this Jank and I both turned to each other with a small smirk thinking “oh she’s funny“, until we learned shortly after that she was being dead serious as she began to wave her hand in the air signaling to us to get over as she leaned left. After crossing the narrow path shocked and in awe the both of us were when we realized how close we really were from the edge. Though we did make it to the bottom of the canyon safely I would not have done it again, and if I really wanted to go white water rafting I would have taken the helicopter up the mountain to the location which was also offered as a means of transportation.
After some hiking, souvenir shopping, a Maori show, Bingo and sight seeing we departed from Queenstown and headed to Dunedin, where the steepest street in the world is located. We stayed two nights there where we had time to do more sight seeing and everything else Dunedin had to offer. Baldwin Street, world’s steepest street, was the most exciting part I would say in Dunedin, within the 45 minute span of attempting to run and walk up the street we saw 15-20 other tourist driving and walking up the street and taking pictures. Although pictures do not do justice of the steepness of the street you know it’s steep when you see houses on stilts just to make it parallel to the road. Of course we both had to run up to the top to say we did it, but even as a runner and being fit I must say it is still really tough. I had to try three times before I was able to make it to the top without stopping, while Jank just went up a couple of times racing the clock to better his time, as any macho man would. After leaving Dunedin we ended our trip back where we started in Christchurch, New Zealand where we spent our last night in the airport before departing from our mid-semester break.
August 24, 2007
After 24 hours of traveling, it felt good to finally land in Sydney. That was, of course, until we actually stepped outside of the airport and the shock of the Southern Hemisphere winter set in. I am sure that it was obvious to everyone that we were not from the area, as we were standing in the forty degree weather outside of the airport in our shorts, t-shirts, and sandals while everyone else was bundled in their pants, jackets, and scarves.
Shortly after, we arrived at our apartments and were in disbelief of where we were actually staying for the next four and a half months. We were paying $180 dollars a week to stay in the oldest brick buildings on campus. The apartments definitely have a lot of character. The interior walls are all brick and painted with bright pastel colors. Although the accommodations are not as good as back home, we have both been very fortunate to get paired up with some great roommates. Tsehaye lives with two Chinese girls, a German, a Canadian, and another American. I stay with two Colombians, a Mexican, an Indian, and an Austrian. The diversity in each apartment has allowed us to gain a broader perspective of the different cultures from all over the world.
During the first week, we did some sightseeing in Sydney, and we both believe that it is the most beautiful city either one of us has ever been to. We have been very impressed with how clean the city is despite being so populated and having hardly any trashcans on the street for security reasons. Over the past four weeks, we caught a symphony inside of the world-famous Sydney Opera House, we have walked across the Harbour Bridge, and did some souvenir shopping at the Paddington Markets (similar to a big flea market) near Darling Harbour. Other highlights have been a ferry ride to Manly Beach, seeing the Real World: Sydney house, participating in the "City to Surf" road race (the World's largest "fun run" with close to 64,000 people registered), and trying some gourmet kangaroo, emu, and crocodile pizza at the Australian Hotel located at "the Rocks," which is the oldest part of Sydney. Running has been interesting as well. We are still adjusting to the cars driving on the left side of the road, so we've had some close calls with getting hit a couple of times (even though Tsehaye is a little better with it than I am). I think Macquarie has been a good fit for training purposes because it has some great training areas near by. There are wide dirt trails about a mile from our apartment, a grass track, and a National Park not too far away either. Also, we are both amazed at how hilly Sydney is (probably comparable to San Francisco with how steep they are), which will help us build a lot of strength for track season. It is a bit like mountain training without the altitude.
As far as school is concerned, it is just a little different from America. We both feel that classes here are a little more independent in that the teachers expect you to read and do a lot of work on your own. Macquarie seems very innovative in that they offer iLectures, which allows anybody who missed class or needs clarification on something to go back and listen to the recording from the lecture. For the majority of our classes, we just have a presentation, an essay, and a final (worth at least 60% of your grade). Also, we are a little nervous with the grading system here. From what we have heard from other students, teachers tend to grade a lot harder and that "it is easy to get into Macquarie, but hard to get out." The last thing that both of us have noticed on campus is that a lot more people seem to dress up to go to class versus most Americans, like ourselves, who "bum" it to class in shorts and a t-shirt.
Overall, it has been a wonderful experience so far, but we continue to miss everyone back home. We wish our teammates much success as the season gets underway.
