Australia
Exchange semester at the University of Melbourne for the first half of 2018.
Melbourne
I listened to a number of locals and visitors about the city and what it had to offer when I first arrived in Melbourne. I noticed that it wasn't necessarily the locals, but those who rode bikes and were highly mobile who knew of the best places to go in the city. I get the impression that the less limiting your mode of transport and the less bound you are to common routes, the more you can explore your surroundings, such that you have a better appreciation for distances in the city. Additionally, there is less waiting involved if you choose active transport; cycling and running are two great ways to get around freely without waiting for a bus/tram. Thus, I chose to get the most out of my time in Melbourne by regularly cycling to new cafes/libraries to study or work, as well as going by a new route every time I went out for a run. As I unexpectedly appeared to know more about the city’s general geography than the limited cross-section of Melbournians I talked with as I was leaving, I think I might adopt cycling and running as my new way of life anywhere I go. I challenge you to do the same.
In terms of uni life, I joined the Melbourne University Boat Club to get back into rowing and thoroughly enjoyed all of my courses (Cellular and Developmental Biology, Immunology, Genetics and German). I also worked in a pharmacology lab on pathways in chronic respiratory diseases, as well as in a virology lab on HIV latency regulation. If I was not studying, rowing, cycling, working on a protocol, going camping, or having a fine cup of coffee with a friend, I filled up my free time with a bouldering session alongside some wonderful new friends from Montréal who were also on exchange.
Some Highlights
Favourite cafe: Admiral Cheng Ho (Abbotsford) or Patricia Coffee Brewers (CBD)
Favourite ice cream: Pidapipó Gelataria (Carlton)
Favourite bike shop (I worked here very briefly to learn the ways of a bicycle mechanic): Mottainai cycles (Collingwood)
Favourite record store: Dutch Vinyl (Abbotsford)
Favourite run: Kew - South Yarra - Botanical Gardens - CBD - Richmond - Kew
Favourite library: State Library of Victoria (CBD) or the Burnley Campus library (Burnley) if I really need to avoid distractions.
Must-sees: Queen Victoria Market and the Night Market (CBD), National Gallery of Victoria (Southbank), Royal Botanic Gardens (South Yarra), Royal Exhibition Building (Carlton), Abbotsford Convent (Abbotsford) and the bat-laden trees of Bellbird Park (Kew)
Wilson's Promontory
As the semester fades to a close, our international group of friends assembled for a final travel hoorah before exams and us all parting ways. Although I'll be seeing these people on evenings or at campus, this will likely be our last collective camping trip, so we made the best of it. Despite record winds and rain as well as some wombats breaking into two of our tents in search of food, the weekend was a fun time for all and a well-deserved break from the city.
Sydney
I escaped the hubbub of Melbourne for the weekend of May 5th... to enjoy some of the hubbub of Sydney. Much of the weekend was spent on my feet, walking between my hostel, the University of Sydney, The Rocks, Barangaroo, Centennial Park, Bondi Beach and as far as Watson's Bay, averaging a somewhat ridiculous 18km a day. I decided to take the weekend for myself and enjoy the standard tourist attractions as well as the calmer areas of town with few social commitments, although I nonetheless made a couple of friends at the hostel. Among all the attractions, a sunset-timed ferry from Watson's Bay into the centre of town and a spectacular performance at the Sydney Opera House were definite highlights.
Pro tip: luckily for us youngsters, Sydney Opera House tickets are far more affordable than standard entrance through student concessions.
A week with Mum
Mum flew over from Canada for her big southern hemisphere trip. We made it to Healsville Sanctuary (top map), the Mornington Peninsula and spent a few days in Cairns (bottom map). All in all, it was a wonderful trip, notably including an amazing time swimming off the side of a sailboat among sharks, stingrays, turtles, clownfish and the corals in the Great Barrier Reef.
Surfing weekend
For the fine weekend of March third, thirteen of my new uni friends and I went on a camping trip out to Lorne, where most of us learned to surf. The trip paid off, as almost everyone was able to get standing on our boards on the first day. The only downside was the frigid water temperature of the Bass Strait. I even got to experience some of the wonderful symptoms of hypothermia! There's a first for everything.
The photos you see are mainly from an early morning, when we awoke to the sounds of cockatoos screeching in the trees to announce the sunrise and "The Circle of Life" playing from a nearby tent as a friend’s alarm. Needless to say, there were many more picturesque moments over the weekend, although the camera only came out once.
Quick little shoutout to my friend Peter Bates, who had his birthday over the weekend and had the idea to invite us all out.
