To fully understand the concept of education and learning, I believe it is critical to immerse yourself in a completely different culture and country. By doing so, it gives rise to the differences and similarities of the education system and culture, therefore making learning much more interesting. I am one to become really tired of the same schedule and the same scene, so coming to Australia was definitely an exciting culture shock for me. I was sick of the science class and the common curriculum I had been taking/following for the past three years. Despite my Pharmacy major and Classics minor, I enrolled in culture and education class here. I enrolled in an Indigenous Australia class, Outdoor Education, Australian Culture, and this Australian Sports education class. These classes were significantly different from my organic chemistry II and biology II classes I had been taking last semester. Though the classes were not similar in anyway, the transition was easy, because my classes in Australia were so interesting to me. Back at home, my classes entailed lecture and labs. The labs were our professors’ way of getting us to learn hands-on. This correlated with Australian classes, but in a much more entertaining fashion. In my Australian Outdoor Education class and Sports class, we had many field trips. The Outdoor Education class planned two major field trips for us: a day trip to hike in the Royal National Park and then a weekend hiking in the Blue Mountains. The latter was what I blogged about two blogs prior to this reflection. Just to make a point, I have learned about plenty of things academically – whether it be from the French Revolution to Newton’s law, but what I learned during my hiking trip to the Blue Mountains will forever be engrained in my memory. You cannot learn resilience, perseverance, and confidence from a book, and I learned those three from just one field trip. The difficult task of hiking over 9 miles, which entailed hiking up a 3000 ft cliff, could drive a man crazy. The fight between your consciousness, thoughts, and your aching body is a tumultuous one, but then when you finish your hike and realize that you actually accomplished it, that immaculate bliss you feel afterwards is incomparable. This along with my other classes taught me much about Australia. I’m learning more about Australian history than I ever thought I would in my Indigenous Australia class, while at the same time, learning much about modern Australian art and culture via my Australian Culture class. In addition to this, my Sports class has taught me so much about Australian sport culture. Quite influenced by European sport, Australians fancy rugby, soccer, cricket, and so on. I, for one, am a massive fan of European club soccer, so I really enjoyed learning about that here. Back in the States, European club soccer is not so popular, so it is not as fun loving the sport and living in the American culture. Here, I feel Australians understand my love for certain teams, which I adore! Though these sports are popular viewing sports, there are other sports that I knew I would be partaking in coming to Australia. Before I came here I was told that I had to hike, snorkel, scuba dive, and skydive. Even in the States, people understand that with Australia comes a very adventurous connotation as well. “The Land Down Under; the Land of Wild Adventures” is what came to mind every time I thought about how I was going to study here. If I wanted to fully understand the Australian culture and sport, I knew I had to partake in these activities. During Spring Break, my study abroad program, IES, took us to Cairns for the adventure of a lifetime. Our second day there, we took a trip to the Great Barrier Reef to snorkel. I have never snorkeled before, so I had no pre-conceived notions of what to expect from this. Firstly, putting on the wetsuit was almost near impossible. Secondly, snorkeling was so exhausting. Swimming against the current and trying to get a good view of the reef, but at the same time trying not to swallow in water from the snorkel, all of this was a difficult task for me. I am not a swimmer at all by any means already, so by the time I climbed back into the boat, I was exhausted. Contrary to this, scuba diving was one of the best experiences I’ve had in Australia. Almost a week after our snorkeling trip, we went on a diving trip solo from our program. At first, with my claustrophobia and fear of drowning, I was quite skeptical about my scuba diving experience. To be honest, I was very mortified about the idea of being under water for 30 minutes.  However, there was no turning back after my wet suit was on, and I jumped into the water not sure what to expect ahead of me. When our instructor was teaching us how to breathe out of the regular and how to find it if we lost it under water, I was getting quite nervous. My claustrophobia made it task for me to breathe just from my regulator; this was tough at first. Your mind keeps telling you to breathe out of your nose, so my scared mind began to race faster and faster from breathing out of this regulator. Contrary to this, by the time I was under water and viewing the Great Barrier Reef, I grew quite calm, mainly from the eerie silence at the bottom of the ocean. At this very point, being at the bottom of the ocean, was the absolute peak of my Australia experience. My experience here in Australia cannot be paralleled. With all the activities and experiences I have partaken in, and with all the amazing games I have watched live, my experience in Australia tops every experience of my life. And just for the sake of tradition, to end my Australia reflection, here is a thumbs up and a photo of us in front of one of the most iconic structures in Australia!

 

Until next time, Australia, au revoir!