I do appreciate effort. I’ve decided that my last few moments of my GRS career should be well documented, and this is the perfect place for it. My last round of blog post can’t have been that interesting to read, let’s be honest. But this year, I’d like that to change. I think I’ll even throw a few pictures in– we’ll see how tech savvy I can really be 😉

This past year has gone by so incredibly fast; it’s hard to believe that my exchange is officially over. Australia has been kind to me, and I’ve gotten so much more out of this experience than I ever could have imagined. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical about coming here. I had always imagined my GRS international experience competent would come from far away mystical places full of culture and traditions vastly different from my own. I envisioned the mountains of Peru, the Indian dessert- even the sweeping seas of Africa. Then I met my snow bum Aussie boyfriend (almost 3 years ago now!), fell in love and decided to follow him to his home down under. I thought, “well, at least they have cool soil over there”.

This past year I got an amazing job as a student coordinator for my university’s “Global Village” volunteer program. Global Village sends groups of students overseas for a 2 week period to work on development projects in SE Asia countries. I got to plan these trips and organize them with our overseas partners. Man, let me tell you- that job challenged me in more ways than I ever anticipate. I’m so thankful for my co-worker who got me through my ethical dilemmas was on the same page as me with the many issues that arise with this type of volunteering. I could write pages on the sustainability and ethics on the place of overseas volunteer work in the university- but lets save that for another time.

I also had the opportunity to work with Oxfam Australia on the Close the Gap team, which is a campaign which aims to raise awareness and ultimately eliminate the existing health gap between Aboriginal and non-Indigenous Australians. I even got to stand about 2 feet away from the Prime Minister at a Parliamentary breakfast (not that I’m saying I was honoured, he’s a bit of a fool. But it was still a cool experience, none the less!). I learnt so much at this placement and met so many amazing people. What a great office environment to be in!

I also did a short stint as a research assistant helping a post candidate research her project: “The Food and Nutrition Hub”. The food and nutrition hub is a simple design that aims to empower women in developing countries by giving them access to safe, healthy, nutritious food, and also a source of income. You can see it here: https://prezi.com/nbgbjeuheubx/food-and-nutrition-hub-v2/

Gianna is currently getting ready to go to Timor-Leste to try it out and see how it goes! Very exciting for her!

The courses I took were all very interesting and I learnt so much about Australian Aboriginal culture during my 2nd semester when I took:

–Human Animal Interactions in Indigenous Domains
–Whiteness and Racism studies
–Peoples, States and Sovereignty
–Indigenous Identity

All of these courses challenged my way of thinking and really forced my to confront some things I had taken for granted. I will expand on these in later posts.

Beyond careers and academia, I got to see a small chance of Australia and New Zealand as well.

Here are some pictures– sorry I can’t figure out how to format them nicely :S

My next step is to go to Vietnam to apply for my working visa, as my student one is about to expire. In Vietnam I will be travelling by myself, and doing some WWOOFING along the way. I’m super excited, as I will be spending some time at an organic medicinal herb farm! I can’t wait to learn a bit about traditional Vietnamese medicine.

Hopefully everything will go smoothly and I’ll be able to come back to Oz, as I have my directed studies project lined up and ready to go. I will be going to Northern Territory to participate in a sea turtle camp. The sea turtle camp is hosted by the Yanyuwa people, who are people of the salt water. The sea rangers will go through traditional Indigenous conservation techniques, specific to sea turtles. This is the time of year where turtles come to shore to lay their eggs, which will be amazing to see. I can’t wait to learn about turtle dreamtime, song lines and the singing of turtles to shore.

I have so much more to say, but I think I will leave it at that for tonight.

Thanks for reading! I hope you have an inspiring day 🙂

Cheers,
Becca