Week 4 – August 9th to August 15th
As much as I would love to be able to write about my great adventures every week (or so I like to think), there is such a thing as “reality”, and consequently with that comes the main purpose of my trip – i.e. school. Considering this is an exchange, for the peace of mind of my parents and for future UBC students on exchange wherever that may be, I thought I would take some time to reflect on my first three weeks of classes, and how it compares to three years of a very different type of teaching.
First of all, I’m going to let you know – It. Is. DIFFERENT. If you are going to travel half way across the world and expect your lectures to be just like home-sweet-home, turn around, get back on that plane and head back to your regular, old classes. The lectures here at USyd are definitely not what i was expecting, but I feel as though I’m finally starting to adjust. All of our lectures are recorded and put online, which was a very new and strange concept for me. It makes it convenient should one need to miss a lecture for whatever reason (cough cough travels cough cough exchange student) and catching up on missed notes is easy peasy – find the missing slide, type it up, and keep on truckin’. However, I am also finding that since the lectures are recorded, that the professors put the SIMPLEST notes possible on the power points and discuss the concept at length verbally. And although most teachers back home have “simple” notes for their lectures, when I say simple here, I mean one idea per slide, two if you’re lucky. Heck, sometimes one word As a self proclaimed visual learner, me + auditory teaching are like oil and water. Not a good mix. In one ear, out the other. Ugh.
Despite my struggles in adjusting to this new style of learning, I am taking a course here that I would not be able to take at home, called “Outdoor Education”. This class is comprised of learning about how one can learn from nature, how nature can be used to supplement learning, and how we as humans learning about nature can help to create more sustainable methods of enjoying the great outdoors. Was my taking this class an excuse to bush walk even more? Possibly…. #ClassicSteph
This past weekend me and 35 other exchange students from my class spent our Saturday enjoying the great outdoors in NSW’s beautiful Royal National Park. Located approximately an hour and a half from campus, we hopped on a bus early Saturday morning, and started our trek around 10 am. I must admit, with my recent bush walking, and especially this past weekend’s day trip, I am quickly falling in love with all
that Australia has to offer. Walking an 8 km trail from the suburb of Bundeena to Wattamolla, we were treated to views of the bluest of oceans, sandstone cliffs, and wait for it…WHALE SIGHTINGS. FREAKING WHALES. Within 5 minutes of beginning our trek, we were treated to a show of breaching and majestic tail flipping out of the water. It was some National Geographic-level stuff. Ah. Maz. Ing.
In case I forgot to mention, I have been ill for the past two and half weeks. It has been constant battle against sore throats, congestion, tightness in the chest, and with no down time between classes and the seemingly never-ending events going on around Queen Mary and Sydney, it’s been getting the best of me. So combined with the on-going IT band injury I’ve been struggling with since December of last year, despite the beauty of the Royal National Park, injury and sickness really caught up with me. Like, as in I-really-could-have-slept-in-and-not-gone-on-this-trip-but-would-have-failed-if-I-didn’t-get-on-that-bus thoughts going through my mind. Physically, mentally, emotionally exhausted. However, this weekend ending up leading to some self-discovery, not only from an outdoors point of view, but in a way that can be applicable to my entire life. I’ve always been a believer of pushing through injury and sickness, but very few times in my life have I been this sick, tired, and injured at the same time, and usually I end up crawling into bed, closing the curtains, and forgetting about the world for a few hours in order to re-charge. Without this option this weekend, I was happy that I was able to get through it like I did, and I really found a new side of myself that I am proud to say that I am, in fact, proud of in and of itself. As a part of this class, we are required to keep a reflective journal in the form of the blog. You can check out it out here if you’d like for a full re-cap of my weekend, awkward drawings and self-reflective video full of “uh’s” and “um’s” included. But if you’re thinking “SERIOUSLY Steph? Another blog?!” then, tldr; I CAN PUSH THROUGH ANYTHING. I AM STRONG.
Whew, heavy blog post this week guys, sorryz. Had to be done though – not everything about exchange is fun and games. When it gets down to the bottom of it, this is still a schooling experience, and needs to be understood and treated as one. Hopefully next week will be lighter and less reflective more to your reading pleasure. Anyway, until the next post,
Much love,
Steph