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Blog 16 - Post Australia

  As I conclude my Australian experience, I find that there is no better time to reflect about my trip than on the car ride to my house finishing up a 30 hour travel day. It has been a full month since I’ve been home and reality is just beginning to sink in of what life is like here in comparison to Australia. I’ve continuously walked on the left side since I landed in Los Angeles from Melbourne and I keep getting bumped into. I’m also not used to people being so unfriendly and the comfort of safety that existed in Australia. I will be at my home in Rockville, Maryland in about 30 minutes and I cannot stop thinking about when the next time is I’ll be back there. I was gone a full month and could not have dreamed of a better month away from home. I got to share some of these experiences with my family and family has always been the most important thing to me which made it that much better. In addition, I love meeting new people and this program gave me the opportunity to make new re...
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Blog 15 - Australian open

  One of the things I looked forward to the most after learning of my acceptance to this program was to watch tennis at the highest level at the Aussie open. My family and I have always been huge tennis fans but none of us have ever been to one of the four majors which made them envious of me. This was the day I had been waiting for and it felt like a fever dream as we walked around the grounds wondering which of the many matches we should go to first. We began by going to the Aryna Sabalenka Vs. Shelby Rogers match and it definitely did not disappoint. Most of the group rooted for the American, Rogers, while me and a couple others rooted for Sabalenka. I have watched Sabalenka play for years now and knew that Rogers' talent did not match hers and the tennis we saw backed up my claim. Sabalenka won in straight sets (6-3, 6-1) and she played an absolutely incredible game making it difficult for Rogers to return any of her serves. Although there were many more matches to see, this be...
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Blog 14 - Queen Victoria Market

  One of my favorite things about walking around the city of Melbourne was stopping in the shops and local markets but nothing compared to the Queen Victoria Market. It was located only 10 minutes from the Scape apartments we were staying at so I had a lot of opportunities to go and walk around. This market is a major landmark in Melbourne and is well-known around the world partly due to it being the largest open air market in the Southern hemisphere. I went for the first time before going to St. Kilda for the day and walked around for about an hour with a bunch of others on the program. I knew I’d be back so I didn’t want to buy much just yet unless I absolutely fell in love with an item but I still had a great time walking around and seeing everything that was there. John, Hayden and I walked by a stand that had a sign “free gin” and we were immediately intrigued. We sampled a couple of the “award winning best in the world” gin and although it was 10:30 in the morning we all stil...
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Blog 13 - Public Historical Marker

  Before the program began, I was in Sydney with my family exploring the city and participating in lots of activities. My favorite of these activities was the climb of the Sydney bridge, not only because the climb itself was awesome but because of the rich history behind the bridge. From leaving the facility to being at the peak of the bridge it took about an hour and a half, however it felt like just 30 minutes. All of the climbers had gear to keep us safe on the bridge as well as a headset to listen to the leader of the climb give us insight into the bridge and its history. Our tour guide had done the climb hundreds of times before so she knew almost everything there was to know about the bridge and the story of its creation.  I have always been a nerd for history and statistics and it made my experience so much better to get to hear all about it during my climb. Our tour guide told us that the bridge was 1150 meters long (3770 feet) and about 134 meters (440 feet) high. Whe...
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Blog 12 - Museum artifact

  We went to MCG and took a tour of the stadium and also went to the museum which is an extension of the stadium. I had been to MCG for a cricket game before but it was really cool to see it during the off hours and to see all the work that goes into maintaining the stadium. In addition, it was cool to see how they changed the field for AFL, cricket, or all the other sports that are played there. The tour was awesome and the museum was also extremely cool and much different than anything I’ve ever seen in the U.S. As we were finishing up our stadium tour I noticed a lot of pictures on the wall of all the different sports that are played. I was surprised to find that lacrosse was represented because it is still a growing sport that is really only popular in several regions on the east coast in the U.S. I began to realize that Australia is open to all sports and will continue to adapt sports from other nations in the years to come. Melbourne is truly one of the best sports towns in t...
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Blog 11 - The nation

  A big part of the reason my time in Australia was so great is because of how the locals treat one another and how they treat outsiders. Rather than looking down at outsiders because of their cultural differences, Australians are accepting of everyone which is why they are such a diverse nation. One thing I noticed is Aussies love tattoos and piercings as it is much more common in Australia than in America. Personally, tattoos are against my religion and would make my mom really upset if I got one, but I do think they are really cool. Also, Australians take pride in their sports and center a lot of their time and energy around sports. I have been to two cricket games during my time here and both times I genuinely enjoyed it and learned more about the sport each time. My amazing experience had a lot to do with the locals sitting around us who made sure to teach us the rules so that we could enjoy it as much as possible. One thing I have noticed is the technology used to help those ...
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Blog 10 - Current event

  The Victorian local government has plans to abolish public drunkenness laws, however there is a lot of backlash from this decision. The goal of abolishing these laws is to take care of citizens when they are drunk rather than punishing them for being drunk in public. Instead of punishments, intoxicated people will be taken to a sober center or their own home. A lot of this push to abolish public drunkenness is coming from aboriginal communities who feel that the current legislation is affecting them disproportionally to the rest of the population. The Victorian police association is worried that police will lose some of their power and be less respected in several situations. Unions are very worried that police won’t have the means to manage people and instill law and order if they can’t control a situation when someone is acting reckless and inebriated. However, paramedics may not be there when they are needed because public drunkenness will not be taken as seriously. The police...
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