So I failed another paper. Yeah, not a great way to start off an entry, is it? This one's worse than last time too because I was sure I'd written a solid piece. It was about Johnson's foreign policy during the Vietnam War and my professor, as sweet of a man he is, had some interesting things to say about it. He told me my paper was a borderline pass/fail, whatever that I means. I don't know how I was between a pass and a fail but maybe it's the same thing as when the guy at the airport stamps your passport before you leave the country. Not quite in one place but not quite in another... You know, I'm not angry though. I have no one to blame but myself and I should've been more careful. I made practically all of the same "American" mistakes as I did with my Pol 250 essay (citing sources, relevance, etc.) except this time I won't be able to revise it and hand it in again for a better grade. What was probably most disappointing this time around is that I definitely didn't live up to my own potential. Even my convener said he was surprised I did so poorly. On the bright side though, I can still rescue myself with the final in a couple of days and, in the meantime, I have a lot of studying to do.

I'm starting to realise that I won't be comfortable with they way Australians do things, grade, or spell for that matter before it's time for me to pack up and head home. My first exam in months was this morning and the whole thing was a production I've certainly never seen at Rutgers. First of all, I had to check my bag in this separate room on campus. The place was packed with an unreal amount of security, as if somebody sneaking a calculator out of their bags and into the exam room would have been some kind of a national emergency. There were a lot of other unusual things about today, as well: first of all, I don't think I've had a Saturday exam since I took the SATs almost three years ago. The testing period started off with ten minutes of reading time where the proctors watched us all like hawks to make sure a pen didn't touch a piece of paper. On top of that, the university brought in proctors for reasons I'm not quite sure about it. After the exam I went to the library where security was even tighter. Security officers roamed the halls and people sat outside testing centers in case perhaps someone tried to escape before time was up. I understand plagiarism and cheating are concerns, but this was ridiculous.

The exam itself wasn't terrible. I finished 17 short-answer questions in about an hour and a half and, after the airport security guards finished checking my shoes and I put my belt back on, I walked out of there one final closer to freedom. Aside from maybe going a little overboard with my studying, I didn't adjust too many of my habits for an exam in Australia and I'm worried about that. My GPA is going to take a beating in the business school next semester and I need all the help I can get. Anyone who tells you study abroad is an easy A, by the way, hasn't been to Macquarie.

Posted by Jason at 01:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm flying to New Zealand in two weeks and I thought I'd use my blog to see if anyone out there has any opinions as to what I absolutely cannot leave the North Island without seeing. I know, the South Island is famous for its scenery, extreme sports, and Lord of the Rings but, seeing as that Qantas only charged me the change fee to stop in Auckland, the North Island it's going to have to be. Besides, I figure I'll be so excited just to see the country and immerse myself in a new accent (fUsh and chUps, anybody?) that I doubt I'll care where in New Zealand I am.

So far all I have booked is a hostel for my first night in Auckland and then I arranged transportation between about eight different hotspots around the island. What I think I'll like about this tour is that it's not really a tour. The company I booked with will arrange the hostels as I move around the island with a small group and I'm really looking forward to traveling this way. It cuts down on the most annoying part of traveling, I think, which is arranging how you're going to get from Point A to Point C with a stop at Point B for a food and bathroom break. As opposed to Thailand, I decided a more flexible and self-guided trip would be better and certainly more possible in an English-speaking country. I also didn't want to have to stick to a rigorous schedule someone else made so, with my Frommer's in hand, I'll be largely on my own when it comes to deciding what I get to do while I'm over there! If you've got any suggestions for me, you know what to do!

Thanking you in advance,

Jason

Home in 3 weeks.

Posted by Jason at 07:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I finally got around today to doing something I've been meaning to do for a while: take a walk around this beautiful campus and take pictures of everything in sight. The weather's been lousy recently (yesterday, according to my roommate, was the coldest November day Sydney has seen in a hundred years) and so, when the sun came out this morning, I figured today was my chance. I'm having trouble with the photo site right now but they should all be up soon.

I'm not sure if I've emphasized the differences between Australian and American campus life on the show yet so here goes. First of all, I noticed early on that Australians go abroad to the US for the exact opposite reason Americans come down here. Well, maybe not precisely the opposite but the campus experiences aren't very similar and I figure the differences must play a role in our decisions to study abroad. Australians don't generally live on campus, which I think is a shame because this makes even a university as large and as comprehensive as Macquarie feel like a commuter's school. Whereas life at Rutgers is centralized in New Brunswick, this isn't the case here. There is no Greek life in Australia and house parties are hard to come by. Especially here where the university is located in a quiet suburb, there are a handful of places in the city where I'll spot groups of Mac Uni students because there isn't much going on in North Ryde after the mall closes at 2 in the afternoon.

I was exaggerating about that last point but it's not far from the truth. Good luck finding a place to grab dinner within walking distance of the uni since about the only places in the Mac Centre open later than 5:30 are a couple of Chinese places and maybe Hungry Jack's. While this might be a problem during the week, it adds an air of excitement to the weekends as the internationals clear out to head into Sydney. It also adds to the social scene in the different housing complexes as apartment parties are common and wild Wednesday nights at The Ranch. While it took some added effort to make Aussie friends in the beginning, I haven't been disappointed in that area in the least.

Australians, on the other hand, have a hard time here relating to the dorm life. The concept of going away to school (and paying through the nose for it) is foreign here and, despite the fact few Aussies live at the uni, most don't live far from it. I learned that since internationals are hardly a novelty around here, your best bet is to make Australian friends in class. Most come to campus to go to class and then head home or off to work. One thing I have in common with Aussies is the enormous interest here in studying abroad. Something like a third of Macquarie's students are international and it is more common than not for Australians to set aside a block of time to travel overseas. Most go to Europe, especially England, and I've found a lot that go to the American west coast. Seeking the "typical" American college experience they see in the movies, the party schools are popular as well as any other that might offer a living environment similar to the one in Australia. When I hear this, however, I tell the Aussies to snap out of it and try living on the east coast of the United States. There's nothing like a big east coast school and yes, my part of the country may be cold and chaotic, but I try to convince Aussies that if you're going to cross the Pacific, you might as well experiment with a different lifestyle. I'm beyond fascinated also by the people I meet who have never stepped foot in the US and, when they ask me where their first stop in the US should be after a west coast layover, you know what I tell them.

Two weeks left in Australia and counting down...

P.S. I was wrong about Borat. It's open here already... guess where I'll be tomorrow night!

Posted by Jason at 07:14 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

My desire to write is stagnating again as my finals start to creep up faster and faster. Three out of the four of us in my apartment also (that includes me) have been under the weather this week and it's tough to muster up the energy to do just about anything. I can probably count the number of times I've been out of the house this week on one hand. Sad, isn't it? In fact, it hit me last night when I went out to a club not far from here and I needed to hear an Aussie accent just to remind me where I am.

My neighbour across the hall moved out yesterday, which was bittersweet. She was the first person I've been close with here to leave and, to make it more real, I helped load her luggage into the back of the airport shuttle. To counter the impending rush towards my departure, I've been desperately searching for more activities to pack in before I fly off to Auckland in two weeks and I think I'm doing alright. I decided I want to reward myself post-finals by climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and I started looking into maybe taking a short trip out to the bush. Seeing as that the few travel agents I spoke with recommended I fly to Darwin or Alice Springs, I don't know how likely that trip is going to be.

Hmm, well, I think I've wrapped up my reading for the evening and that I'll leave the last minute reviewing for tomorrow. I've got a Media Politics exam this Saturday morning (Can you believe that??) and an American Foreign Policy final on Thanksgiving. (That one reeks of irony, doesn't it?) I haven't taken an exam since my summer courses at Rutgers and I'm nervous. If Macquarie's academic expectations regarding my papers are any indicator of how these exams are going to be, I think I'm in trouble.

In these past couple of days, I've spent more time on Facebook and YouTube than is probably healthy for any one person but, especially in the case of YouTube, it's been worth it. Not only do I know the entire theme from Perfect Strangers can be found online, I know there is more than one version of it! Oh college, how fast the time goes...
With any luck, I'll be able to catch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on there with only a minimal delay.

Cheers!

Jason

Posted by Jason at 11:09 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

I just caught some of the insanity at Rutgers Thursday night on You Tube and I’m in shock. I don’t even follow sports 90% of the time and I’m disappointed to have missed what was the biggest game in my school’s history! Rutgers, for the first time, defeated a ranked team and is now in the running to play in the Bowl Championship Series. (Brian: Are you impressed that I know that?) Students camped out overnight at the Rutgers Stadium to snag one of the 10,500 tickets the university made available to our student body of roughly 30,000.

Rutgers pride has been in full force this week and I couldn’t be prouder. I heard Coach Schiano even made an appearance during the pre-game madness to hand out pizzas to students waiting in the mob for tickets. Just to briefly sum up the game, RU came back against Louisville at the end of the fourth quarter to win 28-25. Before the game ended, in fact, with one second left Rutgers fans rushed the field and they had to herd them back to the stands just so the game could finish.

@ RutgersFest last year (I really should start taking more pictures at school.)

The frenzied chaos in New Brunswick following the game, I heard, was unimaginable. Massive hoards of people partying and celebrating in the streets. I even saw a photo of the Empire State Building lit in black and scarlet—Rutgers pride transcended a state border! I can’t believe it. The game was shown live on ESPN around the country and, even though I couldn’t watch it on any of my five channels in the apartment, I was still proud for my school. This can only mean great things for Rutgers and I’m excited. There will be a renewed sense of pride on campus next semester and it’s going to be awesome.

Posted by Jason at 01:48 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)