July 11
This morning my sinuses were bothering me a bit. They ended up feeling a little better throughout the day though. We went to another orientation session at 8:00am and received our mailbox keys and addresses. If anyone would like to send me anything through the mail my address here is:
Benjamin Israel
LPO Box 5380
University of Canberra
Bruce, ACT 2617
AUSTRALIA
We also were talked to about how the education system here is different from what we're used to. Pretty much you don't end up talking to your professors much, if ever here. Instead you have tutorial sessions and you talk to your tutorial instructor about the class work. It's kind of an odd system, but apparently the reason they do this is because the professors that teach the lectures are required to do their research, etc. and therefore are rather busy and with the often larger lecture class sizes, they would never be able to help out and answer all of the questions asked by all of the students. Tutorials are small group sessions where you get a chance to learn more about what the professor is teaching, and interact and talk about the work and ask questions. It sounds like it might be pretty cool, but it will be very different from what I am used to and will take some time to get used to.
During a break in between the orientation info-session and our afternoon activity I went for a run on the paths along the shore of Lake Ginninderra. I ran for a total of 26 minutes and probably covered close to 4 miles. It felt great running with a t-shirt and shorts in the sunny, breezy low-50's weather. A runner's perfect day. I am excited about getting into shape pretty soon here, and then entering some cross-country style races as well as road races. I found out about a cross country trail-style run on July 29th that I am thinking about doing. It is entirely on trails through some nature preserves, and I would do the 5K course. Apparently there are courses the distances of 5k, 10k, 25k, 42k (Marathon) and 60k (ultra-marathon) that will be run that day. It would be super fun to do a long run on those trails, but I definitely won't be in shape to do that, so I think I'll stick to the mere 3.1 mile 5K race. :)
This afternoon we took a one hour or so bus tour of Canberra during which we drove around the city and were told about important landmarks and locations. We learned where some of the major bus interchanges are, learned about the Australian War Memorial and parliament buildings, and drove past the embassays for many foreign countries. It was interesting to see the different styles of buildings in which each embassy was located. For example, the Chinese embassay was actually bu
ilt by workers brought over from China, and thus architectually was very Chinese in appearance. The U.S. Embassay was pretty much an entire block, made of red brick buildings and surrounded by a white fence. It was designed in very much eastern America-type architecture complete with representative landcaping.
One of the highlights of the tour was driving up Mount Ainsle, one of the best lookout mountains in Canberra. From atop this mountain we could see the entire city of canberra and almost a 360 degree panorama of the surrounding area. While researching potential running races here in the Canberra area online I found out that once per month there is a race called the "Mount Ainsle run-up". This "run-up" consists of running somewhere between 2 and 3 kilometers from the bottom of Mount Ainsle to the summit. I love running hills, and I think it would really fun to do this race. Hopefully I will be in shape to do this run in August or September. It would be an amazing run with an awesome view at the finish. Plus they don't have too many runs like this back in the states and it sounds like a lot of fun!
After the bus tour four of us North Americans (a Canadian, an American/Canadian (pretty much lives in Maine and Canada), a girl from New Jersey, and myself all went to the grocery store in the mall to do some food shopping. I ended up purchasing just over $50 in food, but I'm hoping that it will be enough food to last me for about two weeks. We'll see I guess. After we all bought and paid for our items we "carpooled" them all into one shopping cart (trolley) and pushed t
he cart down the escalators, out of the mall, all the way back down the sidewalks and paths and across streets back to the University of Canberra campus. Apparently in Canberra you are perfectly welcome to take a shopping cart from any store in the mall with you when you leave, to wherever your final unloading destination may be. It's odd to see so many trolleys on campus sitting alongside the sidewalks waiting to be collected by the mall staff. Not all end up making it back to the mall, however, as some have been sighted in the lake, and I've heard rumors of sightings in trees near campus. Ah, but it was oh so convenient and easy to wheel my groceries all the way to the dorm and save my arms the tremendously difficult task of carrying them for the 10-minute walk. Thank you, trolley-sacrificing mall stores.
Benjamin IsraelLPO Box 5380
University of Canberra
Bruce, ACT 2617
AUSTRALIA
We also were talked to about how the education system here is different from what we're used to. Pretty much you don't end up talking to your professors much, if ever here. Instead you have tutorial sessions and you talk to your tutorial instructor about the class work. It's kind of an odd system, but apparently the reason they do this is because the professors that teach the lectures are required to do their research, etc. and therefore are rather busy and with the often larger lecture class sizes, they would never be able to help out and answer all of the questions asked by all of the students. Tutorials are small group sessions where you get a chance to learn more about what the professor is teaching, and interact and talk about the work and ask questions. It sounds like it might be pretty cool, but it will be very different from what I am used to and will take some time to get used to.
During a break in between the orientation info-session and our afternoon activity I went for a run on the paths along the shore of Lake Ginninderra. I ran for a total of 26 minutes and probably covered close to 4 miles. It felt great running with a t-shirt and shorts in the sunny, breezy low-50's weather. A runner's perfect day. I am excited about getting into shape pretty soon here, and then entering some cross-country style races as well as road races. I found out about a cross country trail-style run on July 29th that I am thinking about doing. It is entirely on trails through some nature preserves, and I would do the 5K course. Apparently there are courses the distances of 5k, 10k, 25k, 42k (Marathon) and 60k (ultra-marathon) that will be run that day. It would be super fun to do a long run on those trails, but I definitely won't be in shape to do that, so I think I'll stick to the mere 3.1 mile 5K race. :)
This afternoon we took a one hour or so bus tour of Canberra during which we drove around the city and were told about important landmarks and locations. We learned where some of the major bus interchanges are, learned about the Australian War Memorial and parliament buildings, and drove past the embassays for many foreign countries. It was interesting to see the different styles of buildings in which each embassy was located. For example, the Chinese embassay was actually bu
ilt by workers brought over from China, and thus architectually was very Chinese in appearance. The U.S. Embassay was pretty much an entire block, made of red brick buildings and surrounded by a white fence. It was designed in very much eastern America-type architecture complete with representative landcaping.One of the highlights of the tour was driving up Mount Ainsle, one of the best lookout mountains in Canberra. From atop this mountain we could see the entire city of canberra and almost a 360 degree panorama of the surrounding area. While researching potential running races here in the Canberra area online I found out that once per month there is a race called the "Mount Ainsle run-up". This "run-up" consists of running somewhere between 2 and 3 kilometers from the bottom of Mount Ainsle to the summit. I love running hills, and I think it would really fun to do this race. Hopefully I will be in shape to do this run in August or September. It would be an amazing run with an awesome view at the finish. Plus they don't have too many runs like this back in the states and it sounds like a lot of fun!
After the bus tour four of us North Americans (a Canadian, an American/Canadian (pretty much lives in Maine and Canada), a girl from New Jersey, and myself all went to the grocery store in the mall to do some food shopping. I ended up purchasing just over $50 in food, but I'm hoping that it will be enough food to last me for about two weeks. We'll see I guess. After we all bought and paid for our items we "carpooled" them all into one shopping cart (trolley) and pushed t
he cart down the escalators, out of the mall, all the way back down the sidewalks and paths and across streets back to the University of Canberra campus. Apparently in Canberra you are perfectly welcome to take a shopping cart from any store in the mall with you when you leave, to wherever your final unloading destination may be. It's odd to see so many trolleys on campus sitting alongside the sidewalks waiting to be collected by the mall staff. Not all end up making it back to the mall, however, as some have been sighted in the lake, and I've heard rumors of sightings in trees near campus. Ah, but it was oh so convenient and easy to wheel my groceries all the way to the dorm and save my arms the tremendously difficult task of carrying them for the 10-minute walk. Thank you, trolley-sacrificing mall stores.
posted by itsbenrael at 7:24 PM
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