First Blog - Three months in!
Wow! Nearly three months into my exchange from the United States to Australia, and I'm first blogging now? I thought it'd be great to share my experiences with everyone, and I was still getting my thoughts together, getting accustomed to this place, up until just recently. I really feel the need to have something from my exchange that tracks my progress and adventures, so this should do just fine!
How should I recap three months in another country? There is too much to try to go into, too many feelings and events for me to tell about everything. I'll try to start from the beginning. I left Wisconsin on July 18th, 2006, and arrived in Sydney on July 20th. After a grueling plane ride (espeically being situated in the window seat next to two tin-tuna-eating Mexican travellers from LA to Sydney - bleh), I was surprised to find out I wasn't even that jet-lagged! A few days going to bed at 6:00p.m. and I was all set and refreshed. But I had a terrible head cold from all of the travelling and the shock into a relatively different climate. My first host parents met me in Sydney, but they had commitments there and couldn't join me in my official first hometown of Warren, NSW, population 2200 on the outskirts of Outback Australia in the middle of the state. Instead, I stayed with a lovely couple a few kms out of town until they got back. My first impressions were a bit depressing. Quite shockingly, this part, and most of, Australia, has been in drought since 2000, yet it rained the first four days I was in town (?). I wasn't believing that they were really in drought with all this rain, but alas, since then, it has rained only one or two days. The drive from Dubbo Airport to Warren was flat for most of the way. The landscape gets flatter, somewhat redder, and more arid the further west you drive. Only about 2 hours west/northwest of Warren, and you're well and truly in the Outback.
I must admit, my impressions of the actual town on those first few days is drastically different than my view of it now. I now find Warren a quaint, friendly, close-knit, and even optimistic town with rich (for young Australia) history and an interesting culture of its own. Each small town, and they are all small when you travel into the interior of the country, has it's own personality, and so do the people in general. For instance, the town of Nyngan only less than one hour's drive away, has people that are noticeably different-minded than Warren folk.
Somewhat unfortunately, the public schooling system has a bad reputation, or is recovering from it, and thus most parents send their kids out to boarding schools in larger towns and cities. Thus, only four students make up Year 11 at Warren Central School. Since the beginning of my stay, the number is down to three. And now that the term is over, the Year 12 kids, who we share a "senior study" with, have moved on and it's just us four. It is a bit lonely with so few people to mingle with in class and on break, but I make do. The schooling is different here, subtly mostly, but since it is such a small school, it's hard to mark it as a "typical" Australian school.
My homestead in Warren for the last three months has been Red Hill, a few kms outside of town on the way to Nevertire. It has fairly red dirt, and is nearly 2 metres above the rest of the town. I quite enjoy living on a farm, although I couldn't get much sleep because it's so quiet and dark. The stars are amazing though. It's mostly cattle on Red Hill, with a few wheat paddocks. I have no host siblings living at home with me, and my host mum is an AMAZING cook. We have a deliciously large meal every night, and heaps of red meat often (something I had to get used to).
I suppose that gives a really basic overview of my life here. I haven't added any noteworthy occurences and events, but I'll do that in my next entry. I'm actually switching families soon, and I feel that I should've taken more pictures and wrote about my experiences earlier. But I'm doing it now, and that's a start in the right direction. Right-o. Until next time.
Carl
How should I recap three months in another country? There is too much to try to go into, too many feelings and events for me to tell about everything. I'll try to start from the beginning. I left Wisconsin on July 18th, 2006, and arrived in Sydney on July 20th. After a grueling plane ride (espeically being situated in the window seat next to two tin-tuna-eating Mexican travellers from LA to Sydney - bleh), I was surprised to find out I wasn't even that jet-lagged! A few days going to bed at 6:00p.m. and I was all set and refreshed. But I had a terrible head cold from all of the travelling and the shock into a relatively different climate. My first host parents met me in Sydney, but they had commitments there and couldn't join me in my official first hometown of Warren, NSW, population 2200 on the outskirts of Outback Australia in the middle of the state. Instead, I stayed with a lovely couple a few kms out of town until they got back. My first impressions were a bit depressing. Quite shockingly, this part, and most of, Australia, has been in drought since 2000, yet it rained the first four days I was in town (?). I wasn't believing that they were really in drought with all this rain, but alas, since then, it has rained only one or two days. The drive from Dubbo Airport to Warren was flat for most of the way. The landscape gets flatter, somewhat redder, and more arid the further west you drive. Only about 2 hours west/northwest of Warren, and you're well and truly in the Outback.
I must admit, my impressions of the actual town on those first few days is drastically different than my view of it now. I now find Warren a quaint, friendly, close-knit, and even optimistic town with rich (for young Australia) history and an interesting culture of its own. Each small town, and they are all small when you travel into the interior of the country, has it's own personality, and so do the people in general. For instance, the town of Nyngan only less than one hour's drive away, has people that are noticeably different-minded than Warren folk.
Somewhat unfortunately, the public schooling system has a bad reputation, or is recovering from it, and thus most parents send their kids out to boarding schools in larger towns and cities. Thus, only four students make up Year 11 at Warren Central School. Since the beginning of my stay, the number is down to three. And now that the term is over, the Year 12 kids, who we share a "senior study" with, have moved on and it's just us four. It is a bit lonely with so few people to mingle with in class and on break, but I make do. The schooling is different here, subtly mostly, but since it is such a small school, it's hard to mark it as a "typical" Australian school.
My homestead in Warren for the last three months has been Red Hill, a few kms outside of town on the way to Nevertire. It has fairly red dirt, and is nearly 2 metres above the rest of the town. I quite enjoy living on a farm, although I couldn't get much sleep because it's so quiet and dark. The stars are amazing though. It's mostly cattle on Red Hill, with a few wheat paddocks. I have no host siblings living at home with me, and my host mum is an AMAZING cook. We have a deliciously large meal every night, and heaps of red meat often (something I had to get used to).
I suppose that gives a really basic overview of my life here. I haven't added any noteworthy occurences and events, but I'll do that in my next entry. I'm actually switching families soon, and I feel that I should've taken more pictures and wrote about my experiences earlier. But I'm doing it now, and that's a start in the right direction. Right-o. Until next time.
Carl
posted by Carl at 11:16 AM
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