Broken Hill: Days 4-5

Ok last bit on Broken Hill/Outback trip! The last few days included a trip  to Mungo National Park, as well as a "surprise activity." We left Broken Hill bright and early to head down to the Wentworth area for a visit to Mungo National Park. The park consists of several dried up lakes in the Outback of New South Wales. It was a meeting place for ancient Aboriginal people.

We were guided by a ranger at the park whose ancestors were Aborigines. He walked us around and showed us the main part of the park, a huge dune known as the Walls of China. He also showed us skeletons of wombats that had been there according to evolution, for thousands of years.

We also learned that in the late 60s and mid 70s, full skeletons had been found in Mungo, skeletons of a man and a woman known appropriately as Mungo Man and Mungo Woman. After looking through the Visitor's Center, we left Wentworth to head to Mildura for a night's stay before we headed back to Melbourne. We went out for pizza and drinks for a final hurrah before the end of the trip. It was great times!

The next morning, we headed to a surprise activity. Now, I was going to type about it, because it was a lot of fun, but it just hit me that I was specificially told by our tutor Rob not to tell anyone. They don't want anyone back at Loyola who's coming to Australia next semester to know, so I'll keep it secret, I guess. It was nice though, and I won something out of it :-) 

All in all, the Broken Hill/Outback trip was fun. It was great to bond with the Loyola group and some of my classmates, and of course, cool to visit different landmarks in the Outback! Definitely a great experience. Check out a few more pics below!

The Walls of China

Good job Loyola...IT WASN'T ME!!!!

A look out point of Mungo

Memorial to Leslie James Taylor, a guide who suffered a heart
attack on the job

PEACE.

Broken Hill: Day 3

Continuing on with my Broken Hill posts....Day 3 in Broken Hill was...the most adventurous day of the entire trip, I must say. From exploring a mine to riding a camel, to climbing a mountain (!!!), Day 3 was crazy, but fun! Read more after the jump!

Broken Hill: Days 1-2

A shot of  a part of Broken Hill

I've been putting this post off for a while. About two weeks ago, I had the opportunity on going on a trip with the rest of the Loyola group here, as well as some of my classmates from Contemporary Australia. We headed out to the small town of Broken Hill, and explored the Outback a bit. I'm breaking the posts down into parts, because we managed to visit a lot of different places in a short time and I want to capture it all :-)

I overslept and almost missed the bus AGAIN (notice that there is no post on the Monash Abroad-sponsored trip to Great Ocean Road...yeah), but it was all good. I made it, and managed to have an....interesting but fun adventure for 5 days.

Life at Uni: Finding My Balance Again

"Let me remind you little sis that your graduation is in MAY of 2012. So enjoy yourself with that in mind." --a good friend of mine <3 

I've been in Australia for almost two months now. I'm halfway through my semester here. It's crazy how fast time is zooming by!


I wrote a mini post about this on the Blackboard site for this class, but I wanted to go into more detail. I felt for a bit, while I was here, that I was living like a freshman again. Going out a lot, and not really paying attention to my studies as much as I should. I honestly lost myself for a minute haha. It's so easy to get caught up in socializing here, because Monash doesn't have as many written assignments and tests as Loyola has. It's more so doing independent studying and reading to make sure you are ready for the finals, which are coming up in about six weeks. (Little perfectionist me is definitely worried about them already). If you're not focused, you can easily forget really what you're here for. And that's what I honestly found myself doing here for a while at uni.


Don't get me wrong. Being abroad is an amazing opportunity that I don't take for granted, and I'm having an amazing time. I have gone to several different places and have so much more to see! However, I think I began to take it a little TOO MUCH like a vacation. Now, I'm starting to get back on track. Talking to a few people back home put things into perspective for me. I have been talking about graduating from Loyola probably since the day I got there. And now it's a little over a year away, officially on May 19, 2012. I can't lose myself now. I've worked too hard to let my goals slip through my fingers.

A good part of being at any college is practicing good time management, and really finding your balance of social and academic life. I had found my groove at Loyola, but now at Monash, I had to find a new balance because I'm in a new environment. An environment that goes out a lot during the week, and has class lectures online to listen to if you happen to miss one....or just don't feel like going. I'm getting better. A good chunk of my life is spent in the library or my dorm's study room, but I also find time to hang out with friends and go out a bit. So here's to finding balance again....*toast...with an energy drink as I attempt to finish some work!*

PEACE.

The Aborigines

The Aboriginal Flag

I've been promising this post for the longest time! Finally done! I've been thinking a lot about the Aboriginal culture over the past couple of weeks. We've been talking about it in my Contemporary Australia class. I thought that it was a bit of a heavy topic to start the semester with at first, but I'm actually glad that we did. It kind of pulled me into the class a bit more. So I figure I would blog a little about what I've learned. Read more after the jump.