LC Australia Program 2011: In Conclusion

By: Kathryn Wlodarczyk

This trip, like all good things, must come to an end. Our trip will conclude this Wednesday evening when we take our seats at Punjabi Palace, one of Brisbane’s finest Indian restaurants, for what will be our last supper. On the surface it might appear to be a typical dinner for me: I will eat a somosa (or two) and then proceed to drink a gin & tonic (or three) but this is where the similarities will end. It will be different because it will be the last time we take over an establishment of any kind in Australia. We will be going our separate ways and it will be sad. Our last dinner together will also be a cause for celebration because we are all still alive and therefore none of us broke Andy’s number one rule of the trip.

I believe that in surviving Australia we have truly cheated death. I must say that I was a touch apprehensive about what I might encounter when I arrived in Australia because so many things here will kill you. Ten out of ten of the world’s most poisonous snakes can be found in Australia. The Box Jellyfish can kill you in fifteen minutes or less and picking up a seemingly harmless cone shaped shell on a beach in Queensland can prove to be fatal. There are also extremely poisonous ticks, fish, spiders and octopi. Suddenly sharks and crocodiles seemed like the least of my problems; at least you can usually see them coming. That being said, I like most things about this country. Seriously, how could one dislike a place that employs an entire unit of people dedicated to the conservation of koalas? Only once have I seen a koala outside of the confines of a zoo, but it still pleases me to know that, wherever they are, they are being protected. While the koalas remained elusive, we managed to spot a platypus in the wild, which, I am told, is a very rare occurrence, and we have also stepped over or very close to a few deadly snakes. While nothing negative happened as a result of our snake encounters I found it much more rewarding to search for kangaroos and emus, which are sizeable and generally not threatening.

It is true that I came to Australia for my lab science credit, but I got so much more than that from this trip. Earning the lab credit involved snorkeling, hula-hoops and three very long hours observing ants but, luckily for me, it did not involve actually going in a lab, just a small conference room and only for an hour. This was very pleasing to me, as was the large amount of time that we were able to devote to leisure reading. Most of us were usually reading, especially during our long bus rides, days spent lying on various beaches, and the weeks without internet. I have finished six books, Jared has read five, and Dick has completed an impressive eight books this semester. I can say with confidence that none of us will be able repeat that during our senior year when our work load will pick up quite a bit.

We may have increased our chances of getting skin cancer later in life but we have also greatly expanded our minds. We know about the various ways in which Australia’s endemic flora and fauna have adapted to the harsh climate, just as we have learned to adapt to the expensive and slow internet; Australia is a tough place. We have written essays on the similarities and differences between the Australian and American political systems. We can now name four past and present Prime Ministers of Australia, which is exactly four more than we were able to name before we arrived in Australia. This intensive area study of Australia has also exposed to us the knowledge gaps that we have about our own country. We know more about Australian Aboriginals than most Australians, but most of us know shockingly little about Native Americans. By the end of the trip we learned so much about Australia that we were able to semi-effectively play the Australian version of Trivial Pursuit. See if you can answer this Science & Nature question: What is a euro?

Adequately expressing all of my feelings about Australia, especially while I am still in Australia, is something that is not easy for me. We have traveled to many places in Australia yet we have not seen very much of it. It would take much more than a semester to see all of the things worthy of being seen and appreciated in Australia, but I have seen more than enough to be able to say that I love Australia. It is a great country, and not just because it is full of beer-guzzling, politically incorrect and beautifully bronzed people. I hope that I am able to come back to Australia soon and return many more times during my life. Although we are not Australian, it still seems most appropriate to leave you with the some lines of poetry written in 1908 by the Australian poet Dorothea Mackellar titled ‘My Country’. Australia is not my country but I love it as if it were and this verse quite accurately sums of many of the things we have experienced and will miss about Australia.

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

-Kathryn

Answers:

The Prime Ministers that we can name are (in no particular order) Julia Gillard, John Howard, Gough Whitlam and Kevin Rudd.

A euro is a type of Wallaby.