First Day of Class

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

                Today I had internship focus class from 9-10am. My wine class then starts at 10:15am and goes till 4:45pm with a lunch break from 1-2pm. It’s definitely a long day of class.  It’s about an hour bus ride up into North Sydney where I have class. To get there by 9 I left my place at about 7:40. Which I thought was leaving extra early just in case I didn’t get on the first bus.  However even with getting on the first bus, I got there at 8:45.  I wouldn’t want to get there much later in the future so it seems about 7:45 is when I’ll be leaving every Wednesday morning for class.  The internship focus class is taught by a professor at ACU.  She is nice and we just talked about leadership for the hour.  She gave us a packet talking about a theory of positive leadership and said we should be taking notes during class.  Which is easy enough but during class she proceeded to tell us what exactly to write down. 

                At 10:15 I met my wine professor.  He is also very nice, he has received two phds, one in microbiology and the second in education.  He is currently a professor at one of the sites of the university of western Sydney.  He told a funny story about a while back he had the opportunity to speak at MIT.  Preceding his seminar students came up to talk to him about the harbor bridge.  He explained that the students were amazed at the bridge that it must be so cool having a bridge that stretched across to New Zealand.  My professor decided to go along with the students and went on to say that yes it is very cool but it’s a three day drive across it to New Zealand.  I got a laugh out of that. For class I’ll have assessments every week on the previous week’s topics.  I will also have one reflective paper and a debate that also contribute to my grade.  Their grading system is a little different than ours.

Australian Uni	Approx Aus %	US Uni
7 = High Distinction H	85-100	A
6 = Distinction D	80-84 75-79	A A-
5 = Credit C	71-74 68-70 65-67	B+ B B-
4 = Pass P	60-64 55-59 50-54	C+ C C-
3 = Conceded Pass R	45-49	D
2 = Fail X & 1 = Fail Z	0-44	F

                Today we started off the first session with him talking about himself and the history of wine.   After lunch in session two we learned more specifically about Australian wine.  It was interesting because we started off learning about the history of Australia and how 11 boats of convicts were the first to land on Australia.  During the afternoon session we also got to have our first glass of wine.  The professor brought a 4 liter box of Chardonnay.  It was good and I enjoyed my glass.  I learned to always hold the glass by the stem and that Chardonnay has the taste of melon, buttery, and full. I was told this because I myself had no clue there was cantaloupe in it.  The box of it was plenty for the 17 people in my class.  The box equals out to be just a little more than 5 bottles of wine.   Much of the class was spent with my professor going off topic and talking about other things.  I learned that California makes up to 90% of our wine industry and that Oregon in the state that follows. In 1976 we won worlds wine tasting for both red and white wine.  We are also 5^th in world of the production in wine; however we are 36^th in consumption.  Australia is 19^th in consumption – they consume about 10 L of wine per head per year.  Italy and France consume about 60 L of wine per head per year. 

                The building we are in is a small building up on the second floor.  It’s a long table with water and glasses and lots of mentos mints in bowls for everyone.  We also have tea and coffee to drink all throughout class.  I probably drank four cups of tea, which I loaded with sugar.  We also had some biscuits which were nut free, egg free, and seed free.  They tasted fine when I dipped them in my tea.  Along with my class I get a day tour of the Hunter Valley.  It’s about 2.5 hours out and during the day we’ll visit about 4 or 5 different vineyards.  The professor says it usually works with him calling up different people he knows there and the best deals he can get.  He says he usually gets us in and we get a less touristy visit.  Yet he did say he expected us by then to ask intellectual question.  I have to miss the Monday we go on it however which creates a conflict.  Yet the way the school seemed it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a problem.  I’ve realized that Australia in general is very laid back.  No one is ever really in a hurry.  People like to enjoy their time and their tea.  Which is fine with me, just very different compared to the states.  I’ve always felt that while at work doing a job that you do a good job of it while also getting it done within a time frame.  Yet here people like to take breaks, enjoy talking among each other, and often get off topic.   However with saying that laid back doesn’t mean lazy, it is apparent that things are done well and thorough.

                I came home straight from class and got a quick snack and then decided to go for a run.  Class actually got out half an hour early so that was nice.  Sitting in the same class all day definitely is tiring.  I left for my run at 5:15pm. I ran down the street to cross the highway on the bridge to run around the park just next door.  As soon as I started my run I realized how dark it actually was outside.  I ran two laps around Moore Park.  In doing that meant I didn’t have to cross any streets, which is great for me because I am still having a hard time remembering to look right first then left.  You would think it would be easy but it is not! Not to mention cars don’t stop at all for you.  But running along the path in the park was scary at first. With palm trees on both sides of the path it blocks any kind of light so it felt even darker running through the trees.  Many people were riding their bikes home from work along the path.  Like much of many other cities a lot of people get around via biking.  They even have bike lanes along the highway.   I ran for a little under 40 minutes.  I was just happy to get out and done some kind of work out for the past two days.  I came home and made a pizza.  I threw mushrooms, peppers, spinach, and cheese on top of it.  It was good, but working the oven was a challenge.  Of course it’s in Celsius, but I’ve gotten fairly good at converting.   And then I don’t know what any of the icon mean.  I placed the pizza close to the top, yet after maybe five minutes I look at it and see that the cheese is almost all black.  I didn’t realize that the heat comes from the top of the oven compared to the bottom in my oven at school.  Oh well it still tasted good.

                I’ve been watching state of the origin all night.  I had no clue what it was besides that it’s huge. After watching I’ve realized that its New South Whales vs Queensland in rugby.  It’s been entertaining to watch to say the least.  There have been a couple fights but it’s still interesting to watch and I’m trying to get a better understanding of the game still.  As for tomorrow - it’s my first day at the school.  I start at 8:30am and I have to leave my place around 7am so it’s going to be an early morning for the next two days.  Commuting definitely drains me; I’m not looking forward to it. 

Fun things –

-Australia has these things called sorry days (also called national day of healing) where they acknowledge the original owners of the country because of a strained relationship with the aborigines. 

-it’s popular to have concerts in the hunter valley

-aussie spelling differences: harbour, colour, honour, organisation (which my computer tried auto correcting them all)

-Australia’s top 3 exports: wine, wool, and wheat

-they call a university a uni for short