Campus Life @ Macquarie
I finally got around today to doing something I've been meaning to do for a while: take a walk around this beautiful campus and take pictures of everything in sight. The weather's been lousy recently (yesterday, according to my roommate, was the coldest November day Sydney has seen in a hundred years) and so, when the sun came out this morning, I figured today was my chance. I'm having trouble with the photo site right now but they should all be up soon.
I'm not sure if I've emphasized the differences between Australian and American campus life on the show yet so here goes. First of all, I noticed early on that Australians go abroad to the US for the exact opposite reason Americans come down here. Well, maybe not precisely the opposite but the campus experiences aren't very similar and I figure the differences must play a role in our decisions to study abroad. Australians don't generally live on campus, which I think is a shame because this makes even a university as large and as comprehensive as Macquarie feel like a commuter's school. Whereas life at Rutgers is centralized in New Brunswick, this isn't the case here. There is no Greek life in Australia and house parties are hard to come by. Especially here where the university is located in a quiet suburb, there are a handful of places in the city where I'll spot groups of Mac Uni students because there isn't much going on in North Ryde after the mall closes at 2 in the afternoon.
I was exaggerating about that last point but it's not far from the truth. Good luck finding a place to grab dinner within walking distance of the uni since about the only places in the Mac Centre open later than 5:30 are a couple of Chinese places and maybe Hungry Jack's. While this might be a problem during the week, it adds an air of excitement to the weekends as the internationals clear out to head into Sydney. It also adds to the social scene in the different housing complexes as apartment parties are common and wild Wednesday nights at The Ranch. While it took some added effort to make Aussie friends in the beginning, I haven't been disappointed in that area in the least.
Australians, on the other hand, have a hard time here relating to the dorm life. The concept of going away to school (and paying through the nose for it) is foreign here and, despite the fact few Aussies live at the uni, most don't live far from it. I learned that since internationals are hardly a novelty around here, your best bet is to make Australian friends in class. Most come to campus to go to class and then head home or off to work. One thing I have in common with Aussies is the enormous interest here in studying abroad. Something like a third of Macquarie's students are international and it is more common than not for Australians to set aside a block of time to travel overseas. Most go to Europe, especially England, and I've found a lot that go to the American west coast. Seeking the "typical" American college experience they see in the movies, the party schools are popular as well as any other that might offer a living environment similar to the one in Australia. When I hear this, however, I tell the Aussies to snap out of it and try living on the east coast of the United States. There's nothing like a big east coast school and yes, my part of the country may be cold and chaotic, but I try to convince Aussies that if you're going to cross the Pacific, you might as well experiment with a different lifestyle. I'm beyond fascinated also by the people I meet who have never stepped foot in the US and, when they ask me where their first stop in the US should be after a west coast layover, you know what I tell them.
Two weeks left in Australia and counting down...
P.S. I was wrong about Borat. It's open here already... guess where I'll be tomorrow night!
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