Well, this is my crap-filled 3000 word essay on the Australian trip.. Which actually turned out to be 3407 words (:
Leaving my parents to go on this trip was not hard for me, as this was my fourth trip going abroad without my parents. I could not understand the tears and promises of frequent calls so I just mindlessly daydreamed while waiting for everyone to assemble. When we were allowed to leave and grab a bite with our families before checking in, my parents kept asking me if I felt excited but I guess the reality of it the trip and all just had not sunk in.
On the plane, we were advised to sleep at least a couple of hours so that we would not be too tired when we arrived in Melbourne. However, we were going to Australia via Singapore Airlines! How could I pass up the chance to use the in-flight computer? After watching one and a half movies, I decided to exercise self control and try to go to sleep. Sad to say, I managed a meager one hour or so of restlessness before waking up wide awake, full of energy to burn.
When we arrived in Melbourne that day and drove along the Great Ocean Drive, I really thanked my lucky stars that I had not left my camera at home by accident as the view was too beautiful for words. The huge rocks looked both beautiful and deadly. I have no doubt that if a wayward ship accidentally crashed into the rocks, it would definitely capsize. Even though the rain arrived, it did not dampen our spirits. In fact, it made our day more beautiful, as we caught sight of a couple of rainbows. Everyone whipped out their cameras and began busily snapping away.
We entered this quaint town for lunch where seagulls dominated the land. They ate, flew and even excreted everywhere. Being so close to wildlife all the time was refreshing, yet I missed the cleanliness of Singapore. Also, the food sold was expensive to the point of being extravagant, especially for students like us, who seldom spend more than five Singaporean dollars for a meal. I took a walk around the place and admired the scenic shores that these lucky Australians had, that were practically at their backyards.
Arriving at the hotel we were supposed to be staying in for 2 days of our trip, I felt that it looked dismal compared to the 4 star hotels I was more accustomed to when travelling. However, entering the room that I was sharing with Sabrina, my roommate, the room had a saving grace, some sunshine after the rain. It contained a queen sized bed and a single bed! Sabrina took the single first so I happily took the queen sized bed. In all the time that I have travelled, I have never had my own bed before, thus my happiness.
We went to Gosh Café and experienced the friendliness that the shopkeepers doled out in generous helpings. The man who served Xiao Xuan and I gave us free Papadom when we wanted to order some. This generosity might be something that Australians are accustomed to, but we were pleasantly surprised as it is extremely unusual to see such behavior in ‘kiasu’ Singapore.
Taking a stroll after our filling dinner allowed us to see some of the sights in Melbourne. We visited a Hard Rock Café. It was very cool and vintage. The vinyl records lining the walls added a nostalgic feeling to the whole experience. There were posters and records from classics such as Queen and Elvis, The King of Rock. In the Hard Rock Café’s café, a live band was playing covers of several groups like Maroon 5. The music sounded surprisingly good but the singing that accompanied it, which was belted out by other members of my group was mediocre, sad to say. After the overwhelming experience for me, a music junkie, we made our way back to the hotel.
That night, I suffered from mild food poisoning. I have never had food poisoning before and I did not know how to handle it so I just tried to ignore the pain and go to sleep. In the end, it hurt a lot and I inconvenienced the teachers and the receptionist that night by waking the teachers up and vomiting near the counter. After that experience, I truly felt thankful and apologetic towards all of them. I learnt to appreciate the people who are always there to protect and take care of me.
On the next day, we departed the hotel for Melbourne High. The weather was chilly and I definitely did not miss Singapore and its clammy weather. Along the way to Melbourne High, we passed many billboards and advertisements. I really liked some of the creative taglines that the advertisers came up with. I also spotted a group of tents. Perhaps it was a circus visiting Melbourne. When we approached Melbourne High, I was awed by the lovely school infrastructure which looked much older than the buildings surrounding the school.
Wen Qiang, Chuan Kai, Xiao Xuan and I were assigned Ben as our group leader. He truly was a nice person and tried his best to make us feel at home in the foreign environment. Perhaps it was due to a cultural difference, but Ben was a lot more gentlemanly than the other males that I know back home. Ben brought us around the school and told us about the aesthetic groups, the teachers, the subjects, school hours and many other pieces of trivia.
I love the way the students are given the rein of the school, being able to create their own clubs and groups, if they feel that one such group is lacking in the school. The students are given outlets for their creativity and everything is accepted, as everyone is given a freedom of speech and expression. Such freedom is especially lacking in Singapore, where everything must go by the book and creativity is given less space to be developed.
We visited several of Ben’s classes: His Mathematics class was very quiet and everyone was extremely focused. The Mathematics teacher was friendly and told us that he used to work in Singapore so we chatted a bit about Singapore with him while the rest of the class was working on a sum that he had given them. We attended a Chemistry lesson. I have heard that their laboratories are state-of-the-art, but they looked pretty ordinary to me. Because I take Chemistry too, I could roughly catch what the teachers and students were saying, but they were learning everything that I knew more in depth.
He brought us to his Indonesian class. All students in Melbourne High have to take a second language, and his was Indonesian. The other choices are German, Japanese and some others. The class was small, cozy and very friendly. The female teacher was petite and knew Mandarin. She talked to us in Mandarin and spoke to the class in a mix of English and Indonesian. I saw that the students in the class were from many different countries and knew languages like Korean, Russian and a little bit of Mandarin. The relationship between the teacher and students was relaxed and I enjoyed listening to their easy banter. This comfort is rare among teachers and students in Singapore.
We also attended a Japanese lesson out of interest. The class was a lot less animated and vibrant as compared to the Indonesian class. The number was also more than twice that of the Indonesian class. The class was pretty monotonous and I got bored quickly. Luckily, we left that class and went for lunch.
Everyone assembled in a small area with chairs and tables and waited for our Subway lunch. This was a great time for us to bond. We made new friends with the other Melbourne boys and Eugene talked to us about Singapore, which he visited last year with the Melbourne High Chorale.
We walked around the school after our extremely filling lunch and saw that the students rushed for their next lesson every time the school bell rang. Also, their study load is a lot lighter than ours. They have 5 or 6 subjects while we have a staggering 9 subjects.
We visited the school library too. The students were given privileges such as free usage of the computers. There were many students taking the chance to use their free periods to cram in as much study as possible. The school really reminded me of Harry Potter, with the old buildings and all. We visited Ben’s locker and while he was rummaging through it to find his books, I glanced around, through the glass at other classes and was pleasantly surprised when some boys looked out of the door and waved cheerily to me.
After awhile, we went back to the hall where some other groups already were. The boys taught us how to play a game and even engaged some of us to play the game with them. Mark went to the piano and decided to play a couple of pieces for us to listen and sing along to. His piano playing was really beautiful and I even recognized a few of the pieces and sang along. His sense of humor shone through as he played some childhood songs and Chinese television serial theme songs. Some of the guys went to sit by Mark and they sang a few of the pop and choral songs that Mark was playing with such gusto. I wish that the members in our school choir could show such unbridled enthusiasm towards singing and choir.
After our visit to Melbourne High, we made our way to the Koala Conservation Centre in Philip Island. Some of us did not follow the time limit given to go to the toilet and so, we were punished. However, the punishment of being treated like little kindergarten kids and being made to hold hands with our partners did not dampen my mood, as we got close to the adorable sleepy koalas. The little information boards on the boardwalk were very helpful and helped me to find out some interesting information and the boardwalk was pretty high so that we could observe the koalas at ease, without disturbing them. Along the way, I also spotted a really cute joey.
We next visited the Philip Island Penguin Parade. Queuing up for the gates to be opened did not make me impatient, in fact, it made the wait more suspenseful and made it more worthwhile. I also used this time to catch up with a few old friends from my old class, 2e7. I sat beside Ms Fang during the Penguin Parade and even though I take History and not Geography now, she told me about the waves and the penguins and all. I really enjoyed spending the time watching the adorable penguins stumble back and forth and making their mating calls. I have never seen such tiny penguins before and I feel that it is such a pity that cameras are banned.
That night, after dinner, we took a bus ride home and had reflections. I feel that all the points raised were very relevant. However, the absence of active participation from the boys was obvious and left a gaping hole. After some lecturing by the teachers, we went for some late night shopping. Sadly, the supermarket was closed and so the only place that was still open for us to do our shopping was 7 Eleven. I was pretty appalled at the prices at a convenience store but thankfully, there were also a bunch of bargains.
The next day, on Thursday, we left Melbourne for Canberra. Everyone was tired out and so, when I woke up halfway through the bus ride, I saw that practically everyone was sleeping in the bus. It was also the first time I saw such a misty place. I looked out the window and saw that the bus was shrouded in mist. Later on, when I next woke up, I saw many cows, sheep, lamb and horses. It was the only time I have ever seen cows, outside of the Singapore Zoological Gardens.
We arrived in Birrigai, near the great outback of Australia. The weather was cold and the strong wind really made it a lot worse. Even though I wore many layers of clothes, the cold wind cut through the layers and made me shiver. It felt good. I could never feel this way in sunny Singapore.
That night, after dinner, we watched an Aboriginal movie. It had many learning points and even though I was tired and was half asleep through some of it, I still felt sad at the ending of the movie. The two sisters and one cousin really fought hard to return to their mothers and to escape capture. I could see the inequality between Aboriginals and the whites, who thought that they were superior and could force the Aboriginals to give up their children and their pasts.
The white authorities targeted half caste children whose minds were supposedly impressionable and could be taught to follow the ‘way of the whites’. What they did not understand was that the bonds between a child and his or her parents can never be broken. A child cannot cancel his or her past, even if they forget it. Their past is as permanent as a birthmark, it follows them from start to end, whether they like it or not.
The movie told me a sad story of family ties, friendship, trust, unfairness and many other sad things. I wish that I could watch the movie again when I have all my wits about me, and when I am wide awake.
That night, I was trying to sleep in my dorm, but the heater did not work. The dorm was freezing cold and I was having great difficulty getting to sleep even though we were provided with thick blankets. The heater switched itself off every 2 minutes or so and some of us kept getting out of bed just to switch the heater on again. On the whole, it was a tiring and restless and extremely cold night for me.
The next morning, we had our breakfast, and then got ready to go to the outback. I did not take note of our guide’s name but he seemed like a nice person. He led us up a hill or two. The slopes were so steep that I nearly fell down a couple of times. I saw a spectacular hill where huge rocks crowned its peak. At one point of the short trek, we had to climb through a small opening in a tiny cave.
For the taller people, we were all wishing out loud that we were shorter. I had to go on my knees to crawl through and accidentally hit my head on the top of the rock cave. The flora along the way was plentiful and beautiful. I saw a really pretty plant which had heart shaped leaves and the tiniest purple flowers. I wish that we were given some time to stop and take photos along this pristine route which was nearly untouched by humans.
I saw many emus and kangaroos along the way, and got a chance to snap a photo or two of them. We also saw cows, with a backdrop of mountains. The scene was like one out of a fresh milk advertisement.
We visited some information centre in the middle of the wilderness (but somehow, the place had parking lots) and heard a demonstration by an Aboriginal man with an instrument that somehow makes females get pregnant, so no females can play it. We shopped briefly at the souvenir store before leaving for Birrigai.
I changed into my school uniform and we all left for the Australia War Memorial. We were shown a simulation, which was realistic and also told about many interesting facts about the war and the people involved in the war. I was quite amazed that the original planes were used in the exhibits. The videos shown also gave me an insight on what happened during the war.
We also visited the National Museum of Australia. The mediums used made a seemingly boring subject become an interesting and wondrous subject. The story about the town plan is really ironic, that an American came up with the town plan for Australia’s capital. After the show on the town plan, I could see why each building was placed in its particular location. It was truly a fruitful visit.
The next morning, we left for the Snowy Hydro Visitors’ Centre. The videos shown to us, though a little boring, were very informative and interesting. We visited the second Snowy Hydro Visitors’ Centre and had to do this worksheet. I think that the exhibits were very innovative in the way that they showed the information. They made the experience quite enjoyable and fun, though the clamor for answers was a little tiring. The second video we were shown was chock full of pretty photos and my eyes hurt from not blinking, so that I would not miss one. Sadly though, we were not even given a glimpse of snow, whether slushy or powdery.
That night, we went to Sydney and stayed in a hostel. It was the first time I have ever stayed in a hostel and the experience was refreshing. I expected it to be situated in a dingy and dark room with tiny beds and with cockroaches and rodents creeping around. Instead, the hostel was well-lit, clean and filled with facilities that might not be available even in some hotels.
Before leaving for dinner, we were given time to settle in and perhaps take a shower. I visited the second level toilets with Xiao Xuan, Yan Ting and Camillie. We all showered and while showering, started singing choir songs as we were all from choir and we also missed choir. When Yan Ting and I were done with our showers, we realized that there was a woman in the toilet, listening to our singing! She complimented us and was very friendly. I LOVE this informality! I just wish that Singaporeans were as friendly.
We went for dinner at a restaurant selling Singaporean, Thai and Malaysian food. The room was filled with squeals of delight as bowls of rice were given out. I did not feel the same as my table-mates as I like both Western and Asian food. My table was filled with laughter as Zhan Wei and Mr. Halim set about telling jokes and lifting our spirits. The food was good and I enjoyed the meal. The toilets in that restaurant were high-tech and very pleasant to use. We took a couple of pictures with the waiter and waitress who served us for memories.
After dinner, we went for a walk around the shops. The environment was not very family-friendly but it was interesting and unlike anything I was accustomed to. After visiting a few shops, we went on a tram. The tram gave us a tour of Sydney. The view was great but sadly, we did not receive a commentary on the places, as some other carriages did.
I had a nice sleep in the bunk beds that night. The next morning, on our last day in Australia, we visited the Sydney Harbor and Sydney Opera House. Both were majestic and I had a great time taking hurried photos. The shopping experience late on in the airport in Australia was really fun as the choices were far wider than any of the shops that we had visited so far.
On the flight back, I enjoyed taking pictures from the window as it was light. On the flight into Australia, the sky was too dark for me to actually see anything. From the sky, I noticed the rivers and land reclamation and the houses that looked minute. Returning to Singapore made me appreciate the weather in Australia. I had already started to sweat in the plane before we landed.
Two of my good friends, Tiffany and Corrina, had come to the airport to see me when I arrived in Singapore. We had a noisy reunion and I immediately began to talk about the trip. The memories were overwhelming and I already started to miss Australia. I took a bus back with my family and reminisced about the memorable, fun and fruitful trip…
I LOVE AUSSIE *sighs*
