New South Wales!

View from the Top!!

Last weekend we went for a trip to Gloucester which is a small town located in New South Wales. Gloucester is home to a grand total of 2,600 residents including my roommate Tamara and her family. Excited to see the town and meet everyone Tamara had told us about (she literally knew everyone) we headed off early Friday morning and drove all afternoon on the Pacific Highway. The trip took about nine hours each way, and the scenery was amazing. On the way we passed Byron Bay again and saw the Big Banana just before a beautiful sunset. 
 
  
After we finally arrived, we went to Morograni lookout, a place that overlooks the entire town of Gloucester. It was already dark outside when we got to the lookout and all you could see were the streetlights and houses in the distance. There were no other lights for miles and we could see so many stars. I don't think I have ever seen so many at one time!  The next two days we spent exploring the town and the Gloucester Show (an annual event) was also occurring. The show was a highlight for all of the residents and everyone was excited to go. It reminded me a lot of a fair back home, except the cotton candy here is called "fairy floss"! Some of the highlights of the show were the cattle and horse parade, antique cars, holding a bull, the smashup derby, and of course fireworks. There was also a beautiful flower show and craft fair.
 
 
We had a great time at the show and seeing the town. By the time Monday morning came we were ready to head back to the Gold Coast and get settled again for school. Tuesday and Wednesday flew by and reality definitely set in with our classes. This upcoming week is the last week of school before the mid semester break, and I have quite a few things to get done before the end of the week. For now I am looking forward to Friday, we will be traveling to Melbourne (pronounced Mel-Bin) just in time for the Rip Curl Pro surfing competition and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. I am so excited for the is trip, I have a feeling that Melbourne will be my favorite city in Australia and I think we are going to have a blast! I will keep everyone posted after the trip! Happy Easter everyone and I will update again soon!

Corn Dogs and French Fries

Some of the Horses in the Parade

Ice Cream Truck

The Luck of the Irish...

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! I just returned from my first trip to Brisbane. The city is located about an hour north of Ashmore, and is accessible by train and bus. This trip was more of a chance to explore the transportation and see how to get there and what the area was like. Now that we know how to get there and around, future trips will be better planned! I am looking forward to returning to Brisbane, as we only got to spend the afternoon this time.
 

I enjoyed the city's architecture -a mix of old and modern contemporary buildings. There was a beautiful memorial in the center of the city as well as statues all throughout the city. They also have beautiful Cathedrals and clock towers.


During our trip we were dropped off at Central Station and walked to the Queen Street Mall, which is very large and partially outdoors. There are several shops and cafes along the streets and everyone was very festive sporting traditional Irish colors, despite the rain. We grabbed lunch from a cafe called The Coffee Club on the corner of Adelaide Terrace.


Our transportation was a disaster -so for anyone else planning to venture to Brisbane, make sure to pay close attention! First, we missed our local bus which would have taken us to the Nerang Train station. We were on the wrong side of the road, and the bus came on the opposite side and left before we could cross. Because it was Saturday, and a holiday, the bus only ran once every two hours. So we decided to take a cab to the train station instead, and hop on the train to Brisbane from there. We arrived at the train station just in time to catch the ten a.m. train, only we had to grab a ticket to get on. We ended up missing the train waiting in line for the ticket, only to find out that with our go cards (the prepaid card that we use to get on the bus for school) we didn't need a ticket! So we went on the next train a half hour later and arrived at a town close to Brisbane where jumped on a bus to Central Station. On the way home from Brisbane, we took the train again and got stuck in the pouring rain! I guess the tracks were too wet and we had to find an alternate route. When we started moving again (an hour later) we headed back to Nerang Train Station where we had to call a cab because we had missed the last local bus to take us back home. This would have been okay on a normal day but because there was a huge Rugby Game and it was St. Patty's Day we were having a hard time calling a cab. It took over an hour to catch one, but finally -after three hours we were home sweet home!




Overall, even with the unexpected setbacks, I had an amazing day and I would do it again in a heartbeat! There are so many things to do in Brisbane, in the future I would like to go to the Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin's Zoo) the Cultural Center, Queensland Museum, the Botanical Gardens, Chinatown, the West End, and do a hop on / hop off river tour to see more of the city. Here are some photos of our day downtown hopefully I will be able to add more soon!

Back to School!

Tomorrow begins my third week at Uni. So far I have managed to find all of my buildings and classes as well as attend all of my lectures and "tutorials". The campus is fairly large and partially under construction with a new health building on the way. There are several stores and cafes on campus and it is a very friendly and enjoyable place to be. I like seeing the diversity on the Griffith campus because all different majors are present as well as many international students. I have met so many cool people! We also went to a kickoff "back to school" party at the UniBar on campus, which was a great way to meet up with everyone after classes were over this week. 

Back to School Party!

I am able to take classes here at Griffith University while earning credit toward my BS Degree in Event Management at my home university, University of Central Florida. This study abroad experience will help me to see how other schools view the hospitality and tourism industry, while exploring other course topics that are not available at UCF. I am currently enrolled in four subjects: Special Interest Tourism, Sponsorship and Marketing, Tourism Operations, and International Food and Beverage Management. 

My schedule for classes is Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesdays I have a lecture first thing in the morning at eight a.m. followed by another lecture. Each of the lectures are 1 hour and 50 minutes in duration. Then I have a two hour break and two tutorials. Each of the tutorials are fifty minutes long. Tutorials are designed to break down the large lecture into smaller groups of students. So far in the tutorials, we have gotten one on one time with the instructor or “convener” as they call them here, and a chance to get to know some of the other students. It seems like tutorials will be a place to ask further questions about what was discussed earlier in the lectures and a chance to clarify the material. On Wednesdays I have a “workshop” for Tourism Operations for two hours and fifty minutes that is very interactive followed by a tutorial and lecture for Sponsorship and Marketing. 

Business Building

Lecture Hall

So far, the course work seems relatively the same; however I have noticed that articles and publications are much more popular than text books for reading. We are expected to read each week according to the topics that the professor posts online and to think about what the article is stating. Sometimes we have to answer questions or post to the group discussion board online. During tutorials or “tutes”, we usually talk about the article, personal experiences, and answer questions. In contrast to UCF, there is only one mid semester exam, and one final exam, which accounts for a large percentage of the overall grade. Special Interest Tourism also has quizzes every week until the mid-semester exam, and International Food and Beverage Management has presentations every week during the tutorials. Groups have already been assigned and topics of discussion which will change every week. Each group will be expected to talk about their assigned topic and present the information to the class. We also have projects which will account for a large percentage of our grade in every class except Sponsorship and Marketing. These projects will be in groups of three to four and there will be a presentation at the end of the semester. In sponsorship and marketing, instead of presenting, we will have to create an actual sales and marketing plan for an event, I chose the Gold Coast Career Expo. I am really looking forward to this class because it will help me to understand what investors see in events and will help my to understand why sponsors want to contribute to an event and what will increase sponsorship and return on investment.  

One of the Classrooms

 

I have also discovered in my two weeks so far that my professors do not like to be called professor, instead they go by Dr. and Last name if they are a doctor, otherwise just their first name is used, which seems strange to me. I have a professor from China, Australia, England, and the US (quite a variety). The sizes of my classes range from 30 (Special Interest tourism) to 250 (Sponsorship and Marketing) I have also noticed that during lectures and tutorials there is no attendance policy, as there are “lecture captures” afterwards which is a recording of the lecture that is posted online afterwards. This is great in case you are not able to make it to the lecture; however a lot of students think that they don’t have to go to class at all. It will be nice to review the lectures one more time if necessary before the bug exams.

Until next time! Cheers! 

After Class at UniBar