Katie Kerfoot

Program: University of New South Wales Country: Australia Term Abroad:Summer 2005 Favorite Quote: By the end of the trip, I had done far more than I expected and had a lot to come away with. I have a million stories to tell, close friendships with some of my classmates...

Katie Kerfoot

I had been considering studying abroad in Australia since my sophomore year, so finally, summer before my senior year, the week before I was to take a plane to Darwin, I was unbelievably anxious to leave. I had previously travelled to Western Europe and Central America, and was excited to be going to a part of the world so far away from where I had ever been. My anxiety was not helped by the fact that it would take me over 24 hours from the time I left Ann Arbor to reach Darwin.

I'm not quite sure what my expectations of Australia were, probably vague images of a red, barren land with kangaroos hopping through the background and ranch-style houses, but I was definitely surprised upon arriving. Darwin is a small, coastal city with about 100,000 people. The city is organized into two nodes, a basic downtown leading to the water with office buildings surrounding it, and a residential area about twenty minutes away. This design made it so that most of the locals would disappear after work and come back into town to visit the pubs and beach markets on Friday and Saturday nights.

Another surprise for me was that all of the people in my class were from very different parts of the United States and had been brought up with very different attitudes and lifestyles. Together, we were a perfect cross-section of the sub-cultures within America. This led to many interesting conversations where I was able to hear stories and debates from American perspectives that I had never been exposed to before.

The course, Energy Tomorrow, was structured as an overview of energy technology. We began with a survey of fossil fuels and economic analysis of environmental impact and went on to sustainability, solar energy, wind energy, biomass, storage systems, and the built environment. Each topic was taught by a different lecturer who was familiar with the subject. Classes focussed on the lecturers' presentations and class discussion. The discussions were always interesting and a good change from the structure of most engineering classes at Michigan.

A class excursion to Kakadu National Park was the highlight of my time in Darwin. We spent three days camping in the park, seeing many waterfalls, swimming at many water holes, and taking many pictures of spectacular views. The time in Kakadu matched my expectations of Australia exactly. We were off-roading in a Toyota truck through roads of brick-red dirt, fording rivers, and watching an occasional wallaby in the distance of a sparsely vegetated landscape. In fact, one wallaby ran right into the back of one of the trucks on the drive.

Darwin definitely gave me a window into the culture and perspectives of Australia and the Northern Territory. Most Australians will never visit the Northern Territory, which encourages the attitude locals have that they are ignored by the rest of the country. Ironically, by the end of my tour through Australia, I felt that Darwin fit the expectations of Australian culture most often held by those of us in the United States much more than anywhere else I visited.

Next on my destination list was Sydney. After spending two weeks in Darwin with the adventurous attitude that I must do as many new and exciting things as possible, I was ready for a bigger city. There was a lot of opportunity in Sydney, both with planned activities and individual exploring. I went surfing at Bondi Beach, saw an opera at the Opera House, watched the sharks at the aquarium, the kangaroos and koalas at the zoo, and had a picnic at the botanical gardens. Despite all of these great experiences, my favourite part of Sydney by far was the food. I tried to have a different type of cuisine every night and did a pretty good job of it: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Lebanese, Greek, Syrian, Italian, German, French, Spanish, Ghanaian, Moroccan, Indian, it was all there and all delicious.

The last destination for the program was Cairns, on the Northeast coast of Queensland. Cairns is very popular among tourists, both from within Australia and abroad. Classes were finished by the second day and the rest of the week was open to as many activities as we could squeeze in. My favourite part about Cairns was scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Even though I didn't get a chance to see any sharks while in the water, enough excitement was had by swimming through all of the schools of fish and examining the coral and giant clams up-close. A trip to the Daintree Rainforest comes in very close as my second favourite. Four of us rented a car for the scenic coastal drive. Taking turns driving a manual on the left side of the road was half the fun. I was absolutely amazed by the types of trees we saw at Mossman Gorge in the rainforest. Giant, twisted trunks of brilliant yellows and reds gave way to massive roots running along the side of the trail. This was clearly not a common image associated with Australia.

By the end of the trip, I had done far more than I expected and had a lot to come away with. I have a million stories to tell, close friendships with some of my classmates, and a better understanding of what Australia is. On top of this, I have a refreshed desire to travel all around the world.