Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk - Independent Study

While traveling in Chicago and other states in the United States and in England, I have climbed many tall buildings and bridges. So when I was at home looking up interesting and fun things to do on my free days in Sydney, climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge kept coming up. Do to all the rain that was constantly falling I did not want to climb to the top of the bridge, but I was fortunate enough to walk over the bridge and see some more amazing views of the city. The slight rain did not affect the way in which I walked over the bridge and walked as slow as I pleased. I felt as though I was walking through a secure prison because of all the barbed wire and tall fences that kept the walkers/joggers on the path that was provided for them. Having all the fencing and barbed wire made complete sense to me, they do not want people jumping or distracting the traffic flow of the cars traveling across the bridge. While walking there were security guards keeping an eye on all the people traveling by foot and I was wondering why there were so many security guards with all the twenty-four hour video recordings. The one security guard proceeded to tell me that citizens were walking across the bridge in honour of Sorry Day, the holiday in which people recognize the indigenous people who were taken away. It was a pleasure to see the many people walking and honouring those that they were related to. I found it extremely interesting that the people walking were all carrying different coloured feet. These feet represented a different aboriginal person that would be making the walk across the bridge to the other side. I was very grateful to see this parade of people and experienced the bridge walk that I had been looking forward to. It was great to see Sydney in a whole new light, from the other side of the water; everywhere I have gone to whilst here as been on the same side as the Sydney Opera House or by ferry, but I was not able to see the city skyline from this perspective so it was cool to see it this way.

Public Transportation/People/Shopping/Eating/Entertainment

Everywhere we have gone we have taken some sort of transportation open to the public. Trains, bus, and ferry are the main ways of transportation that we have used while on this trip. I found it easier to use the bus systems here because we could ask the bus driver were he stopped if we were not sure. Most of the bus drivers were very helpful in these situations; many Australian citizens were also helpful in reminding me and others if we needed to get off at a stop. This was very generous of the Australian citizens and made it easier for me to transport myself from one part of Sydney to another. I found that the tube system in England was a lot easier to use when it came to getting from place to place but when it comes to the train systems in Australia they are a little more difficult because there are so many different lines to pick up from one station. Whereas in England, there is one station and it goes in two directions and that is it; there is never any issue when trying to find your way somewhere. Most of the people throughout the places I have been in Australia have been nice and helpful, while others have been rude and angry looking at times. Many people on the streets who bump into you will not say sorry or acknowledge that they hit you, but whenever I run into someone I right away say sorry and apologize for hitting them. Personally I do not think that people care when they run into someone on the street, but I think this is true in any large city you go to, like Chicago for example. Ferries were a new form of transportation for me to use, there is not a large demand for this form of transportation in the Chicago land or Peoria area. It was so great to see all the different views of Sydney from the ferries that we took to many different locations. It was also cool to see the different islands that could only be visited by some form of water vehicle.

Workers at many of the non-souvenir shops were also very helpful when trying to find out information about the items in the store or places to go in town. For example, one of the workers at Rebel Sports (sports store in Australia) was very helpful when I was asking him many questions the differences in rugby and the two different leagues that are in Australia. It was great to find out all this information from someone who knows a lot about the subject and what games were more important over others. One game that I watched and purchased a t-shirt for was the ‘State of Origin’ game which takes place between players from New South Wales and Queensland; it reminded me of an NHL All-Star game because all the players are the best for their area. I found this type of sporting event to be very interesting because I was able to learn a lot from the local people and the television communication people. I knew nothing about rugby or how the sport was played but now I know more about why this sport is so large in this country and why this particular game is a huge deal.

One part of traveling that I find to be fun is the shopping for gifts and souvenirs for everyone back home. It is completely different to see what is considered native to a country and what they considered to be a great gift idea to take back home. At every shop I have gone into there are boomerangs, kangaroos, and UGGs, but these are not the type of gifts I want to bring back home. I can find UGGs at just about any shoe store in the United States; I cannot however find the one gift I get myself in every town and country that I travel to, a Starbucks mug with the town and country name on it. I do not drink coffee but believe that these mugs are so cute and make a great collection of where I have been in recent years. The shopping centres that I have found to be the most entertaining are the ones in old building that have been converted from something different. The Queen Victoria Building looks so small from the outside with all the tall business building surrounding it, but once inside I felt small in comparison to what was around me.

Most of the foods that I have eaten while here has been food that can be found back in the United States, but I believe that I stick to these foods out of fear I will not like something new that I try. Every time I eat at The Cheesecake Factory restaurant I order the same main meal and piece of cheesecake because every time I have changed and ordered something new I have regretted it. I do like one location in particular a lot more than any other place, I have eaten here twice, Pancakes on the Rocks located at Darling Harbour has wonderful pancakes. I have a sweet tooth for pancakes and try to make them as much as possible when I am home.

Entertainment is one element of my life that I try to fill in with most of my time. I go to many sporting events when I am home, mainly hockey games, but try to catch some other Bradley University sponsored sports when I can. Coming to Sydney I was hoping to go and see and experience a new sport in a new way. I have accomplished this goal by attending a rugby game and I am planning to attend another rugby game this Friday night. I am not sure what exactly the rules were while the players were playing, but they had a passion for the sport just like I have for hockey. It was great to be in the atmosphere that allowed for so much individuality and coming together of many different people. I also enjoyed the lighting of the Sydney Opera House, this is something that I was not expecting to see and was happy to attend this event and learn from so locates that it only started two years ago.

Australia Museum

Walking into this museum reminded me of the Field Museum in Chicago, because the first item I saw hanging above my head was a skeleton of a whale. Dinosaurs and other skeleton types were all over the museum which was interesting to compare to what I had learned as a young student back home. Getting the small guided tour of the indigenous aboriginal people was wonderful and provided me with even more information that I would not have gotten otherwise. It was even better that the guide was of aboriginal decent and had a passion for what she was telling us; she was able to provide information that was not printed on any of the tabs describing the artifacts. I was not totally aware of that the aboriginal people were not considered citizens until 1967, this appalled me because they were here [in Australia] way before the European citizens who came. This museum seemed to provide a lot more information about the spirituality of the aboriginal people as a whole, where many of the other museums we have visited focused more on the aboriginal people as a group and what was taken and given back to them. The dream paintings, which reminded me of dream catchers, seemed to tell a story and were told from many different perspectives, but came from the same person. The rainbow serpent connected the dreaming tracks of people and was a large part of the culture, which helped to keep record of different events. There was so much artwork that was created by the aboriginal people. My favourite was created by artist Gordon Syrons in 1978, entitled Judgement by his Peers, it depicts the trial of a white man with a completely black courtroom. This was exactly how the aboriginal people were treated when they were on trial for something, except they would have had a completely white courtroom. It was interesting to see the way the artist took to get his point across about how unfair the judgment trial was towards the aboriginal people. But much of the artwork created today is made with a more contemporary setting. This has been debated by many aboriginals about being a good element or bad element to what the aboriginal children are learning about their culture. I found it interesting that some of the elders of the aboriginal community found the more modern paintings offensive, but also saw where they were coming from because they want to keep the tradition of the culture alive. It really stuck me that there were two different laws/lores that the aboriginal people had to abide by; the first law being that of the white people and the second lore being that of the aboriginal people. It was interesting to see how far a lesson could be taken, death could be the outcome.