I had been feeling this great pressure to do a lot of traveling to really take advantage of my experience in Australia. I'm realizing now that I don't need to see it all to make this experience great.
So I think that I will not worry about traveling to as many places as possible while I'm at ANU (which is totally an awesome university for an international student to study at!). I hope to hit Sydney and Melbourne and I will not be unhappy if I don't have the time or money to travel to other major locations.
The way I see it, I'm getting so much out of just being here, meeting new people, and learning new things in a new setting. I couldn't take full advantage of all the opportunities here at ANU even if I dropped all my classes. I'm getting involved and it's really great. With all that's going on, I'm only worried about focusing on my classes when there are so many other worthwhile ways to spend my time.
I committed to doing the IB run today. We went out shopping this morning for gear and supplies and I got a running/travel hiking backpack, a water bladder, thermal under-wear, and a head torch -- all required for the competition (which is sometime around April 3 or 4th). I'm seriously excited about this. Everyone is, it's contagious.
I've also been very keen about finding time to practice field hockey. About a week ago I would not have been at all interested in playing field hockey because I still had it in my head that it was a girl's sport (as for the most part it is where I live in the U.S.). But it's a very intense game, and parallels well to soccer, actually.
Weekly PhilSoc (ANU Philosophy Society) talks/lectures/debates are part of my schedule as well. I listened to a heated argument about human rights at the last meeting I attended. The two arguing were doing so quite vigorously, if that helps paint the scene. I almost wanted to chip in at one point, but then I wasn't sure if what I was going to say was on mark, and I certainly did not want to step into such a vehement exchange without being sure.
I'm having a lot of trouble making sense of my text for Adv Continental Phil, The Experience of Freedom by Jean-Luc Nancy, partly, I think, because of the syle of the writing and partly because the ideas presented are completely foreign to me and I'm not yet in the habit of thinking from a "continental" (for lack of a better phrase) perspective. My Adv Analytic Phil text is closer to the philosophy I've done at UMBC, but still difficult.
I don't really know how to close this entry, but I also don't have anything more to say right now.
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3 comments:
Had I known you'd be running about "in the dark" so much, you might've borrowed my head lamp.
Then again, I'll be on my own challenge on 24-25 April:
http://www.americanodysseyrelay.com/
Perhaps we can compare nocturnal experiences, afterwards.
Regards,
V66
Oh! I didn't know you had one! Yeah, for IB we get dropped off at night with maps and in each team someone acts as a "nav" and has to try to read coordinates to figure out where the finish line is.
Also, our normal group practice running time is from 7Pm till whenever we get back. Been running an average of 10K each run (about 4-5 days a week). However, the days are getting shorter and are training runs are getting longer. The head torch should come in handy.
My goal right now is to train to run in the 40+ kilometer division.
Also, I spent about $200AUD on gear. :/ But, I think it will be entirely worth it. I ran with my new backpack full of clothes earlier. The pack I bought has chest and waist straps and padding and aerodynamic efficiency. I felt really great running with it for the first time. Granted we only went 8.5K.
in terms of getting the most out of your experience i felt the same way as you. lots and lots of people liked to travel on the weekends and saw a lot more places than me, but i still felt comfortable not traveling every single weekend. i would not have made it through the semester alive if i had. i still felt overwhlemed. http://timtheyounger.blogspot.com/2008/03/what-do-you-do-on-weekend.html
no matter how much or how little you do, as long as you have put effort into your stay you should have a fantastic time and get enough out of it.
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