After being in school for 5 weeks I realized that I haven't really said much about the whole education aspect of being here. So here it is!
The University is actually eerily similar to Ryerson. Scattered throughout the downtown core of Sydney, they place a huge emphasis on the practicality of teachings. This semester I am taking four classes (equivalent to five at home) including Sports Management, The Olympic Games, Business Strategies and Advertising Practice. I really wish Ryerson would offer more classes to do with sports management since we are located in the sports capital of Canada but either way I am happy to be enrolled in them out here, as the Australian content offers a fresh perspective. The main difference between here and there (there being Ryerson) is the passion in the lecturers. All of my lecturers have this incredible passion for their subject which is really refreshing. The topics also have that much more relevance when your professor can point to a picture of the Australian contingency marching in at the 2008 Beijing games and say, "that's me!"
I recently completed a group tutorial assignment in Sports Management where we looked at expansion franchises and their impacts on leagues and fans. Initially we were going to focus on expansion in the NHL and the AFL (Australian Football League) however as we began to narrow down our search we had way to much information. We decided on strictly looking at the AFL who's plans for expansion reminded me of a lot of Gary Bettman's plans to grow the NHL in non traditional markets. Forgive my pessimism but I couldn't help but think some of the new franchises were destined for failure.
Next week I have another group tutorial presentation in my Olympic Games course. A fellow Canadian and I have decided to look at how the International Olympic Committee can try to bridge the gap between the Winter Games and their significance to the Southern Hemisphere (mainly Australia). The topic was definitely inspired by my Canadian pride being squashed when I came down here, and no one knew what the hell Vancouver 2010 was. Either way, I am looking forward to the presentation as we have some fun videos, and very interesting facts to back up our research.
The work load is pretty similar to Ryerson, but the majority of my work is due within the first 5 weeks. The past week and the next two are pretty hectic but it should settle down after that. The semester is quite a bit shorter than at home too. We started on February 23rd and finish on May 27th with an 18 day mid-semester break in the middle of April, so I'm definitely not complaining.
What else can I tell you? For those of you who haven't heard, I have decided to trim my trip short by three months to get back to Ryerson for the Fall. With the potential of Grad school a year a way I figured I should get home and attempt to boost the ol' GPA before it's too late. There were also some issues with my transfer credits which didn't help the situation either. Either way I have kind of gotten over that and am looking forward to getting back for September. I have plans of co-producing a TV show for our campus station with my friend Chris, and getting involved with some other student groups in hopes of starting a Sports Management conference of some sort. It also makes it easier to leave early knowing that I will have all my travelling that I had planned on doing, done. Mitch has graciously altered his travel plans to accommodate my change so when July rolls around we will hopefully be travelling South East Asia.
Up until now it has been tough for me to grasp the consequences of the global financial crisis that we are now immersed in. After searching for a job in Sydney for the past 2 months, I now understand that the problems are real and the situation is tough. Thankfully I am not supporting a family or paying any real bills, because I can't imagine how tough it would be to live in these extreme conditions. While the job search will continue I have opened my options up a bit and will now look at fruit picking during the month of June to save up a bit of cash. In the meantime I am keeping myself busy with school work and my new found gig writing for the Universities magazine, Vertigo. My first assignment is reviewing an animated feature called Mary and Max which premiered at Sundance this year. I will post the article when it's complete.
Other than that all is well on the Australian coast. I would like to send out a special shout out to Michelle Tiangco who is celebrating her 19th birthday today and of course to my Baba Teenie who turned the big 8-2, on Tuesday. I would imagine one birthday party will involve more drinking than the other but either way I wish I was able to attend both!
A final hello to everyone at O'Keefe House who will undoubtedly have the place rockin' all night Friday during formal. Wish I was there! Have a blast.
Until next time,
kc
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1 comment:
took me a couple days to get to this one but i liked it. it's funny hearing you talk about school after all your tales of adventuring. speaking of which, we did brickworks last week and missed you. thanks for thinking of us on formal. honestly, the whole night it felt like you were there and you had just gone to the bathroom or run back to the house to do shots or something lol.
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