I can not even believe that it has already been two weeks here! We have done so much and I feel so lucky to be apart of this experience.
I don’t even know where to begin with sharing what we have been up to, becasue we have done so much – I could probably write a blog post everyday!
The first week was really just getting used to being in the city and exploring Brisbane! We got to meet Mallahai, our liasion on my first day here and I felt like that really set me up well. It eased the anxiety of planning events for everyday and it was really nice to just have a sit down and see what this experience was really going to be like. Mallahai had made us a schedule for our time here outlining the key events that QUT had organized for us, as well as what the volunteer practicum would look like. As we couldn’t get into the schools for the first month QUT has been so generous and sent us on so many fun excursion, like to the Australia Zoo and museums around Brisbane, it has all been amazing.
A few of my key highlights of these first two weeks:
Beach Day!
The 6 of us took the train down to the Gold Coast early one Sunday morning and spent the entire day at the beach. The beaches here are like nothing we have in Canada – perfect white sands and the bluest waters. The train was probably about a two hour journey one way, but quite enjoyable and cheap considering the Queensland transit system is only 50 cents each way!
We started our day all the way in the south end of the Gold Coast in Burleigh Heads. We did a short hike to a lookout over the ocean where we saw some whales! After the hike we just hung out on the beach and played in the ocean. After a little while we went up to Surfer’s Paradise, which is another beach with an outdoor shopping centre nearby. We walked around and layed on the beach some more before getting dinner and heading home.
Australia Zoo!
This day was absolutely incredible! Again, we rode the train 2 hours, this time north of Brisbane and then caught the complimentary zoo shuttle all the way to the zoo, which was about an 8 minute drive. QUT paid our admission and we seriously had the best day!
We started just walking around to see the exhibits, fed/pet the kangoroos and even got to pet a sleeping koala!
Around lunch time was the Croc Show! This is an absolute must-see, they brought out so much of the wildlife; birds, dingoes, and of of course the crocs! They are so much bigger than you would ever imagine…. Unfortunately for us, it wasn’t Robert Irwin perforing the Croc feeding… But the show was really cool regardless!
Personal highlight – Holding a Koala at Currunbin Sanctaury
I am fortunate enough to have friends who live here in Brisbane and they offered to take me to Currumbin one afternoon. I was super bummed that the Koala holding was booked at the Australia Zoo the day we had gone as this has been my biggest dream since I was a little girl. But lucky for me they offered at the Currumbin Sanctuary and it truly was a dream come true – I cried, a lot! It was such a special moment for me and really made this entire experience feel so much more real!
They have so much wildlife at Currumbin as well, we got to watch them feed the pelicans and eels! Which was very weird but an experience you wouldn’t get anywhere but here. They also had a Croc feeding – which is pretty uncommon because crocodiles don’t need to eat everyday (fun fact!).
Overall, a really cool place to visit and they offer student discounts! So it was relatively affordable for an afternoon with some cool wildlife.
Going into the next few weeks we have booked some really cool excursions as a group so I am looking forward to seeing more of this coutntry! And then starting in October we will be heading into the school, which I am also very excited for!
- Makenna Rushfeldt