University in Australia
They call “college” here “Uni.” At first, I did not get it. Soon, I was fast enough to derive the conclusion. School does not start for a couple more weeks. Next week is “0″ week followed by week one. During 0 week, we have get-to-know-ya games and the like. I am going on a surfing adventure that the college offers and a wet and wild adventure.
The Australians are a nice bunch. I live about 10 minutes, by car, away from Surfer’s Paradise. Do I have a car? No, but I have bicycle! A jolly ride on a bike to Surfer’s is over an hour.
If I receive nothing else from my time in Australia, it is respect for bicyclists. A friend in New York was the one to propose the idea to buy a bike. “Gunnar, you should really get a bike and explore,” he said.
I remember in Idaho, mother and I would be driving the van in some place like Lewiston, and I would poke fun at the bicyclists peddling their heart out alongside the road. I would try to sing the instrumental part of the Wizard of Oz hit, when the witch is riding her bicycle. “Dundantan dundantun da dun, Dundantan dundantun da dun, Dundantan dundantun da dun…”
Now, I am the proud owner of a bike. “One, and two, and three, and four,” I count to myself as I trudge up a hill. It is always best to have rhythm, right? “One, and two, and three, and four” and then some person thinks they are a barrel of laughs and passes me going 120 kph on their motor bike, and I am left to watch them cruise up the hill. Still, there is no better feeling of accomplishment than when I pass over the crest and am greeted with a cool breeze.
One could really get himself hurt here riding a bike. They have things called “roundabouts.” We have them back in the states, but they are few and far between. Here, you cannot go more than a half mile before coming to a darn roundabout. Riding a bike through a roundabout is hard.
Traffic is coming and going, and then horns honk because you are in the way…but I have managed to get the horn honking down to a minimum as I figure the system out.
It is very interesting to be watching the news in the U.S. right now. It makes me feel proud to be from there, but also very dismayed. Namely, the talk of gas prices gets me. Sure gas prices are bad back home, but here they are a lot worse, equivalent to over four dollars a gallon. Australians just go with the flow and are not complaining about prices too much, because gas here has always been expensive.
Maybe if they got rid of some of the roundabouts though, they could save on gas, as a straight line is the fastest way to any given destination, but that is not the point.
Tags: Australia, Australia Video, College, Gold Coast, Round abouts, Surfers Paradise, travel in Australia, Uni
