Submitted by Jorge Hernandez on the 2019 winter session program in Australia sponsored by the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering…
Recently, I have completed my third week in study abroad and I continue to notice new things, although the very mild culture “shock” has already passed. Not many things surprise me now.
This week involved traveling to a different region of the country and that is where I noticed the infrastructure difference. The state of Tasmania has a much lower population density than our
primary residence in New South Wales. You see more wildlife and the natural state of things. Most interestingly, I noticed how big a difference light pollution can make. I had the opportunity
to see the stars for the first time without the interference of light pollution. The view was astonishing and made me wish it was more commonplace, especially in the city. It puts many things into perspective, how small we truly are and what kind of things we might be missing out on by accident. The culture in the town we stayed in was also of interest to me, being a small town that was fairly rural, they seemed fairly well connected. The whole town knew each other and they seemed more connected than at least my own neighborhood for sure. Those are the things I noticed most on this program. I am looking forward to our next and final week abroad where I will experience the opposite end of the spectrum in the largest city in all of Australia.