Submitted by Rebekah Houser on the 2016 winter session program in Australia sponsored by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Mathematical Sciences…
My first view of Australia was a peak through the window from of our double-decker plane as we approached the Melbourne airport. Brown hills dotted with trees certainly didn’t look like Delaware, but were also not entirely foreign. The fact that I am in a different country has sunk in through a series of impressions this first week.
Maybe it was jet-lag, but I didn’t notice at first that people were driving on the left side of the road, and I was a little startled to see the driver’s seat on vehicles’ right side. In much of Melbourne, cars share the roads with trams and many bicyclists. Several places in the city have designated bike lanes, bike rentals are dotted throughout, and apparently if you need a helmet (which state law requires cyclists to wear) you can get an inexpensive one from the nearest 7 Eleven (which in Melbourne is seemingly never far away).
Melbourne’s buildings span a wide range of architectural styles, from ornate stone classic municipal buildings, to structures making statements with line, color and shape, to sleek glass skyscrapers. I was most struck by the iron lacework present on most of the town homes and on many other buildings. This feature seems common throughout the city. I asked a friend from Melbourne about its significance; she believed it dated from the gold rush of the 1850s. According to some articles I found online, she was correct. One article in particular briefly describes how the gold rush created the demand for new buildings, while also providing the means to pay for the ornate Victorian decoration (1).
Another of my first impressions was of the difference in birds. The calls are different, and so are the birds that make them. The most common bird seems to be the magpie which is slightly smaller than a football, covered in black and while splotches and possessing a rather harsh caw. The magpies at Trinity College seem to like to sit outside our buildings and serenade us around 6:00 am. When we’ve been outside the city, I’ve spotted a few cockatoos and kookaburras sitting on electric lines or looking for food beside the road. Within the city, I’ve looked up a couple of times to see parrots perched in the trees or flying across campus, and on a visit to a nearby park, we saw several crimson rosellas.
Finally, I find that here I have an accent, and some of the words and phrases I use are a little different. For example: “raisins” are “sultanas,” “restrooms” are “toilets,” turning the radio on is “playing tunes,” and if I want to order coffee…actually I haven’t quite figured that out yet. Everyone is very friendly, though, so I’m sure when I need some extra caffeine, someone will help me understand what the menu means.
Overall, it’s been a lovely first week, and I’m excited to start the next!
(1) Hidden Melbourne: Why is there so much cast iron lacework on the buildings in Melbourne? http://hiddendocumentary.com/hidden-melbourne-why-is-there-so-much-cast-iron-lacework-on-the-buildings-in-melbourne/