Week 3 was awesome. Saw new things, met new people and had great experiences all the way around. We learned about things in class with parallels in the US, saw cool places in Sydney like the botanic gardens, and even took a trip outside of the city to enjoy some Australian car culture at Sydney motorsport park.
In Australian life and culture class this week, we learned about the Cronulla riots. The Cronulla riots were a series of riots which took place in and around Cronulla between people of Arab appearance and white Australians in 2005. It reminded me of the Charlottesville riots which happened in 2017 which involved a “unite the right group”. The parallels once again showed me that there are similarities in racial conflicts across the world. It was interesting to learn about another one of the many similarities between our countries.
Next we went to visit the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens. The Gardens are beautiful, holding more than 1000 different plant species. It lies near the Sydney opera house and overlooks the water. It was a beautiful day and we stopped at a waterfront restaurant bar and get food and drinks. It was overall a great experience getting to see the natural side of the city and enjoying the weather.
Finally we made it out to Sydney Motorsport Park to see some roll racing (which is essentially drag racing). My roommate and I are huge car guys, and it was awesome to see the differences between our car culture and Australias. While ours revolves around muscle cars (mustangs, camaros, etc), theirs revolves around Japanese imports. Some of these cars made over 2000 horsepower and it was awesome to see them race in a legal environment and to talk to the people who built them.
Overall it was a GREAT week and I can’t wait for the next one.
