Greetings from the land down under! This week, we wrapped up our first block of classes before flying to Melbourne, Australia. In my two classes, I had to prepare for a final exam, a final assignment, and a presentation. All else said, I did pretty well on these finals. In my financial decision modeling class, I presented a data set involving “Montgomery County Wages” before taking an exam on all the class material later in the week. A big part of this class was using Excel, and I am happy with how everything finished. In my other class, business law, I prepared a final exam, similar to a final paper, but with many extended response prompts. I diligently worked Thursday night into Friday to prepare my answers and explain them thoroughly. Even though it is challenging to keep track of every rule and detail taught in the class, I feel much more confident talking about different laws and scenarios that arise from law.

Every Bucknell student took a charter bus to the airport on Friday evening, where we checked in and got ready to go to Melbourne. We were flying on Qantas Airways, and it was an excellent airline. Although still a relatively large airport, Sydney International Airport is quite easy to navigate, and the security lines are very short. It also came as quite a surprise to me how relaxed the security protocol was. Two outcomes of these protocols were that we did not have to remove anything from our bags, and I could bring my filled water bottle through security with no issues. After waiting for an hour and a half, we boarded the plane. The flight was only a tad over an hour, and we were served cheese and crackers on both flights. We got to Melbourne (pronounced Melbin) very late, but the accommodation we were staying at was pretty interesting and spacious. I was disappointed because you needed two cards: one for the elevator and the other for the hotel room. Nevertheless, we made it work, and I went to sleep shortly after we arrived, anticipating a busy weekend ahead.

Given our short time frame in Melbourne, I did not eat any meals in the hotel room but instead went to many different restaurants and venues. I had some exciting meals, including an American-style breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and ham and an amazing Chinese-style dish. There was definitely no shortage of good places to eat, and we discovered many hidden gems around Melbourne, primarily through our tour guide. On our tour on Saturday, the guide introduced us to these indoor malls called “arcades” with many unique shops and restaurants. We also saw some fantastic street art in these alleyways in Melbourne. There are certain alleyways we walked through that were bustling with activity. The tour guide informed us that many good shops and eateries are in the alleyways, which is good to note. Below, I have included two great meals I had in addition to a street art picture (note the depiction in the top left).

Timezone Arcade

Sidetracking from my studies, I visited the local arcade on Monday after my business law class dismissed. We got out of class early early which made me even more inclined to do something fun before returning to the accommodation in Bondi Junction. I visited the same arcade the day before when I visited campus to study, but since I had only used half of my arcade balance, I decided to return to use the remaining funds. The arcade (called Timezone), has multiple locations around Sydney (I remember seeing a massive venue in the Mall about a week ago). When I went there, I bought one of the lower dollar amounts to pre-fill a game card I could use to play many games. I wanted to try them all, but one of the games I tried was a cool wheel game where you spin the lever and test your luck to see if you can hit the monster jackpot. Being one of the first games I played that Monday, I did not expect the result I got. I remember I scanned my card to play, gave the lever one big push, and watched it spin. It was not until it came to a complete stop that I realized what had happened. I had won the monster jackpot! 2500 tickets, to be exact. In addition, the jackpot reset to around 1000, so I had just won an enormous jackpot.

I watched the screen slowly tick up to 2500. The good news was I did not have to carry around that many tickets because almost every arcade, including this one, was ticketless, so any tickets earned would be automatically added to your game card. All in all, I was speechless and very happy I had won. I did not want to spend much money as the trade-off for getting prizes is very lopsided; however, I did get a really cool Despicable Mii action figure to bring home.

Skydeck Observatory

One of the places I visited in Melbourne was the Skydeck Observatory, one of the tallest high rises in the city. I took great inspiration from our tour on Saturday, in which we walked through many historical and significant places throughout the city. After paying a forty-dollar fee, I ventured to the elevator, where I would go up to the 88th floor and experience amazing 360-degree views of Melbourne. One cool area of this venue was an outdoor area surrounding my wiring where you can experience the city’s fresh air from 300 meters up. The wind felt perfect, especially considering how hot and sunny it was that day. As a bonus, there were even two small cafes where you could buy a pastry or get a coffee to improve the experience. I did not hesitate to take as many photos as possible, really experiencing Melbourne’s unique vantage point from above. Compared to the helicopter tour, I enjoyed this experience because I could stay as long as possible up in the sky! Although I forgot the exact words of our tour guide, I remember one of the features of the building I was in: a red streak on the side and a thin gold growing around the top part of the building.

Visiting the Parks

My go-to adventure has been visiting different parks around Sydney and Melbourne. During our short visit to Melbourne, I visited three different parks: Royal Park, Kings Domain, and Fitzroy Gardens. All three parks are super great places to relax and enjoy the sun. I have also found exploring different gardens and discovering new plants and wildlife cool. I once went to a small garden within Royal Park called Arid Garden, home to many other plants. Many of these plants were variations of cacti, which is super interesting to me. It also discussed the garden’s water systems and irrigation, which was cool. This artificial “volcano” to the side contained a floating island of different plants. Of course, the volcano was not one with magma and fire as you would picture, but rather a small, more humble piece of ground apart of the wonderful park! Pictured below are a few of my favorite plants! The other garden, Royal Park, contained many different places to sit and paths to walk through. Most of the parks here have paved walkways. However, it is pleasant for pedestrians because many paths do not allow cyclists, making it nice not to have cyclists race by you. Cycling is more prevalent in Australia, and many people are cycling fast with the most optimal gear.

Thanks so much for reading my blog this week. Tune in next week to hear about my wonderful adventures visiting the Blue Mountains and the Sydney Opera House.

-Colin