A few more glimpses into my Aussie life.

Two weekends ago I attended the Flood and Fire 2011 charity event in Dayboro, Queensland. The funds raised went to help victims of the devastating January floods and an unfortunate local house fire. It was really fun to see some great local talent (such as a cute Grade 3 "Here Comes the Sun" performance and some local bands). There were several Rotarians from various clubs in attendance. They were not only representing Rotary in a positive light, but were there to support their constituents, as the gentleman in the middle of the photograph below is the mayor of the neighboring suburban area, and the gentleman on the far right is on the local council. I was rubbing elbows with the politicians!

Going to the Flood and Fire event was very eye-opening. They had slideshows of pictures from the worst of the floods, and it was absolutely shocking! I was happy I got the opportunity to see what it was really like during the floods since I wasn't actually in the country at the time. In the background of the photo below, you can see where water is up to the rooftop/awning of a local shop in downtown Dayboro! Before seeing these pictures, Brian and Cheryl drove me through the town of Dayboro, which barely a month after the floods, looked as if nothing had even happened. It had completely regained its quaint country-town ambiance! I am very impressed with how the community came together and made this happen so quickly, and clearly continue to work at it with events like this one.

These pictures are from similar views up the same street. Further back on the right in the picture below you can see the same yellow and burgundy shop but the water has risen and is surpassing the awning/roofline. What was so devastating about these floods, at least for Dayboro residents, is that the floods came high and FAST. I think picture 1 and picture 2 were not even taken an hour apart from each other and you can see the huge height difference in the water. The good news was that the water receded relatively quickly, too, but not without leaving some long-lasting damage.

This next photo is of me with Cheryl and Brian Springer, my Rotarian hosts! Last Saturday I was invited to attend their annual February Party. This is an awesome tradition (although Brian describes it as just an excuse to throw a party!) that the Springer Family has kept going since the 1970s! (Correct me if I'm wrong there, Cheryl!) They had about 80 people in attendance, and it was a great summer's evening spent with good food and family. Well, for me not family, but it was very fun to meet alllll of the Springers' family. Their quirky tradition with the February Party is that you can only attend if you're there to celebrate a family member whose birthday is in February. When this was explained to me, I was able to tell Cheryl immediately that my Dad's birthday is in February and later I realized my Grandma's was in February, too, so she said that made me doubly-legal to come! Glad I made the cut! haha. I had a glass of yummy Australian red wine for you, Dad! And then a glass of champagne for you, Grandma! Then I remembered that little Ella and little Isaiah's birthdays were in February, too, so I had a double-wide piece of tiramisu in honor of them :) YUM!!

These are all of the fun people I've been getting to hang out with lately! The February Party is a time when literally the WHOLE Springer Family is able to come together, which is really great since Christmas and normal holidays aren't the best time for a good visit. From left to right is Laura with her husband Michael Springer; Michael's sister, Caitlin Springer; Caitlin and Michael's brother, Eddy Springer; in front of Eddy in the black is his, Michael, Caitlin's sister, Louise Springer; to the right of Louise is Eddy's wife, Mellita, and then Joe Springer is the brother of Michael, Caitlin, Eddy, and Louise; then far right is Joe's wife, Candice. The parents/in-laws of this whole crew are Brian and Cheryl, who are pictured with me above! Also, Eddy and Joe are the ones with the boat who get credit for teaching me how to waterski at Somerset Dam!!!!

Below is UQ's medical school. To the left (out of the frame) is the School of Population Health department, but all of my lectures are held in this main building. I love its traditional, regal look to it!

This is a picture of the beautiful Roma Parklands that I live walking distance from. It's basically a big park with awesome botanical gardens, playgrounds, and bbq facilities so you can have picnics there. It is like (a very mini) Central Park with its juxtaposition of high rise buildings behind beautiful, open parkland.

Back to school!

My third week here in Brisbane brought about the first day of school for me... oh ya, SCHOOL! That little thing. I had almost forgotten that the whole point I was here was for obtaining my master’s degree. I am taking some pretty daunting courses-- Intro to Biostatistics and Intro to Epidemiology, as well as two other courses that are a bit less scary. I have both of the daunting ones back to back on Mondays! A straight 6 hours of it. However, Monday proved itself to be much more enjoyable and survivable than I had anticipated, and in all honesty, the structure and material of the classes themselves didn't seem too much different from school in the U.S. (note: my Biostatistics professor is a young girl from the U.S., so I mean LITERALLY, there is hardly any difference there!)

However, looking around the room in my first lecture of 150 students, and attending my 20-person "tutorial" section today, showed me how very different school is here from the U.S. 

(For those Australian Rotarians and friends reading this: when I say "school," I mean "uni" right now... and for my American readers, "uni" is just Australian for "university,” and I will probably start using that word without really realizing it. You really have to distinguish which type of level of education you're referring to here. When I tell Australians that "I went to school in Los Angeles," they assume I went to a boarding school in Los Angeles as an elementary school kid, not for my undergraduate university degree. There are lots of specifics like this to get caught up on here!! I seem to be having to explain myself quite often, but I am gradually catching on and fitting in!)

Ok back to the diversity at uni here. First off, when I was at UCLA and we referred to having a diverse international student population, that was just a downright lie. We had a lot of people representing different ethnicities, but they were either still American, or they were international students from China. Or if they were really international students from another country, there were so few of them that they didn’t stand out and influence class discussions all that much. If you come to Australia, you really see what an international student population looks like! I would estimate that one-fourth of my first lecture were Caucasian students from Canada, the U.S., or Australia, one-fourth were Chinese, one-fifth were African, one-sixth were Southeast Asian, and that remaining fraction (too much math/biostatistics for me today…) were Middle Eastern. And when I say that these students were African or Southeast Asian, I don't mean that they came over to Australia as children and have been living here for a while, but that they have just moved here in the last year or few weeks to specifically be here as an international student, and they will be returning home to pursue careers once they complete their respective degrees. (I don’t mean to discredit the students who have been living in Australia/U.S. for a while but still retain and identify with much of their native culture, but I do very much value in a different way the people who still live in their native country and possess a unique worldview and life experiences that were developed completely in that original country.)

Of course this type of invaluable diversity really doesn't matter too much in a lecture-type learning environment, so day 1 of classes passed without much difference to my American uni experience. However, it was today in my "tutorial" section of 20 students where it was just... COOL!! And I mean that in the dorkiest of "I'm obsessed with studying international relations/development/public health" kind of ways.

One of my first "class friends" that I made today in my Biostatistics tutorial section is Wumi, a girl in her mid to late 20s who is a midwife from Nigeria. We were put together in a discussion group to analyze why selecting people at random from a community's "voter registry" to survey people on their health would produce biased sampling. I rattled off the very obvious--"because you don't include kids under the voting age" and "you don't include people who aren't registered to vote." Duh. After I rattled off my underwhelming contribution to the group, Wumi added the point, "Yes, the people who aren't registered to vote is good, but what you're saying refers to something so big. There are so many reasons why people might not be registered to vote. So many people can’t vote sometimes. There are the people who you might say just don't care or are too lazy, but then there are people who can't because of religious reasons. In my country, religious reasons play a very big factor in this and they can't go vote even if they want to. You would really be missing out on the people from those religions."

At least one of “those religions” that Wumi was referring to is Islam, as over 50% of Nigeria’s population is Muslim. Certain sects of Islam obey Shari’a Law. Devout Muslims have different beliefs in terms of their medical practices and their social structure can sometimes contain significant gender differences that could affect their healthcare received or political participation. Although I admittedly know very little about the governmental structure of Nigeria, I can see now why my very vague grouping of people who just “aren’t on the voter registry” does not describe the biases that would be present if you tried to conduct a survey like this in Nigeria. In the U.S. where “separation of church and state” is revered, I wouldn’t have thought of what a CULTURAL bias using a governmental/political registry would produce and how skewed my health survey would end up if I were in most other countries.

Ok, stand up and take a breather! I know this blog entry is getting rather wordy, and I apologize, but I really can’t help it. I ramble a lot and editing this might make this more of a chore than a fun way to keep in contact with everyone. I have just one other anecdote about my epiphanies from being in such a diverse student body:

As we were introducing ourselves today in my tutorial section, we had to do the typical thing where you say your name, where you’re from, what you’re studying, and what your favorite food is. The first girls to go were 3 Canadians who were all friends. Each of them responded to the “favorite food” part with chocolate, Kettle Corn popcorn, and the third said she was “…addicted to those spicy flaming-hot red Cheetos.” These are all very normal answers to this type of name game. I am usually a bit of an oddball with this—apparently when I was a kid my answer would be “artichokes,” “apricots and nectarines,” or “sushi,” but that’s just me being the weirdo. However, I was still very surprised when the first non-North American student responded saying her favorite food was simply “rice” and she kind of giggled like she was very shy to admit that, but it was clear it was the truth. I can’t remember where she was from but she was wearing a beautiful magenta scarf around her head and under her neck. The next guy to go said his favorite food was “beans and chicken.” A student from (I think) Tanzania at one point said “fish soup.” An emergency room doctor from Saudi Arabia said, “whatever my mom cooks, but especially meat with rice.”

You get my gist. Without any exaggeration on my part, all of the Australian, North American, and Chinese students admitted some sort of junk food as their favorite food, whereas the students that were from an African country or a Middle Eastern country named something that we would consider a very bland staple to our diet as their most favorite food in the world! (I seem to be forgetting what Trung from Vietnam said, she was also in mine and Wumi’s discussion group, so I am leaving out the couple of Southeast Asian students… but again, you get my gist.)

(Note: this was not true simple random sampling on my part, so therefore this is not an unbiased survey. These were all international students in an international public health class, so it’s definitely a biased sample! Don’t assume that all people in Africa and the Middle East don’t eat and crave junk food as much as North Americans, Chinese, and Australians do! Haha. See, I am learning something from Biostats!)

As an International Public Health student, and after having just blogged about obesity and food portions in Australia vs. the U.S., this further informal lesson on diet and nutrition throughout the world was just fascinating to me. Who knows if I’m taking a little thing and making a big deal out of nothing, and who knows what socioeconomics and culture and society have to do with this over the agency of an individual, and what any of this really says about health and the future of obesity rates in various countries, but maybe by the end of this year I can come back and produce a more profound conclusion to these little “wow!” moments of mine. For now, I hope they at least entertain you and make you think a bit more about global health differences.

An update by pictures

Pictures of the lovely University of Queensland St. Lucia campus:

(I won't actually attend classes here, I'll be on the med school campus but I had orientation here and it's so pretty with the sandstone buildings that I'll consider it my campus!)

Brian and Cheryl took me to the top of Q1 in Surfer's Paradise, the tallest residential complex in the world! It provided us with amazing views up and down the coastline and a delicious cappuccino at the top.

Side note: doesn't the Gold Coast kind of look like Chicago from this angle?! This is my picture of Chicago from the top of the John Hancock building last October:

I learned how to waterski!!!!!!!! I was a bit wary of learning since my first time learning resulted in no upright success and just a week of very, very sore arms. But with the whole Springer family's support and brief tutorials, I got up on my first try with them! Here's the sequence:

I was so excited and proud of myself that my mouth is gaping wide open or smiling in every single action shot! Thank you so much for inviting me along for such a fun day at Somerset Dam! (FYI, Somerset Dam was built after the horrible floods of 1974, and because of this dam, the recent floods of this past January weren't nearly as destructive and deadly as they could've been otherwise. It's currently at 195% capacity because of all the rain Brisbane has been getting! But it made for a great day of waterskiing!)

Needless to say, I am having lots of fun here enjoying the summertime in Brisbane!

2 years later, and I'm finally here!!!!

FRIENDS, FAMILY AND ROTARIANS... I am in Australia, safe and sound! Woohoo! I am sorry it took me over a week to find the time to sit and write this update, but then again I guess that's a good sign that I'm keeping myself busy... no service organization ever pays to have a student go across the world just to sit indoors on their computer all day!

With the invaluable help of my Rotary counselor, Brian, and his lovely wife, Cheryl, I have covered the basics to get life here rolling--I have a bank account with ANZ Bank (note that you call it "A, N, Zed Bank" here!), a mobile phone through Vodafone, and an apartment. However, for the apartment, I plan on it being temporary, as it is a share house/boarding house where 15 people (I bet there's even more than 15 people tucked away in here though... let's say 18) are all living together in a 150 year old Queenslander home. Although it's been fun to come across a Norwegian guy, Turkish guy, Aussie girl, Greek guy, and Malaysian guy all while I attempt to brew a cup of tea for myself, it's a bit loud and cramped. But I do have my own bedroom, which is a great step up from the hostel I was living in, and cheaper! However, I am still looking for a more permanent, study-friendly apartment, and details on that are T.B.A.!

Here is the view of my current quaint little room:

And here’s the pretty view out my window at 5:45am before Orientation! (Yes, I must still have jet lag because it has been shockingly easy for me to wake up early nearly every day! 5:45am here on Monday means it’s 11:45am in California on a Sunday, so yep... just about normal for my wake up call! haha)

So, before I wrap things up and crawl into my surprisingly comfy bed here at the share house, I know the one question you're all wanting an answer to is, "What is the most interesting thing that you have noticed/experienced/learned so far?"

I'm afraid I don't have that good of an answer for you from just my first 10 days here, but I plan to really nail down a solid answer by my return flight home in 10 months. In efforts of at least trying to explain to you what my most interesting and insightful moments have been so far, you will be surprised to know they've just occurred over a simple dining room table in the Springer home. I am lucky to have been placed under the Rotary "counseling" of Brian and Cheryl Springer, who happen to be 2 very educated and worldly individuals, who (I think) have had as much fun discussing and comparing experiences and beliefs over some rather politically and emotionally-heated topics as I have! In a few of these conversations over a light breakfast or over an afternoon cup of tea, I've really felt a sense of purpose for why Rotary has spent so much money and effort to send 40,000 students, like me, around the world as Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars since the program’s inception in 1947. There really is something you learn when you live amongst people from a different country and background that you could never, ever learn from a textbook, or even the greatest of lecturers.

Let me just tell you first off that within the first 36 hours of staying with the Springers, I got asked the question that I'd been warned that any American would be asked when in Australia-- "Why do Americans think they should be able to carry guns around?" That ended up just being the start of a long list of contemporary issues that are currently plaguing the U.S. and/or Australia that we've discussed... increasing obesity rates, health care reform, overly letigious societies, corrupt politicians, what the role of the government should and should not be, the Mexican border and immigration, antibiotic-resistant diseases... you name it, we've covered it. And the hours my mind spent trying to keep up and digest all of their ideas and facts were even fun! And no one's feelings were hurt, nor were anyone's boundaries over-stepped! It’s just been so eye-opening and interesting…maybe getting my brain back to academic, holistic-thinking mode in time for classes in 6 days won’t be so hard after all…

As a student who is about to pursue her master’s degree in International Public Health, one of my favorite topics was about our growing problem with obesity throughout the developed countries (and even into lesser developed countries, too). The U.S. has been the #1 leader for nationwide obesity rates in the world for a while now, and Australia is now ranking #3 in this category. It was obvious from looking at the Brisbane weekend newspaper and a lot of the advertisements here that living a healthy lifestyle is becoming a very hot topic for Australians because of this. Cheryl made a comment about this that made a lot of sense, and it also really manifests the perspective Australians have about their place in the global system—Australia is a country that is usually a few steps behind the U.S. and Great Britain, as well as is a country with a population that is so much smaller than the U.S. that they’re nearly unrelateable. The flipside to why this is really a benefit to Australians it that Australia as a whole is able learn from the U.S.’s mistakes and successes, and therefore can hopefully right itself from too much destruction much earlier on. Also, in terms of the size thing, Australia is much more “nimble” (that wording actually needs to be quoted to the Mayor, not Cheryl haha) and can shift its course much more easily and quickly than a big country like the U.S. can.

When I was at McDonald’s in the bus station the other day, I realized how true Cheryl’s points were, especially in relation to stopping obesity and childhood obesity from spiraling even worse out of control. Because it felt like it was 40 degrees (Celsius, that is) with 100% humidity outside on this February afternoon here, I stopped to order myself a medium Coke before hopping on the train. I was absolutely shocked to be handed my “medium” Coke that looked like this and was a solid $3:

It was the dimensions of what we would consider in the U.S. a child’s size drink that would come with a Happy Meal!! A medium at Taco Bell are those big 32oz. plastic cups. And if anything, McDonald’s in the U.S. offers those big huge 64oz. plastic cruiser cup sized drinks for $1!!!! (Note: The exchange rate for the U.S. dollar and Australian dollar are just about equal so this is a relevant comparison!) As the U.S. is launching its advertising for its new Starbucks “Trenta” size (which holds the full contents of TWO bottles of wine), Australia hopefully has diverted itself from following in America’s extra-heavy footsteps by keeping decently sized serving portions, like the Australian McDonalds’, as a healthy and balanced norm… but only time will tell!

"She'll be right!"

I am immensely happy and relieved to see that this iconic phrase from Australian culture--don't worry too much, everything will be ok--is actually holding true in the wake of one of Australia's worst natural disasters. 


Last week, brown muddy water covered 80% of Queensland, not only destroying crops and mines and those industries vital to its functioning economy, but flooding the third most populous city in the nation, Brisbane... which yes, is the exact city I will be a resident of in 3 weeks. The water peaked at 4.46 metres (14.6 feet) in Brisbane on 13 January 2011. In the video link below, you can see entire riverfront restaurants floating down the swollen river and getting demolished against a bridge, cars being swept away, and horses only surviving the waters by finding the tip of a rooftop to rest their heads on. It's just shocking to see. Fortunately, the rain has let up and the water has since receded, but still 17 people were killed and an area the size of Germany and France combined is sopping wet and covered in a sludgy mess. Over 25,000 homes and businesses in Ipswich and Brisbane were engulfed... and entire families lost every last thing they owned, with nowhere sanitary to live, nothing to eat, and only the clothes on their backs. To compound the immediate effects, the destruction to the local economy is going to cause rising food prices and overall inflation. The storm is not even over either--it is currently headed south toward New South Wales and Victoria. Hopefully it has lost most of its vigor.

Click here for footage of the Brisbane floods

In the midst of such times heartache and devastation, I was always taught by my family to dwell less on the negativity and rather look to the future and find any bit of humor and optimism possible. So here's my personal list of good news to focus on:

• Because of the Wivenhoe Dam built in 1983 that is 50 km west of Brisbane, the flood waters did not reach their anticipated height, and did not surpass the record levels of flooding from the infamous 1974 Queensland floods. Had the dam not been there, experts estimate that the water level would have far surpassed the 1974 historical record.
• Just one week from the peak day of the floods, the University of Queensland will be open again and fully functioning (which will be 20 January). Other than some recreational facilities (pool, tennis courts, fields), UQ will be functioning completely normal by the time orientation for Semester 1 begins on 21 February. Classes will commence on schedule.  
• Herston Campus, home to the Health Sciences Dept. and where my International Public Health classes will be, was not flooded at all. 
• My temporary accommodations were not affected by the flooding--those being my Rotary host counselor's family home in Lawnton and YHA City hostel in Brisbane CBD.
• The generosity, compassion, hospitality, and sense of community of Australians and Queenslanders has been made very apparent to me, even before ever stepping foot in the country. Over 55,000 citizen volunteers spent the past weekend assisting residents affected by the flooding. People such as my Rotary host counselor let his employees have several days off to assist in the clean up in place of working for him. The collective efforts have been so effective that the restoration of some areas, such as UQ, are ahead of schedule.
• There will be an even greater array of opportunities for me in terms of the Rotary service projects I will be taking part in and the main one I will establish during my year abroad. I will be able to directly give back to the neighborhoods and friends that will have served as my one-year home. There is even more of a chance that the help most needed will be in the fields I am most passionate about and want to learn the most about--public health, nutrition and water sanitation. 

The Brisbane I will be arriving to on 11 February will not be the same Brisbane it was when I first found out I would be living there. But if anything, I think living in this post-natural disaster city will just make for a more momentous and life-changing experience... and I really do think "she'll be right!"

This needs to be my mantra for the next 6 weeks...

“He who would travel happily must travel light.” 
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Take off in 10, 9, 8, 7... 7 weeks, that is!

My flight is officially booked for February 9th! I leave late on the night of the 9th and will arrive in Brisbane the morning of February 11th... who really needs a February 10th anyway?!


I will have 10 free days before my orientation begins at UQ, which means I'll have some time to beat the rush on finding an apartment near campus, as well as buy a cell phone, buy a bed and maybe even some furniture, and even acquire some of those other things that you don't realize won't be fitting into your luggage... like a printer, for example. Hopefully I can nail down the bus and ferry systems in that time frame, as well... however, that's a lot less likely for me than any of my shopping goals! haha.


Booking an international flight only 8 weeks before the desired departure time for only $450 was a miracle. To anyone out there who might be traveling anywhere soon (or want to come visit me!!) try using www.studentuniverse.com. Some of their prices were over 50% cheaper than Orbitz, etc. However, you've got to be under 25 years old! Sorry to all you "oldies but goodies" out there.


And lastly,
Merry Christmas! Here's to a happy, healthy, and adventurous 2011 for all!