Sarah L Fann

Australian Geography Australia is a big continent! It looks small on most maps because of the effect of transposing a circular surface onto a flat surface. The area of the continental U.S. and that of Australia is roughly the same, yet Australia is only divided into six States and two Territories. The State I spent the majority of my time, Queensland, stretches from N.C. to Canada, and inwards to Kansas City! However, Australia only has 20 million people (compared to 300 million in the U.S.), and only about 40 Universities (http://www.australian-universities.com/list/). North Carolina alone has about as many Universities (http://www.ibiblio.org/nc/nccollege.html) and that is excluding community colleges. Primary Education Education in the States and Australia is similar with a few key differences. One is language. "Kindergarten" in the States is the e... read more

After an hour of thoroughly but accidentally exploring downtown Melbourne in our rental car, we made our way to the coast of Victoria! And a huge Kudos to our driver, who managed to keep cool while trying to navigate a foreign city, where they drive on the left, with directions that were a bit dodgy! The drive started out a bit dull, since we still had to make our way to the coast, but quickly improved as the afternoon approached. Once we made it to the coast, the drive was spectacular and picturesque, and we stopped at several scenic look outs. Our first stop was at Bells Beach, which had a beautiful black layer of sand on top of red. As the waves crashed violently against the shore, wavy lines of red were revealed. It reminded ... read more

Victorian Markets After sleeping in for a few hours, my friends and I decided to hit up the Victorian Markets. These are some of the largest markets in Australia, and they offer a wide variety of low priced goods. In fact, the prices are so low ($1 for a bag of carrots) that I found myself rather miffed about the prices I pay for produce in Townsville. Cafes lined the markets, so I enjoyed a bacon egg and cheese sandwich and a flat white (coffee with steamed milk) for something along the lines of a measly A$7. Afterwards, I meandered through the various stalls around the huge market venue. There were souvenirs, crafts (although not many), general goods, homemade soaps and candles, and the most incredible produce market I have ever seen. There was an ... read more

As many readers may know, we had a category 5 cyclone (hurricane) rip through northeastern Queensland a week ago. My neighborhood alone lost over 100 trees. The only highway in and out of town is blocked, food supplies are sporadic, and over 7 million dollars of damage was done. Despite all this there is a lot of good news. For starters, no one died as a direct result of the cyclone, and most of the town recovered power and services within 48 hours. I've met nearly all of my neighbors, as we spent a couple of days cleaning debris together and chances are I'll meet some new friends when I go help clean up the University this weekend. Aside from those positives, there are other pleasant results of the cyclone. The dirt and dust shot up ... read more