On Friday, May 10, we had our first official class meeting. But it wasn't our first class.
What makes study abroad experiences run by Dr. Mike Weigold different from classes held on campus is that our locale is our classroom and learning about local culture is our objective. So our first class was really on Thursday, when we had a guided tour of Sydney with local experts.
We split our group of about 70 in two, with each half on a bus. On each bus was an expert in Sydney culture and history who explained the city and helped us better understand Australia.
Thus, we saw where Russell Crowe and Kate Blanchett have residences -- and learned that the typical Australian spends half (gulp!) of his or her income on housing while moving much less often than Americans do. We learned that sports is an even bigger part of Australian culture than it is in America -- and that sports gambling addiction is a significant problem here. And we learned that a gentleman never asks what team you root for because "root" has less savory connotations.
In the evening, most of us experienced one of those Australian sporting traditions: rugby. Dr. Andy Selepak had arranged for his sports media class to see a rugby match, and in the process secured tickets for all who wanted to attend.
We cheered for the home team, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, which took on the visiting Cowboys from North Queensland. The Rabbitohs plays in the enormous Olympic stadium.
The stadium television screen showed that Russell Crowe was in the house. I guess that's OK. After all, he owns the team.
I had never seen rugby before, so I was lucky to sit by our kindly AIFS representative, Laura Masters, an English rugby fan who could explain much of what I was seeing. Other students engaged the fans around them to learn something about the game and its rule.
And that's the beauty of study abroad: students getting exposed to a piece of local culture they might never experience otherwise and engaging with local residents in the process. The classroom here is pretty big.
What makes study abroad experiences run by Dr. Mike Weigold different from classes held on campus is that our locale is our classroom and learning about local culture is our objective. So our first class was really on Thursday, when we had a guided tour of Sydney with local experts.
We split our group of about 70 in two, with each half on a bus. On each bus was an expert in Sydney culture and history who explained the city and helped us better understand Australia.
Thus, we saw where Russell Crowe and Kate Blanchett have residences -- and learned that the typical Australian spends half (gulp!) of his or her income on housing while moving much less often than Americans do. We learned that sports is an even bigger part of Australian culture than it is in America -- and that sports gambling addiction is a significant problem here. And we learned that a gentleman never asks what team you root for because "root" has less savory connotations.
In the evening, most of us experienced one of those Australian sporting traditions: rugby. Dr. Andy Selepak had arranged for his sports media class to see a rugby match, and in the process secured tickets for all who wanted to attend.
We cheered for the home team, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, which took on the visiting Cowboys from North Queensland. The Rabbitohs plays in the enormous Olympic stadium.
The stadium television screen showed that Russell Crowe was in the house. I guess that's OK. After all, he owns the team.
I had never seen rugby before, so I was lucky to sit by our kindly AIFS representative, Laura Masters, an English rugby fan who could explain much of what I was seeing. Other students engaged the fans around them to learn something about the game and its rule.
And that's the beauty of study abroad: students getting exposed to a piece of local culture they might never experience otherwise and engaging with local residents in the process. The classroom here is pretty big.
RSS Feed