As mind and body show strong signs of regaining normal vitality and strength once again, after over a month of high stress and poor health, I am now able to continue my blogs. I’ve been taught throughout life the simple, yet truthful lesson that if there isn’t anything good to be said, then nothing should be said at all. And as this past month was anything but “good,” avoiding posting negative blogs is exactly what I did.
I would like to say that something interesting has happened over the past month, and could discuss in detail my experience of it; however, the truth holds that my academic workload has been so intense that I have been mostly stuck in my room, with my nose in the books, paining through tedious assignment after tedious assignment. Combine this with poor health (headaches and constant nausea) for about a month, my homesickness was a heavy burden to bear, and the whole month of May seemed to last a year.
Fortunately, as the lectures and tutorials have come to a much needed end, and now that the submission of all assignments is complete, time has picked up its speed and life is once again good. As the first week of finals has finally arrived, studying has taken over my time, but it’s nice to only have that to worry about…for the moment.
Although possible, studying abroad later in your undergrad career is much more difficult than earlier on. The classes that you are required to take for your degree become much more specialized (particularly here at Curtin), and as an exchange student trying to meet all of my requirements as quickly and efficiently as possible, I have been left with less flexibility to explore other classes that may have been interesting. It would have been nice to enroll in an Australian studies or a history class, or even an Aboriginal studies class. However, prior to my arrival, here in Perth, my class list was destined to be all geology related. Not very much fun when you’re an exchange student and have many other opportunities for new and unique experiences. At the time, I thought that was the best decision, and if it helps me to graduate in one year as opposed to one and a half, then perhaps in the end I will thank myself for taking the most practical route. Hopefully…
I must admit that I am still meeting my goal of experiencing the studies in a different learning environment abroad, which will help to broaden my knowledge overall, as opposed to not having experienced this.
It can be said that if you’re into surfing, then you should head to Hawaii. Well, the same holds true for geologist, in that if you are interested in geology, you head to Western Australia, the hoarder of the oldest rocks on the planet. The Geology program is very prominent here at Curtin University, but so is its sibling Mining, considering the fact that WA has a large hand involved in the contribution, implementation and usage of fossil fuels. So, as an environmental geology student, learning from the point of view of education based on mining and petroleum exploration, it has been difficult to “keep my head in the game.” Moral conflict or not, I must say that it is still important to expose oneself to one’s opposite point of view in any disagreement. It opens the doors for much more to be learned and accomplished.