| Submitted by
Angela Barker, March 16, 2003
When I left Toronto back on January 23, I shed my boots and coat at the airport in anticipation of my return to an Australian summer. The 30-hour flight via Vancouver, Seoul and Singapore was truly death on a bun, however, with the painful hours only alleviated by Singapore Airlines’ delightful in-seat entertainment system. Some genius realized that if all the passengers were watching their own movies or playing video games, then everyone wouldn’t be getting up to go to the bathroom at the same time. |
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There wasn’t much time to worry about critters, though, since we hit the ground running in our summer school courses. Since I am in an accelerated Masters program, I had to take two courses in summer school that involved attending lectures 9-4 each day for 10 days, followed by exams and assignments. |
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| The Burleigh club is lucky in that they have their own boats and are able to practice four times per week (although we are not expected to attend every practice). One club member owns a house that backs onto a lagoon, so everyone meets there and launches the boats from the backyard. You can’t miss his house since there is a trailer holding four dragon boats sitting in the front yard. I’m sure the neighbours are impressed. After the nationals, I hope to build up my running mileage which continues to suffer in this heat (it was 29 today, for example). I am running more often than last term, but have not yet put in any longer runs. I tested the waters today in my first race in almost a year, an 8K so-called “fun” run. I say “so-called” because the race attracted some pretty serious people, including some professional runners and triathletes. In my age category (30-39), the top three women all ran under 30 minutes. The overall winner ran sub-25. Even the kids were extreme, as one 11-year-old boy ran the 5K in just over 16 minutes. Beyond school and exercise, I continue to be both amused and bewildered by the perspective of life from Down Under. If you didn’t know (or care), the World Cup of Cricket has been going on in Southern Africa for the past month and you would have thought it was the second coming of Christ. My landlord and my new housemate, a Masters student from India, almost fell on the floor when I told them that, not only did Canada actually have a cricket team, but that they were competing in the World Cup. Commentators here called Canada a cricketing “minnow,” although they were quick to point out that the Canadian star player – who scored the fastest century (don’t ask) in World Cup history – plays professional cricket in Australia. In more serious international affairs, each household in Australia was mailed an anti-terrorism package by the federal government. Costing millions of dollars, it basically consisted of a brochure and fridge magnet called “Let’s look out for Australia: Protecting our way of life from a possible terrorist threat.” I guess after the bombing in Bali, terrorism has hit a little closer to home for most Australians. Most people seem to know someone, directly or indirectly, who was affected by the tragedy last October. (A student at my university was one of the victims.) There is still not much news from Canada, other than embarrassing pronouncements by the federal Liberals. I am just thankful for the Internet and my ability to read the newspapers and follow the Leafs online. (It’s going to kill me around playoff time, you know.) Well, since I can hear those bloody bats fighting in the trees outside, I know it’s about time to hit the hay, so I’ll sign off for now. I’ll report back after the national championships, if a shark doesn’t get me first. |
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