BRAVO!: Top Five Highlights of My Time in Sydney
I recently returned from Sydney, Australia, where I conducted speech-language pathology research at the University of Sydney through BRAVO!. I have been back from Sydney for about two weeks now, and I continue to reflect on the lovely 10 weeks that I spent there this summer (well, winter). Never have I felt more brave, confident, and independent than I did these past few months, and I can’t imagine a better city to have gotten to know for a few months. These are the top five things that I liked best about Sydney.
The People
I can’t talk about Sydney without praising my University of Sydney mentor, Dr. Sarah Masso. Dr. Masso is a great representative of her country as she is all the good things about Australians: easygoing, kind, and always down for a chat. I truly could not imagine a more welcoming, supportive person to have worked with. She helped me design a research project that would be mutually beneficial and important and was there to hear me out when R became frustrating (which, as anyone who has worked with R can tell you, is frequently). I was inspired by the care and genuine curiosity that drives her work and by how she balances all her life roles with her work. Outside of research, I also met some lovely people from all over the world (from Sri Lanka to Spain) and am so grateful for the connections I formed. I’ll miss the city of Sydney a lot, but I’ll miss its people even more.
The Laid Back Attitude
One thing that I hope to bring back with me from Sydney is Australians’ laid back attitude. The first place I noticed this was among the researchers I was meeting and working with. Academics are often portrayed as overly busy and hyper focused on work. The University of Sydney researchers I worked with, however, were easygoing and always happy to chat. It was a pleasure to see people balance doing such important work with taking time to socialize and rest. I also saw this easygoingness in other parts of my life there: the students I met all referred to their professors by their first names, it was no big deal if someone had to take a day off from work or was running late for a meeting, and there seemed to be less of a constant rush to the next task that I often feel at home. Overall, it was a breath of fresh air to be in Australia and just take things slowly for a while.
The Nature
One of Sydney’s most outstanding features is its nature. The city is full of lush greenery (which I, as a desert rat, love). I thoroughly enjoyed walking around the University of Sydney campus or residential neighborhoods and admiring the thriving trees and plants. The city is also full of well-kept parks full of people enjoying fresh air. Sydney’s coastline is famous for a reason: the beaches are vast and breathtaking. It was a pleasure to make the hour-and-a-half journey from my homestay to the coast and enjoy the sound of the waves crashing. I was also lucky enough to visit the Blue Mountains, a mountain range less than an hour’s drive from the city, a few times. I’m used to saguaro-filled mountains, but I quickly took to the tall trees and waterfalls.
The Cafe Culture
This has been surprising to many of the people who I’ve told about my trip, but Australia has really good coffee. I was told before I arrived that I should
have a go-to, 3-words-or-less order if I didn’t want to stick out too immediately as an American, so I decided to try a cappuccino on my second day in Sydney and never looked back. Sydney has hundreds of charming local cafes, and I made an effort to try as many as I could. Many of them also served delicious baked goods and made great places to sit and read or people-watch
The Public Transport
I was very impressed with Sydney’s public transport. As a native Tucsonan, organized, efficient public transport is not something I am familiar with. In Sydney, a bus, train, ferry, or combination of the three can get you just about anywhere that you need to go. And considering Sydney’s size, that is a huge feat. I used some form of public transport nearly daily during my time in Sydney, and while Sydneysiders have their complaints about the cost, I have nothing but good things to say about Sydney’s transport: it was reliable, clean, and (for the most part) quick. I just wish we had such a functional system in Tucson!