G'day, Mate
I took my older son, Andrew, to Australia today. At least I got him as far as Dulles International where I turned him over to the Australian airlines who promise to deliver him safe and sound in Sydney about 8 AM Sunday morning, about 4 PM Saturday my time. He'll spend New Year's Eve in Sydney harbor.
He's in Australia taking a course on "Engineering in an International Setting," part of the University of Maryland's winter "mini-mester". He'll be there 3 weeks. I saw his class schedule and there are visits to local manufactories and business establishments. Some work is involved. But he's also finding time to surf Bondi Beach, fly to Cairns in northeast Australia to dive the Great Barrier Reef, and visit some rain forests. The lucky dog.
I never did anything like this when I was a college student. International study was much less common back then than it is now. It seems like every college-age kid I know is spending time abroad as part of his or her studies. I just hung around Ann Arbor the whole time I was in school.
I paid his airfare and some of his other expenses. In return, I made him promise he'll accurately identify and list all birds he sees down under. That's my souvenir. I hope he gets to hear a laughing kookaburra and see a wild kangaroo.
What a great boondoggle he's on.
K-
He's in Australia taking a course on "Engineering in an International Setting," part of the University of Maryland's winter "mini-mester". He'll be there 3 weeks. I saw his class schedule and there are visits to local manufactories and business establishments. Some work is involved. But he's also finding time to surf Bondi Beach, fly to Cairns in northeast Australia to dive the Great Barrier Reef, and visit some rain forests. The lucky dog.
I never did anything like this when I was a college student. International study was much less common back then than it is now. It seems like every college-age kid I know is spending time abroad as part of his or her studies. I just hung around Ann Arbor the whole time I was in school.
I paid his airfare and some of his other expenses. In return, I made him promise he'll accurately identify and list all birds he sees down under. That's my souvenir. I hope he gets to hear a laughing kookaburra and see a wild kangaroo.
What a great boondoggle he's on.
K-
He'll be there long enough to overcome the jet lag. I envy him. G'day Mate, indeed.
Very belatedly: The kookaburras are amazing. I took one of my kids down there to visit my brother and his family, and we did an off-season trip to the Mount Kosciusko area. There are vast forests of snow gums, a variety of what we call eucalyptus, on the flanks of the mountain. We went for a long hike one day and passing through a thicket we set off about a half-dozen kookaburras at once. Beautiful birds, too. We saw a few wild kangaroos -- some of them alive -- and one emu off in the distance. More intriguingly: an echidna.