Getting Used to Things

Blog Entry #3: Friday January 10^th- Wednesday January 15^th

10^th: This was our first free day of the trip with no pre-scheduled activities and no class for today and tomorrow. Nearly half of the class took a one-night trip up to the Great Barrier Reef, but the flights were expensive and longer than I would have liked, and I have still not gotten time to myself to relax and unpack. So, today I met with the social worker who spoke at our class at her office at Weave. I sat in on a meeting they were finishing up and then she treated me to lunch at this really cute café. We had a really great time talking about our lives and how I got into psychology and then wanting to do social work! She had so much insight on the process of getting to where she is and also the tasks she is met with on a daily basis. We clicked really well and talked for a couple hours over lunch and even more on the car ride home where we stopped to look for directions and got in such a deep conversation, we completely forgot to look at the directions! Afterwards, she said her goodbyes and wished me luck on my journey into the world of social work and I am so glad got to meet her. Although the Great Barrier Reef would have been amazing, I’m so glad I met with her because it really got me excited and motivated about social work and my future career goals.

11^th: I went to bed late last night after watching some Netflix and relaxing in my hotel room by myself. My roommate went to the Great Barrier Reef and I woke up pretty late in the day to my roommate getting back from the airport. Later that day her and I went for Chinese food around the corner from the hotel and had really nice talk together. At night we hung out with some other people in the hotel room and then went out and had a blast! What a great two days off!

12^th: Today we had a Blue Mountains hiking tour with no class! We took a train for 2 hours and I slept the entire way! Once we got there the temperature was quite chilly and it felt nice to be out of the hot and humid weather. Our tour guide was very educated on so many categories of the environment, and I really learned a lot and enjoyed the tour. First, we took a bus trip and saw the valley area of the mountains where we saw wild wallabies and kangaroos in the distance! Then we went on an actual hike and learned about plants, animals and the indigenous bush people’s way of living may years prior. It was absolutely incredible and peaceful and educational! It was very foggy that day but, like I said, better than hot and humid. During the two-hour train ride home, I slept again. After the hike a group of us went to Darling Harbor and ate at a really yummy burger place with ice cream! Then we went to a playground and, like the children we are, played on the playground.

13^th: My roommate and I woke up late because the day prior was so tiring, so we got breakfast at a café by ourselves and then went to class from 2-5pm. Then after class everyone got together, and we went to the top of the Sydney Tower in the Westfield mall, which is the tallest building in Sydney. There was a restaurant and bar at the top where we got dinner and the whole thing slowly rotated so we got a 360 view of the city in about an hour! It was an incredible experience and definitely a must see in Sydney and only cost $25.

14^th: Today we took a tour of the brand-new psychology clinic at UT,S and it was so cool to see something like that up close. We learned about some of the inner working of a clinic like that and learned about procedures of psychological treatment. We also learned about the clinical psychology doctorate program at the school and how new yet successful it’s been. It was a really cool experience I didn’t think I would enjoy so much. Then we had class from 2-5pm and a well needed lazy evening with studying for the next exam.

15^th: Today was exam day number two! After the first exam, I got a hang of how best to study with the time I had. I made a study guide the night before and from when I got up until the test at 2pm, I studied in our classroom for a few hours straight. The tests were sort of difficult, so I knew I had to step up my game this time, and I changed my style of studying. After the test, a small group of us went out for the night to celebrate the end of test two out of three and the fact that we had our last free day the next day.