Home!

And how good it is.

Also, Project Valor IT is back on.  Go Navy, Beat Army!

Whats to come

I have finished my Thesis presentation and all my class work, and now just two exams stand before me.  So between soccer, packing, studying, and moving things, I'll entertain everyone with some more posting.  Some of these posts have written themselves in my head over the past week or so, generally in the shower.  Turns out its winter Down Under, and the only warm places in my house are the shower and my bed.  So in the interest of not being in bed all day, I shower.  Similarly, I eat a lot of oatmeal.  Not because I am necessarily hungry, or worried about my cholesterol, but because oatmeal is warm.  Which is all silly, because, really, its not even cold here

So to motivate me into actually writing all these thoughts down, here's what I plan on posting about:

Australia:  Her Majesty's Sovereign Nation
Australia:  Blokes and Sheilas
School and Things Webb Never Taught Me    (Warning:  Massive block of text!)
A Million Miles From Here   (Warning:  Massive block of text!)
The Exchange Student Anxiety Spiral
Blogging

I think I'll sticky this post and update the other posts as links as I write them.  Or maybe not.  We'll see how much packing is getting done.

UPDATE:  All done with finals!  Just a soccer game and a flight home to go.  Last two will go up on Tuesday probably.

UPDATE 2:  Just hours to go now!

Blogging

The end of my trip brings on a conundrum of sorts.  What is to become of all this.  What are blogs, what has this blog meant to me, and where does it go from here.

The Exchange Student Anxiety Spiral

During the two weeks of orientation that they made me come here for originally, and again in the end of studies brochure that they told us to pick up, there is something called the exchange student anxiety timeline or something like that.  I work in spirals, being a navarch and all.  But it goes something like this:  excitement, anxiety, [change location], excitement, home sickness, acceptance, excitement, anxiety, [change location], excitement, exchange country sickness, acceptance.  I always looked at that, and thought sure ok.  But having been most of the way through, I’m not pretty ok with it.  So much so that I won’t even say nah, not me, I won’t miss it one bit.

A Million Miles From Here

I have lost track of the number of times I have been asked, why here, why Adelaide.  When I first got here, I sort of made things up, I really didn’t have a good idea.  There were lots of reasons, some that were my own and weren’t worth explaining.  But as I have answered the question more and more, the answer that I have come to give, and even believe goes something like this.

School and Things Webb Never Taught Me

So, after a year and a half, 8 courses, one Thesis (sorry, Research Project), and only a handful of all nighters, I am now a Master of Marine Engineering.  That’s what I came for.  That’s what I’ll leave with.  (Actually, I wrote the travel post before this one.  That’s really what I’ll leave with.  But I digress.)  So, what did SNAME, ASNE, time, sweat and a really crappy American dollar buy me?

Australia: Blokes and Sheilas

First off, in full disclosure, I really don't know that many Australians very well.  Australia is a very young nation and has a lot of immigrants.  The people I lived with at the Village were all foreginers, not even immigrants.  Alot of the people I worked with or went to school with that I actually had interaction with were generally European or British.  I was told last weekend that Brits don't count as Europeans.  The nearby Brit fully agreed, with relief to not be counted among that continent.  Sure.  Ok.