Australia : My love/hate relationship with the university system

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I have a friend, I have more than one friend actually, but this friend in particular is in debt. Like many American coege graduates, he has student loans, and like many other American students, his loans cheated on him with Sallie Mae, but I’ll get back to that.

Paying for University

Most Australian universities offer Commonwealth supported places for students, subsidized study so that students pay only ‘student contributions’ (between $600 and $1600 per study unit), which is payable through the HECS-HELP loan scheme.  HECS is a scheme with virtually no interest, and is only payable once the student is earning over $49,095 per year. Then, your payment is around 5-6% of your income per year, depending on your salary. Awesome, right? Additionally, foreign income (if you live/work overseas) doesn’t count towards the income threshold.  My HECS debt sits around $30,000 – for a 5 year degree.

 Paying for food/rent/etc

Most students I know, work around 20 hours each week whilst they’re studying, averaging $20 per hour – $400 per week before tax. If you can’t work, or choose not to, and you meet certain requirements, students can be eligible for Youth Allowance payments. This is a scheme to provide students with a small income on a fortnightly basis, with the amount varying between different circumstances. This is based on parents income (if you’re under 22), and most of the students I know receive $300-$400 per fortnight. 

Now, back to the Americans. Most of the Americans I know have a minimum of $70,000 in debt. Debt that demands payment as soon as you finish graduating. These payments, aren’t based on income, and really don’t seem to be affordable in the slightest. So, graduates need to find jobs day 1 out of school, and work to make their $200-$800 monthly student loan repayments, whilst earning $8-$20 per hour.

For the Americans that know the Australian system, I feel there’s a lot of resentment, since we (as Australians) seem to have a freedom the Americans don’t. We have money whilst we’re studying (even if it’s not much), we have little real debt after graduating.

However, most Australian students live at home during university (saving on rent and food), we work from year 10 or so onward in part-time jobs, and we travel up to an hour to get to each university class. I spent my first two years of university at home, and the next two years in dorms and share-houses. Whilst we’re really fortunate to have great government support, and no student loans, we work for it, we live with our parents for it, and we pay $8 a day for parking for a 2 hour class.

North America : 2013 Travel Plans

Posted in America, Countries, Planning by

Since I’ve been booking a whole bunch of travel plans I thought I’d share the details for the end of the year.

I’m flying from Sydney (Australia) to Nadi (Fiji) to Los Angeles (America) with Air Pacific. I’ve flown with them before and whilst it’s not the greatest airline, it’s the cheapest I’ve found (around $650 for that one-way leg).

I’ve got two days in California (either San Fransisco or Los Angeles), before I join a friend on this contiki trip for a week.

The tour finishes in Vegas, so we decided to fly in some other girls for a weekend in vegas. We’re staying at a few different hotels, like this one…

I have a week of life yet to plan over Christmas but then I’m headed to Montreal and Quebec for a New Years Eve snow trip to Mont Tremblant.

And that, my friends, is the first month’s plans.

Learning : Science

Posted in Learning by

I remember a really old friend once got annoyed with me because I told him I didn’t care to know how things, like machines worked. I believed that as important as science and engineering was, people who were passionate about those topics should be the ones learning them, not me.

Over last Summer/Winter (depending on which hemisphere you’re in) I spent months with a family who are pretty darn into science, and I felt like an idiot. I didn’t understand any of their jobs and research, and I couldn’t participate in any of their science discussions. This semester at University, I had to choose between the following subjects for my ‘Global Development and Environment’ Major.

PHIL258 Ethics and the Environment 8 Autumn
STS 250 Social Aspects of Genetics and Biotechnology 8 Autumn
STS 300 The Environment Context: Imagining a Zero Carbon Future 8 Autumn

I had previously taken ‘Ethics and the Environment’ and loved it. For once I found a subject where my philosophy background and love of talking (or arguing) put me at an advantage. I remember sitting in a class watching a friend give his presentation on … something or other, and I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. He’s was studying a double degree in physics and environmental science.

It wasn’t that I never studied science, because it was compulsory in year 7 through 9 in school. But there was always more exciting things to be done, and as a performing arts student, I was always missing class for rehearsals. I was introduced to science as something I had to learn, rather than something interesting I should learn.

I love my genetics and biotech class, because it doesn’t matter that I don’t understand chemistry or biology, but rather that I have a general understanding of the application of things like stem cell research. I don’t feel unintelligent when other students are talking about molecular genetics or gene mapping, because the class is designed for both science and non-science background students. We are encouraged to explore understandings of each concept, and communicate with science background students to share our knowledge.

So next semester, I’m taking three science classes, but they’re not biology, or introduction to chemistry. I’m taking ‘New Biosciences’, ‘Environment in crisis’ and ‘Methods and practices in science’, because that’s the kind of science I like – the moral, social, political and legal applications of science. I’m not saying basic science isn’t important, it is, and this has encouraged me so much to build a better foundation, and so I’ve been self-learning about the the proton, neutron and electron, and the periodic table. But this one’s still my favourite.

 

Planning : Flights

Posted in America, Countries, Planning by

I’ve flown the Australia to America route a few times now, and I’ve learnt that there is a huge difference between the airlines – bigger than I ever thought. 

I use Skyscanner to search for cheaper airlines/dates, since you can search by a whole month, or even year, and you can search by a whole country, rather than one airport. You can do searches like ‘LAX’ to ‘United States’, for the month of ‘August’. It’s magical. I always check with STA Travel and Student Universe, because there are often student discounts.

The cheapest airline from Sydney – LAX is Air Pacific, but it has a stopover in Nadi, Fiji. The best airline for the route is definitely Qantas but it’s usually 1.5x the cost of Air Pacific. Delta is pretty good as well. A one way costs up to $1500, but there often comes up return flights for $999. 

This time, I opted for Sydney – Nadi – LAX with Air Pacific, at just $545!!!

North America : BOOKED!!!

Posted in America, Countries, Planning by

At the end of the year I’m headed back the United States (Third time’s the charm). This time, I’m headed to a bunch of different places…


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In the past, I’ve booked trips last minute and changed my mind numerous times, so it’s been awesome being able to really plan out an awesome trip with some awesome ladies.

I’m going to document as much of my planning as possible without giving too much away – BUT I will tell you that my Sydney to Los Angeles Flight was super dooper cheap.

The Outdoors : White Water Kayaking

Posted in The Outdoors by

I had some canoeing experience as a child, and occasionally went kayaking as a teenager, but I hadn’t heard of white water kayaking until I went rafting in New Zealand, and then saw this video:

How could you not want to learn this?

So off I headed to Penrith Whitewater Stadium…
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I’ve learnt an entire new language of strokes and kayaking language, but most of all, I learnt that because I am a girl, and therefore more flexible in my hips, it was a lot easier for me to do a ‘hip-flick’, one of the crucial movements for most rescue moves. It also meant I could lean a lot further without flipping.

I struggled with rolling, the process of flipping yourself from upside down, under water, to above the water, and trust me, I tried many, many times. I hit a brick wall, where I was beginning to feel like no matter what I did, I couldn’t get my body above the water, and that can be really scary when you feel trapped underwater. I had decided that maybe it wasn’t for me since my muscles killed, my head felt full of water and I was feeling really stressed (and awful that I had given up).

Then today, I watched this TED video

If you can’t be bothered watching it, it’s about a guy who got into Yo-Yo-ing, and became a world champion, but realized the world didn’t appreciate his skills. So he took up performance classes and dance, to better his Yo-Yo-ing. It made me realize that this thing that if I pause whitewater kayaking, and focus on building up my upper-body strength, swimming strength, and water confidence, I’m still working on whitewater kayaking, and that I might even be better in the long run for it.

Gear: Sleeping Bags

Posted in Planning, Stuff I'm taking by

For Christmas 2011, I was travelling in Te Anau, New Zealand with a close friend , and we both decided to buy each other just one present. So, a few days before Christmas, we drove into town and gave each other an hour or so to find something for the other person. I had already decided I was buying a sleeping bag, and headed to an outdoor gear store on the main street, but I accidentally saw my friend leaving the store.

When I walked in, I asked the sales assistant what he had purchased – a sleeping bag. So on Christmas day, my friend was shocked when both of us opened sleeping bags.

I had gotten Kiwi Camping’s Bounty, at less than 2kgs, and -7 to -12 celsius temp comfort range. The idea was that since I often was cold at night, the temperature range was the most important specification considered. When purchasing my friend’s bag, I looked at the packed size and weight as the most important.

The sleeping bag has never let me down warmth-wise, but I can’t get over the large packed size. I’m not sure if this is enough to set me back the price of a new one, but it’s worth looking into.

Obviously packed size and weight are important, but so is insulation and temperature range. Packed size and weight is pretty dependent on the type of insulation; down or synthetic. Down is light and compressible, but expensive. Synthetic is warmer, less compressible but cheaper. It’s a bit of give and take.

I love my current temperature rating, since it doesn’t get colder than that in Australia anyway, and I’m not using it for a winter sleeping bag (where I’d recommend getting -10 degrees celsius and lower range). A lot of women’s model sleeping bags are now made slightly lower range in terms of temperature than men, as well as being shorter, wider at the hips and narrower at the shoulders.

My contenders so far:

1. REI’s Igneo at 800-fill down, waterproof, able to be ‘lowered’ to -13 degrees celsius and sits around 350 bucks. Outdoor Gear Lab Review

2. Sierra DriDown Zissou 6 Degree 860gs packed weight, temperature to -14 degrees.

3. Mountain Hardwear Phantom 15  800-fill down, 930gs packed weight, temperature to -9 degrees. Outdoor Gear Lab Review

4. Katabatic Gear Palisade 900gs packed weight. Completely sold out at the moment.

The Sierra DriDown Zissou 6 Degree is my favourite so far, with the Katabatic Gear Palisade right behind it (it keeps getting awesome reviews, selling out, and winning awards).

Any recommendations? What’s your favourite sleeping bag?