Gentle waves

Rocky cliffs

There are no privately-owned beaches in Australia – beaches are public places for all to enjoy. Australians make use of the coast as a destination for relaxation and fun. Many people live close enough to a beach to visit regularly, and others use the beach for annual holidays. Popular destinations range from crowded city beaches and popular holiday spots, to quieter beaches located in coastal national parks. Some people go to the beach simply for the sun and surf. Others go to sail, parasail, fish, snorkel, scuba dive and beach comb. Coastal sight-seeing is a very popular pursuit for Australians and international tourists as there are many scenic coastal drives with well appointed lookouts.

The horizon

Attempting a dive

Beaches around the country attract large crowds for celebrations such as New Year’s Eve and Australia Day. City beaches such as Manly in Sydney provide entertainment and fireworks on New Year’s Eve, and on Australia Day many beaches host citizenship ceremonies and provide family entertainment. It has become traditional for international visitors who are in Sydney at Christmas time to go to Bond Beach where up to 40,000 people visit on Christmas Day

Surf’s up!

Keeping the sharks away!

Enough about that, the beaches here are more lively than the ones we have there. The waves are really wild here and the beaches are usually so crowded with people that its hard to find a place to even sit. The Aussies really love their beaches so if you guys come to Australia these beaches are sure must on your list.

The crowd

A bridge!

The famous Opera House

Being here for the first time I just couldn’t see myself missing all the fun so I joined a couple of my friends and started our day with a morning mass in St Mary’s Cathedral, one of the biggest cathedrals in Australia. This cathedral will be hosting the WORLD YOUTH DAY 2008 which will be held this year in SYDNEY during the month of JULY. About 500,000 youths from all around the world are expected to be in Sydney to celebrate this event together with the Pope. More about that in my future posts.

After the mass we headed straight to The Sydney Easter Show held at the Olympic Park. This was a circus kind of a show and was a great attraction among children who were there for the cute animals and for the teenagers who were just there to hang out with their partners. A colourful event I must say.

At night was when the fun began. The Hillsong Church organised an Easter Concert at the Sydney Convention Centre and around 30 thousand people gathered there to listen to songs and sketches by our very own Guy Sebastian and some other Hillsong band members. This band has actually performed in Sunway Convention Centre 2 years back. This event was truly amazing and being a Hindu here i have to say that I never once felt that I was out of place. It was cool….

UNSW International Square

Now a little about my university. UNSW is actually one of the top universities in Australia and people here rate it as in the top 3. I don’t know how true it is but from my personal experience I know that it is. The university is actually very big and it takes almost half an hour to walk from one end to the other or simply a 12 minutes bus ride.

Clock Tower

Located in the heart of Sydney, UNSW has the highest number of International students enrolled compared to any other Australian universities. I am in the main campus which is called Kensington campus. The buildings in UNSW have a modern and post second world war design but the interesting part is not just about the exterior but also the interior where it is computerized. There are no switches and everything is controlled by a sensor. When you walk inside the class, everything just switches on by itself. Cool isn’t it?

The Science Lawn

It has all facilities on campus such as a 14 floor library, a pub, 6 cafeterias of local and international food, sports and lifestyle centre with all types of courts, fields, swimming pools and a gym.

My Faculty

Lecture theaters are usually big and can accommodate up to 200 students at a time but the classrooms for tutorials are smaller as they are designed to accommodate about 25 students. Lectures are about 2 hours and an hour for tutorials so usually you might have around twelve hours a week. The people are the main highlight. They are generally very nice and polite and they give you a good feeling when you go somewhere.

Library Lawn

Thats all from Sydney for now. I will write more about the education system here soon. Till then, cheers!!!!!!!!