The Truth about a Sunburned Country

A few years ago, maybe 10, maybe more, it became a big thing in environmental circles to talk about the ozone layer being depleted. A large hole in the ozone layer had formed over the Antarctic continent, leaving much of the southern hemisphere, specifically Australia, exposed to high levels of UV rays.

It’s one thing to read about things like this, but it’s a different thing entirely to experience firsthand. Let me confirm the rumors friends. Australia has no ozone layer. After 3 days of being here I am almost as tan as I was after 8 weeks of a summer that had me outside more than half the day every day and during which I barely ever applied sunscreen (don’t tell my mother). This time it is not for a lack of sunscreen! I’ve put sunscreen on at least 6 times each day, and yet I’ve still managed to burn some. During the initial, compulsory, typically boring safety briefing at the beginning of the pre-orientation program they listed sunburn as the most dangerous thing to look out for, and they have sent multiple kids to the hospital for burns in past years. After our beach trip yesterday a lot of kids were pretty red, but fortunately not quite that bad.

That being said though, it’s not as if I’ve actually been avoiding the sun. Rather, it has been quite the opposite. I’ve been busy soaking up enough sunrays to compensate for the past 5 blizzards, both for me and for my 3 other family members. The first day it was actually quite cold and rainy, and the two days after that the mornings were very chilly but it warmed up in the afternoon. Today is lovely. It’s around 24°C and quite sunny. Our program just ended and I’m on the balcony of my new friend’s apartment waiting until I can move into my semester dorm this afternoon.

The program was useful in that I now have a better sense of where the university is in relation to the city, and I have some idea of how to get around the city and what types of places I’d like to explore more. Overall though, it wasn’t necessarily my thing. It bore a heavy resemblance to my first Camp Yale where everyone is awkwardly talking to everyone else without getting beyond “What is your name, what college are you in?” because nobody really knows who they want to be friends with, and there is an excessive amount of partying, or at least more than I find enjoyable, with very few alternatives. We did a lot of fun stuff and I have a few friends now from the program, but I am looking forward to the semester starting when I can actually meet people who actually live here, as the program was more than 70% Americans. I’ve got this week to myself to go where I want and get things in order (such as Target runs…yes they have Target here. They have pretty much all of the same stores here except that Burger King is called Hungry Jack’s), then another orientation, and then classes finally start February 28th. That is, I believe, a week before I would normally begin spring break.

My favorite part of the program though by far, was the beach trip we took yesterday. We had a short surfing lesson and then got to try in for a little while before it was the next group’s turn. It is so much fun and I am so terrible at it! Both of those simply tell me that I need to try it more, and I’m hopefully going to do the surf trip that the MUSAEX (Melbourne University Study Abroad and Exchange) is organizing for us study abroad-ers in 3 weeks.