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Adventures Down Under

By Nora_Wolcott

After a long week full of lab reports and looming exams, I needed a vacation. Luckily, that's just what I got, with a long weekend spent in Canberra, the capital of Australia. You may be wondering why I didn't venture into one of Australia's more well known cities, say, Sydney or Melbourne. This is because I went to Canberra for a very specific reason, to celebrate my cousin's 21st birthday. I had thought that, because by 21 in Australia you have already been legal to drink for 3 years, this birthday would not be as big a milestone as in the US. I thought wrong. For Australians the 21st is like a sweet 16th, obligating a huge party complete with family and speeches. This was a stoke of luck for me, as I rarely get to see my Australian family (whom I love dearly), and to have them all in the same place at one time offered a great opportunity to see everybody.

I flew for Berra very early Friday morning, a 4am wakeup almost made up for by the smooth flights that took me from Auckland, through Sydney to Canberra. While I have spent a fair bit of time in Melbourne, where my family is based, I have never visited the capital city. I was in for a treat, Canberra was a tight-knit college town with beautiful galleries and museums, specifically the National Gallery and War Memorial, which I had a great time touring. I also got a look at the Parliament House, an architecturally striking building and the meeting place for the Australian Parliament. The weather was unfortunately gloomy, and a good 20 degrees colder than Auckland, a fact I had not bargained for. New Zealand's small size as an island keeps temperatures stable, with summers in the high 70's and winters in the 60's. Meanwhile, Canberra is in the center of a large continent and experiences real seasons, with summers upwards of 100 and winters down in the 40's.

The weather didn't stop us from having a great celebration of my cousin Adela's 21st, and I had the best night dancing, drinking and having conversations that inevitably devolved into American politics. After an evening of reconnecting with the family I so rarely see, and reminiscing about the years past, us college kids made our way to the local dive Mooseheads. The joint is such a staple of the city, that the man I sat next to on the plane ride back, after hearing I was coming from Canberra, asked only "did you go to Mooseheads?". The next day was sunny and felt more like the country I knew, and was spent watching Adela play footie before I had to board a plane ride back home.  All in all it was an excellent trip, and I hope I can make it down under sometime soon in the upcoming years.