16
OPINION
The University Observer | 18 September 2012
Postcards from abroad: Canberra
Graduate in Focus: Paul Fennessy
Australia may be on the other side of the world, but Elizabeth O’Malley is discovering that her new home is not quite as different as she expected
G
iven it’s now just over two months since I arrived in Canberra, australia, I guess this is a good opportunity to assess how things are going. Just before I left, in an effort to be reassuring my mum said: “If anything, anything, goes wrong, remember we’re only thirty hours away,” as if offering to collect me from a party down the road. I don’t think I could physically be further away from home, yet things don’t feel so different. It’d probably be more weird if I went to somewhere in europe or america. Sure, the birds are exotic looking, and there’s different lingo and it barely ever rains here, but the basics are still the same. People here have the same sense of humour and the same love of drink and wear the same clothes. there’s no food I miss from home too much, although chocolate here tastes different because it’s added with something to stop it from melting, which has ruined Malteasers forever. even the law classes, although harder here, feel the same. It’s nice to have things feeling a little bit familiar when so far away. It was the change of venue, rather than the change of continent, that proved the biggest adjustment. Since I live within a commutable distance of UCD, it never made sense for me to move out. Obviously the commute from Dublin to Canberra is a little bit unreasonable so this move has meant living away from home for the first time. Just as I expected, it’s awesome. apart from the freedom and the proximity to class so you can have longer lie-ins, living on campus provides me with an extra social scene. My residence, burton and Garran hall, has the biggest percentage of exchange students on campus which meant that when I first arrived it was a good way to get to know new people, especially since our semester one is semester two over here so all the australians were already settled in. there’s a shared kitchen, apparently the biggest in the Southern hemisphere, which always has people around to talk to and have dinner with. there’s also a bar and lounge with pool tables, table tennis and foosball. there’s always something on during the week: sports, language classes, choir, coffee evenings, and the breakfast club are regular events. each week has something different too, from the musical, to random acts of Kindness Week, academic dinners where you get to talk to your professors over a three course meal, the b&G ball
and ‘Prom Gone Wrong’, which has been my favourite event so far. the cost of living here requires some getting used to. to put things in perspective, when I bought a sandwich and drink on arrival it came to $11 (€9). Pop tarts are $12. even ‘cheap’ shops like target and big W are prohibitively expensive when it comes to buying clothes. yet, when I first complained to australians about how expensive their country, they simply responded: “you should try living in Sydney.” the only thing that’s inexpensive here is drink, at least if you’re willing to slum it. Goon, or boxed wine, is a traditional student drink if only because it’s $9 (€7) for four and a half litres of the stuff. add in some mixer and it doesn’t even taste awful. On the other end of the scale, 70cl of vodka is $45 (€36). My standard drink on a night out, a cider, is $7 in cheaper places and $14 elsewhere. Understandably, you’re probably more likely to find me drinking goon from my plastic cup in the kitchen than buying drinks in a bar. I feel like I’ve done some of the things I was supposed to. On the train from Sydney to Canberra, I spotted a group of kangaroos. I’ve tried vegemite and it’s just as disgusting as I imagined. I learned that the australian word for scoring is pashing. I’ve fallen in love with tim tams; australian biscuits that taste like Penguin bars but better. I’ve been called Sheila by a bouncer. On my visit to Sydney, I saw the Opera house and harbour bridge and tasted my first macaroon from Zumbos, a chain of bakeries by the australian equivalent of Gordon ramsey. I think I’ll leave trying kangaroo meat and shrimp on the barbie for another while yet: I still have the rest of the year to fill with new experiences. ask anyone who goes for a year abroad and most will agree that the first month is hard. you miss home a lot, you have to start from scratch making friends and buy lots of things like kitchenware. you have to adjust to a different culture and the time difference. It’s been a challenge, but I’m so glad I came out and I’m looking forward to all the amazing things I’ve yet to experience.
“Despite for the most part really enjoying my degree, there was often a nagging feeling owing to the fear of impending graduation and having to find a proper job – a fear rivalled only by those swans at the lake. You did not want to piss them off.”
Those who take advantage of the extensive opportunities on offer in college are far more likely to thrive in the outside world, writes Paul Fennessy
S
peaking on Miriam O’Callaghan’s radio show recently, acclaimed comedian and UCD graduate Dara Ó briain put it best when he described college as “a chance to experiment with all different kinds of activity and see which one most appealed to you.” having left UCD in 2011, I was one of those extremely fortunate people who walked into a paid internship that turned into a job shortly afterwards. even more remarkably still, I landed a job in journalism; an impossible task nowadays, if anyone who has ever spoken at a student journalist conference is to be believed. It seems simply unconsciously following Dara’s aforementioned advice is how I got this position. back during my time in UCD, I vividly remember the words drawn on the top part of one of the toilets under the main restaurant, which wryly read: ‘Get your arts degree here’. as someone who studied arts (english major, Psychology minor), it was always annoying when these types of jokes were bandied about, inferring that undertaking a degree in this area was somehow a waste of time, or less worthy than other academic pursuits. however, despite for the most part really enjoying my degree (particularly those godlike lectures and seminars from the legend that is Frank McGuinness), there was often a nagging feeling that despite an impending graduation, I would not be able to find a proper job. It was a fear rivalled only by those swans at the lake. you do not want to piss them off. after five years in UCD, including one spent doing a master’s in american literature and one editing this paper, I was finally dragged kicking and screaming into the big bad world. One of my main initial concerns was doing job interviews, which weren’t always my strong point. however, having thankfully spent many a previous summer attending hopelessly awkward and ultimately fruitless interviews for temporary positions that I was thoroughly under-qualified for (dog-walking being my favourite case in point), these previous unsavoury experiences put me in good stead when it mattered most. they were valuable, if only because they taught me that failing in such situations hardly represented something akin to the end of humanity as we know it, as my hyperbole-prone younger self had initially suspected. Moreover, during my time in college, I even occasionally had the benefit of interviewing others for various positions, during sabbatical elections, for example. among other things, this taught me that they could be just as hopelessly ill-prepared and nervous as I sometimes was. Consequently, within days of leaving UCD, I secured an interview for a journalism job as a contributor for theScore. ie, which is essentially the sports section of theJournal.ie. having spent countless hours travelling to obscure locations for hockey match reports, in addition to undertaking numerous other sportsrelated endeavours for this paper, I knew I had the necessary level of experience required for the job. nonetheless, I still ensured that my preparation before the interview was meticulous, spending several hours exhaustively studying the website and contemplating how I could help sustain and enhance its reputation. Perhaps it was my astonishing insights on the sporting world, or maybe it was myself and the interviewers agreeing that The Wire was the greatest thing since sliced bread (non-sliced bread was a thing once, right?), but somehow I managed to convince them to take me on, and I’ve been able to indulge my passion for ludicrous headline puns ever since.
looking back on my time at UCD, I think the best decision I made was dedicating a considerable portion of my time to an extra-curricular activity. College makes certain people come close to turning into Jack torrance (of the Shining fame), as they find themselves on the verge of insanity on account of the unwise decision to focus more or less exclusively on their academic work, or in some cases, on doing little other than getting as much use out of their Coppers Gold Card as possible. availing of some of the many fantastic non-academic opportunities UCD has to offer is imperative, particularly for those who have courses where the hours aren’t especially intense. I knew of many people who would sooner jump in the lake and endure the resulting tetanus shot, than bother to partake in any of the multitude of extra-curricular activities on offer. Such an attitude won’t impress your future prospective employers, many of whom will seek evidence to ensure you’re not some sort of weird hermit who does nothing but study while simultaneously cursing humanity. even if you’ve no interest in pursuing a career in journalism or acting, getting involved with the paper or joining Dramsoc is likely to open up so many interesting doorways. If I had opted against doing the former, I would never have had the chance to interview tommy tiernan, John C. McGinley or Sonia O’Sullivan, nor would I have developed so many long-lasting friendships. Woody allen once famously said that 80% of his success in life derived from just “showing up”. the same rule applies to college: 80% of your success there will depend on showing up for whatever it is you’re passionate about. Woody allen also married his step-daughter though, so maybe don’t always look to him as a role model. Paul Fennessy currently works as a freelance journalist with TheScore.ie. He attended UCD from 2006 to 2011.