Aussie Trip Day 2 (06/04/2022)

     The Weather App said it was going to rain, but that wasn’t going to deter our plans. The day started early with a long walk to Victoria University, as the group had high anticipation for our first full day down under. Drifting through the streets of Melbourne, our group of 12 tracked along and after about 30 minutes had reached our destination. The University’s beautiful brand new building towers as part of the city skyline and was our first destination. The professor led us to a classroom on the fifth floor and started the lecture by honoring the aboriginal culture. The engaging lecture covered everything from the 60,000-year history of life on the island to the rules of Australian rules football and even included the comedy of Jimmy Rees and a reference to the song WAP. My knowledge of these topics (except for WAP) was quite limited coming into the day so I sat in the classroom as an elementary school child with a clean slate and an open mind. I digested what I could and thought I came away a little bit smarter, which is a goal of mine every day on the trip. 
    The day then continued with lunch in a typical Italian restaurant, in the middle of a back alley, definitely where you would find a high-end restaurant in the U.S, right? While the marinara sauce might have had a little too much garlic, the students joked around the table as the bond between the students, most of whom came off the trip as complete strangers, continued to grow. 
    With lunch in the rearview mirror, the group walked to a local park where we began our lesson of Australian rules football as we started by running drills. Damion, our instructor, seemingly had all the students incredibly engaged as we learned the game. His positive coaching style and playful and competitive drills made Australian Rules Football a familiar game that both made sense and was quite fun. Coming into the day the majority of us had never even heard of this game and now we were playing it in a beautiful Australian park. I won’t say we were necessarily good at the immensely skillful and difficult game, but there were certainly improvements made by every single one of us.



         A bunch of tired students continued, on our day, to the local Victorian market to shop and potentially find something to eat. Some bought Koala backpacks, others bought crocodile belts and knock-off NBA jerseys, and a few even bought a kangaroo scrotum keychain. Yes, you read that right. Me, I just got a nice-looking cantaloupe and enjoyed some fresh fruit. 
The conclusion of the night was a trip to an Australian Footy game, which was fitting given we had spent the majority of our day learning and playing the game. Meat pies and screaming fans made the game quite the experience. The group sat in the upper level looking down upon a field three times that of a football field and began to understand the intrigue of the game that consumes the lives of many Australians. 
It was supposed to rain today, but that didn’t happen, and dare I say the weather was actually quite pleasant, certainly better than upstate New York in its winter months. 

-Sam B.

Day 1 in Australia (6/3/22)

Today was the first official day of the trip. Most of us made it to the hotel by noon and were ready to get started (sorry Jules and Eli). We were all excited to finally be in Australia and get the trip underway. 

We got started right away and began walking towards the MCG, Melbourne Cricket Grounds. Since most people had just gotten off the plane, we decided to stop at Nando's before we got too far. The food was good and gave us all time to talk to one another.

Once we actually got to the MCG, we started with a tour of the grounds and its facilities. Our tour guide, Malcolm, was an extremely passionate 50 year member of the Melbourne Cricket Club. We started off by walking around the ground level of the stands before being able to walk down to the massive field itself. After seeing the field we went down to see the team and umpire facilities while also learning a lot of the differences between the preparations for cricket and Aussie Rules. Next, we went back up to the second level of the stadium and got to actually walk through the members areas as well as the broadcasting booths. This was really special and interesting to see and hear about as the areas are exclusive. After that, we ended the tour back on the ground level and were handed off to go see the museum.

The museum was also interesting as it provided a lot of history about the grounds, cricket, the AFL, and Australian sport in general. We met Wally, another tour guide of the grounds, and he was nice enough to show us and explain the design of cricket balls. The museum also was unique as it was extremely interactive and kept us engaged.

After finishing our main itinerary item for the day we walked back to the hotel. But on our way back we stopped at Hosier Lane where there is a ton of really cool graffiti art. The last thing we did for the day was to get dinner and go out and walk around Melbourne to hang out as a group.

After a long and eventful day, most of us were beat and ready to go to sleep so we went to bed early to be ready to go for tomorrow

Australia Arrival Day 0 (6/2/22)

For some of us, today was the day we finally made it to Australia. A couple of us decided to fly in a day before the program officially begins to get adjusted to the time change and begin exploring our first destination: Melbourne.

After a long day of travel, we arrived in Melbourne late this morning. The main goal was simple; make it through the day. To fight off jet lag and get used to the time change, it was important to keep busy and stay awake as long as possible to get on the right sleep schedule. What better way to keep busy than to walk around this beautiful city and see what it has to offer?

We arrived at the hotel to drop off our luggage and immediately turned right around and walked back out the door. With very little idea of what we would be getting ourselves into, we picked a direction and started walking. Almost immediately it became clear that lunch would be a top priority as we walked past countless restaurants, each one seemingly better than the last. After finally stopping to eat some hot chicken sandwiches and wings, we decided to make our way back to the hotel.

That didn't last long. As we sat in the hotel room we could feel the long flights catching up to us, if we didn't do something soon we would fail our main goal. So once again, we went out, this time heading in the opposite direction. After about an hour of walking and using their free transit system, we found ourselves heading for the Melbourne Skydeck.

The Melbourne Skydeck is on the 88th floor of Eureka Tower and boasts incredible 360-degree views of the city. Before riding the elevator to the top we experienced a 10-minute virtual reality tour of Melbourne, including courtside views of the Australian Open and full immersion in the stands of the Melbourne Cricket Ground for an Australian Rules Football game. We then made our way up to the top, where we were in awe of the wonderful sight of Melbourne at night. The pictures do not do it justice. We sat up there for nearly an hour as it finally sank in that we're really here. All of the anticipation and we finally made it.

We eventually made our way back to the hotel and decided to call it a night, eager for the program to begin tomorrow.

 - Morgen R.

Pre-Trip Anticipation (5/29/22)

Finally. The day has almost arrived. We are about to head to the great country of Australia. For some of us, this was years in the making. COVID-19 hit the world hard in the year 2020, when the last trip was scheduled, and efforts to get the trip going in 2021 fell short. With the world finally opening back up (at least a little bit), the time has come for us to fly on over.

The members on the trip are all from Syracuse University. Prior to the trip, we completed write-ups on a sport unique to Australia's history and culture prior to their arrival in the country. The sports included cricket, a bat and ball game similar to the United States' popular game of baseball. Additionally, some wrote on Australian Rules Football. Sometimes played on a modified cricket ground, "footy" is the most watched sport in Australia. We will all have a unique knowledge of one of the sports coming in and look forward to learning more about others on the trip.

Additionally, we will be immersed in the history and culture of Australia. Sometimes these intertwine with sports--often humorously described as Australia's national religion-- but Australia offers more than just that. By the end of the trip, students will appreciate all the gifts Australia has to offer.

We're led by Professor Burton, tenured Sport Management professor at Syracuse University and former commissioner of the Australian Basketball Association. He's led this trip a couple times before, notably in 2014, 2017, and 2018. He's excited to go back and share the experience of a country he absolutely adores with the group of us.

Over the course of the trip, we will be going to Sydney, Melbourne, and Cairns for a few days. One of the students will be blogging about our activities each day that will intertwine our three themes of sport, history, and culture.

We're looking forward to you following us on our adventure! 

- Preston K.