Sydney Life

I feel very happy here in la la land. I think I’ve settled in nicely now, forged out a little niche, wriggled around and gotten comfy. But I’m very conscious of not falling into a routine – I want to explore as many new things as possible with a childlike curiosity. Be as a sponge – soak everything in. But a sponge can only fill up so much without releasing…so here goes.

Midterm season has just ended. Midterms are like our end of semester exams back in Australia, except they happen once or twice during the quarter (in addition to a final exam). I found myself sitting a two-hour test after only three weeks of class! The workload here isn’t greater – it’s just spread out more across the semester. On the whole, I’m thoroughly enjoying my classes – in particular my Neuroscience course. I recently learnt about a brain-machine interface, which translates brain activity in monkeys into movement of a robotic arm without the monkey physically moving. I’ve really benefited from seeing how research is conducted on the other side of the world and the experience has certainly helped me solidify the direction I want to take when I come back to Australia.

On a less serious note, Halloween has just come and gone. As expected, people take Halloween fairly seriously over here. There is a huge costume shop next to campus, which has been buzzing with activity over the last few months. I was desperately trying to justify buying a banana costume (surely I could pull it out at least a couple of times a year…), but it’s so difficult to move about when you’re encapsulated in a giant fruit. You end up waddling around awkwardly behind everyone else. So I opted for a more conservative batman mask, which worked out fine. There was a great atmosphere on the night of Halloween. I saw detectives and doctors, cats and Cleopatras. But the best Halloween experience came a few days beforehand. There is a program where disadvantaged school children from around LA come to the residence hall to go trick or treating. I was a guide, which was fantastic! The students decorated the floors using different themes, and the kids had a great time.

I very much enjoy campus life. I spend the vast majority of my time on campus or in the little ‘village’ of Westwood that surrounds it. LA is an enormous city, but it is so spread out that you need a car to go anywhere, which is why I tend to stay in the ivory bubble of UCLA. Sometimes, however, I feel I lose sight of what is happening around me. My parents back in Australia generally know much more about LA news than I do. But I am making an effort to step outside the bubble. A couple of times, I have traveled into downtown LA with a student group that mentors disadvantaged children. We go to an apartment block, help with homework, do craft and just play around with the kids, which is always very interesting. Kids from all walks of life are, in my opinion, very similar. They share the same enthusiasm, playfulness and innocence. They are curious, ambitious - they want to be famous when they grow up. But on occasion, the conversations with these kids reveal glimpses of the hardships involved with life in inner-city LA. Of gangs and violence and even of death. Fearful things to hear from an 8 year old. But this is not the worst part of LA. The concrete jungle stretches out relentlessly, through sweeping highways and wide boulevards, towards east LA and Compton – the home of LA gangs, where poverty and violence abound. A stark contrast to Beverly Hills and Bel-air, which surround UCLA.

I’ve visited other parts of the city too. I went to the Getty museum – a billion-dollar art museum on a hill overlooking the city – which was beautiful:

Venice beach, with its postcard boardwalk and quirky, almost bohemian atmosphere, was great too.

The day we went to Venice was intolerably cold, which is very irregular for LA. We are almost in winter, at a time when much of the east coast is barricaded indoors…and here it is 30 degrees outside. There was an outdoor swimming carnival on the other day! Joy!

I have left my two most exciting experiences for last. The first is the election. Wow. I watched the result with the student Democrat group and the atmosphere was amazing. Earlier in the day, people shouted as the states were called to Obama. A resounding cheer apparently rang through the residence halls when the election was finally called his. And when he gave his acceptance speech, from amongst the throng of Bruin Democrats I felt very fortunate to be in the states at such an historic moment. American politics is a strange creature, but it can be very inspiring.

The second experience was my trip to Mexico last weekend. I have joined a group called FISH –the Fellowship for International Service and Health. It is a student-run group that organises clinics in Mexico on a regular basis, as well as running trips to orphanages and traveling further afield during the school breaks. My first trip began at 5am on Saturday morning. We drove across the border into a small town on the outskirts of Tijuana called Maclovio Rojas. It is a very poor community of around 10 000 people, living at the foothills of the arid, craggy mountains that undulate across the Mexican plains. The roads are unsealed, there is no sewage system, and the community has been in conflict with the government about their sovereignty for many decades.

We set up a little clinic in the town marketplace. Everything was very simple – we just had a few tables on the side of the road – but people wandered up and were eager to participate. We took blood pressure and blood glucose readings, and provided vitamins and prescription glasses if necessary. Sometimes the blood pressure and glucose readings are through the roof, due at least partially to the fact that soft drinks are cheaper than water. However, most of the people I saw were in good condition. I really need to develop some Spanish skills though…

There was such a remarkable transition between Mexico and California. The landscape changes gradually, but as soon as you cross the border, the road rules break down, the buildings are very different and the air suddenly becomes incredibly dusty. I heard of a particular part of the border where a Mexican shanty town looks down over a huge American mall, which really encapsulates the dichotomy. All that separates them is a huge barbed wire fence that runs part way along the border. And where there is no fence – in areas of the desert down in the southern states – there are apparently people called ‘minute-men’ who take it upon themselves (without pay or authorisation) to ‘defend’ the border against illegal Mexican immigrants.

Even though I was only there for a short time, I really loved exploring Mexico. We packed up the clinic in the afternoon and drove to a taco shop closer to the border. I had these grilled prawn enchiladas, which were the best thing I have eaten so far on exchange! Absolutely remarkable! Worthy even of a picture...

The last challenge was to cross the border back into the United States. When you are going into Mexico, nobody stops you – you literally just drive over the border. But to go the other way, there is always a huge line. My FISH leader told us that the minimum time they had waited was about an hour, and the maximum was 4.5 hours! We got pretty lucky this time (just over an hour)…plus there was entertainment along the way. Kids walk between the cars juggling, people come around trying to sell you food or souvenirs. Time passed quickly and soon enough we were on our way back to UCLA and nestled comfortably in the dorms. I had decided to see the new James Bond the night before, and so had only gotten about 2 hours of sleep, but I was still really happy and excited. I hope to go back again in a couple of weeks.

As always, there is a lot more to say. I have tried to join as many clubs as I possibly can, and I’ve been to countless meetings and activities. I’m doing model UN and am going to a conference in Boston in February. I’ve also joined the team of a Neuroscience undergraduate research journal, which is just starting up this year. I’m part of an a cappella group called Youthphonics, and we had a concert in the LA museum of natural history, which was really fun. But it’s a good day outside today - 31 degrees – so I should be off. Much to do. We’ll speak again soon!