Sydney Life

A motorbike’s carrying power should never be underestimated. Minutes after touching down in Phnom Penh I was marvelling at the acrobatic precision of a young boy twisting and turning a giant truck fender through the pulsing traffic. A family of five whizzed through the streets on their ‘sedan’. One man, while talking on his mobile, sat taking notes in a book wedged between himself and the driver. Others were loaded up with colourful fruit, veggies and produce from the markets, bags hanging from every nook and cranny.

Zigzagging through the city, life was loud and unabated. But street 264, a quiet bougainvillea and Buddhist Watt lined haven, was my final port of call. After months of dreaming, planning and anticipation I was suddenly ‘Gemma from the Phnom Penh Post.’

With the semester’s marks and those long awaited UAIs now out in the open the academic year is well and truly over. Empty and devoid of the bustling student masses, only a few souls are left meandering through uni’s maze of blue gauze construction passageways.

By now I’d usually have clocked up a good few days at the beach lazing around enjoying the nothingness that makes summer holidays so delectable. This year, however, I spent the first three weeks of my break doing an internship at the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Asia-Pacific office.

‘All you need to do is make your way towards the journalist as quickly as possible’. There was no need to worry. It was only one of the single most important press conferences in the giant showdown that was APEC, and I was the microphone girl.

I spent much of last week swanning around the International Media Centre at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Part time work. Where would we be without it? In the past six years I've been a barista, child minder, kitchen hand, waitress, bar girl, administrator and picture framer. These hours have gone a long way to allaying financial responsibilities, maintaining lifestyle and fostering dreams of travel. Apart from the obvious monetary incentives, jobs whilst at school and uni have exposed me to new people, skills and ways of
experiencing the world.

One problem. I have completely neglected the value of good old fashioned industry related work experience.

Someone once told me that work experience was something we deigned to do, rather than being the job we'd die to do.

Embarrassingly, this was my attitude when I began a week's work experience at a regional newspaper.