Uni life on semester break

One of my favourite tourist-ing pastimes is checking out university campuses. So naturally, that's what we decided to do here. (I also got in touch with one of the researchers here, to fulfill the "working" part of this working holiday... not that it's actually a working holiday, since neither of us are getting paid, but it is kind of a working holiday in that we're both doing some work and also holiday-ing).

First stop... Curtin University! I'm not sure if it was just because we were blessed with some amazing weather last week (it got really rainy on the weekend so being enamoured with Australian winter was short-lived), but I loved the campus. It was seriously so cool -- there was greenery everywhere (I can only imagine how nice it would be in the spring!) and funky little places to hang out, including a mini Japanese garden, two hammock hotels, napping pods in the library, hanging chairs in the main entrance, etc. Also, they keep their fields here so well... it made me feel sad that I didn't have people to play frisbee with. Speaking of frisbee, they even had a frisbee golf course on the campus.

Anyway, obviously words don't do this justice so I'll just post a bunch of pictures now.

Hanging chairs near the main entrance to Curtin. (Named after a wartime prime minister, not poorly spelled window coverings.)

I'm not sure if Perthians just carry ping pong balls and paddles in their pockets everywhere, but so many public spaces (including the campus) have random ping pong tables all over the place.

Main entrance area

More of the main entrance cause it's so grand-looking. J told me that one of the researchers he's collaborating with told him that they have their convocations out here. And then they shoot fireworks. Yea.

Not sure what they use this for but seriously! It's just out there in the middle of campus.

Need a break? Why not visit the hammock hotel (which, despite its name, looks like it's totally free... and is surprisingly clean for a public space).

Engineering building! (One of several, but this happened to be the best-looking one)

Beautifully maintained fields. The grass is like... 1 cm tall... but the field feels so soft. I want a frisbee 😭

If you're tired and you can't quite swing an outdoor hammock, you can visit the library instead. The so-called energy pods (I would just call them napping pods) are equipped with a privacy visor, built-in alarm system (wakes you by vibration and ambient music/light) and reclining capability.

Randomly wandered through an outdoor hallway and stumbled upon, y'know, just a little Japanese garden. No big deal.

They also have a collection of these little huts, each uniquely furnished.

Oh and they have an open edible garden. So you can go and pick yourself some thyme, if you'd like.

So much random fun stuff, just hanging out in between buildings.

So we decided to hang out too...

y'know. :)

Anyway, the pictures just show a little sampling of how exciting the campus was (to me). It did have it's less-attractive parts (I had a meeting in the physics building, which was... well-worn, to put it nicely. But it's probably like math sci at U of C -- old and kinda sketchy but it grows on you.) but overall, so cool. Added bonus -- they're on a break between semesters right now, so the campus wasn't super crowded.

That was most of what I did last week. This week (yesterday, to be exact), I visited the University of Western Australia (UWA) but it was raining when I got there, so it did not seem nearly as exciting. Hopefully I'll have some pics on a nice day in the future.

Tune in next time for... adventures in Fremantle? Or something.

2 comments:

Evangeline said...

Wow if that's what winter looks like... green grass and blue skies...summer is no different? Except hotter?

k'dee said...

Yea, apparently summer is super hot here (which I can imagine)! It's not always blue skies though, sometimes it rains a lot.

on faith, food and flying
The thoughts and experiences of a college kid on faith, love and life in pursuit of Christ, the loveliest One, while enjoying misadventures and quests for food, which so happen to take her around the world.
 
Copyright 2009 An Edible Epic Yarn All rights reserved.
Blogger Templates created by Deluxe Templates
Wordpress Theme by EZwpthemes