Canberra – The City that Can!

If Canberra ever needs a slogan, they should talk to me. Unfortunately, the only thing it can do is drive me to insanity.

My favourite fact that I learnt this week (other than the Maths that I’m having to teach myself) is that as the lowest lying, non-coastal city in Australia, Canberra is quite literally a hole. You may have noticed that as promised way back when, I haven’t shared any details about my courses with you. This hasn’t been an oversight, more just a deep-rooted dislike of ANU which continues to bother me, particularly now as I approach exam season.

It’s difficult to pick out one thing. It could be the fact that despite picking Sheffield on the basis that I wouldn’t have assignments, I now have loads of assignments. It could be because I find the ANU style of teaching hypocritical, that we are asked to answer questions without ever being shown an example. Maybe it’s because they appear incapable of providing a concise set of course notes to complement the course. It could possibly be the lecturer who speaks worse English than Dr Kim at Sheffield. Who knows?

I went for a walk the other week to see the sights of Canberra. It beats revision, but only just. Winter has firmly set in now, so after 8 months of my room feeling like a furnace for 13 hours a day, it is now far more akin to a fridge. Even with the radiator on, it’s still chilly. Still, it seems to have knocked the spiders out for the count. Pleasingly, the parrots are still about, and this fine chap was happy enough to pose. I have another photograph of him as my desktop wallpaper at the moment to help relax me. He definitely has an easier time of it.

As I approach the end of my time in Canberra, it’s not a city I will look back on too fondly. As my fellow exchange students all descend into the same madness and frustration with the incompetent and emotionless ANU as I did many months ago, the overriding emotion from everyone is that of wanting to get out of this city. This charred husk of what could have been, a blip in on the reputation of Australia to provide cities that are vibrant or welcoming. The butt of jokes of Australia, I can’t wait to get on my travels again.

A comedian on national radio station Triple J (while doing an interview in Melbourne) introduced himself as being “from Canberra. It’s just nice to get out of there.” I know how he feels. I’m counting down the days until I can get to Melbourne and onto Asia.

I didn’t really have a point to this post, but I’ve had enough of revision for today. I’ve got bored of entering online competitions (and apologies for the inevitable spam mail that will be arriving at home), I’m not in the mood to watch a TV show. Honestly, I just want to sit on a comfy sofa in a living room somewhere with friends, and have a few games on the xBox with a couple of beers. The latest E3 expo is doing nothing to abate that – Forza 4 looks incredible. I may just need to hunt down a steering wheel on eBay, and maybe a Kinect. Or perhaps when I get back to England, just being surrounded by normal people in places that aren’t totally inhabited by crooked politicians and reclusive jerks will be enough to cheer me up.

And finally, check out the Sphinx outside the Egyptian Embassy here in Canberra.

It looks uncannily like Wayne Rooney, don’t you think?