Cranberry college student spends winter break in land down under
CRANBERRY TWP — Maddie Bassin spent her winter break from Miami University of Ohio on the most distant branch campus possible: Australia.
The 2015 Seneca Valley High School graduate and sophomore accounting major traveled to the land down under the day after Christmas and returned Jan. 18.
Besides having a chance to cuddle with a koala and climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge, Bassin received six class credits toward her degree.
“It was a winter semester abroad between the fall and spring semesters. It was like three weeks,” said Bassin, the daughter of Scott and Carolyn Bassin.
She said, “The program was through the business school. One class was a supply chain management class that I needed for my major.
The other was a general business course, learning about the economics of Australia. It was like a business elective for me,” Bassin said.
Flying out of Pittsburgh Dec. 26, Bassin arrived in Los Angeles where she met a friend from school, Morgan Bain, who traveled with her on the 14-hour flight from Los Angeles to Brisbane.
“I slept probably about eight hours,” she said. “We had the whole row to ourselves.” She added there were about 15 students from Miami of Ohio on the Virgin Australia flight.
Arriving in Australia on Dec. 28 (because of crossing the international date line), the now 54-member group took a commuter flight to Cairns, a city of 147,000 on the east coast of Far North Queensland.
Bassin and her classmates spent five days in Cairns. They had class for four hours on Dec. 31, she said and spent the rest of the time “sightseeing, doing touristy stuff.”
She said the city was beautiful, in part because of its tropical climate.
“We went out to the rain forest and the Great Barrier Reef, where we went snorkeling,” Bassin said.
The Americans stayed in a youth hostel, six to a room, above what Bassin called “a major bar in the city.”
“Cairns is definitely a smaller town. We explored the whole town on New Year's,” she said.
“They do a lot of fireworks on New Year's Eve. We were out and about. It was a lot of fun,” she said.
Bassin said on New Year's Day, their last in Cairns, the group visited the zoo.
“I got to hold a koala,” she said. “They are very calm. They are awake only three to four hours a day.”
The group flew south to Sydney the next day.
Sydney, with a population approaching 5 million, is the most populous city in Australia.
Located on the east coast, the metropolis surrounds the world's largest natural harbor with the famed Sydney Opera House.“I really liked Sydney,” she said. “They are very, very friendly in Australia compared to America.“The salespeople were super nice to you, which you don't get a lot of here,” she added.“The city itself is very walkable, and there are trains and a partial subway,” she said.“It was summer there. In Cairns it was very hot, very humid. In Sydney most days it was 75 to 80, but a lot more dry,” she said.While in Sydney, Bassin said the students stayed in apartments and took classes from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day for 10 days with three exams.“For my supply chain class, we actually had three exams. We had a test every second day,” she said.“They did a really good job of integrating Australian economics into it, too. There was a different take on that,” she said.For example, she said, tourism is becoming more important to Australia as its auto industry declines.“They've found it's cheaper to import cars than to build them in Australia,” she said.But it wasn't all course work.The American students took a tour of the opera house, which is considered a major destination and attracts more than 8 million visitors a year.The group also traveled to the Blue Mountains, 90 minutes outside of Sydney.The mountains get their name from the natural blue haze created by vast eucalypt forests, according to travel sites.Bassin said her favorite visit was to the Sydney Harbor Bridge.“On my second-to-last night, I climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge,” she said. It was also the night before her final exam.“You go through preliminary training, then you get strapped into a harness and start going up the side of the bridge,” she said. The climb goes over ladders and catwalks along the bridge's outer arch.“At first, I was a little scared, but once past the ladder, I wasn't scared at all. It's very hard to fall, I think.”“You get a whole new view of the city. I took a lot of pictures, then you go to the other side of the bridge and climb back down,” Bassin said.The return flight was long, especially since Bassin didn't sleep through most of it as she had on the way over.“We had three meals on the plane, that was kind of necessary. We watched movies, I read my textbook,” said Bassin.“I would recommend travel to Australia. I would love to go back,” she said.For now, Bassin is spending the summer working in the guest services department at the Cranberry Township Water Park. She will return to Miami of Ohio in August to begin her junior year.
4Prehistoric settlers arrived on the continent between the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific from Southeast Asia at least 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century. No formal territorial claims were made until 1770, when Capt. James Cook took possession of the east coast in the name of Great Britain (all of Australia was claimed as British territory in 1829 with the creation of the colony of Western Australia).Six colonies were created in the late 18th and 19th centuries; they federated and became the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The new country took advantage of its natural resources to rapidly develop agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a major contribution to the Allied effort in World Wars I and II.- The name Australia derives from the Latin “australis” meaning “southern”; the Australian land mass was long referred to as “Terra Australis” or the Southern Land.- Slightly smaller than the contiguous 48 United States, Australia is generally arid to semiarid; temperate in the south and east and tropical in the north. Its terrain is mostly low plateau with deserts and a fertile plain in the southeast.- Australia's population, estimated at 22,992,654 in 2016, is: English 25.9 percent, Australian 25.4 percent, Irish 7.5 percent, Scottish 6.4 percent, Italian 3.3 percent, German 3.2 percent, Chinese 3.1 percent, Indian 1.4 percent, Greek 1.4 percent, Dutch 1.2 percent, other 15.8 percent (includes Australian aboriginal 0.5 percent) and unspecified 5.4 percent.- Australia is a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy. It is divided into six states and two territories: Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia. Dependent areas include the Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Coral Sea Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands and Norfolk Island.- Following two decades of continuous growth, low unemployment, contained inflation, very low public debt and a strong and stable financial system, Australia entered 2017 facing a range of growth constraints, principally driven by the sharp fall in global prices of key export commodities. Demand for resources and energy from Asia and especially China has stalled and sharp drops in prices have affected growth.The services sector is the largest part of the Australian economy, accounting for about 70 percent of the gross domestic product and 75 percent of jobs.Australia benefited from a dramatic surge in its terms of trade in recent years, although this trend has reversed due to falling global commodity prices. Australia is a significant exporter of natural resources, energy, and food.Australia's abundant and diverse natural resources attract high levels of foreign investment and include extensive reserves of coal, iron, copper, gold, natural gas, uranium and renewable energy sources.- The the Australian Defense Force consists of the Australian Army, Royal Australian Navy (includes Naval Aviation Force), Royal Australian Air Force and Joint Operations Command.There is no conscription. Women are allowed to serve in most combat roles, except the Army special forces.- Australia asserts land and maritime claims to Antarctica. Indonesian groups challenge Australia's claim to Ashmore Reef; Australia closed parts of the Ashmore and Cartier reserve to Indonesian traditional fishing.SOURCE: CIA Factbook
