A Taiwanese "Down Under": Chen I-ching's Australian Adventure(Part II)

A full year as an exchange student in Australia. What an adventure! Once I had visited a few different places, I really began to understand just how big Australia is.

(Continued from last month's issue.)

We drove from Boonah to Sydney, taking 12 hours, and also did a 16-hour trip to the western Queensland area visiting my homestay family's farm. Later, we traveled around Australia, every day getting up at 5 a.m. in order to save time on the trip. We visited most parts of the country, traveling a total of 10,029 kilometers. We left our footprints in the "bush" (the countryside), the cities, islands, beaches, mountains and even the desert. It was all very impressive.

There is a huge rock called Ayers Rock (also known as Uluru) in the central part of Australia. It stands erect in the broad and empty desert. When I saw the different colors changing on the rock because of the sunset, I was moved deeply. It's a spectacular sight. The Great Barrier Reef in North Queensland was also a wonderful place. The coral and white beaches were so enjoyable and made you want to stay forever. Australia has a lot of places worthy of a visit. It is a magical country.

One experience I will never forget. At Easter, we traveled to the western regions of Queensland. We departed at 4 a.m. and drove past wheat farms, corn farms, crossing a huge broad land, from tall bush to short scrub, from gray-yellow land to bright red. It was fantastic!

We passed through many towns and the roads seemed never to end. The sights were amazing. Finally, we arrived at our destination, "Milo," a farm of 380,000 acres (150,000 hectares) measuring 70 by 40 kilometers, recently bought by my homestay family and located in southwestern Queensland on the edge of the desert. It seemed to go on forever without boundaries, with scrub and dry-looking trees the only landmarks scattered across a huge wide red land.

Only three families live there (nine people, who are actually all related). About a hundred years ago, this township was a splendid place full of activity, the biggest sheep station in Queensland with several hundred workers: the men chasing and shearing the sheep, the women looking after children and the sound of the shearing machinery running non-stop-taking the wool from the sheep one after another.

Nowadays, the old buildings still exist. A small house for drying mutton stands in the center as a reminder of the days before refrigeration. I stayed in this old building which is at least 60 meters long, and now just one couple live there. The building was so empty, tranquil and full of memories.

Driving from the entrance of the farm to this old building took 20 minutes, and to the nearest neighbor took 30. In this broad land, it was as if you could see to the end of the world because every horizon seemed so far away. The children here were studying at home, and the weekly necessities were delivered by the postman and stored in a big refrigerator. If someone got sick, they called the "flying doctor." It was so special.

Every year in June, it is the season for cutting the wool. Helicopters fly low over the farm to search for sheep. People use radio to communicate with the motorbikes on the ground and together chase the sheep into enclosures. All this activity signals the arrival of the shearing season. This was the real Australian country life! On the way to this farm, it was just like the Discovery Channel on TV. So many things that I had seen on TV appeared vividly before my eyes. Frequently, kangaroos jumped over our car, and we had to be careful not to hit them. I saw emus (huge birds like ostriches), vultures, herds of cattle and lots of dead animals. If I had taken a video, I could have made an excellent documentary film. This was real Australian outback! It took my breath away.

"Happy Easter!" I was woken up by my homestay sister around 6 a.m. We built a nest out of branches and put chocolate eggs and rabbits inside the nest. I really ate a lot of chocolate on that day because of the Easter tradition. At night, Sam (my homestay brother) took me hunting. I used a spotlight to look for animals in the dark. At the time of my visit, there had been a very serious drought in Australia. Only two years before, there had been about 60,000 kangaroos in this area, but now there were only 20,000 left. We couldn't find any animals at first.

Then, we drove to a huge plain and stopped there to appreciate the sky. Oh, my God! That was the biggest sky I have ever seen in my life. The sky stretched out from one end of the horizon to the other. The whole sky seemed to belong to me. The Milky Way was hanging in the sky as if it was artificial lighting. Sam told me that in winter, the Milky Way is like a piece of white silk across the sky. It was about 9 p.m. and we couldn't see the moon, but suddenly it appeared above the edge of the plain and it was the most splendid view. A big orange-yellow moon jumped out from the horizon. Yes, it really was orange. In my experience, the moon always hangs high in the sky and later disappears behind a rooftop. Seeing it pop up from the horizon so big and bright was a highlight of my trip.

Finally, on the way home, we saw kangaroos. Suddenly, there was the sound of a gunshot and a kangaroo fell to Sam's accurate shooting. He asked me whether I would like to have a look at the kangaroo. I thought it would be a pity not to look, so I steeled my heart and went to have a look. However, after he told me that the kangaroo's head had exploded, I felt scared and my legs went weak, so I just saw its body and tail (Sam stood beside its head to block my sight).

The next afternoon, we practiced shooting in an empty field. First, I tried a .22 semi-automatic pistol, a small handgun, and actually hit two empty bottles. This was my first experience of using a real gun. Then they let me try another gun, a .357 Magnum revolver. It was a similar size to the first, but the second one was much more powerful. This time when I was shooting, my homestay father had to help me hold the gun so that I would not be pushed backwards by the force of the shot. It was very interesting.

My next adventure was to learn how to ride a horse. It was such fun! There are six stages in learning to ride, but I knew nothing about the special terms to do with horsemanship. Anyway, by the time we finished, I could control a horse walking, running slowly and turning around. Horse riding is very popular in Australia and a lot of people like horses, so horsemanship is a very popular and respected skill.

The next day, we got up very early and went to another sheep farm. I will never forget that experience. At the farm, we put marks in the sheep's ears and cut off their tails. I have always been frightened of blood, so when I saw them make a hole in a sheep's ear and the blood was dripping out, I stood aside and recited the "Amitabha" (a Buddhist chant). It was worse when I saw them cutting off the sheep's tails. The bloody scene made me so sad.

By the way, this farm was next to a kangaroo cemetery. Kangaroo hunters have always come to this area to hunt, and after they took the skin from the kangaroo, they threw the other parts away into this field. At night, wild pigs gathered to eat the dead bodies. The cemetery was full of white bones and it looked absolutely terrifying. Those millions of animals' bones, including kangaroos, wild pigs, cattle and sheep, were all sacrificed to the hunters' guns. It was so desolate a place!

Because I had stood aside while they were cutting off the sheep's tails, and because my expression revealed my disgust at what was happening, eventually the father took me aside to explain the reason for their seemingly cruel behavior. He told me that cutting off the sheep's tails is good for them. If it is not done, a type of fly will lay its eggs in the tail, resulting in possible infection and risking the sheep's life. That would be even more painful for the animal.

I decided to help them, but I was terrified of cutting off sheep's tails or making holes in their ears, so my job was to put a number tag in each sheep's ear. Everywhere was covered in blood. When they were cutting the sheep's horns, the blood came out in spurts, and blood even splashed on my body. The total number of sheep was 581, and finally, we (nine people) finished this work together. The bloody scene remained in my mind all day, so that when I had a sleep in the afternoon, I dreamt about hundreds of sheep's ears squeezed together in front of my eyes and I could hear them say: "Quickly! Put the number in!" It was an experience that will be with me forever.

A few days later, Paul, Eric (friends of my family) and I went hunting together. This time we were after wild pigs. We walked silently into the bush. I felt like an explorer, carrying a gun and with my eyes wide open in search of targets. I saw some dead and foul-smelling wild pigs which had been killed previously, and suddenly Eric stopped and a few meters ahead I saw a big wild pig eating its dead company. Eric raised his gun, and I saw the pig fall and then a number of small black shadows rushing to escape. When I looked carefully, one of the baby pigs had been injured but was still running with its organs protruding. I was really shocked and the scene stayed with me for a long time afterwards.

In the bush, the flies were just incredible! My God! Hundreds of thousands of flies buzzed around me, and when I stopped using a branch to wave them off, a huge swarm landed immediately on my face. Oh! I really could not bear those bloody flies. Later on, because the wind changed direction, we went home-wild pigs rely on their excellent sense of smell, so we had to walk in a direction which followed the wind. The six days of our holiday passed quickly and soon it was time to go home. I had learned a lot, gained a lot of experience and really had my eyes opened. It took us 12-and-a-half hours to drive home.

That year remains in my memory as a time of many pleasures. Besides the excitement of a new culture and the bush lifestyle, the most pleasurable experiences were those of getting to know my various homestay families, sharing everything with them and becoming good friends with my Australian brothers and sisters-just as if I had been a member of their families. This special relationship exists even today and it will never change because of the distance now between us.

As well, it was delightful to have the opportunity to meet exchange students from other countries. We shared the experience of traveling around Australia, and I feel that it was the best trip I have ever had. During the three weeks and two days together, we were never separated from each other and all became very close companions. Although we were all different, at the same time we were all so similar. Only someone who had been through all our experiences would know how well we understood each other, and how it felt to be exchange students all together in the same place.

One year overseas has totally changed not only my appearance (my skin is darker from sunbathing on Australian beaches, and I've put on weight because of the relaxed life in Australia), but has also completely altered my ideas. After you go abroad, broaden your world-view and get to know more people, you become more independent and confident. I am no longer nervous when I have to speak in front of crowds. I am always looking forward to meeting new friends anytime and anywhere. I have developed a new attitude toward my future life, and my English has surely improved very much. I am now more open, confident and independent. Before I went overseas, I smiled shyly, but now I have a confident and lovely smile. The experience and knowledge gained from the year in Australia have blended into my life and become a part of me. My new-found independence, a broadened outlook and outgoing and lively personality will be a big help in my future life.

I hope that one day I will have another opportunity to be a successful ambassador for our country!

Note to readers: This is a fascinating story written by a young Taiwanese schoolgirl about her experiences studying overseas. Because it is quite long, we are publishing it in two parts. The author is now a first-year student at Taipei Municipal Chunglun Senior High School.