Sunday

After having a brutal 21-hour commute to Australia, I somehow managed to make it to the Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport. I was greeted by my aunt and uncle, who I was going to live with for the next 6 weeks. At noon, I arrived to their house and slept in my airport clothes for 17 hours.

Monday

On Monday, after waking up at the wonderful hour of 5 AM, I headed to start my first day at my full-time internship. I was introduced to my organization and team: I would be working as part of the campaigns team of Cancer Council NSW. As part of the campaigns team, I would not only support pre-planned fundraising campaigns, but I also had the opportunity to create my own. I got to work on one of Cancer Council's most prominent campaign's: the 7 Bridges Walk. 7 Bridges gives fundraisers the opportunity to walk all 7 bridges in Sydney to raise money for cancer prevention, support, and research. These fundraisers, along with volunteers at the event, are often individuals who have either lived with cancer or have had family members affected by cancer. On this day, I got to work calling previous volunteers, attending team meetings, and getting acquainted with all the different teams in the organization. I also was able to create some resources on 7 bridges, like an informations slides and fix some outdated information on the 7 bridges website.

On my first day, I was gifted with a magnificent monitor.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, I got on my train at 8 AM. During my commutes, I often like to call people from back home. While I was on a call with my best friend from Columbia, I noticed that less and less people were getting on the train and more people were leaving. At first, I was quite relieved, but then I noticed I had taken the wrong train and I was on the outskirts of Sydney. The thrill of being in no man’s land wears off quite quickly when you realize that you will be an estimated 2 hours late on the second day of your job. 😬

I did make it back only 1 hour and 30 minutes late (an improvement), to which I was met with an incredibly understanding team. I finished calling almost all the previous volunteers, and I also got to present one of my three program proposals: a Sydney Shave-a-Thon. I had done this type of shave-a-thon back in NYC, and so, I had tweaked my experiences in NYC to see if it would be possible to recreate something similar in Australia. My team lead started the reviewing process on my proposal on this day.

On this day, I also got to have a really interesting conversation with one volunteer I called, “Dan.” Dan told me that he had lost both his mother and best friend to cancer, which is why he had dedicated himself to helping with our organization. Something quite interesting about that moment of vulnerability was that I felt it had almost caused a chasm to occur: in my spur of productivity, it forced me to entirely halt. I took my time through that conversation; I was able to connect with him on how cancer has affected both our lives, in different and nuanced ways. The work I will be doing this summer is very different from my research from last summer, but I feel as though my project this summer is rooted in the humanistic unveilings of what we consider to be “science.” In hard science, there often is not too much of a consideration of the emotional conversations that must be had to abstract the significance of the work science does. This summer, I hope to center my experiences on what is much more sentimental, and I think my conversation with Dan reminded me of the very real stakes involved in being associated with such a painful, emotional disease.

On my way back, I was able to see many of Sydney’s smaller landmarks like St. Mary’s Cathedral or even Potts Point. I’ve shared these with you all below.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, I finished calling all previous volunteers for 7 Bridges, as well as help another staff member through sorting all the fundraiser “Return to Sender” mailing kits. More excitedly, however, I got to support my first Cancer Council event: All In for Reconciliation at Cancer Council. This event was both a celebration of indigenous Australians, and it was also a call-to-action on how colonialism still holds effects and proliferates lung cancer among indigenous tribes through unethical capitalistic processes. Tobacco industries are still putting indigenous communities in a chokehold in Australia, and it was quite remarkable getting to hear some of the perspectives from indigenous individuals on this issue. I also got to try a kangaroo sausage roll, which was quite neat (though I have yet to see one myself).

Thursday & Friday

My team works remotely on Thursdays and Fridays; it’s quite mundane, except for the fact that my program was officially approved on this day. During these days, I was able to create a vast quantity of resources for my shaving campaign, including barber guidelines, email templates, and flyers and posters.

Saturday & Sunday

On these two days, I got the opportunity to actually explore the city. On Saturday, I took the ferry from Circular Quay (which I found to be an extraordinary harbor) to visit Manly Beach. I got to stumble my way into the markets in Manly, while also taking the walking trail from Manly Beach to Shelly. At Shelly, I was able to hike a very tall rock, as well as some of the smaller trails. On my way back home, I visited the state library, which I found to be quite grand (but not as grand as Butler).

On Sunday, I visited the older, more historical part of Sydney called “The Rocks.” I am still downloading the pictures from my camera, so I think I will save the story of “The Rocks” for next week’s blog, but in the meantime, please enjoy the many pictures I took from Saturday.