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Welcome to Sydneysider! Check back in early January as our posts from Australia get underway.

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St. Mary's Cathedral

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St. Mary's Cathedral, the Gothic Revival style church on the northeast corner of Hyde Park, towers oddly above its surroundings like it's been displaced in time and space. Viewed from in front of the south entrance, every other building its scale is a skyscraper, and though there are other sandstone buildings nearby, the cathedral's distinctively European Gothic architecture makes it unique. You'd think that stepping inside would be like stepping through a portal into any interchangeable Gothic cathedral in western Europe, but that's not really the case—something's a bit off. The structure of the interior is almost cookie-cutter, with grand stained-glass windows depicting Catholic imagery, stately columns and arches, soaring wood-vaulted ceiling, and a font that looks older than the entire rest of the building (this version of St. Mary's was begun in 1866 after a fire, according to the cathedral's website). I've visited Gothic cathedrals in E...
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Higher Education

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Student loans and debt are an ongoing issue within the United States. According to US News, the average Bachelor’s degree holder takes 21 years to pay off his or her loans; However,  under federal income-based repayment options, any remaining debt will be forgiven after twenty years. Still, numerous stories across the United States have shown it takes some people 25, maybe even 30 years, to pay off their loans. A Bachelor’s degree adds tremendous value towards one’s career in America, but we typically find people spending the early years of their adult life on plan to pay off their loans instantly. After earning a Bachelor’s degree, an entry-level job is standard, with an average salary that may increase over time. This might make the early years of one’s career quite difficult in paying back student loans, along with the students who take it a step further to pursue graduate programs. Here in Australia, there appears to be a unique difference in both the student loan and appli...
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Environmentalism

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As we have arrived in Cairns I was wondering more and more about how Australians view environmentalism, especially as one of the world’s natural wonders is right in their backyard. The Great Barrier Reef is being severely affected by climate change and as a result is slowly dying. After being in Sydney where it seemed like the city was trying to be especially environmentally conscious I wondered how it may have translated to preserving and saving the reef. While we were on the boat out to the Great Barrier Reef I got the opportunity to talk to a marine biologist about the reef and some environmentalism. I thought she might have an interesting perspective on how Australia affects the marine life. She provided me with a lot of information about the reef itself and the process by which it is dying. I initially heard her talking about how at deeper depths in the ocean the reef has more or less begun to recover from the adverse effects of climate change. While, the reef in the shallower ...
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