UTS vs CSU
This was an article that I was writing for the University of Technology’s paper, Vertigo. I never finished it (crippled by my laziness and feelings of inadequacy). But looking at it now, I think it was okay, if a little muddled.
“You’re not from the country, you’re not from the country” was the mantra that ran through my head as I tentatively walked through the doors of UTS’s infamous tower building. Though I’m originally from Sydney I feared that my last three years spent in Wagga Wagga studying at Charles Sturt University clung to me like a faint aroma of cattle, goon and chiko rolls.
It was hard not to reminisce about Wagga as I walked through UTS. Hot days were spent floating down the Murrumbidgee river and at nights we dominated small country pubs whilst toothless locals looked on baffled. But the three years were gone in a flash and phase two of my plan had to go into action. It was Masters o’clock and time for me to put my educational Narnia behind me and grow up.
Differences between CSU and UTS immediately started to surface as I explored the campus. I was accustomed to a university so large that it not only had a thriving ecosystem but required its own postcode. Once again journeying back to into memory, I recalled an incident that occurred two years prior. I was walking around Wagga campus at dusk and LITERALLY tripped over a possum. The possum, it appeared, thought that in the face of a potential threat, the safest course of action would be to freeze. It was, evidently, unaware that the greatest threat that I posed was my destructive clumsiness. I screamed, the possum screamed and then in a flash of fur and claws disappeared up a tree leaving me on my arse and puzzled as to what had happened. A couple of bystanders in hysterics were more than pleased to point to the wild and furious possum staring down at me as if to ensure I wouldn’t climb up the tree and fall over it again.
Surprisingly sturdy possums aside, Charles Sturt did have its short fallings. Perhaps you’re unaware what good fortune it is to have internet that is both free and wireless. At CSU, if you were trying to send an e-mail on campus at around about the same time that the latest Skins episode reached the internet you’d be faster sending your message via carrier pigeon. Also having access to the Sydney music scene is perhaps something that you’ve taken for granted. Had you been frequently subjected to an ACDC cover band you might appreciate it more.
