I had to go see the koalas while I was there! They are such funny animals. They sleep around 20 hours a day and don't move very much when they're awake. This photo was taken at a different wildlife park in the local area.
This photo of me (second from the left) was taken while a group of international students were given the opportunity to hold a diamond python. The snake was heavy despite how it looks! The whole excursion was a lot of fun and we were able to handle many different reptiles.
I took this photo of the Sydney Harbour Bridge during another international student event. The group rented out a boat and we spent the evening cruising the harbour dancing and mingling amongst each other.
This photo of me was taken while one of my roommates and I were exploring Newcastle. I am standing on top of an old decommissioned radar site that was used to detect airplanes and ships out over the sea during the mid 1900's. As you can tell, it was very windy that day, but the look out over downtown and the ocean was beautiful.
This photo of me was taken during a hiking trip through the Blue Mountains region just inland from Sydney. My housemates and I went camping for two nights and enjoyed three days of exploring and hiking around the mountains. This area reminded me a lot of the Ozarks.
This is a war memorial in Melbourne. There is an enormous museum underground that encompasses a large hill in the middle of the park. I spent several hours going through the museum, and had to leave before making it all the way through because it closed.
This is the Gold Coast just after sunset taken from an observation deck in a building along the beach. A few friends and I flew to Brisbane, then took the train to Gold Coast for the day and enjoyed the time at the beach and area surrounding Surfer's Paradise.
I took this photo as the sun was setting behind me. I took a photography class while I was studying, and this is one of my favorite images I took. I like how visible the different colors of the sky are and how the water contrasts nicely against the rocks. This is an area about 20 minutes away from the house I was living in, so I frequented this spot with my camera.
Here is me standing with what looks to be a razorback in Sydney. It just so happens that I was wearing my U of A polo, so of course I had to get a photo. I am not sure of the significance of the hog.
The sunsets over the water were just stunning. This particular sunset was captured in Nelson Bay, about an hour's drive from where I was staying in Newcastle. After I uploaded the images to my computer, I noticed the birds flying past and this quickly became another of my favorite photos.
I was studying at the University of Newcastle, which is a two and a half hour train ride north of Sydney. The weather was great the majority of the time I was there, aside from some really cold nights around the time I arrived. You can see most of my photos have blue skies and palm trees!
A couple friends and I took a weekend to visit Melbourne and we stayed in a hotel in downtown. It allowed us to stay out exploring into the night where I fell in love with the city lights. Melbourne is a great city to visit, it's lively and the people are friendly. Here I am standing next to the river that cuts through town.
This photo is from one of the day trips myself and my housemates took down to the Sydney area. This place is called Figure 8 Pools because there are a couple perfect figure 8 shapes in the rocks due to how the different rock types erode away. You have to be careful where you step so as to not fall into a figure 8! The pools are only accessible during low tide. During high tide, the water level is too high and the rock area I'm standing on becomes submerged.
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Matthew May, Agricultural Business major, spent the fall 2017 semester in Australia with our exchange program at the University of Newcastle. Find out more about the University of Newcastle exchange at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/exchange/newcastle
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