Danny's Journal - March 6-12

After quite a bit of communicating back and forth over the last week and a half with the internship director, we finally worked out a schedule for me to intern. Tuesday was my first day in and I had no idea what to expect. During the months prior to leaving I read a few of James’ journals from his journey at Macquarie. I thought his writing could give me some relief and prior expectations to ease the anxiety of working in a complete ‘foreign’ workplace. But to be honest, the nervousness overwhelmed all my prior thoughts and I was indeed anxious.

As I neared the front desk of the office I could feel the moisture smother the palms of my hands. I never really thought of myself as the nervous type but this was a completely new experience for me and I didn’t know what to think of it. Jo, the internship director, greeted me at the front door and we proceeded to stroll about office. She introduced me to the staff, and all I saw were friendly smiles and greetings. This eased the inner tension and I began to relax. We returned to Jo’s office and then went over the details of my projects. After getting all this information stuffed into my brain, Jo decided that an acquaintance with the office would all that is needed for today. This was much to my relief; I began to think that slow steps are much, much better.

Training that night was rough, again. On the weekend we had the Kookas annual Canberra trip, which meant a hard run at training. We ran a lot. But it’s just so simple, in a sport like footy, you have to be able to run and run hard. There’s no use in training soft and then relying on what little endurance you have on the weekend. Training seemed to be no different, although the intensity had increased more.

Classes this week were quite interesting. To most Aussies, the courses I am taking are apparently quite bland and boring for obvious reasons; they are Australian Politics and Aboriginal Studies. I find the Aboriginal studies course to be very mind-stimulating and intriguing. Each class I try to take in as much as I can. But come Wednesday evenings, it’s “uni” (college kids) night at the local hotel and that’s when I get to relax from the craziness of school and football.

Thursday’s training was not too intense as far as running goes; the coaches wanted the boys to save their legs for the weekend. I was feeling real well and fit, and could not wait for the weekend in Canberra. We did a lot of strategy drills and got a few goods runs in as we were covering the full length of the field. But the running did not go further than that. After training, it was back to the apartment for cleaning up and then some readings on Australian federalism.

- Danny Harris
(649)