It's been brought to my attention that almost everyone else introduced themselves last week instead of just diving in, so I'll take a minute to introduce myself now!
My name is Sophie Grosserode, and I'm a junior at UTK. I've been a journalism major from day one, and I study print and radio news. I've known I wanted to come on this trip since I heard it existed when I was a freshman. I still can't believe that after two years of planning, I've now been in beautiful Sydney for two whole weeks!
This week was eventful: Australia Day fireworks, secret gardens, discovering that I'm a huge fan of Rugby 7's...but one day was so special it stands head and shoulders above the rest.
About a week after we got here, I got a text from my dad. My dad lived in Australia when he was a teenager, for all of 1981, as an exchange student. His life-changing experience was one of the things that inspired me to come here as well. He texted me to tell me that he took a chance reaching out to one of the members of the family that he had stayed with here, to let his host-brother from almost 40 years ago know that I was in Sydney.
To both of our surprise, the host-brother, Steve, answered! Steve said he would love to meet me while I was here. I was planning to email Steve, but he called me instead and invited me to meet up with him and his girlfriend, Jenny, for dinner.
I was nervous waiting outside the Queen Victoria Building that night waiting to be found by Steve and Jenny - I didn't even know what they looked like. But when they found me, all my fears about the encounter being strange dissipated. They were two of the nicest people I have ever met in my life.
They took me to a bookstore, then out for the nicest meal I've had since landing here, fancy dumplings! [Tip for anyone considering coming to Sydney: learn to use chopsticks so you don't embarrass yourself in a fancy restaurant like me.] Steve described meeting me as "a real blast from the past." He knew my father as a teenager, and now he was meeting his adult child.
Steve and Jenny shared so much about Australia with me. We talked for two hours (and ate four plates of dumplings). It was such a special experience. I was touched to feel like I'd made a family connection half a world away.
My dad told me that one of his children meeting someone who shaped his own time in Sydney was a dream come true. Steve didn't know it, but his kindness to me has already shaped my time in Sydney all these decades later. Lots of things in Australia so far have been fun, but this experience was truly touching.
My father is one of the most important people in my life, and it's special to me to be able to retrace the steps he took here while I'm on my own journey. And I may get a chance to do that even more. As he was walking me out of Central Station, Steve told me to let him know if I had a free weekend, so they could take me on a trip.
"Maybe we'll go up to Hawkesbury. I took your dad there when he was young."
I couldn't believe it. Was I going to get to repeat that experience?
"He had a heat stroke there. We had to take him to the hospital!"
Well, so maybe I won't repeat the whole experience.
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