Hello all! I’m having a blast so far in Sydney these first couple weeks. Sports marketing is an interesting class and my recent trip to Cairns was a great weekend getaway. I’m thankful that my internship at Sport NSW is off to a really positive start, as I’ve been responsible for many different duties in the marketing and sports management fields such as writing programs for events, running tournaments, and creating social media content. However, I was worried early on that the commute to and from work would diminish my time in Sydney, as I know a lot of people have their internships closer, even in walking distance.
My home, BreakFree on George, is a very short walk from Central Station. I work with another Pitt student, Jake, so doing the commute together helps any confusion we may have on where to go. We also have practice with the train station all the time when we go to different parts of Sydney like Bondi and Circular Quay. We walk to Central Station and then go on one of two trains that have limited stops to Lidcombe. Since we work in Sydney Olympic Park, where the 2000 Olympics were held, we take the one stop train that goes back and forth from Lidcombe to Olympic Park. We realized that the trains going to Lidcombe with more stops in between take much longer, so now we avoid those entirely even if those trains leave before the limited stop trains are there. Olympic Park trains run every 10 minutes because of their back-and-forth nature, so we rush to the Olympic Park train platform in case there’s a train about to depart.
For the Washington D.C. Metro that I’m used to, I look at the ending destination and where arrow signs are pointing in the station, but for Sydney’s trains, I’ve learned to look at the screens. These are much more reliable and simple to see that your specific stop is on the route listed on the screens. The stops are listed on an electric sign in the train so I can be productive with sports marketing homework or other tasks on my commute and still easily know when to get off. The commute is usually around an hour including walking to the station and work. We use our Opal cards CAPA gave us and just tap on and off to get in and out of the station. The train seats move so that a set of three seats can either be in normal rows or actually face the row next to it, which is cool when multiple interns are traveling at the same time so we can socialize.
Overall, the commute experience is a valuable one thus far. Hope you enjoyed the update and I’ll update you on my internship at Sport NSW as a whole soon! Here are some pics:
