Take a break

Chelsea Toblin was feeling burnt out after so much hara work for her degree and so decided to take a break before starting her Masters. Almost as soon as she had made b decision, she was on a plane 'down under' to become a rancher for the next eight months on an isolated sheep stat deep in the Australian outback hundreds of kilometres from nearest neighbour. Training as a jillaroo was just the kind of excitement and sense of freedom that Chelsea had bo looking for, but she soon learnt that it was back-breaking work too. Not long after she arrived, her work clothes were already grubby from grooming horses and cleaning out the stables "The most challenging part of my first week was helping with the sheep shearing. It was a lot harder than I thought. It took all my strength to push the animal into the shearing shed. The shearers were absolutely brilliant, too. They work incredibly quickly and can shear a whole animal in less than a minute. By the time Chelsea left the farm, she had learnt a lot about looking after both horses and sheep, mending fences, lassoing and whip cracking, too. It wasn't all hard work, though “Many evenings, we toasted marshmallows over a campfire and I played my guitar and we all sang songs," Chelsea says. “Above us was the clearest and starriest sky l'd ever seen." So what did Chelsea miss most when she got home? Pulling on her cowboy boots, mounting her horse and riding out into the Australian outback, of course!

For Paul Skarr it all started with his Sports Science requirement to do a work-based learning project. "Most students find work locally, but I was keen to volunteer in a needy part of the world," says Paul. So off he went to Zambia to coach football at a school in a small village not far from the capital, Lusaka, When Paul arrived he found a rundown school house with very few resources. He was amazed to see that the children were using rolled up plastic bags held together with sticky tape to play football! One of Paul's first tasks was to get the children to mark out a full-sized football pitch in a clearing in the woods next to the school. They erected goal posts made from tree branches, too. At the first practice, about 75 youngsters arrived, very eager to go! Some had even come from neighbouring villages. It was some of the children's first opportunity to play proper football, which isn't surprising when a football costs about $60 and the average monthly wage is just $40. The session was a great success. “After we'd finished practice the children clapped excitedly and then they all rushed to clean my boots, and get all the kit ready for the next day!" Paul told us. One exciting part of each day for Paul was when he and the children beat the ground of the pitch before they started to play to chase away poisonous mamba snakes. But despite some difficulties because of the harsh living conditions, it was a great experience for Paul. “The kids are so happy to play and have a coach even though they have so little else... It really made me step back and think about what's important in life."

Ever since Olivia Stewart was a young girl, she has dreamt of singing in a grand concert hall. Her dream became a reality when she interrupted her Music degree to take a year off on sabbatical to get a taste of opera in Italy. Living with an Italian family and having language lessons each morning was an essential part of the experience. “Mastering the language takes your performance to an entirely different level when you learn not only how to pronounce the words properly, but also the deeper meaning of what you're singing," Olivia says. "Opera is like great literature set to beautiful music. You can't help falling in love with it." Olivia spent her afternoons having private voice coaching lessons, performance rehearsals and even pilates classes to help develop muscles for better breathing control. The highlight of Olivia's stay, though, was performing opera at an open-air concert in a beautiful piazza. * After she finishes her music degree, Olivia hopes to make it back to Italy and continue studying opera and, she says, "to sample more of the amazing Italian gelato, **which is to die for!" *piazza = square **gelato= ice cream