Two staff members from CQU Mackay have recently returned to the campus following extended time overseas.

Dr Rod Jewell from the Faculty of Informatics and Communication spent 12 weeks in Milan, Italy and talked to staff members recently about the contrasts between Mackay and Milan.

“Milan is only 2000 square kilometers in area with a population of 3.6 million people,” said Rod. “Contrast this to the Mackay-Whitsunday region which is approx. 9,000 square kilometers with a population of around 113,000 people and you can see why I found Milan a little different from Mackay".

“The size of the population, the pollution and the fact that not many people speak English, made settling in to life in Milan quite a challenge,” he said. “It also took me one month to establish good electronic communications back to Australia, and a week to figure out how to plug the electric iron into the wall socket in my apartment!".

Milan is the commercial capital of Italy and the population is on average quite wealthy. Cars tend to be small and almost everything, including food, is very expensive compared to Mackay. Rod found the whole experience to be one of contrasts where old meets new, rich meets poor and classy meets crass.

Rod was in Milan for 12 weeks working on a community project called RCM, which has similarities to the Regionlink project he has been involved with over the past 8 years in Mackay. RCM is a regional community website in Milan which aims to give citizens a voice.

Pauline McNee, Mackay Campus Library Manager, spent the past 12 months also in Europe, but was fortunate that everyone spoke English. Pauline had a house swapping experience when her husband went on a teacher exchange to England for 12 months.

“We swapped houses, cars, everything except wives, children and pets”, said Pauline.

Pauline spent 12 months living in a small English village called - get ready for it - Cockermouth! The village is located in the North West of England in the heart of the beautiful Lakes District.

The highlights of Pauline’s experience were long weekends in Paris, trips to Slovenia, Austria, Scotland, Ireland and Italy, and a white Christmas.

“We were so lucky to have snow on Christmas morning,” said Pauline. “According to villagers it was the first time it had snowed on Christmas Day in 20 years.”.

“Everyone was out sledging and making snowmen and we enjoyed a roast Pheasant for our Christmas dinner.”.

“It was a wonderful 12 months, the village was picturesque and the people were very welcoming,” said Pauline, “but it’s lovely to come home to Mackay".

Photo above: Rod Jewell and Pauline McNee are both happy to be home in Mackay.