jeannieliu’s blog

Wow! I didn’t realise that this is going to be the final week of my internship!

We are currently working on the final bits of our projects and we have complete nearly all of them.
Actually I really miss Hong Kong so much. But I know I am going to miss this place and all the people I have met here. Especially all the new friends I have made in the accomodation.
So let me get back to work and make the best out of the last week of my internship…

A friend in the accomodation suggested us to visit the Watsons Bay in Sydney.
It is not commonly mentioned in any of the travel’s guide and few people know about this place.
It turned out to be a really beautiful place. I would say it is the most beautiful place inside Syndey.

Watsons Bay is located at the entrance of the Sydney Habour. It’s also recognised as Australia’s oldest fishing village.
The stunning view there was so amazing. To the east is the Tasman Sea and to the west is the Harbour with a glorious view of the city of Sydney.
We also have the famous fish and chips at the bay and feed the seagulls.

It’s a lovely day.

Whale watching in sydney was really the best part of my journey.
Our cruise leave at 10am on last sunday and depart from the beautiful Darling Habour. In less than half an hour, we have already reached the ocean but the whales were nowhere to be seen. I have to told myself not to hold my hope too high because it is always a matter of luck whether you could watch the whales.
But here they come!!
There a few humpback whales keep jumping out of the sea for nearly 45 minutes!!
yes! they were jumping out of the sea!!
We are all so amazed!

Last saturday we joined a local tour to the Hunter Valley. The Hunter is renowned for its wineries, fine food and scenic drives. It is a very popular destination for visitors and also local Sydney-siders.
We woke up really early at 5:45 but it was very worth while!
We tour many of the region’s wineris and sample various different kinds of wine. I learnt much more about wine and its making process. We also visited many of the fields that grows the grapes and the view there is absolutely fantastic!
The highlight of the tour is the visit to the famous Smelly Cheese Shop. As I love cheese a lot, I had a great time there and I even bought some of their products for bringing back to Hong Kong.
It was a terrific day though I was very tired after the trip =)

Last friday I went to the Sydney Opera House to watch a concert with a new friend met in the accomodation. It was a classcial music concert performed by the Sydney Symphony.
While the Sydney Opera House already look spectacular on its outisde, the design inside was fantastic! My friend and I were so amazed by the architecture and also the performance of the Sydney Symphony. The Sydney Symphony played the Brahms’ violin concerto and a concerto composed by Strauss. Their performance was so great! It was such a fantasic evening!
It made me realise that by walking around the Opera House, and taking pictures of its outside were never enough. You really have to get inside and watch a performance to appreaciate how beautiful it is.

Now we are working on a new project in analysing the green products data. My task in this project is to analyse the current green products data and develop reporting template for future analysis and information capture. I would need to investigate the data and generate a report discussing the pattern of the satisfied criteria. I would also need to discuss whether the existing green prodcut criteria are sufficient and to review whether new criteria are applicable. The current criteria may have deficiencies and new criteria may be required to better assess the environmentally friendly benefits of the green products.

Meanwhile, I am going to watch the sydney orchestra concert in the sydney Opera House on tomorrow night. I am so excited about it! I will talk more about it in my next blog post.

We finally start working on the website of the Sustainable Choice programme.
The Sustainable Choice programme is launched by the New South Wales local government and aims to increase the level of sustainable purchasing within the local government sector by supporting individual councils with information and skills sharing between councils on sustainable products and services.
Under the Sustainable Choice programme, an online supplier database was set up and it provides a “one-stop-shop” to help councils and consumers to locate where to purchase sustainable products and services. The company that I am working for is also one of the participants in this online supplier database. However, the website has not been updated for a long time.
My tasks in this project are to read through all the catalogue of the company’s Green products and identify products which satisfy the criteria listed in the Sustainable Choice programme. Then I would need to update the website by posting qualified products on the website and also writing their products information and description.

We went to the famous blue moutains in the past weekend and I had a great time. Although it took over 2 hours of travelling to get there, it was very worth while. The scenery and enviornment is spectacular.We walked through the rainforest and visited the waterfall. We were also very lucky to see a rainbow just beside the famous three sisters. I really appreciate the nature and scenery here in Australia.

I am now working on a new project — the website for Sustainable Choice which is a sustainable procurement programme for the NSW local government to increase the level of sustainable purchasing. We are now trying to gather more information before starting on this project. Let me talk more about it in my next entry.

It is the second week of my internship. I am now currently working on 2 projects in my company.

The first project is about the National Packaging Covenant in Australia. The National Packaging Covenant is a voluntary initiative by Government and Industry, to reduce the environmental effects of packaging on the Environment. It is designed to minimise the environmental impacts arising from the disposal of used packaging, conserve resources through better design and production processes and facilitate the re-use and recycling of used packaging materials.
We are now helping our supervisor to sort out the amount of used packaging that our company’s products have produced and to analyse the data to find out which kind of products has produced the largest of amount of packaging materials and which kind of products has used recyclying materials.

I have found that the awareness of being enviornmental friendly is quite high here in Australia. Many Australian companies has joined in this voluntary covenant and has become one of the signatories.

Another project is to contact the suppliers from all over the world including in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan and India. This is a quite interesting job as it provides me with plenty of opportunities to pratice my Putonghua and English at the same time. We would need enquire a list of information from the suppliers and to discuss with them about the orders.

Finally, I was able to log-in this blog. My laptop was already out of order in the first week of my internship in Sydney.
Anyway, we have arrived at, Georgia House, the accomodation last sunday. It is a place of student accomodation and we have met many new friends from many different countries e.g. Finland, India, Brazil and the Mainland China. They are all very friendly and they took us for sight-seeing around the Rocks and Darling Habour last weekend.
Sydney is a very beautiful place and we took a lot of pictures of the Opera House and the bridge in the Rocks. We also have a fantasic meal in the fish market.
Let me write more about my internship in the next entry.