Graduation

And so the big day had finally arrived. One of the main reasons behind the entire Australian adventure was to witness my older brother graduating from law school with a Juris Doctor from the Australian National University. ANU was established in Canberra back in 1946 by the federal government for the purpose of conducting and promoting research in Australia. The university is divided into seven academic colleges and educates around 16,000 students every year (undergrad & postgrad).

For several days before December 9th, my brother was pretty jittery because he was anxiously awaiting the results of his final exams. When his results were released, he breathed a huge sigh of relief. It was a bright sunny day as we all made our way to the School of Music where the graduation ceremony would take place. Of course, my brother led the way, wearing his black & purple academic dress, the purple meaning that he was a law student. The area around the music building was packed with graduates & their visiting families taking photographs. There were several reception tents that were set up in the parking lot to serve champagne and small sandwiches after the ceremony. After taking plenty of photographs, my parents & I went to find our seats while my brother joined the other graduates from the College of Law, and the College of Medicine, Biology, & Environment.

The ceremony follows very precise proceedings and formal presentation. Even all the faculty processors and guest speakers wear traditional academic dress, conjuring up images of the 19th century in my mind. The ceremony mostly consisted of speeches and presentation of degrees to the graduates. It was only two hours long but it felt a little longer due to an annoying child behind us that wouldn’t keep quiet. Nevertheless I was able to film my brother receiving his degree in hand and noting that the speaker didn’t mispronounce his last name.

Making our way to the reception tents after the ceremony proved to be a slow task because of human congestion. Maybe the planners should have placed the tents a little further away from the main building? Anyway, everyone slowly shuffled in one direction, hoping to get a glass of champagne and several tasty treats. My parents & I were successful and we met up with my brother and congratulated him on a job well done. A live band played jazz music as we took several more pictures with our digital cameras and talked about the road ahead for my brother.

We continued our celebration at the fancy Charcoal Restaurant (est. 1962) on London Circuit Road, a short walk from the ANU campus. My brother kept his graduation attire on and I could sense that everyone in the restaurant had taken notice. At one point I thought the entire restaurant would erupt into applause but that did not happen. As we sat down at our reserved table, it became apparent that space was limited; all the tables are closely packed together. I was also surprised that the menu stated that each customer had to spend a minimum of $35AUD. However, upon further inspection of the menu, much of the meals were $30 & above.

Since this was a special occasion, we each ordered full course meals (dessert as well), and a bottle of wine to share. My brother stuck to Coke because he doesn’t drink alcohol. I have to say that Charcoal serves really good steaks and desserts so you should give this place a try if you’re visiting Canberra. It is a formal restaurant so you’ll have to wear business attire to enjoy its offerings. I only hope that in the near future, the owners will expand the floor space to accommodate more customers and rid the feeling of being cramped.