So today was the first day of class...it started at 9AM, which wasn’t that bad except that I live in a dungeon so my internal clock never sets and it makes getting up impossible. Anyway, I got to campus early because I was trying to find a “Personal Response System” that we have to use in my physiology class. It’s basically like playing Who Wants to be a Millionaire while in class. It records answers to quiz questions throughout lecture. My first class-physiology went well. It’s just a huge lecture, but it seems like the professor is really nice. I also [View Full Entry]

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I've decided that everyone here is super nice! I mean like surprisingly out of the ordinary nice. If you’re looking lost, someone random will just come up and help you. Everyone on campus is also ready to help. People are generally in a great mood and aren’t too concerned about life’s problems. It’s refreshing! Even the professors I’ve emailed/talked to are really approachable and interesting. Yesterday Rosa, Sarah, Jen, and I went back to Phillip Bay Beach. It was really windy, so it was a little cold, but the sun was still nice. We stopped by our fav [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday night was a market night again! I got some really cool earrings from a designer that makes them out of shells. I opted for Spanish food again! I’ve decided I might need to move to Spain simply for the food! I had a humongous chorizo! I also went back for another crepe because it was just too hard to pass up. This time I got a strawberry crepe with maple syrup and vanilla ice cream. Rosa somehow managed to finsh off 2 haha. Yesterday I finally decided to go to the health center for my ridiculous cough, which was apparently [View Full Entry]

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Monday was blazing hot!! I mean wow hot! I mainly stayed in and watched the Oscars, which was funny because it was on around noon here on Monday- clearly not a huge event haha. The commercials here are so funny, I don’t really get most of them. I am getting used to the accent though, because when I hear American English on TV it sounds odd. I also watched So You Think You Can Dance Australia, and let me just say I miss the American version and Mia Michaels! Last night we went to a great little Italian restaurant, and I [View Full Entry]

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Sunday was another exploration day. It started out at the Victoria market, where I bought fresh tomatoes, kiwis, and a pineapple. I also checked out some of the aboriginal art. Sundays at the market a lot of things are half price because it’s not open Mondays, so they want to get the food sold. From there I ventured south, which I’d never been to before. The scene changed as a walked. It got less crowded and the buildings got taller. I walked to the Southern Cross train station, which is huge and quite pretty. The architecture was a little random because [View Full Entry]

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Some random things about Australian accent/language…Here instead of saying “how are you doing?” people say “how you going?” Very confusing and I’m never really sure how to answer. I’m going good, sounds horrible wrong, so I’ve resorted to “good, you?” Also, thank you is “ta” here, so I’ve pretty much been walking around confused by what this ta meant for the past couple weeks until just recently. Today, we went to Brunswick street, where there’s a bunch of shopping and cafes. I’m pretty sure I [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday evening was fabulous. A group of us went down to the Queen Victoria Night Market for dinner and shopping. It’s a huge outdoor fair-like thing in the middle of the city that is every Wednesday night all summer. We got there when it started, but after about an hour there were thousands of people there. There were tons of vendors ranging from clothes and jewelry to produce and souvenirs. The food is awesome and comes from all over the world. There was Greek, Indian, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and plenty more. I had some great Spanish dish with rice, chicken, carrots [View Full Entry]

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I've been stranded without internet for orientation, so I wrote a book... My first impressions of Sydney were that it’s definitely not what I expected. The majority of the city is not as modern or pretty as I thought. Near around where I was staying and even when riding the train 2 hours out, there wasn’t much nice scenery. I know most cities aren’t generally “nice” to look at, but I have seen many I really thought were cool despite the flaws- NYC, DC, Barcelona, Paris…to name a few. Anyway, Sydney is a bit run down looking. A lot of the [View Full Entry]

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So last night wasn’t very eventful, but I did go into town looking for dinner and happened on a grocery store and Kmart. The store Coles was almost just like any grocery store in the US- complete with Easy Mac, Duncan Hines brownies, a produce and meat section, etc. I got 2 liters of water, some juice boxes, 2 cans of Campbell’s soup, and some bagels for about $20. It was cool to see the town. It’s actually very British…like they have afternoon tea. All the kids come home from school in different uniforms, all the little girls are cute in [View Full Entry]

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So yesterday ended up very successful! My hair dryer worked wonderfully, I found an alarm clock, and I met a new friend. When I went back to my room in the evening one of my roommates was there. She was a blonde haired, blue eyed girl from Sweden, 20 years old and had just graduated from their high school equivalent. She’s been backpacking Australia for the past 3 months and is leaving for Thailand next week. Anyway, we hit it off and went to dinner last night. It was funny because she was commenting on how I was only the 2nd [View Full Entry]

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