My life at Notre Dame- Sydney

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So, there hasn't been a lot to report. The weekend after orientation I went with some of the girls to Paddy's market. It's like the French Quarter in New Orleans. A lot of cheap little stands that sell absolutely everything. My purchases include a $10 for 10 minute massage , zebra print light-weight scarf, and DG sunglasses. Mine were falling apart, so this purchase was completely necessary. It just happened that I bought DG ones, after Delta Gamma...

The next weekend and this weekend have been extremely uneventful, but that's okay. I've been slowly exploring the area around the Tiffany, which includes a little market and other cute shops. Some of my roommates are planning a trip to Nimbin, which is the Amsterdam of Australia, but I'd rather save my money for when my mom and I go to New Zealand. 😊

Oh- I don't remember if I've mentioned the style of dress here in Sydney, and how it's definitely different than the wardrobe I brought with me. While shopping yesterday with Claire and Sarah, I bought a really cute dress. Picture attached, since I have no other interesting photos to post for this entry. Also! I finally saw Harry Potter and the Hangover. Very belated for the both of those. No spoilers, but Harry Potter wasn't the greatest. I ended up not seeing it on the biggest IMAX screen in the world. I still want to see Transformers 2 on it. Since this is a rather random paragraph, it turns out that decks of cards in Australia have something like 15 cards per suit, instead of 13. Weird.

Drake classes start in two weeks, and DGs are moving in in one week. I've started to get emails about recruitment and other activities that I'll be missing. It makes me sad- but then I remember that I'll be back in a meager 15 weeks. Scary!

For anybody who is looking for my life at Notre Dame-Sydney ... here ya go.

In Australia there are lectures and there are tutorials, tutes for short. Pronounced 'toots'. A typical class, I mean unit, will have one lecture and one tute a week. Some classes, like my beloved accounting unit, have the lecture and tute smashed together into three hours of fun called a seminar.

The first week of class was just lectures. So I had a two hour history lecture and two hour lit lecture monday, two hour seminar for accounting on wednesday, and two hour seminar for international business on thursday. Not too shabby. The next week I just had to throw in a history tute on monday, lit tute on tuesday, and that's it. The first week was pretty normal- just going over the syllabus and taking notes on an hour lecture.

The second week I was fully prepared for each lecture and tutorial. As I excitedly emailed my parents, I rocked my history tute. Everyone in the class seemed pretty timid, and the tutor seemed desperate for us to contribute. So I did. A lot. The next day during my children's lit tute, I did almost as well. That tute is a bit bigger, and it's hard to squeeze so much meaning out of "Humpty Dumpty". I was nervous to go over my accounting homework, since it's a problem subject for me. But as we went through, I only had to put checkmarks. My professor for international business is pretty new to teaching, so we didn't really have anything to do. We still don't for this week. I'm ok with that.

Today I went exploring in the markets and into the other, smaller mall near my building. I finally bought a blanket. Two of my roommates bought blankets and it just makes their room seem a lot more homey and comfortable. This is coming back to the states with me 😊

Hopefully I'll be more interesting in my next entry!
Hi to Sue and the girls if you're reading!

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Photos

Me IN the Great Barrier Reef
It was choppy and thus, hard to take centered pictures

Me after the Reef
Wetsuit it not a good look for me. Also, it was still cold from whoever took it out the day before.

The Great Barrier Reef
Ok so I guess I do have some pictures. This is a picture of my picture of the Reef. I don't have a scanner, yet.

My new dress
I found the reef pictures, but still here's my dress.

Comments

[colleen Smith]

hii
hey sarah. It feels nice reading what you have to say. :) I like your dress. so jealous that you got to see the great barrier reef!!! When is your mom coming??