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Published: March 1st 2006
Hello!
Well, I finally have a home. Justine, Nick and I (two other Canadian exchange students) are living together in an apartment minutes from the beach in a suburb of Sydney called Coogee.
The address is:
80 Bream Street Apt.5
Coogee, New South Whales, Australia,
2034
It really is the perfect spot! The beach is literally at the end of the street, it's a half hour walk to campus or 15 min bus ride, the bus stop is just down the road, and bars, groceries, convenience stores etc, are all around us. It came partially furnished, complete with a huge leather couch, tv, kitchen table and chairs, and kitchen appliances. We had to buy a couple of beds which we got from some guy who was moving and thanks to Char, we spent a day at Ikea and I put together my very own dresser drawers, I was quite proud of myself! It is so nice to finally not be living out of my suitcase and to come home to a place I can call mine. It really was a headache to get though. The real estate agency we went through was just terrible! We were passed around between 3 different agents, none of which ever returned our phone calls. And more than once they called Justine thinking she was someone else and offering to show her the place because the other group (i.e really us) hadn't shown up with the deposit. We were like " We are the other group! And we were told not to bring the deposit just yet". But persistance paid off, we just showed up at the office with money in hand and made friends with the manager who got out one of the realtors for us and we quickly signed the lease.
My first night there though was a little less than perfect. It was just Justine and I, as Nick was moving in the next day. It was about 11pm and I was trying to close the blinds in the kitchen/my room (my room is off the kitchen and does not have a door, we plan on putting up a curtain). I noticed the string to the blinds was caught in the door that leads out to the fire escape (we're on the second floor). So I opened the door to get the string out. Then I'm standing by the wall and notice a HUGE spider by my face!!!! Of course I screamed and Justine came to see what the matter was. The thing quickly scurried up the wall onto a rafter on the ceiling. I'm not kidding, we swore it was a tarantula!!!!! It was about the size of my palm, brown, and hairy! So we decided to call Matt (Justine's Aussie Mate) but he didn't answer. So then we called Sam (Matt's friend who will also be coming to Queen's in September on exchange). He laughed at us and told us we'd have to deal with it. So Justine got up on the table with mop in hand while I stood on the ground with my shoe, incase it fell to the floor. Luckily I didn't have to do anything, because Justine got the job done. She was shaking afterwards! Needless to say, we each had the worst sleep we've ever had. All the Australians we've told just laugh at us. Seems like it was a Huntsman spider, and apparently they are harmless and actually quite good because they eat all the poisonous spiders and cockroaches. Some people have them roaming around there house on purpose even! If you're brave, you must google this thing and see just what we had to deal with!
But really, other than that, the place is great!lol
In other events, I accompanied Char one night to one of her friend Christina's 21st birthday party. In Australia, 21 is a big deal, even though the drinking age is 18. Everyone celebrates by having a huge party at their home with their friends and family, or they rent a hall. It is custom for friends and family to make speeches. The party I went to was especially extravagant. We arrived outside this gorgeous house and were greeted by a hired security gaurd who checked that our names were on the list. Once inside we signed the guest book and then headed downstairs to the bar, where Christina's family had hired a bartender and caterers. Later, 3 of her bestfriends performed a skit, and her younger siblings and parents gave a little speech. Then it was time for dancing. They had turned their garage into a dance floor, complete with disco light and a DJ!! I'm telling you, this is a tradition we should bring back home! It was so nice!
Then another day, Justine and I took the ferry over to Manly (another Sydney suberb) to have lunch with my friend Elena, who used to work at Granite Ridge with me, and Troels, my friend from Fraser Island who was now in sydney for a couple of days. Troels came back to Coogee with us, and we had the gang over to our place before going out to the Campus bar, the Roundhouse. It was a pretty big party, and was packed!
This past weekend, I went on a trip organized by the International Student Services. Justine and Nick stayed home, so it was the first time I was going to go somewhere where I didn't know anyone. While I was registering, I met an American girl named Abby, who I quickly became friends with. She goes to the University of Vermont and is there on a soccer scolarship. We got on the bus together and arrived at our destination about 2 hours later. We spent the weekend in cabins at Narrabeen Lakes. There were about 80 of us in total from all over the world. Abby and I were among the few undergrads that were there, as there were also a lot of older students who came abroad to do their masters or Ph D's. When we first arrived we all sat down in this conference room. The flags of all the countries were displayed on an overhead screen in alphabetical order, and when your flag's country came up, you had to stand up and say something about your country. It was so cool to hear about all the different countries. There were people from Mexico, Botswana, Uganda, Italy, England, Singapore, Taiwan, China, The Netherlands, etc. That night we had a bonfire and roasted some 'Dampa'. It's this dough you rub into a snake-like shape with your hands and then wrap it around a stick and roast it in the fire. Then you put jam and honey on it. Unfortunately my dampa didn't quite turn out. It was burnt on the top and gooy on the bottom. Then we learned how to "bushdance" which turned out to be the equivalent of squaredancing.
That night I met another Canadian who turns out to be from Oakville and go to Queen's! I thought I knew everyone here from Queen's so it was a nice surprise. She's a really cool girl in commerce named Christina. Through her we met these 3 guys who are hilarious! Philipp from Germany, and Arjan and Dennis from The Netherlands. These are guys who you can just sit and observe and be entertained. They just bounce off eachother and are quite witty with the jokes. Arjan even taught me how to Salsa.
The next day we went to the beach and did this ropes course. Complete with harness and helmet, we climbed this course and tight-rope walked along the course. It was pretty scary and my arms were sore the next day for holding on so tight. That night there was a trivia game and some more drinking.
The next day we played soccer! It was so cool. Basically everyone who wanted to play could, so we played 15 aside, white shirts vs coloured shirts. It was so neat to be playing with people from all over the world. It really was an awesome experience. And my team won, 6-0!
I've since hung out with Abby, infact Justine and I went out with her and her housemates last night. She lives the next street over in Coogee! Hopefully I'll see the other people I met that weekend soon.
Now onto school! I had my first day of classes on monday. So far so good. I think I'll really enjoy the first year history class, and the Database computing course seems interesting too. Molecular Biology is going to be a lot of work though. Unlike at Queens, I have Bio labs EVERY week for 4 hours! I have an Australian lab partner named Elizabeth who seems really nice though (and smart too!). The campus is absolutely beautiful. It's fairly big, but really compact unlike Queen's which is fairly spread out. And there's this lawn where everyone comes to sit and hangout in between classes. It's great. There are so many people too. I really love the atmosphere and have adjusted quite well.
oh wow, this was pretty long! On that note, hope everyone is doing well (It's still 26 degrees here!)
Love Becca
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Amanda
non-member comment
congrats on negotiating the housing weirdness!!
hey rebecca! how ya goin? so glad to hear you guys managed to find a place ok... i warned you how hard it would be, but it always comes as a bit of a shocker (you'd think they'd help you out a bit more, eh?) sounds like a perfect location though... and the partly furnished thing is definitely a plus! so you met the local fauna already, eh? lol!! i nearly shat myself the first time i saw a huntsman, so i DEFINITELY feel your pain! just wait until you find a redback hanging out at a busstop though... watch for em, they hang out under the metal seats. (oh and by the way, even my super-aussie roommate shauno was absolutely terrified of huntsmans, so it's not just us wimpy canadians!) well i hope everything continues to work out for ya, and that you don't get sick of the millions of stairs on campus for a while yet! say hi to the ocean for me, i miss it desperately!!!