The City of 100,000 Cafes... I Counted, I Swear!

When you think of travelling to Australia, what is the first city you think of visiting? SYDNEY! That was our reasoning for choosing Sydney as our first weekend travel getaway. Well, that... and the fact that it is the closest city to Canberra and a pretty cheap, 3hr bus ride. Reasoning aside, Sydney was AMAZING. After being stuck in Canberra for a while I think it’s safe to say I now understand why people would reply: “Canberra, why are you going there?” every time we told someone from Australia where we were staying and going to school.

Anyway, our travels began with a very early bus ride at 6:30am that would take us to Civic where we would catch our Murrays coach bus to Sydney at 7:00am. The bus itself was extremely boring, like always. It seems like getting anywhere worth going to in Australia, a 3hr + bus ride awaits!

We arrived in Sydney’s Central Station around 10am where Laura’s great aunt Nicki  was there waiting to meet us for the first time. From central, we took an expensive (and crazy) cab ride to her AMAZING apartment in Darling Harbour. On the way there, the cab driver was centimetres from rear ending a car that slammed its brakes on for some very dumb pedestrians. After I swallowed my heart back down my throat we took our bags from the cab and walked up to the amazing building we’d be spending the next three days at: One Darling Harbour. Waiting in the elevator until we reached the 5^th floor, we were escorted to Nicki’s apartment to be shown our two SEPERATE bedrooms, private balcony with the most amazing view:

 

Amazing View of Sydney from our room balcony!



Night view from the balcony!

spacious living room and kitchen with another beautiful balcony where we sat and ate lunch while mingling with our new best friend Nicki and her husband Peter. We also got a full tour of the apartment building including the gym, sauna and swimming pool located on the roof! The Balcony from the roof had the most amazing view of Sydney and was a prime spot for tanning. Too bad the sun was MIA during most of the weekend! After that, we received a few touristy tips from Peter and Nicki, and it was decided a trip to the beach was first on our agenda for Sydney! (Especially since the next few days were calling for cloudy skies and rain).



Pyrmont Bridge and our apartment building!



We crossed the Pyrmont Bridge, went down the escalader and went in search for ferry tickets that would take us to Manly beach. You see, ferries in Sydney are like city buses at home, they take you pretty much anywhere in the city (well, anywhere on the edge of the harbour anyways). Expecting a slow and gentle moving ferry, we stood at the front of the boat to enjoy the ride and the views. 5 minutes into the ride however, the boat sped up and... WOW, did that boat GO! Apparently we bought tickets for the “fast ferry”. It took us out of Darling Harbour around the point, under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and into Circular Quay where we snapped a billion pictures of the Sydney Opera House and would get off the ferry to catch our transfer boat to Manly Warf. The next boat to Manly Beach wouldn’t arrive for another hour so we had some time to kill and decided to journey. We walked toward the Sydney harbour bridge, but couldn’t find how to get on, stood and watched an indigenous group play crazy instruments (which got EXTREMELY annoying after an hour), witnessed a death match between gulls and ibis’ over garbage and found a starbucks!

Once our boat arrived we boarded and made our way to Manly Beach. At first, we had no idea where to go so we teamed up with a couple of girls from Sweden who also had no idea where to go, so we walked straight and found the ocean. This was the first time I’d ever seen/been in the ocean! It really wasn’t as big a deal as I’d hoped since we only got to touch our toes in before the warning of bluebottle jellies was called by the beach lifeguards. Laura will tell you about the Beach later though. After about two scorching hours, we left to catch our ferry at about 4:30pm.

Hot, tired and most likely extremely sunburnt I also lost my favourite aviator sunglasses to the harbour waters. I thought I saw a jelly fish and bent over to take a closer look (forgetting my glasses we sitting, unsecured, on my hat) and bam: RIP AIVS. Two ferries later and a walk across the Pyrmont Bridge again we headed back up to the apartment. After a quick change of clothes, we were off again, this time with Peter and Nicki where I (for the first time) would eat Malaysian at my new favourite restaurant, Chinta Ria. Once we finished our delicious meal we headed off for our journey to the Open Air Cinema. We walked straight through the downtown core (which reminded me so much of Younge Street back home) where we scoped out potential shopping destinations for the next day and took in all the amazing new scenery Sydney had to offer. Once we passed the skyscrapers, we came to Hyde park and the Royal Botanic Gardens where we saw for the first time, the giant (and I mean giant) fruit bats! The Cinema itself was kind of horrible however, the views from looking out across the harbour to the cityscape was amazing. I think I watched that more than the movie itself. In the end, we found our way through the crowds of people and flagged a cab to take us home. I can confidently say we both had the BEST night sleep that night!

Laura with a few interesting statues!

While our first day there was hectic, the next few days were a little less exciting because of the gloomy weather, but they were still awesome. On Saturday morning we took a dip in the rooftop pool, minus tanning on the balcony due to the lack of beautiful sunshine, blah. After drying off and getting ready for the day we set off for a day of shopping! Little did we know there were a million different stores to go to, wow! The day was a success however; we both came out with some nice and relatively inexpensive things. Totally done with shopping, we still journeyed around downtown exploring the different buildings and interesting pedestrian streets. On the way home, and starving, we explored another mall along Darling Harbour called Harbourside. Uninterested in actually buying anything else, I frantically searched for some food and found two of my favourite things: Mcdonalds and chocolate ice cream, yummmm! After that, we made our way back to the apartment where Nicki and Peter were preparing a dinner party for us and their friends from Norway, juana and avid... a fun bunch they were! Oh, and about previously eating McDonalds, no big deal... I love food! Anyways, we sat and watched Salt while waiting for dinner, ate dinner, finished watching the movie and went to bed for yet another AMAZING night of sleep.



Entrance to Chinatown



Day Three comprised of a long long long long LONG walking journey around the city. First, we sat down for the most expensive breakfast I have ever had to pay for (and for the record, will never pay for again), then made our way to Paddy’s Markets. We then walked through each isle, sure not to miss a single booth, and found that we both kind of suck when it comes to bartering prices. I did however, get two sunglasses priced at 2 for $15 for 10$, go me! The second floor had a bunch of outlet stores where we found some more awesome stuff. From Paddy’s Markets we made our way through Chinatown and toward the downtown core. We had one goal for this day and that goal was to walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge! After making our way through the sky scrapers, into Hyde Park and around the Roayl Botanic Gardens we still found ourselves nowhere near this bridge. We did however see a few interesting and really large trees, hundreds of fruit bats hanging in them and multiple giant spiders. After an hour or so of walking we spotted water and followed the path leading to it in hopes of finding the bridge.

Me in front of the Opera House, woot!

This path took us to the Sydney Opera House where we climbed the stairs and again, took a billion pictures like every other tourist. Spotting the Harbour Bridge we set off in hopes of finding the pedestrian entrance. I’d have to say, for looking awfully close to where we were, this bridge was still SO far away! We walked through alleys, down skinny streets, stopped to get some more delicious chocolate ice cream, walked up 5 flights of stairs and FINALLY found the semi-hidden path that took us to the bridge. By this time, we really didn’t care to walk anymore, but we had to get at least halfway across it, so we did. After a few pictures and gawking at the crazy people walking up the very top of the bridge arms, we started our journey home. That was a long day. We left the apartment at 10:30am and returned at 6:00 pm, while walking the city this entire time, crazy... and for those of you who know me well... especially for me. That night we sat and watched some TV online, left to get some dinner then lounged for the rest of the evening. Again... best sleep ever!

Monday morning was relatively uneventful. We spent the morning packing up our suitcases and cleaning up the apartment, took a stroll to the bank, got more delicious chocolate ice cream and made our way to central station. That day, I also went on a tram for the first time, cool! We arrived at central station about an hour and a half before our bus arrived so we walked around the plaza and decided to try a “famous” (and apparently amazing) meat pie. After all that hype and anticipation, I’m sorry to say it was not enjoyable. After telling the boys back in Canberra they tasted horrible they insisted it was simply the one we bought so... we will see until next time. I’d finish the story off by telling you about our way home, but as mentioned before... it was boring! After travelling to Sydney, it wasn’t the most exciting to return home. You want to know the most disappointing part for me? (For those of you who know me well I’m sure you can figure it out)........ There is NO good ice cream here, and it sucks!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, when planning a trip to Aussieland, go to Sydney! It’s amazing people, lifestyle, architecture, landscape and well, everything will blow you away. Oh yeah, for the purpose of explaining my title: Everywhere you look there is a Cafe. We could not figure out how all of them were still in business!

So for now,

Cheers!

Mandy.

Life's a Beach

Beach #1.

Surf. Sun. Sand. These are probably the first three things that come to mind when you think of Australia. But unfortunately, since we’ve located ourselves in Canberra, even the simplest pleasure of a beach is hard to come by. So naturally, when Mandy and I arrived in Sydney, our main goal was to hit up the closest beach. There are two main ones in Sydney, Bondi and Manly. After discussing with Nicki which one would be the best choice for us on our first day there, we decided to head to Manly and save Bondi for our next trip. Luckily, Friday was prime beach weather and we had an entire afternoon to hop on a ferry to the beach! After about a half an hour ride across the beautiful harbour, stopping over to change vessels in Circular Quay (pronounced key), we arrived at Manly Warf. This is a nice little beach area where kayaks were being rented out and kids splashed around in the shallow water, but it didn’t really provide the full ‘beach’ atmosphere. So we followed our directions (and some other beachy-looking tourists) along the street and in about five minutes we arrived at Manly beach. 

I can’t remember the last time I’d been at a real beach. Maybe Florida in Grade 11?? A long time ago. I had forgotten how much I love it. The sand, the sun, the smell, everything about the beach just makes me so happy. I love that you can just lie out on the sand for hours, doing nothing and still have a great day.

As we walked along the shore scoping for a suitable spot to set up camp, Mandy quickly noticed that it was dotted with little blue things…jellyfish!!! Awesome. I probably would have stepped on one if she didn’t notice, I was so absorbed with staring out at the water. After settling into a spot on the sand an announcement was made and the woman on the other end of the speakers began to warn the swimmers of the bluebottle jellyfish that were washing up on shore. 

Jellies!

They’re actually only about the size of your thumb tip but can give a nasty sting (her words, Australian accent, fun to impersonate). If you’re stung, there is no immediate cure, only to remove the tentacle and wait for about an hour until the pain goes away. Fun. We were rather disappointed that we couldn’t go into the water. But still, there were some crazies out there surfing and swimming. Us foreigners didn’t take our chances and we stayed safely away from the bluebottle infested water.

The remainder of our beach day involved people watching and tanning, with Mandy learning lots about the beach, since she had never been to one before. Like, there is sand. Lots of it. And it gets everywhere in a matter of seconds. Also that the sun is strong even later in the afternoon and sunscreen is key…but you also need to re-apply. Often. That’s ok though, this beach experience prepared us for next week, where we spent another day out on the water.

Fun in the Sand

Beach #2.

After a week of clouds and rain, we were praying for a sunny Saturday, because a bus full of exchange students was headed to Broulee Beach, about 2.5 hours away from Canberra. According to The Weather Network, there was a 90% chance of rain that day, so we weren’t too thrilled to be outside all day, with no shelter in case of torrential downpour. But we tried to keep positive and hope for the best, since oftentimes the weather predictions are wrong, or the rain only lasts a fraction of the day.

6:15am rolled around as I rolled out of bed and got ready to meet the crew at 6:45. It was probably about 6:37 when we were almost ready to leave and the rain started pouring. We had nothing left to do but grab an umbrella and head out. Only a few minutes later, the rain slowed to a light mist and then the only proof that it had rained were the poor soaked people who were already waiting for the bus. At least everyone had towels.

7:00am came and went as we loaded onto the coach bus. Now I’ve gotten used to taking coach busses around here and they’ve all exceeded my standards of cleanliness and modern-ness, but the one we took on Saturday didn’t seem to be quite up to par. I mean, it did the job of getting us there and back in one piece, but the headrests looked like they were made out of matted old koala fur (I don’t even want to think about what could be living in there) and I don’t think any of the mesh pockets on the back of the seats weren’t ripped or falling off in some fashion. It did have a tv at the front though. But I couldn’t see it without craning my neck in twisted ways. The movie that played on the way there…have no idea what it was called…was an old movie about Aboriginal Australians. Apparently it was sad, but I couldn’t see it/read the sub-titles.

So…two and a half hours later, we arrived at Broulee Beach! No rain yet, just clouds and a high UV rating. That was ok with us! We made sure to lather on the sunscreen, because those pesky rays come straight through that hole in the ozone, make their way through the clouds and then we end up having to deal with the painful result. Anyway, we were all rocking the shorts tan and soon enough people were trying out the water, playing volleyball, and exploring the surroundings. Dave, Alex, and a few of the other guys decided to check out how much renting a surfboard cost (only $15!! including wetsuit) and ended up showing off their skills for the rest of the day. Next time I’m on the beach, I’ll actually bring money and try this surfing thing out for myself!

While on the beach, we discovered some new critters like black cockatoos and pelicans – those things are huge! Thankfully there were no jellyfish here. There were also really interesting rock formations near a little river that led out to the ocean (technically the Tasman Sea). 

The rocks looked kind of like turds from a distance and had weird olive-looking balls all over them. Apparently these are normal and are just some form of food for starfish.

Although our sun dance didn’t make the sun come out and play, it was still a pretty perfect day and everyone seemed like they had a good time. At 3, our bus departed and we made a stop in a nearby tourist town called Mogo. Sadly, all Mogo had to offer us was a delicious ice cream store, a few entertaining souvenir shops, and a ton of lizards. Those guys were crawling around everywhere. I’m pretty sure everything closed around 4 or 4:30…just when we were leaving. Oh and I didn’t actually see it (except for pictures) but there was an organ in an old church that was actually made in Guelph! How random…what a small world we live in.

The ride home featured a more recent Australian movie called “Tomorrow, When the War Began”. Again, I didn’t see it but I heard it was ok but had a bad ending. I was sad to leave the beach and wished we could have stayed longer, but this weekend is looking hot and sunny so hopefully we’ll make it out to discover another one.

Sending my love from down under,

Laura

and yes, we all have matching towels. They were on sale at the supermarket ok?

Zooventure :)

On our eternal search for all of Australia’s famous kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, emus, and koalas, we found ourselves disappointed in the lack of cuddly creatures we’ve seen out in the wild. But being tourists, we decided to take the opportunity to see these animals (and many more) up close and personal…at none other than Australia’s National Zooquarium (Zoo & Aquarium) conveniently located in Canberra!!

Our Zooventure took place on Saturday, February 5^th, when the weather called for showers but alas, we stayed dry (minus the sweat). Leaving around noon, Marina, Alex, Dave, Mark, Jovi, Mandy, and I, took a bus into the city and then proceeded to wait at least an hour to catch the next bus headed to the zoo at 1:30. In our experience with zoos, we were worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to see the whole thing before it closed at 5pm, but we heard that three hours was plenty of time to do the rounds and hoped that was right.

After being deposited at the grand entrance and paying a generous $27.50 admission, we were greeted by our fellow primates at Monkey Island. We proceeded through the winding pathways to find a snow leopard, brown bears, and white lions. At this point, I was beginning to feel the heat of the day and couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor felines that sought refuge under the few shady spots in their enclosures. As we continued on our journey, we came across meer cats, an adorable red panda, various kinds of primates, zebras!, and giraffes! But the fun began when we entered the area where kangaroos, wallabies, and emus were let to roam around free and be pet by us visitors. Our fascination with marsupials had previously not yet been satisfied, as our kangaroo count had been at a mere 4 roos since day 1. But…I’m happy to say that we actually pet a baby wallaby, even though the poor thing must have felt violated by the camera (maybe not as violated as the emu that Dave felt the urge to thrust at from behind…). Cross that one off our to do list. After running into a koala, the cutest little penguins, and a couple of tigers, we ventured over to the aquarium.

Being titled ‘Australia’s National Zoo & Aquarium’, we expected to see an impressive display of sea creatures, but what we found was only mildly impressive. The fish, snakes, turtles, eels, sharks, frogs, and alligators were all interesting in their own way and it was fun for me to see all these animals, but the aquarium just wasn’t as spectacular as one would expect a National building to be. Oh well, at least the air conditioning was a nice break from the heat for a while.

On our way out of the aquarium, we stopped to watch visitors (who had paid an extra $30) feed the brown bears right out of the palms of their hands. The sticky goopy fruit mess looked pretty gross but I can imagine how cool it would be to have a bear lick the slop clean off your fingertips.

After a quick snack (the best chocolate milk I had EVER drank), our crew wandered out to wait in the scorching parking lot for the bus to retrieve us at 4:35.

(Dave's pic, hope you don't mind!)

And that was the end of our day at the zoo, we probably won’t spend our money on another trip, but we’re still on the hunt for unique wild animals and always have our cameras on hand in case we run into something new!

That’s all for now, stay tuned for another post about our amazing weekend in Sydney.

Love, Laura

mer. mer. merrrrrrrrr!

The title of this blog is the sound we wake up to, eat breakfast to, walk to class to, make our dinner to, sit outside and tan to, and what do you know... it’s also what we fall asleep to. That sound, my friends, is the most irritating bird call you will ever hear.

Have a listen to the video and you'll see what I mean!

Actually, every bird we have seen in Australia so far has had some kind of annoying sound. By annoying sound I don’t mean a cute little “chirp chirp chirp”....

The “mer mer merrrr” sound is the call of the common black bird which also enjoys rummaging through garbage like our racoons do back home. Other birds we’ve seen (and clearly heard) include the cockatoo with its deafening squawk, the kookaburra with its monkey-like chuckle, the currawong which sounds like someone trying to sing while gargling mouthwash and a bunch of others including magpies, gulls and ibis’ that chirp and chirp and chirp and... you get the point.



The Kookaburra!



The Cockatoo!

That is just in introduction to all the interesting wildlife we have seen here in Australia so far. The wild animals in Canberra are pretty amazing! Even though at times they can be irritating, it is awesome to see so many new creatures we never knew existed.

Yes, we’ve heard about the typical Australian animals like the koala, the wombat and the playtapus. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen any of these in the wild yet. We did however (after many days hunting for them) see some kangaroos! They are actually everywhere, usually around dusk in the fields and just the other night, two kangaroos hoped by our residence window.



Giant spider - kind unknown - found pretty much
everywhere around Sydney and Canberra



When it comes to insects, we have seen a few interesting ones so far—none of which have been the scary spiders I spent most of my pre-departure time thoroughly researching of course. These interesting critters include the cicada, a really ugly bug that continually makes that “hydro wire noise” on really hot days, giant black ants, praying mantises, grasshoppers and CRICKETS which are everywhere and are all you hear at night. As you may have guessed, we have also seen our fair share of spiders, most of which I have no idea what kind they are but some are really, I mean REALLY big and gross! Snakes on the other hand, (which are apparently very popular around here) we have not run across—thank god. We’ll see if that changes after all of our hiking field trips with Amanda Evans, our design professor here at UC.

The wildlife in Canberra is pretty awesome. But after our trip to Sydney for the weekend, we can now add a few more critters to the list...

FRUIT BATS. I have one word to descri....actually I have two words to describe these creatures: HUGE and ADORABLE! These cute bats have a wingspan of around two and a half feet and look like mini flying foxes. At night, they fly around everywhere which make an interesting backdrop in the night sky and never swoop down like bats back in Canada usually do. During the day they can be found sleeping in trees which are completely filled with them!

An Ibis!

The Ibis is another interesting bird that is very common in Sydney. They almost co-exist with pigeons and seagulls that flock to where people are eating or garbage is found. We also saw the webs of the infamous Sydney funnel web spider but were both too chicken to coax him out of his shelter. You see, the funnel web is one of the most deadly spiders found in southern Australia and has been known to kill its victims within 15 minutes to an hour! Now, they have anti-venoms to avoid death but it’s bite is extremely painful and that was something I was definitely no willing to take on. Can you tell I’ve been doing my research?

Anyways, that’s all for interesting wildlife we’ve seen in Aussie Land so far, Laura will tell you all about our awesome day at the zoo next! So, if you feel a little jumpy after this blog I apologize!

Cheers for now,

Mandy.

mmmmm Delicious!

There are few things in life that we truly enjoy. For me, and the rest of the crew in Australia from LA, one of those things includes stuff that is free. To be a little more specific, I’m talking about FREE MEALS. Our entire week during orientation we attended meetings and group programmes and received free bags, pens, notepads, snacks, water bottles, even a poncho and mini sewing kit! But the best gifts were that of delicious breakfasts, lunches and dinners!

So, while Laura told you all about the awesome stuff we got to do during O-week here at UC, I’m going to give you a re-cap of our main goal of the week... attending as many free meals as possible.

Our first day all together (me, Laura, Dave and Marina) was Sunday. That night we heard about a free spit roast being thrown for the “freshers”. After considering ourselves “freshers” of the country, we joined in! It was amazing. For those of you unaware of what a spit roast is, it’s simply a pig roast (minus the creepy pig rotating on a stick on display for all to see) with fresh pork served with gravy that you can eat alone or on a bun (which is the best way). It was also served with greens, macaroni salad and some rice stuff with hot peppers. Marina made the mistake of putting what she thought was mustard on her sandwich which turned out to be wasabi sauce... YUMMM. After that delicious meal, deserts were put out on the table with a choice of passion fruit cheese cake or brownies with some kind of nuts in them. You ALL know which one I chose; Brownies hands down. After everyone had eaten and the catering crew was cleaning up, being the moochers we truly are, we took a plate full of desert goodies and Dave managed to get an entire extra plate heaped with pork!

On the first day of o-week we were busy attending so many meetings we may unfortunately missed out on a few free meals. We did get a free BBQ lunch called the “buddies BBQ” where we met our exchange buddies who were past exchange students. Chips were also handed out which were awesome but that day I think I ate more ice than anything else... it was a scorching 38 degrees Celsius outside with a clear sunny sky. After one of our OSHC meetings, pizza was up for grabs as well. Later that night, all the exchange students met up at the Lighthouse Pub, otherwise known as “The Lighty” where we were all given free beer and cider!

The next day was one full of free meals. Our breakfast was comprised of pancakes with syrup in the concord outside the UC refectory (or student centre), which was also served with apple black currant drinking boxes.  Lunch was a bit later in the same place where we were given what I’m assuming was beef with gravy, rice and veggies with a delicious pasta side. No drinks came with this meal but it was so delicious no one had time to think about drinks before finishing their plates. Our poor friend Mark was ripped off when he showed up late and was given two tiny pieces of beef and a few pasta noodles. Dinner was the best of all the meals. Even though we had to wait for it a bit longer than most other tables, we were given fries and pizza during trivia night in the refectory. The fries were perfect and the pizza was interesting and different, but delicious!

As the week progressed o-week activities were more spread apart and free meals were less frequent. Laura and I attended one more free lunch of sausages, bread, salad and.... COCA COLA! I was so happy to be given free pop.

While free food was an amazing bonus to o-week, my favourite part about UC’s orientation programme was the opportunity to meet new people. If not for these crazy meetings and free meal get-togethers we would have never met our huge crew of Canadians, not to mention all the crazy Australians we’ve met along the way as well. I only hope to keep learning as much about Australia and the Aussie culture as I can from all the new people we meet along our journey.

Well, that’s it for now. We’re going to the zoo tomorrow and with all the crazy animals we’ve seen here so far, you will all hear about them very soon! Hope you’re not all super hungry now,

Cheers,

Mandy

EVENTful week...

Welcome to O-week, where things are heaps free and heaps awesome! Our first week here was filled with plenty of info sessions and events for students to get to know each other and the Uni. There have also been lots of activities especially planned for us study abroad and exchange students. The week kicked off with a bunch of meetings about the Uni, health care, visa, and enrolment information and of course we rolled out of each one with a free swag bag. I now have three new water bottles, a baseball hat, two packs of noodles, four pens, three notepads, three reusable bags, a poncho, a sewing kit, and heaps of recycling. Phew.

A buddy barbeque was arranged on Monday where we were supposed to meet and greet with our assigned Australians for the semester, and I’m pretty sure mine was the only one who showed up (Name: Dom, went to Laurier last semester)…but there were also lots of other cool exchange students we met that day, including some fellow Canadians! Next off, we were introduced to The Lighthouse or “The Lighty”, a nearby restaurant/bar (seen in pic below) where we spent our afternoon learning about drop bears and traveling in Australia while drinking pitchers of free cider. Yum.

The next morning we headed to campus at 10:00am for a free pancake breakfast, but in true Aussie fashion, the food wasn’t out until about quarter after (or later…I’m not really sure), so we decided to get our student cards before-hand. Another free lunch followed shortly after we ran around campus trying to get organized and then we headed to the mall for some air conditioning and shopping. At first the mall was pretty confusing to me, with there being hardly any store I recognize, but it’s becoming more familiar now, as everyday it seems we need to head over and visit the supermarket or pick up random supplies.

The last three days of O-Week have been pretty unpredictable, as thunderstorms have been rolling in and out when you least expect it. You can actually see them coming way off in the distance, but when they arrive, the rain still seems to catch you off guard and you’re left running around trying to close the windows before everything gets soaked. The rain doesn’t seem to last very long from what we’ve experienced and we’ve never had a full rainy day (as of yet..), so it’s nice to get some cool air once in a while.

Despite the weather, another night out at The Lighty seemed appropriate, with a beach-themed evening, it wasn’t too bad walking over in the rain.

Thursday looked like it was going to be a dud, waking up to a cloudy morning, but it cleared up early afternoon and the sun shone for our afternoon boat cruise around Lake Burley Griffin. All of us exchange students hopped on a bus and were taken into the city (about ten minutes from Uni), where we then walked another ten-ish minutes to the high class yacht club for some drinks and munchies before our troll around the lake. Seeing as we’re all students and it must have been at least 35°C outside, we were all wearing shorts, flip flops (thongs), and singlets…but this attire was strictly against the club’s dress code and we weren’t allowed to step foot indoors. This turned out to be alright, since we found some shade on the patio and enjoyed our free cider, beer, and delicious potato wedges. The cruise was about an hour long on the 4m deep lake, where we basked/burned in the sun and learned about Canberra’s significant buildings and landmarks.

The final day of Orientation was pretty uneventful, we just made another trip to the mall/grocery store, came back to our room to another flash flood, and made a hearty chicken dinner. That evening I tried my first attempt at pool, and as it turns out, it’s not my hidden talent…but maybe after some practice I’ll give Knuckey a run for his money.

With more events to come soon, I’m getting excited to see what the different parts of Australia have to offer.

Love, Laura

are we REALLY here!?

After the past 48 hours, I think it’s safe to say I now have sufficient experience in travelling. Before this trip however, the furthest I've been from home was cross border shopping in Buffalo. Yes, that is correct, I have never been on a plane; and yes, I chose a five, then thirteen hour flights as my first and second flight experiences ever. Our first flight to San Francisco was only five hours and I became restless at just around the two hour mark. All I could think about the entire time was: oh no, we have a THIRTEEN HOUR FLIGHT next. What am I going to do!?

Not only have I never flown before, I have never even stepped foot in an airport. My first travel experience was amazing, sad, awesome, confusing, exciting, nerve-racking and scary simultaneously. I never imagined how difficult saying goodbye to loved ones was before now. The flight itself was unlike anything I imagined it would be. I was amazed by the simple fact a giant machine (at this point I thought a small air bus was a giant machine, until I met "Betsy" the GIANT 727 that would fly us over the Pacific Ocean) could actually stay in the air.

The take off was awesome, especially hearing the turbine engines wind up for the first time! The flight to me felt unreal. I felt like I was simply driving in a car where any turbulence we hit felt like hitting a pot hole on the road. The only thing I didn't enjoy were the tiny seats, crappy pillows and massive headaches I got while flying. I learned that investing in a good neck pillow goes a LONG way and advil every four hours on the dot is a life saver! I was lucky to get a window seat on our flight to Sydney, Australia. Even though we flew through most of the night I had my head in the window trying to see the clouds and stars. Flying over the ocean was interesting at first, and when the sun came up it was a nice view for a while. However, for 5 more hours all I had to look at was clouds and blue sky and it drove me crazy! In the end, after about 16,000km travelled... we FINALLY landed in Sydney and that was the end of my first travel experience.

First Impressions.

Expecting the sun shining and the weather hot, we left the Sydney airport to a cloudy sky and chilly breeze. Don’t get me wrong, any weather here is better than -15 degrees Celsius and a weather warning for intense snow fall at home, but there we were with our shorts, tank tops, sun glasses and sandals with coats and sweaters wrapped around our legs to keep us warm!

But what about the Aussie “stuff”? First off, cars in Australia are a million times nicer than those at home. It seemed like every car that drove by was brand new! Also, not only do they drive on the left (and wrong) side of the road, all the vehicles are right hand drive! Being a car and bike person already I was missing my toys back home. Especially in this amazingly warm weather, seeing motorcycles cruising by hurt my heart a little bit. The vegetation here is also really different. Having never travelled before, seeing a palm tree was a pretty big deal! The road signs and traffic lights, even the drivers courtesy in Australia is a complete 180 compared to back home. Here, drivers actually stop for pedestrians! Although we found out it’s against the law to not give us the right of way, we were amazed that pedestrians would just speed walk onto the road without looking when there is a car zooming towards the crosswalk!  We also noticed that no one ever speeds which we all know is unlike any one who drives in North America. Another really awesome thing is the doors on almost all buildings in Australia; every door slides open! It’s going to be weird having to push or pull a door manually when we come back.

Canberra itself is a beautiful city. I mostly knew what to expect to see through my research at home before coming here but, it really is beautiful. As a Landscape Architecture student I can definitely appreciate all of the urban planning that went in to creating the national capital of Australia. Even though we haven’t been able to travel to civic to check out all the attractions of the city yet, I can’t wait to do so. As Laura mentioned before we did get a quick tour of Canberra so we know where to go which is “sweet as” (as the Australians would say).

Overall, Australians have been living up to their laid back, not afraid to have a good time lifestyle. Especially living in residence and having to keep our windows open because of the heat, the craziness continues well into the am. We’ve learned a few key sayings along the way too: being an extreme coca cola addict, I learned coke is not called pop but “fizzy drink”, ketchup is “tomato sauce”, fries are “chips” and chips are “crisps”! Not to mention how are you is “how you goin’ ” and the common name for man or bud is “bloak” (I’m probably spelling that wrong).

Anyways, before all of you readers start to fall asleep, that was a sum up of my first travel experience and first impressions of Australia. O-week starts today and we’ll see how many interesting stories I have to share after those experiences. So for now, cheers!

Mandy.