It's the small things

Although it feels like I’ve only been here a week or two, today was my one month anniversary with Australia. Since Australia is a Western culture and is English speaking, it’s easy to feel as if I’m not far from home. If you don’t pay attention to the small things, it would be VERY possible to go home without any Australian culture, which is not something I wanted to do.  But there are a lot of small moments/things that make me feel not at home (in a good way, of course)

1)      McDonalds is literally always busy. If you think Americans love their McDonalds, think again. There isn’t a time of day that I can walk buy a McDonalds without there being line upon line upon line.

2)      No one is ever at work. I’ve actually come to believe that like only 5% of the population must work here. The streets are always busy and at any time of the day people can be seen casually getting a beer. On my way to class and on my way home from class (anywhere from 10am-6pm) most of the balconies/patios I walk past have at least one adult lounging around.

3)      Australians are probably as nice as they come. I mean that in all ways possible. They are extremely friendly and are genuinely interested in others and what they do. Any time I have a question on campus or need directions, I’m not afraid to ask a random stranger like I would be back home. No one looks at you stupid and they always are way more helpful than they need to be. They are also extremely NICE looking. Everyone, the men and women, are just beautiful. It’s actually not even fair.

4)      Sweatpants don’t exist. I haven’t seen a single student on campus in sweats/athletic shorts and I’ve seen only two girls in leggings. One was carrying a yoga mat, though, so she doesn’t even really count. I don’t know how they do it, but people ALWAYS look put together and fashionable.

5)      Speaking of put together and fashionable, it’s obvious I’m an exchange student because I wear a backpack. All the girls use their purses and a lot of the guys have satchels/over the shoulder man bags.

6)      It was like 68 degrees out yesterday and I went out in shorts and a tank top. I was sweating. Everyone else was walking around in jeans and sweaters. I even saw someone with a hat on. What?

7)      The kids at the grocery store crying because they want candy and chocolate aren’t even bratty. They are just so cute with those accents.

8)      I look right and then left before I cross the street and every single traffic light walk signal makes a noise when it changes.

9)      People walk extremely slow. Like, painfully slow. I think I could probably get to campus in 10 minutes if I wanted to, but it can take me up to 20 minutes because of everyone else walking. It makes sense that they walk so leisurely since everything is just so much more relaxed and chill here, but I swear everyone must have to leave like an hour early to get anywhere at the pace they walk!

10)   AND….I only go to class twice a week. And we get “snack breaks” during our 1hr 45 min lectures. And all lectures are recorded and put online (yes, I DO still go to class). And my campus looks like Hogwarts.

"Let's go to the beach, beach. Let's go to the beach."

Yes, the title of this blog is incorrect lyrics of a Nicki Minaj song that has become my life motto, because actually all I do is go to the beach!!

Although last week was the first week of classes, I do not have Monday class, so I just went to campus and looked around for my classrooms and explored. Literally this campus is unreal. Madison is one of the prettiest campuses I have seen, but Uni Syd blows Madison out of the park. It’s a mixture of parks and campus buildings and the buildings are either really old and beautiful or really modern and beautiful.


Just a casual lawn chair park in the middle of campus

Tuesday I had my first class, Animal/ Human Cultures, both the lecture and tutorial. Although the lectures are 2 hours here, everything else is very similar to the way things are run in Madison, which is nice. On Wednesday (no class…again) I went to my first food and wine club gathering at a bar in Newtown. I met a few more Madison students in the club and a few locals as well! And yes, I did eat food and drink wine! (I love school here). Thursday there was a strike across campus so my Marketing class was cancelled, but I did still have Finance. I also have no class Friday (I know, I know…aren’t I supposed to be here for school?), so for the 3rd or 4th time I went to the beach : ) I returned to coogee beach, which has been my favorite so far, to work on my tan and do some homework.

On Saturday a group of us took a ferry over to Watson’s Bay. This is in the top few for my favorite areas of Sydney as it has a little bit of everything. Right when you arrive there are a few cute little restaurants, a beach, and a park. We ate lunch at Doyles On the Wharf which is famous for their fish and chips (although I got chicken nuggets) and then walked up to the Gap Bluff. It's basically just a look-out into the ocean and the whole area of Watson's Bay. One of the worst ship wrecks in Sydney occured here killing 121 of 122 passangers in 1850something. After checking out gap bluff we hiked around the rest of the bay, past the nude Lady Bay Beach (there was not a single lady on this beach, btw) to Hornby lighthouse on the South Head of Sydney. It was built due to the Dunbar shipwreck and overlooks the bay onto the north end of Sydney, Manly. We just sat and took in the view until sunset. The best part of the trip was our 7:10 sunset ferry ride back into the Sydney Harbor. We left just minutes after the sun started going down and I actually had to pinch myself the whole way home. Standing on a boat with a warm ocean breeze and looking at the city skyline, the harbour bridge, and the Sydney opera house with vivid oranges and pinks behind them is just not real life. I swear, seeing that view will literally never get old!

Watson's Bay

 

Hornby Lighthouse

 

 

 

Sunday we took another ferry over to Manly, with the beach as our final destination. Unfortunately on Sundays most things are closed or close early, so although it’s another very touristy area like Bondi, I definitely want to go back and check out some of the shops and restaurants. The beach was amazing and it was literally a perfect day—not too hot, but not chilly at all. I swam for most of the time and caught a bunch of waves body surfing but then the waters got really rough and the Australian life guard (hellloooo!) had to come tell my roomie and I and a few other people to head in since we were too far out, so I just continued to soak up the sun, as did my closed Marketing text book…ooops!

Yesterday I caught up on homework and went to a free massage class at uni. I learned head, neck, and shoulders and got a head massage as well!! Today was my first full day of classes with a marketing tutorial at 12, animal/ human cultures lecture at 1, and animal/human cultures tutorial at 3. Now I'm sort of settling back into a real world routine of classes and homework, but we'll see how "real" it actually ends up being with classes only two days a week!

 

"But really, guys, this is not real life."

These past two weeks have been absolutely crazy and so busy. I cannot even exlain how many times someone in our group has said "But wait...this is our life now." Or just even "this is not real life," because really, it just isn't!

So, leaving off after orientation…On Sunday March 24^th I moved into my apartment, which is absolutely awesome. It’s two stories and is a two bedroom/two bathroom apartment. The walls are painted nicely and there is actual artwork that matches everything. Although extremely unnecessary, someone also comes to clean our apartment once a week. We also have a small balcony, although compared to some other views, ours is just a building. There is a pool, hot tub, and a sauna in the building as well. Every time I come home I struggle to believe that this is where I am living for the next four months, as it’s just not a real college home!! In the apartment I have three roommates, all of whom are juniors at Northeastern University in Boston. There are also a few other people from Madison in my building, a TON of other Northeastern students, and a few students from my orientation group. Although I basically live in Chinatown (lots of good thai and Chinese food), I am only a ten minute walk to the CBD (central business district—where everything goes on “downtown”), so it’s a really fun building and area to live in!

The next two days I had Uni orientation. The first day we had an international student welcome and then got all the basic information about literally everything uni related and life related. The second day we were given the classes we were (automatically) enrolled in and went over more uni lifestyle and class style stuff. As informative as it all was, it was definitely not where I wanted to be on those 80 degree and sunny days, so after orientation on Tuesday my roommates,  my neighbors (northeastern girls), and myself went to Bondi Beach. Many of you may have heard of it as it’s “the beach” to go to in Sydney. It’s in a beautiful area, but it’s a bit touristy and EXTREMELY busy, so it wasn’t my favorite beach ever. But whatever, it was a beach and I’m in Australia!
(*Note—Uni = university, college, campus)

 
Since this entire week was "O-week," which is their orientation week for "freshers" to get acclimated and involved in campus, a lot was going on. I went back to campus on Wednesday to check out some clubs, as they had a huge fair with free food and music. There were a bunch of tents set up infront of "the Great Hall" (aka Hogwarts), which is like the most beatitful area ever. There were hundreds and hundreds of clubs including surfing, skiing, bushwalking, jewish comedy club, beer brewing, quidditch, chocolate appreciation, ect. If you think of it, it probably exists here! There were so many I wanted to join, but many of them have a fee, so in the end I chose Bocce ball club, Long boarding club, Food and Wine club, and the Women’s collective. After clubs I got a lot of free food and drinks and got my cards read. The guy guessed my major and situation before I even said anything! I picked all of the awesome card such as wealth health and love, so I guess I'm doing okay. Also, sorry mom and dad, but I might never end up leaving Australia according to him!! Wednesday night there was an O-week party for all the international students at Manning Bar, which is one of the bars on campus. Yes, I did just say the campus bar. The fact that I was at a bar  looking out the window at classrooms was really just so weird to me..again, it isn't "real life."

The first weekend in March was the big LGBT pride festival, although here in Australia they call it Mardi Gras. It is one of the biggest gay pride parades across the world, and all of Sydney was absolutely crazy. The actual parade was Saturday evening. It started in Hyde Park and went all the way down Oxford Street. Although it was on and off sprinkling to pouring rain, no one really seemed to care. Literally all types of people were there as well—straight, gay, bisexual, transgender, people dressed in drag, costumes, and even NOTHING at all! It was really something beautiful to see the mutual respect and openness that went around for all different people, relationships, and experiences. Unfortunately I got to the parade a little late and couldn’t see much, but I bought a milk crate to stand on and was able to catch some of the floats and marchers. I watched the parade for about an hour to an hour and a half, but it started at least 20 minutes before I got there and went on for about 45 minutes after I left! That’s how much they love their mardi gras!