After a long (long, long, long) journey on the big shiny A380 double-decker plane (which, for you aviation geeks out there *ahem, Hugo* was just like all other nice long-haul planes, but with free twirls and comfier socks. I'm not complaining!), I arrived at Sydney airport, which was, well, airporty. (I'd been travelling for approximately 73 years, don't expect any startling insight). I got a shuttle to the hotel where the very grouchy manager decided I'd cancelled my room, and then backed down and gave me a room anyways when I said no I didn't, and i'm so jetlagged I'll go northern on you if you tell me otherwise.
After an incredibly refreshing 3 hours sleep (ahh jetlag!) I bummed around until it was an acceptable time to go in search of a starbucks-shaped breakfast - random/pointless Aussie fact numero uno: there are only 3 starbucks in the whole of Sydney! Cer-azy. I managed to find the train station and get all the way to Newcastle without either my arm falling off due to the weight of my suitcase, or falling asleep and waking up in Perth (although that may be because the train terminated in Newcastle, but whatevs).
I moved into my rather bleak room in my big (but cold and empty) flat and it started to sink in that I was actually OFFICIALLY living in Australia now. (As in AUSTRALIA. As in the other side of the world. For a year. Cripes.) I decided that I needed an urgent dose of facebook, just to check that England was still there, and was forced to do my "scary unstable jetlagged girl" face for the library lady so she'd fix my internet.
ANYHOW - that was my first (rather uninteresting, but scary!) 24 hours in the land down under.
Since then, I've met lots of people from my halls - think Suffolk Terrace B01, but with accents and goon. Ahhh goon, The tipple of choice for all self-respecting (if not liver-respecting) Aussie students - it's essentially a four-litre bag of extra-strong lambrini. I sell it so well! But it's actually not so bad. My flatmates are all very nice and aussie (other than Ozan, because he's turkish). I've met a bunch of other internationals from the US/Leeds uni/Swansea uni, whom all seem nice :) I've had a bunch of DULL orientation week lectures including lots of jiggly moobs, from an indigenous dance performed by some men on the plumper side of chubs. I've eaten at least 8 BBQs this week (not even an exaggeration, they even cooked pancakes on the BBQ for us, loooool). Turns out Aussie land doesn't hate on the veggies quite as much as I'd feared! Everyone is very friendly and fond of imitating our accents - I've already been told I sound like Emily from Friends (lol) and asked to say "Tally ho!"
The weather has been ATROCIOUS. I'm not even exaggerating. It has been monsoon-ing on a scale unimaginable in drizzly little England. Actual rivers down the streets. It hasn't stopped raining for more than 5 minutes for the last three days.... Hopefully the weather will buck up soon! As usual in Livvyland, I eschewed the advice of clever people and decided that Australia doesn't have winter, and therefore I would pack nothing more waterproof/warm than a hoodie. Needless to say, I have been wearing variations of the same outfit every day for the past week. Sigh.
The uni organised a city tour on Wednesday in an attempt to show us the pretty side of Newcastle and reassure all the depressed internationals that it's only the area around the uni that resembles a ghetto. It would have been useful if we were able to leave the bus - the parts of the city I saw through the torrential downpours and steamy windows looked nice enough! The beaches (there are many) looked amazing, although the surf was terrifying because of the storm! There are some gooooood shopping centres here, with pet shops stocked with fluffy wagging-tailed little balls of cute, and lots of Boost Juice bars (nom nom).
Tomorrow we're heading out on a trip to the Reptile Park, and i'm going to do my best to ignore the fact that i'm so-clumsy-i'm-practically-disabled and attempt to avoid an Irwin-esque "Crikey, he bit me arm off!" moment. I currently have EVERYTHING crossed (fingers/toes/legs/arms/eyes/earlobes) that the weather stops being such a mardy bum and allows us to dry off, even if just for the day. I'm worried I might start going mouldy.
So there you go, the run down of my soggier-than-expected first week! Lectures start on Monday, and hopefully once the sun decides to get it's arse into gear, there will be beach trips and kangaroo-spotting opportunities galore (helped along by my timetable only spanning Tuesday afternoon to Thursday morning. Ohhhh yeah!) so my camera will hopefully get a little more use! Surprisingly enough, photos of rain in the Southern Hemisphere look pretty much identical to ones in the Northern Hemisphere. Hmm.
Week one:
Injuries recieved due to extreme specialness = Possible broken nose from headbutting my cupboards, owwie. Big egg on my head from headbutting Jack's boiler. Oh dearrr.
Random Aussie observation = There's no chance of "tossing a shrimp on the barbie" here - they call them prawns! They also have a town called Dubbo. Best name ever?
Best Aussie invention = Timtam shooters. Bite both ends off, suck up tea, make a big melty mess, sigh like a satiated smack addict, cue obesity.
 |
| My room for the next few months |
 |
| Mmmm calories |
No comments:
Post a Comment