Traedogg Down Under

Well, its Wednesday in Australia… and supposedly I’m on day three of school, but like most first weeks in college-this week has been a joke. No discussions (tutes) or labs meet this week, only lectures, so I have only had two classes on Monday, and one more today to cap off my “First week” of class! My two classes seem managable (marketing and Australian women writers) although the marketing class will be a lot of work, and the writers class a lot of reading.

Upon entering my first 200 person lecture, I was SHOCKED to see nearly 75% of the class were Asian-with Australian accents! (not exactly what I pictured when I thought of “going to school with australian students- but apparently a great number of australian citizens are asian due to the close proximity of the two countries). It is SO strange to be in the minority as a white American, but a good learning experience! I wasn’t exactly the most popular person in class;) At least not the first day!

But since I barely have any class this week and my internship hasn’t started yet, Britt and I decided to make the most of our time and go explore Sydney. We spent all of Tuesday exploring the city with her friend Gina (also from madison) who is in Australia for a few weeks visiting her Aunt. The three of us began our long day of walking at around 1:00 when we went to Mc Donalds for a light lunch. I know you are all thinking.. MC DONALDS.. GO SOMEWHERE DIFFERENT! But McDonalds here is SO different. They are called “Mc Cafe’s” and surprisingly have very few burger options, and a TON of deli-sandwiches, smoothies, cereal, muffins, coffee drinks (like fraps).. etc.. its really kind of crazy. If Mc Donalds in America were more like that, it would be the next big thing!

From Mc Donalds, we continued our travels on the two main streets in downtown Sydney “Pitt” and “George” street.. and from there proceeded to the Botanical Gardens… which unfortunately were less then outstanding seeing as though Sydney is in the middle of a drought and it is “Winter” here. We saw a lot of dying plants;) hahah;) We continued our journey to the harbor front where we saw the opera house, darling harbour, circular quay (main tourist attractions in the city). Then we we got this great idea to try and see the University of Sydney which is in a suburb of sydney (glebe). It is only about a 10 minute car-ride from the city center, but an hour + of walking! By the time we made it there, it was already dark and we couldn’t see much of the campus, but what we did see was BEAUTIFUL! (I’m jealous!) Just making it there on foot after a long day of walking was quite an accomplishment for us, so we rewarded ourselves with a cab ride back into the city where we eventually caught a bus back to Coogee. But not before a quick trip into Woolworths (like a target ) to grab a pack of Australias renouned cookies “Tim Tams”. (pictures of this entire day can be found on my web shots!)

All and all it was a fun day–but HELL on the feet! (I got to scrap my heels!) This weekend we have trips to the paddington markets (a big market extravaganza in a local suburb) on saturday, and the Hunter Wine Valley Tour on Sunday planned, so I have a lot to look forward too! Hope all is well in the States!

The roomates and I decided to “get out there” and explore not only our suburb and surrounding suburbs, but finally the city of SYDNEY! We kept telling ourselves-this is our home for the next five months, but no matter how many times we said it, it still wouldn’t sink in! For the day, we were not residents of Sydney, but definitely American tourists. Even today I remain in awe at some of the breathtaking sights I saw while exploring.

I wanted to upload pictures today SO bad, but unfortunately I am having massive internet issues. At our house, we will be getting broadband in a few days, but for the time being we have dial-up and only one roomates laptop is connected so I cant upload pictures that way. Then I walked all the way to campus, but it was DEAD. I literally saw no one the entire 1/2 hour I was there, and the internet server was down in the 24 hour computer labs and the library was closed for the day. (The day before school starts). Then I wandered to a “wireless hot spot” and realized I had to pay over 49 bucks a month for access to that, so i proceeded finally to a little internet cafe and I’m on one of the oldest computers I have seen since the 1980’s and it doesn’t have a USB port! (Australia is def. not as technically advanced as in the United States, especially where internet is concerned) So needless to say, the pictures will be coming in a few days I hope. I took a lot of great ones!

Back to my exploring: All of my five roomates and I began the day yesterday with “the walk” from coogee beach (our city) to bondi beach (one of the most popular tourist beaches around). The route is about an hour and 1/2 walk along the coast, yet it took us close to two because literally every two steps we stopped to take a picture. It was like nothing I had ever seen before in my life. The sheer beauty of it all is undescribable. Once we got to Bondi, we boarded a double decker tour bus, that for 30 dollars gave us 24 hours to ride a circut around bondi and its suburbs and all the main attractions in Sydney. (of course we sat on the top of the bus) We could also unboard and re-board the bus as many times as we wanted in the 24 hours, but we just elected to stay on it the majority of the afternoon and orientate ourselves to te area.

We ended up getting off in the heart of Sydney, and somehow never had to pay??? So after a few hours of wandering in and out of stores in the Queen Victoria Building (The most ornate shopping mall I have ever seen in my life) and stopping off at the cutest coffee shop for the best mocha I have ever tasted, we decided to splurge on dinner at a nice italian resturaunt in the heart of the city. By that point, we were wiped out and ended up cabbing home (only 20 bucks from the city for a 20 minute ride with no tip… if only the cabs in madison were that cheap) and I was in bed by 8:00p.m. JET LAG IS BRUTAL!:) I will post pictures of this trip, my house and city, and all of my roomates on web shots as soon as possible! As for now, I’m off to lay out on the beach for the rest of the afternoon! Might as well relax while I can…school starts tomorrow!

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