Traedogg Down Under

“Give Way” is what is written on a “Yield” sign in Australia instead of “Yield.” It is just one of the many things I have gotten the biggest kick out of since arriving here. Rubbish is one of my other favorites for trash. Australia is similar to the US in theory, but SO different. Its BEAUTIFUL here! From the moment I stepped off the plane I have felt nothing but relaxed, at peace, tranquil, and however many other synonyms you want to use for the word. The country is undescribably wonderful.

Yesterday and today I have had two 1/2 day orientation sessions, which were both so helpful. They filled us in on a bit of history and politics in the country, so we weren’t completely ignorant, but the rest of orientation they just bombarded us with things to do. Travel information for everywhere you can practically dream of, clubs to join, events at the union, sports to go see, etc. Its very overwhelming.. and surprisingly, five months will never be enough to see everything I want too! And it’ll be real interesting to see how far my money is going to stretch.

Along with orientation, I also walked around a neighboring suburb of Randwick with my friend from madison, and roomie Britt. It is such a cute little town. There are practially no sit down resturaunts, and lots of little shops. NO CHAINS except McDonalds and Subway in this city. (including clothing stores). It is just very unique. We were the most smitten with the grocery stores and literally spent HOURS there. They have some of the same brands as the US like nestle, coke, doritos, kellogs, Lipton, but the product line is SOOO different in most cases. They have rice krispy’s and frosted flakes, but they are called “Rice Bubbles” and “Frosties” in the same, exact packages. They unfortunately do not have Special K with Red Berries (My favorite), but have Special K with Peaches and Apricots and Apples and Cinnimon. Another unfortunate finding is that the peanut butter, eggs, and all dairy products are VERY expensive compared to the US. ($5 bucks for a container of yogurt and peanutbutter) What is GREAT is that calories is written in Kilo-Joules so for the next five months, calorie counting will not be an option!

Tonight study abroad is hosting a party for all of the international students that me and my roomates are attending. My roomies are GREAT girls- i really could not have asked for a better situation. We are working on getting internet in our house, and when we do, I will upload pictures of the house, my campus and the girls! For those of you who have already written me, thanks! I will appoligize in advance for not getting back to people sooner, but I make it to the computer lab once a day (if that). Hopefully once i get internet at home, keeping in touch will be much easier!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 22nd, 2005 at 12:27 am and is filed under In Australia!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.