Safe & Sound on Aussie Ground - I'm sorry I write too much.

So it took me an extra day to get here. Bad weather/mechanical problems caused me to leave DC more than 2 hours late, so I missed my connecting flight. The next flight to Sydney wasn't till the same time the following night. Which meant, SURPRISE 1 DAY VACATION IN LA!

I stayed at the incredibly comfortable Four Points & ordered room service for breakfast. I took a bus tour because 1. I needed something to do all day and 2. they would hold my luggage. I selected the beach and shopping tour, which included stops at Marina Del Rey, Venice Beach, Santa Monica, and Beverly Hills. 10:30 was too early for Venice: Muscle Beach was filled with non-muscular men, and the crazies weren’t really out yet, although a wannabe hip hop star from Senegal did make me listen to his cd… which, judging from the 30 seconds I heard, wasn’t that bad. In Santa Monica I headed down to the Pier. I walked along the beach, watched people swim, was startled by a yawning seal that I had thought was dead, and played some skee ball. At Rodeo Drive, I got a smoothie at Jamba Juice, because I’m pretty sure it’s the one Alisha worked at.

While boarding my flight around 10:00pm, I saw Carolyn Romako (from high school) in line infront of me! How crazy is that? Apparently she plays rugby at Juniata and is excited to come to Newcastle and her ass kicked by some Aussies. I think I freaked her out since she wasn't expecting to see anyone she knew.

I was a little upset when I realized there was no seat "I" on the plane, which meant J was the middle, not the window. I really lucked out though. Neither of my seatmates snored or took up a lot of space. To my right was an astrophysicist on his way to a conference in Sydney. (I finally asked what he did after he mentioned having several friends who've been to Antarctica.) I had a fantastic time talking to him and talking over the movies whenever he wasn't sleeping. To my left was a German-American dietician preparing to defend her thesis. She was on her way to visit her husband in Australia for the 5th time since September. She was a bit bitter and expressed her hatred for the country with a sense of humor. I talked to her for the last few hours of the flight. I didn't sleep for a minute. It was a long 14 or so hours. But I really can't complain about it. We were adorable. The three of us walked off the plane together, said goodbye, and the physicist even helped me get my luggage to the next terminal and re-checked.

The flight to Canberra was insanely short. And thank God for Kree! She wasn't sure if the UC people were still picking me up, so she was there for me and was the first person I saw by baggage claim. She got me checked in and took me shopping. The mall is within walking distance. She told my residence actually used to be owned by the government and used as a detention center for illegal immigrants. I’m living in a prison! The room’s really not bad though. Decent size for one person, and phone, lamp, mini fridge, mattress pad, curtains, mirror, bookshelf, bulletin board, and computer cable are all included. The kitchen with a freezer, several ovens, and more food storage space is right down the hall, as is the bathroom. TV and pool table are on the first floor. I also saw my first kangaroo by Kree's place!

Despite being awake for about 40 hours, I didn't feel that bad. I finally laid down around 3pm. I woke up slightly before 6am.

The next day we did some more shopping in Canberra. Kree took me and Shawn, one of the other Mason students. Once again, Kree = awesome. This day, the kangaroo was sitting right next to the sidewalk outside her door.

My first impression of campus was that it’s filthy. There’s trash everywhere, especially in the residences and especially around Arscott. Kree says the birds are to blame, at least partially. But it’s gross. And, it is winter, so everything here is kind of gray, although I get the feeling that’s just how “the bush” is. It’s certainly no Mason, with its green grass and blooming flowers and landscaping. But this afternoon I went for a walk to explore the rest of campus that I hadn’t seen yet, and I love it now. There are gum trees everywhere. There are some nice courtyards and open spaces on campus. You can look off into the fields and mountains surrounding it. There are statues here and there. Campus is bigger than I realized, and it's like Mason in that the university buildings are clustered together and not integrated with the town. I also saw about 20 kangaroos. A large group was in one of the fields. It’s kind of crazy that this animal that’s so exotic to me, that I only see in zoos, is now wildly hopping about in front of me. They’re the deer of Australia: They roam around on a woodsy campus, they get hit by cars, and their eyes glow in headlights. I'm pretty sure I'll find them endlessly fascinating.



I've started to meet some of the people on my floor, but most people won't be back till next weekend. Everyone seems nice enough. Orientation started today, so I got to meet the other exchange students. Turns out a lot of them are living in my building. But I'll write more about that later in the week.

Some notes about Australia:

Things I could have predicted:
o Fries are “chips.” But chips are still chips.
o Elevators are “lifts.”
o $160 is a normal price for jeans.
o It’s cool here but not that cold. I am sad to go back to it getting dark at 5:30.
o There’s a lot of Cadberry chocolate.

Not so expected:

-Supermarkets are in the malls. This is brilliant! One stop shopping! Why don’t we do this in the US?
-Liquor stores are in the mall too.
-Because of the shopping carts, a lot of the escalators are flat! They don’t have stairs! They’re like… people movers on an angle. Once again… brilliant!
-Once you leave the supermarket, there’s no designated place to put your cart, so they end up strewn all over the place in the parking lot. And quite a few seem to make their way back to the ressies. And apparently this isn’t a problem.
-Also, parking lots are “carparks.”
-I’ve gotten used to riding as a passenger in the left front seat, but I cannot get used to the car driving on the left. I constantly think Kree is going to pull into one lane but surprise! She’s pulling into the left. Thank god I’m not allowed to drive here. I would die. In fact, Shawn and I think we’re going to die by looking the wrong way while crossing the street. I make a conscious effort each time and still get freaked out.
-Because they drive on the left, people in the mall walk on the left. I didn’t even notice this till Shawn pointed it out.
-Instead of Yield signs, they have “Give Way,” and from what I’ve seen, these outnumber Stop signs.
-After an Australian has a learner’s permit, there are two provisional levels of license before getting a full license. There is a different maximum speed limit each step of the way and different penalties for speeding at each level.
-Burger King is called “Hungry Jack’s.”

-Kit Kats are made by Nestle (I think Colleen told me this, but I had forgotten).
-Red Bull is available in bottles!
-French dressing is clear! It looks like Italian… I don’t know what it is. But the most orange thing they had was Thousand Island.
-What I would say is a granola bar is a “muesli bar.”
-Food labels indicate energy in kJs instead of calories.
-I cannot find dryer sheets, although Kree insists they exist here.
-I wasted my money buying a nice plug adaptor at Circuit City. Sure, that one worked all over the world for $25, but here an Australian one is $7 at whatever store that was.
-Duvets or comforters are “doonas.”
-Magpies and crows are incredibly obnoxious and sound like tortured children.
-Supposedly marijuana is legal for personal use in Australian Capital Territory. [correction: it's decriminalized]