Venturing out

Can it just be warm already? But really. The weather has been sort of terrible; cloudy, rainy, windy, blah. August showers bring September flowers just doesn't quite sound right, does it? Missing the states a little, especially every time I look in the mirror and see the ghost of a person I am. I'm ready to go tan at Bar Beach with a hat and a good book.

Sydney Opera House

On one of the nicer days last weekend, we went into Sydney. It's everything I thought it would be and so much more. I'm dying to go on a date there. Any takers?

Sydney Harbor Bridge

We went to a market and did some shopping and then, since the sun goes down around six pm, saw Darling Harbor sparkle at night. There was a street performer from Japan swallowing balloons and eating fire and such, and that was pretty neat. When he was done I gave him a dollar; he deserved it. We also stopped by this famous store that's only in Sydney and Melbourne, which is called Culture Kings; apparently Snoop Dogg and Justin Bieber and cool kids like that shop there. There's a barber shop and a DJ inside; it was over the top, but it was over the top done well.

Darling Harbor at night

I've officially attended all my lectures and tutorials now. The first week of school is only lectures so I didn't get to experience much of interaction with other uni students until this week. The tutorials are great, I feel way more comfortable in them.

20!

This past Wednesday night was an absolute crazy night...both Brittany (my roommate) and Marcus had the same birthday, they turned twenty, and we are definitely a bunch that knows how to properly celebrate. We had a big pot luck family dinner and then hit up a few clubs downtown. It was great!

An incredibly exciting piece of news is I've officially booked my "spring" break trips for September/October (it's two weeks long). For nine days, I will be traveling around New Zealand and then immediately after, for four days, I'll be in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, which is where the Great Barrier Reef is. I have never been so excited for a break before; it's, quite literally, the break of a lifetime. I'll be going to New Zealand with a bunch of the girls and then I think Cairns will be just Brittany, Kate, and myself.

auto day

Yesterday was the uni's Autonomy Day, which is like one of the biggest days of the school year. The tradition is you get to the bar on the hill at like 7 am ready to drink and go crazy (they provide free breakfast too); I heard most people just don't sleep Thursday night and start raging at like 3 am. This, however, did not appeal to me in the least; I woke up around 9 am and just had a few drinks at the bar, nothing insane. It was really fun though; hundreds of people went! It's interesting how the uni actually plans days where they want you to just go crazy; that would never happen in the states. The Aussies definitely know how to have a good time. The lifestyle here is so relaxed. Probably the most common phrase I hear is "no worries," if that's any indication at all.

Tomorrow, we are going to a zoo type place with tons of Australian animals that just walk out and about and you can touch them as you please- I am very excited!

I'm finally getting into the swing of things and it feels great. Even though it's kind of a hassle to have to carry your groceries a mile or so home, walking everywhere is a refreshing lifestyle and I absolutely love it.