Life update

So I'm officially signed up for the courses I'm going to take. Final schedule:

Marine science
Computers, Brain, and Minds
Freedom, Alienation, and the Modern World
Spanish

Also, I signed up for a trip to Thailand for mid-semester break! If you want to see details: http://ww3.statravel.com.au/unsw/unswthailand.html

My first weekend in the dorm was filled with dorm orientation (rules) and then scheduled social activities. Here's some pictures of the petting zoo they had.

oh wait. First, here is a magnetic scrabble board on the wall of a bar that Taina and I played on.  That place also had a horseshot pit, mini-foosball, ping-pong tables, and a library. Also, it was a pizza restaurant with the fire ovens in the middle. 

this was the cutest thing I've seen in a while. He was so excited. 

This duck made the most ridiculously adorable noises.

These are all the people new to my dorm which means basically all the exchange/international people.

Unfortunately I'm kinda sick (just a cold) so I'm not sure yet if I'm actually going on the camping trip I'm signed up for this weekend. If it was just camping, I'd go. But it's a 8mile hike to the campsite. And the next morning 8 more out.

Sydney Aquarium

I went to Sydney Aquarium with some other exchangers. It's in Darling Harbor. This is basically just a ton of poor-quality pictures. :)

Apparently a turtle from hell. But really this guy had a neck like a snake and it was freaky. 

These were my favorite I think. They were freshwater catfish. Instead of tail fins, they kinda looked like amoebas on the end. 

It's unfortunate that there is nothing for scale here. This dude was massive, probably around the size of my torso.

Again with scale problems. This lady's legs are ~3-4 feet long. When she's full grown they will be 5 feet long. Her body is bigger than my torso I'd say.

#SelfieWithaShark

This one and the next several were taken in a tunnel that was underneath/through a massive shark tank

This stingray was 5 feet across. 

Same stingray

I only saw this camo shark once and couldn't get a decent picture because he was moving pretty fast.  

Super poisonous

It amuses me that this is a real fish. 

I'm sorry I suck at blogging

I'm going to try to do better to keep everyone updated. Monday was the first day of classes. Recitations (they call them tutorials here) and labs don't start until next week so there are just lectures - which are mostly 2 hours long. Classes also start at 9am instead of 8am. My first class was Computing 1. It was alright.  The second class I was supposed to have was Marine Science but it's not starting at all until next week. Despite that being after drop/add ends... So I was done at noon.

Patti got my SIM card to work so now I can text people in Australia and have data so when I inevitably get lost it'll be alright!

At some point on Monday I realized I'm in Australia to have fun and shouldn't take really hard classes. So I dropped Computing and Physiology this morning and picked up philosophy classes :D  

What's that? I forgot Friday? No. I just don't have class on that day. Or on Tuesday. 

Today, Tuesday, was welcome back day which means there was SO MUCH FREE STUFF:

2 bags, 3 pens, a marker, tissues, folders, notepads, a free drink at the unibar, highlighter, sewing kit, coffee mug, notebook, balloon wolf, poncho, and camping utensils. 

Plus I signed up for some clubs (including Outdoor Club). I also bought a cheap poker set at the market stalls so my friend and I are playing that tonight. 

Most importantly today, my wetsuit arrived so two friends and I walked down to swim at Coogee Beach. It was do cold and I was so glad I had my wetsuit on. They didn't. It's a 1.5 mile long walk and it took the whole way back for me to get feeling back into my toes. But it was worth it! I float in my suit so that's pretty cool as well. I forgot to take a picture before and now it's wet so you'll have to wait to see it.

Oh, I also signed up for a 3x a week for 8 weeks Parkour course so hopefully I will be more fit. Plus, it cost $$ so I feel like that will encourage me to actually go.

Eventually I will post the Aquarium pics...

decisions...

When I stop being lazy there will be a post about my visit to the Sydney Aquarium but in the mean time...

Should I stay in a Marine Biology class that costs $70 because there are 3 outings? One of which is to the Sydney Aquarium (which I've obviously already been to). The other two are to Botany Bay and Port Hacking. I could switch to basically any other low level course. The course seems interesting enough. But those field trips are also all during weekends which limits my options for taking short trips. Thoughts?

Also, have a picture of my current schedule:

Comp: Computing 1
Arts: Advanced Spanish
MSC: Marine Science
PHSL: Physiology

Sydney Harbor

I went into Sydney Harbor yesterday. A group of exchangers rode the bus together.

The Sydney Opera House

From Afar

The Sydney Harbor Bridge. Apparently you can climb this thing which is definitely going to happen once the weather is better. You can't really tell how massive it is from this picture

Part of the group in the Royal Botanical Gardens. Somehow we lost the other half of us.

So this exhibit thing was currently closed but this pyramid is filled with tropical trees. So is the other glass enclosure. Looked awesome. Now open until 2016 unfortunately. 

And of course, a #shamelessselfie (with a Roman god on a fountain). 

Also, my dorm has this closet full of stuff we can use anytime, which I think is mostly stuff people have left in their rooms when they moved out (binders, ect). But there is also a foam surf board. So hopefully I'm going surfing today. Need to find a wetsuit tho...

more pics

This is just going to be more pics from my day going down to Coogee Beach. It was stormy so the water was quite impressive. 

It's a lot of little things that remind me I'm on a different continent. Like this "give way" rather than "yield" sign. 

This is a some of the exchange kids after we first arrived at the beach going to touch the Pacific. It wasn't that cold though I don't know if that's because of the storm or what. 

Rainbow in the ocean.

The beach from one side, up a hill. You can't tell in the pic, but there were people surfing here. According to locals, it's usually pretty calm here but the storm was making some great waves.

This is from one of the cliffs. In the distance you can see where the surf is hitting some rocks in the middle of the bay and the cliffs on the far side. 

If you can see the cars on the far side, use them for scale. It's a long way and we walked all the way there. Scroll down for zoomed in picture of this.

Zoomed in of the above picture. 

Shameless selfie with the sea.

I think this is that far side where the cars were. 

This video is of an area where it is usually as calm as a lake and you can swim laps or go snorkeling. 

Map

Here's a map of campus with some things marked. The red is the bit that I've seen so far. Not that I could navigate much through there, but some.

To the right a bit is the beaches/ocean (a bus ride away). The plan today is shopping and beach.

Picture Dump!

This is just going to be a picture/comments post so it might take a second to load. Also, if everyone could leave a comment or facebook me a message so I know everyone got to the new blog ok, that'd be great. 

 This is the screen of the entertainment center on the 14.5 hour flight from LAX to Sydney. It had a skycam which let you see the plane/its surroundings. Since the entire flight took place in the dark, it was useless. Until we landed. Then it was the coolest. But I didn't get any pictures of that. So here we are at the terminal after landing.

This is what I look like after 23 hours of travel.

Driving on the wrong side of the road. Whoa. 

The next three images are together a panorama of my room. It's tiny and old but it has a heater. Guess which of those facts is the most important :)   The door is just to the left in the last picture and can't be opened when the left-hand closet is. 

 On the right is a bird that is around campus. I wish there was some way to show a scale here. It's big. Probably up to mid thigh or so on me when not scrunched over. It's head is bald and not very pretty. Need to find out what they are.

This is a shot down International Way (or something like that).  The
long building on the left is the study abroad one. Maybe it turns into
Math/Stats later on ?

This is just a cute little shop on campus. There are SO MANY. Cafes, shops, (bars!), stores. It's impressive. 

This is at a McDonalds (Macca's). Not a great picture but it has a bakery case like at a Starbucks. Chocolate cake and macaroons and stuff. 

And Pooh Corner!




I've got to head out to an advisor meeting to fix my class schedule and try to stay awake for at least 4 more hours (I'm not going to make it.). Laterz