School Days and Free Days

First off, thank you to all who have emailed me about the car accident - I promise you I'm FINE now, but I still appreciate the concern.

I've been here for three and a half weeks already. Seriously? I've already done so much...

- Walked from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach along a long beautiful path over the cliffs. It was supposed to take about two hours, but Bonnie, Janett, Kevin and I stopped to take a billion photos along the way. By the time we got to Bondi, it was after 5 o'clock and dark, but the beach looked incredible with all the houses and shops lit up across the sand. Janett and Kevin headed back then, but Bonnie and I decided to walk around the shops and search for a decent fish n' chips spot (we found Monger's, which is HIGHLY recommended. Best grilled fish and potato wedges I've ever had.)

Coogee Beach.

- Went to the Sydney Aquarium! Bonnie, Erica, Matt, Nizam and I spent a chilly Friday afternoon with the seals, a saltwater crocodile (I made sure these aren't found near Sydney; thankfully, they're found in northern Australia near Darwin), super cute penguins, and an array of multicolored fish. The cool part was that I recognized several of the fish - the yellow tang, the angelfish, the lionfish, plus Nemo and Dory - from my dad's old fish tank at home . One of my favorite areas was the underwater tunnel through the shark tank because, although I was standing under rather large sharks and stingrays wider than my arm, it was actually very serene and calming. I think the harmonic background music helped, but we all sat in there for a while just watching everything swim lazily above us. I might have to head back there just before exams so I can clear my head...

Group shot in an underwater tunnel.

Speaking of exams, it's odd to think I started school in July - usually, that meant I was enrolled in summer school, and I avoided that by taking 15 units per semester. I've now had two weeks' worth of classes and I can honestly say, I like school! On Tuesdays I have Online Journalism, where we basically blog, learn about the art of blogging (it's much more involved and potentially lucrative than I ever realized) and improve our writing skills for online publications. The lecturer is a twentysomething rocker chick who writes and blogs for several music sites and magazines. She's a pretty awesome inspiration.

On Wednesdays, I spend three hours learning about Aborigines, their culture, and the hardships they endured when the first settlers (and convicts) arrived in Australia. It reminds me a lot of Native American history and, despite the fact that we're assigned at least 150 pages of dry reading each week and the professor always seems really nervous, I'm sure I'll get a lot out of the class. What's funny though is that out of 20 students, there are FIVE from California (four of us are from the Bay Area too....)

My Thursdays are spent learning about International Business on the Haymarket campus (UTS has two downtown campuses, City and Haymarket, plus the Kuring-gai campus up north and St. Leonard's a lot further away), which took me forever to find the first day. I have a two-hour lecture in the morning with perhaps 60 other students, then a one-hour discussion with no more than 20 or so people later in the afternoon. I like the lecturer - he's very knowledgeable about world history and is always asking students about their home country's economy (much of my class is from European and Asian countries, which are the regions we focus on). So far, the class has been fascinating and even the textbook is interesting. The discussion leader is great: humorous, very sarcastic, and obviously loves to teach and learn from his students. Because of his class, I now read over the business section of the newspaper (having never taken a business class, I'd never really paused to read these articles before!)

After 3 p.m. on Thursdays, I'm done with class for the week! Fridays have become my fun days when I go on random adventures around the city. This past Friday, I met up with my friend Brendan - a UTS student who'd studied abroad at SF State last semester - and he took me to Harry's, a famous little stand on wheels, in Woolloomooloo for "tigers" (he called this "an authentic Aussie meal.") It's basically a flaky pie-like crust filled with meat or vegetables with mashed potatoes, peas and gravy on top. Totally delicious. Afterwards, we walked all around downtown Sydney: through Chinatown, down Martin Place and past some shoe shops on Pitt St, onto the monorail that takes you from Darling Harbour in a loop over downtown, and around the harbor. It was funny: he'd only returned from his travels 10 days before (he was in SF for one semester, then he traveled all over Europe and Japan, so he'd been gone for 7 1/2 months), so while we were walking, he had to keep stopping to look around and figure out where we were (according to him, the culture shock is more intense when you get home.) It was great seeing him again (since he's partially responsible for me being here - he has a deep love for Australia and sells Sydney's appeal quite well) and talking to him about his travels, as well as his impressions of SF and California (he pretty much traveled the entire coast) and how they compared to Sydney. He said he could see himself living in SF, but being from a beach culture, wanted to settle down in San Diego. Figures.

Towards the end of our afternoon (I believe it was 2 p.m.), I suggested we find a coffee shop and rest. He sort of paused and smiled, then said, "How 'bout a beer? I know a great bar close to here." Oh Aussies. We walked to Roof (I think that's what it's called), a bar that's literally on the roof of a shopping center, and enjoyed a pint in the sunshine. Okay, I guess a mid-afternoon mocha is an American thing.

To further fill my spare time, I am currently hunting for a job. The minimum wage here is $18 or so, and most places pay more on Sundays, so a lot of students have gotten part-time jobs to fund their upcoming spring break and summer trips. I'm looking into restaurant jobs that might hook me up with free coffee, since I've spent a lot of money on that lately...will keep you posted. On Monday, I'll start at an unpaid internship I'm trying out for fun: it's at an event planning company in a beautiful area of North Sydney. My parents have always said I'd make a great event planner, so here's my chance to see if they're right!

This has been the coldest July/early August ever - windy, thunderstorms, and SO MUCH RAIN. I'm ready for those 300 days of sunshine I was promised...

I'll leave you with some Aussie lingo:
"Popping into the bottle-o to get some grog" = Going to the liquor store to pick up some beer. Haha.