HELP!!!

Currently on a Uni computer in the library, debating whether to cry or not based on my present situation.

 My macbook hard drive has crashed. I took it to the apple store here and was informed that it is dead. Needs a new hard drive and to top it all off, I have not backed up any of my data (not very smart, I know). In any event, I got a good deal on an external hard drive but I need to bring everything to a specialist to have them back up the data and then fix my hardrive completely.

Traveled to many different places for consultations and to check prices - about $350+ for data recovery and then $300 for hardrive. Student here--- no money, horrible luck, horrible timing, the works. Any advice on what I should do??? Desperate here...please comment!!

Just keep swimmin, just keep swimmin...

Ah ha! Finally all those years of being the most persistent little girl (mostly about trying to get clothes) has done some good! I have been researching and researching the outdoors club on campus and around the general Sydney area, but with little to show for it. But finally after emailing the club president on campus and searching for a sign-up booth on the club fair day (both with no success), I managed to find an outdoors club BBQ advertised. 

However, my friend Charlotte who was also interested could not attend and I was nervous to go alone. I thought about just tossing the idea, hoping that it would be a waste anyways - but then my friend Ali said she would go with me.

 After having some trouble finding the venue, we made it and the struggle paid off. Friendly people, lots of manly men, and a club that actually does stuff! Do you know how many clubs on campuses don't actually do anything because no one can get their act together??! Well not this one! We talked to this guy for a while who told us all about the trips they do and that there is usually one a week - from hiking, kayaking, climbing, to white-water kayaking, etc. Thank god! I was a happy Lily to hear all that. 

Another organizer we talked to mentioned that she loved all the study abroad students who joined on last year and she was thrilled to have more! Then two girls, also new members, came up and started talking to us. One of them is a psych major like me! 

Things are looking up, these seem to be just the kind of people I was hoping to meet. Although that one guy did say that the club was more like a drinking club…well as long as it's on top of a mountain I'm ok with that! 

Finally, social commentary!

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted! Each day here seems to have fewer and fewer hours to it, and more and more stuff to do. There is an endless checklist of things I want to do, and things I want to tell the world about! I'll start with some exciting news:

SPRING BREAK PLANS ON ROUTE TO BEING FINALIZED!

I have booked a one-way flight to Cairns (Great Barrier Reef)! Sorry mom and dad, but I will not be going to Uni anymore. Just kidding. Whew! One way flight up the coast, day of scuba diving & snorkeling, one day of whitewater rafting, one day of hiking, all while staying at the youth hostel in the center of Cairns (is there a 1000 person capacity club in the downstairs of the hostel? Why yes.) Then taking an overnight bus (saving time and $$) down to the Whitsundays. If you haven't already looked up photos of these places, I warn you - prepare to be extremely jealous. 2-night, 2 day sailing boat trip around all of the islands, then taking a cheap flight back to Sydney! Let's hope I don't have too many assignments for the week back...eeek.

Traveling with one of my new best friends, Charlotte. She's from Belgium, computer science major at Vanderbilt, family just moved to Singapore, and hilarious. What a great find! She and I are quite keen on doing the adventurous activities, but we are also traveling with my friend from Conn, Shaelah, and another one of our new friends, Ali. We are all starting in Cairns together and then we might do our own things for the second half. Ali is visiting her friends in New Zealand for a few days, and the rest of us want to stay on the Golden Coast.

I realized that I haven't talked about the people I've met that much...maybe because some of them might be reading this? Haha, in any event, I am very happy with the friends I've made so far! Most of my friends are from my program, almost all of them from the US. The orientation program group is made up of mostly Wakeforest and Vanderbilt kids. Just from the universities' reputations you might think I wouldn't be the biggest fan of those type of students, but I've managed to find some great people. Here's a photo of a bunch of us!

From left: Charlotte, Shaelah, Ali, & me.

Photo was taken during our epic "Oz Party Bus" event. We all signed up for this party bus, advertised to all the study abroad students, which bused around 150 Americans to four different bars all around Sydney. Four complimentary drinks, karaoke, bowling, music, the works. You can imagine how crazy it would be to have a giant bus drop off hundreds of drunk Americans...
But it was an experience - not entirely recalled - and I met some nice people!

I definitely have to make quite an effort to meet people though because I am living off campus. There's lots going on on campus but sometimes I hear about it too late or something like that. I'm working hard to stay updated! There are a lot of Americans living in Coogee with me - which is nice - but not great for meeting Australians. Class lectures are over two hundred so that's also hard, but I am happy with the friends I've met so far, and it's still early in the game.

Oh I almost forgot to mention that I was introduced to the love of my life! Fortunately, she is a singer. Here's something to end with:

"Now my life is sweet like cinnamon, like a fucking dream I'm living in." - Lana Del Ray


P.S. COME VISIT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Epicurious to Curious

Let's talk food. Any chance I had at losing weight has completely gone out the window. It seems that the main sport here besides surfing is eating. Everywhere you go there are cafes, bars, food stands, upscale restaurants, and some fast food joints. I'd say there are 10 restaurants for every clothing shop. Who wants to go shopping once they've devoured delicious thai food all night? (I do). 

Most of the Asian food here is what I expected- great Thai, Japanese, and Chinese. Of course proximity is what makes it so authentic and even the grungy places have better food than some fancy places in New York. I had lunch at a little Thai place in Surry Hill (very Brooklyn-like) the other day that was out of this world. I got the green curry with beef and  it was perfectly sweet just the way I like it. There were just a few tables in the place so I was skeptical, but it was delicious. 

Today, I wandered over to Chinatown with some friends to explore. It's located in downtown Sydney, about a 25 minute bus ride away from my apartment, and definitely worth it. It just so happened that there was a night market going on so it was fun to wander through the different Hello Kitty paraphernalia stands and street food stands. There was SO MUCH FOOD. Everywhere. Outside of every restaurant on the street there was another food vendor set up. It was packed.

 I was smart enough to ask a sales girl in a Japanese clothing shop where the best food was around there for a decent price. She told me the name of a restaurant but once my friends and i got there, read the menu, started to salivate, we found out that without a reservation there were no spots that night. WOW. We made a plan to come back sometime within our time here. Then, not even a block away we ran into a huge line of people waiting to get into a Thai restaurant so we also made a note to come back there on a Tuesday - for lunch. 

It seems that a huge part of the culture here revolves around food and drinks. Every cafe then turns into a bar around 3pm and you'll see people having drinks during the week in the middle of the day. Sometimes cocktails are harder to find during the week and shots aren't served after a certain hour. This seems like a pretty good idea to control the drinking/party scene, and I wonder what the rates of alcoholism are here compared to other places since the legal drinking age is also 18… 

After observing and gathering everything I can from my surroundings, I have come to this conclusion: Australia is a hyper-country. It's a perfect combination of the best European qualities and the best Western qualities. It's environmentally friendly and tech savvy. There is food everywhere, yet the people are not obese. There is a huge exercise community, constantly encouraging people to be healthy. And lastly - the reason people are so friendly: they are so happy that other people have discovered their country, their little piece of paradise, that they welcome new people and are completely above the idea that they should act territorial and rude to foreigners. So in a nutshell, this place is great. 

Getting organized, first week.

Yesterday i went on the famous Coogee to Bondi beach walk. Similar cliffside path as I ran the other day, going for about 6.4 km passing the most beautiful scenery. Over the past few days, I've noticed myself constantly looking at the architecture - a mix of very modern LA beach house looking places and smaller drab houses. I keep changing my mind from liking the small charming hammock houses and then the cleaner, more angular fancy-patio places….still can't decide. 

                                                                                 ~                     ~                    ~ 

Today was orientation for all study abroad and exchange students at the University of New South Wales. There are approximately 700 international students this semester at the "Uni." We listened for three hours about all the trips we can take during our time here - from weekend surf camps to completely planned out/all inclusive 10-day trips to Bali, Thailand, New Zealand, etc. There are TOO many options. I do not know where to even begin. Prizes were being thrown out like crazy this morning (unfortunately I never got a welcome pack with a raffle entry ticket in it) and serious prizes too - several people won this trip called "One Fish Two fish" ($2000 value) which includes a 10 day trip up the Gold Coast with snorkeling, cruises, scuba diving, bungee jumping, white water rafting, nightclubs, hiking, and much more. Needless to say I was more than pissed I never got to even enter the drawing. Guess that will be showing up on my credit card (thank you/sorry mom. I'll be as wise as I can be)

I got a great sense of the campus this morning as I altered my schedule and walked around to the various places my lectures will be held. I am currently enrolled in Perception and Cognition Psychology, Painting/Drawing, the Marine Environment, and Australian society, law, and culture. I cannot stress enough how friendly and helpful all the Australians I have met are. The study abroad woman had about 50 students waiting in line to tweak their schedules and she still spent a good 15 minutes helping me choose the best possible schedule. She actually said to me that most Australians will not attend some Friday lectures because it is close to the weekend and that all the lectures are recorded and then posted online so there is really no need to go to class…!!! What!? Fine with me…(shhh) The academic system here is very different from the US and will definitely take some getting used to…Instead of starting from 100% the Australians start from 0 and add points, so it is harder to get close to 100. Anything above 75% is considered equivalent to an American A, and here it is called HD (high distinction) and only about 5% of students achieve that mark. 

I am short bus ride away from campus or a 25 minute walk, which is a little inconvenient but once it warms up I'm sure it will be easier...and I will be more willing to put in the walking effort. But I am determined to make friends with lots of Australians and have them show me the best local spots…that is my main goal right now, I have faith. 

Apartment photos!

Love at first sight

One word: speechless. If the next four and a half months didn't get any better than today, it would still be the most delightful time of my life. When I imagined the ideal place to go to college I pictured a beach, an apartment with friends, a city, and of course classes ---- but after today, Coogee has completely blown my dreams out of the water. Not only am I living in a quaint, vintage-like apartment with three nice girls, I am also one block away from an overload of restaurants, bars, fish shacks, the beach, a running path along the cliffs on the beach, and tons of overly friendly and bubbly Australians.

Just a few days ago I arrived in Sydney. Lucky me I slept the entire 14 hour plane ride and woke up on the other side of the world. Downtown Sydney is actually much more European looking than I imagined- cobblestone alleys with cafes and cute shops. The city is incredibly diverse, there are people from all over the world walking down the streets. And every single person I have talked to has been friendly and seems genuinely pleased to talk to me. I can already tell that this is my kind of lifestyle.

The last few days have been spent exploring the city's historical landmarks, hiking in the Blue mountains, taking the steepest railway in the entire world partway down the Blue mountains, feeding kangaroos and koalas, learning how to avoid snakes and cockroaches, trying vegemite on buttered toast (bleugh!), drinking local wine on the revolving 47th floor of a building, shopping in the underground mall, randomly running into a friend from Canada who is vacationing with her family in Australia, and being mesmerized by the Australian accent.

But today, Sunday July 8th, was the first day I felt truly settled in. After moving into my apartment and unpacking my suitcases, I decided to go on a run while my roommates napped. I saw a path running along the beach as we pulled into Coogee this morning and decided to wander around there. Little did I know that this path follows possibly the most beautiful scenic areas in the world. Waves crashed into the high cliffs beside me as I ran for a few miles into complete brisk sunshine (it is the winter season here after all). No words to describe this place would do it justice. All I can think of is that looking around made me want to cry. And as I looked around even more, I finally understood what people meant when they said they've found what they've been searching for all along. So Mom and Dad - sorry, but I don't think I'm ever coming home.