An awesome amount of stuff has happened in the past 2 weeks. Classes started, and just sitting in my first Health and Wellness class totally secured me that I'm switching to Biopsychology and want to go into Health Psychology. Which I find amusing because my father was very medically centerted and my mother is psychologically centered, it's like I'm a walking example of perfect hybrid.
Hard liquor and alcohol is pretty expensive here with the exception of wine. With Hunter Valley being a 3 hour drive away, there is so much great cheap wine, it's prefect for my "student budget". I just grab a bottle of 2000 or 2001 Blanc out of the "Summer Sale" shopping carts outside the Bottle Shop (thats what they call it here) for the ginormous sum of: AUD$4.00. The food is good, but not as much variety as the states. Of course, that IS the Land of Excess. They're big on Muesli here, as well as Quiches (you can find quiches pretty much on every street corner). The water never gave me problem, you can drink straight out of the tap, and there's a cheap fresh food market with lots of cheap veggies, so I've been living off of homemade stirfry and brown rice (and probably will for the rest of the semester). The only water thats a little iffy is the ocean - it's SO salty, running your fingers even 2 inches through your hair after swimming in it is asking a lot. The oceans and beaches are beautiful though. I've been to Manly and Bondi so far, and I definetly want to make the 3 hour walk along the cliffside from Bondi to Bronte to Coogee before I leave. I have yet to make it to Coogee, Bronte, and Collaroy, all of which are smaller more secluded beaches. Just a little over a week ago, there was a fatal shark attack at Manly...not quite sure how that happenbed, as they do have shark nets surrounding most of the beaches. People were swimming again by the afternoon though. Speaking of smaller, more secluded beaches, everyone sunbathes topless here. It's fun to wear dark glasses to the beach so no knows you're looking (everyone does it, so don't think I'm shady - pun not intended), and pick one who's boobs are real and fake. I'm definetly going to sunbathe topless before I leave, but it won't be on Bondi or anything, I'll find a smaller beach for that. These puppies gotta see the light of day at some point! Granted they'll even go topless on the smaller beaches, it's usually best to follow the locals.
I have an internship working with 3-5 year olds in a research-based preschool studying inclusive schooling for Special Education kids. Apparently, having special education children in an inclusive environment (normal school), helps them advance much more than in a specialized school, and usually results in them continuing with a normal education. It also works out that the normal kids are more accepting and used to having them in the environment, so everybody wins.
There are a lot of overseas and international kids, a vast majority from the US this semester, and they lovingly refer to us as "Team America". I've met a few Swedes and Germans, who I hope to meet up with at some point in their home countries. They also teach me to say fun phrases; for instance, I learned in Swedish "Kiss me on my belly button", "Kiss me for fuck's sake", and "Fart". I'm so classy and cultured!
I've been the Tropfest, which is the biggest short-film festival in the world, and watched some great shorts. There were a few streakers (egged on by the short about the family heritage of streaking), and I was even 25 feet from Heath Ledger who ran out to present the winner! There were a few other famous people in attaendance, but Nicole Kidman was nowhere to be found :o( I wanted to pick up the DVD of the Tropfest in the Sydney Morning Herald, but it wouldn't work on any of my players because Australia encodes their DVD's differetly (something about Media 1 and Media 4). The fest was right in the Domain, which had us walking through the Botanical gardens to get to. It was beautiful, and the Botanical Gardens has a wild bat colony, and at dusk there was just millions and millions of bats filling the sky, swooping right over our heads. (Another celebrity sighting: a day before the Australian music awards, Anna Nicole Smith was spotted by a few friends of mine getting surf lessons at Bondi, hah!)
Yesterday I got badly burnt at Bondi (and yes I have raccoon eyes). The woman who got me my internship spoke to me a week ago and said I wasn't an easy American to pick out due to me not being the shade of a lobster...something I sadly cannot live up to anymore. I was having a hard time with the Australian accent (their "o" is so weird). I thought it was because I could do the British accent (like bastardized American english), but the Australian accent is bastardized British, so it's double bastardization, if that makes any sense. I study phonetics back at TCNJ though, so I finally figured out the "o" here is very swallowed, and can be pretty easily mimicked if you slur an "ah" and "oy" sound at the same. Takes some practice, but I definetly plan on going back to school in the states and pretending I'm an exchange student from Australia, just for shits n giggles :o)
A few nights ago we went to the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade, which sucked because you couldn't see anything and there were lots of gorgeous men who were all probably gay, but also at the same time because public liquor laws went out the window (EVERYONE walked around the city with alkies in hand), and I had a nice Southern Comfort & Coke to go with my McDonald's Dinner. Oh yeah, they have a lot of McCafe's here too, like upscale-starbucksy-McD's. Sydney is also a lot smaller than they represent on the maps, extremely clean (a lot of people walk around barefoot), and incredibly easy to navigate. The two main party streets are Oxford Street (upscale clubs for rich people) and George Street (downscale clubs for cheap backpackers like myself). I was on George & Martins a few night ago after the Mardi Gras, partying with my friend Yasmin's mate at the Bar 333. The bartender was gorgeous, and despite the ridiculous price for a cocktail, I figured my not treat myself to an expensive cocktail in Sydney Australia at some point! So I ordered the "Poached Pear and Cinnamon Daquiri" and it was like an orgasm in my mouth. I have pics of it I'll post too, haha! The coated the glass with lime and powered cinnamon, and just, ugh, amazingness. The alcohol shot content is different here too - they don't have American sized shots (1 ounce); they have about half the size of a shot and they call it a "nip". So when ordering mixed drinks aka spirits ere (very popular), and you're used to having an American shot in your glass, make sure you get something strong with like 10 different liquors in it or you won't taste it. Paradoxically, the beer is 2x as strong as America's, and I'm a big fan of Victoria Bitter. And you don't order a pitcher of Victoria Bitter here, you get "a jug of VB". They look at you corssed eyed if you say pitcher.
To wrap up, I met a cute boy outside my Bio class last week; his name is Nick and he's from South Africa, 20 years old and has been living here for 4 years. I sat next to him for the class and at the edn said we should go clubbing together sometime, and GAVE HIM MY NUMBER! This is a big deal for me, because I've never given my number to a guy, let alone been asked. So who knows if he'll actually call this weekend, the big deal is I gave out my number. So there.
There's a pretty good albeit long recap for me, I'm still in the works of planning my "Fall Break" trip, which will probably be up to Carins and the Atherton Tablelands, Great Barrier Reef, and even more up north towards the Torres STrait Islands, then catching a Kiwi bus down and hopping off in the occasional city (definetly plan on stopping at Byron Bay for my first surf lessons, as well as Brizzy (Brisbane) and the Gold Coast). At some point I need to get out to the Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley, and Southern Coast (Canberra, Victoria, possibly meet up with my old Pen Pal!), and then off to New Zealnd at the end of the trip with my family. I hope everyone is taking care of themselves and please keep in touch!
Cheers Mate!
XOXO Kristin
|
