I'm still here!

I haven't blogged in a few days. But have no fear, I am here. The internet situation has been a little bit sketchy of late. The Aussie and The Aussie 2's internet slowed riiiiight down because they used up the 15GB limit for the month, or something. (As far as I know it's not unlimited like it is in Canada, which seems to be the general rule everywhere..even at uni you can just use 5MB of data a day, and then you have to pay for more! It's weird.) So anyway, I am at the beautiful Manly Library right now paying 1.10AUD/hour to use fast internet. And I am ok with that, considering a bottle of water costs $2.50.

There are many things to tell. On Saturday The Aussie and I headed to Warringah Mall. It was my first time (other than the cab from the airport) driving around in Australia. What a weird experience! We did roundabouts. We did weird right hand advanced turns. We sailed through yellow lights. Apparently, here (or at least while The Aussie drives), yellow does NOT mean stop. Haha. The mall was beautiful, as is everything else here. It's sort of outside, yet not outside. And there are trees growing in the middle of it. Perhaps I'll go back and take some pictures at some point. It was rainy that day, and we had to walk through the rain between stores sometimes! It was so funny! It's sort of hard for me hanging out with The Aussie mostly because everything is funny and weird to me but at the same time I don't really want to be a tourist (I am here for three years afterall) so I try not to exclaim at such things. But come on, it was raining INSIDE the mall!

I also bonked into someone turning right around a corner. The Aussie said, "That happened because you're Canadian." Ha ha. Because here you'd never turn right on the inside, because there are always cars and/or people that you'd be used to going around. I'm starting to get used to it,though. I now always "walk left" and on escalators hang out on the left so people can pass me on my right.

I finally got my phone working, too. I am just on a prepaid plan right now since I needed a bank statement from one bank and an ATM card from another in order to get on a contract. I said to the guy, I've been here a week. I'm not Australian. Why do I need more than one bank account? It was rather frustrating but hopefully there's another way that I will find out later. Lots to get used to here!

Let me just say now how thankful I am that everything is working out with Marie. She really is awesome, and we hang out tons! We joke about how great it'll be when we actually make other friends... ha ha. No but it really is great. She came to Manly yesterday morning to watch the Superbowl, which started at 10am on Monday morning. SO WEIRD! It was the first sunny day since the day I arrived, too...but it was worth it to be watching/listening to the Superbowl and knowing that Florida is sort of close to Canada. Well, closer than we were anyway. We were originally going to watch at my apartment but figured we'd see if bars were showing it. We went to the place where The Aussie recommended us for dinner a few nights ago, but it was already packed. So we headed to the sketchy looking New Brighton Hotel instead. It was awesome. Quite an eclectic selection of folk, which is the best part! I had a beer, because it was Superbowl Sun/Monday, and not because it was 10am.

Afterwards we headed to school and got more things sorted. We FINALLY enrol on Friday which will be good. Everything will be in place to start class on Monday. I'm really looking forward to it! As much as holidying on the beach is great, I am here for a reason, and that reason is LAW SCHOOL. I'm interested in seeing how everything works, how the workload will play out, and I'm excited for the chance to succeed! It sounds corny but starting school is always very energizing.

PS School supplies (along with everything else) are WAY more expensive here. Almost $5.00 for a simple lined notebook. Sheesh!

Today was set to be another beautiful day so we headed to Coogee Beach, one of the many beaches in Sydney. It is relatively close to Bondi Beach (arguably Australia's most famous beach, but definitely not the best one. GO MANLY GO) in the eastern suburbs. Just to orient you: Manly is part of the Northern Beaches. University of Sydney is in the "inner west" and Coogee is in the "eastern suburbs". So it was about a half hour busride from Circular Quay (where the Opera House is) and then we were there! Beautiful, almost empty, glorious. Made us very very happy to be in Sydney! We relaxed, read, swam (watch out for blue bottles!), and ate lunch. We headed back to the city at about 2 and then I headed back to Manly on the ferry.

And now I'm at Manly Library! I'm really enjoying my time here, as I believe I've said before. I've been here over a week already; I can't believe it! I am enjoying slowly easing into Australian life, but look forward to when I can settle in my "own" place and figure out my life. Beach life is great, but it's giving me a false sense of relaxation, I think! The Aussie loves to quote Manly's catchphrase, which is "Manly: Seven Miles from Sydney, A Thousand Miles From Care". It really is true!

I'll attach some pics now! Enjoy!