Weekend Off!

So I survived my first week of law school. Although I do have an "assessment" tomorrow, I really enjoyed my weekend free of 6 hours of classes! On Friday night we finished class at 6pm and it was soooo freeing to not have to think about anything for a few hours that night! Marie came with me to check out a potential place to live in Newtown (I may have already blogged about this), and I ended up getting it! And I'll move in next Saturday!

I'll be living with a woman and her 13 year old daughter, and they seem really neat and fun and slightly eccentric, but in a harmless and socially fine way. The place is very neat, and very impossible to explain, so maybe when I go on Tuesday to drop off the bond I'll try to take a few photos. Or else you'll just have to wait until Saturday when I move in!

Funnily enough on Thursday night The Aussie and The Aussie 2 asked if I wanted to live with them longterm because we are all getting along so well. I told them I would let them know. And then I saw this place the next day and it seems great and is much closer to school (a ten minute bus ride rather than an hour and a half commute) and I'll have my own big room with use of the kitchen and living room. But truly I will miss Manly!

It's a great place to be and I'm happy I could enjoy it for my first month in Australia! And of course it's been really fun getting to know The Aussie and The Aussie 2, so I will definitely miss them. I'll still come back and visit of course, maybe on weekends when it's glorious weather and I can enjoy the beach!

On Saturday I went to breakfast with The Aussie and a whole group of his friends, and that was quite fun. Then I did some reading on the beach, it was gorgeous weather and has been 30 degrees all weekend (even at 8pm tonight it was still 29 degrees) but the humidity has been really low, which makes it much more tolerable. And of course the ocean breezes come through the apartment all the time so it never feels too hot. I wonder how hot Newtown will be in comparison. I'll invest in a fan if need be (no air conditioning to speak of as a general rule in people's homes!).

Saturday night I went out with The Aussie and a different set of his friends, and that was also really fun! We went to the Manly Skiff Sailing Club, which is a members only club but if you live further than 5km from it, you get in for free. And it is right on the wharf, and we went when it was still light and then watched the sun set from the patio, and it was amazing. Then we headed to some little hole in the wall bar in Manly that is well loved (one of the couples we were with had their impromptu engagement party there) but is closing down! So it was the last night on Saturday. So that was enjoyable too, as I hadn't been out in Australia yet!

Today was pretty low key, it was gorgeous out again and I woke up early and went for a long walk along the beach...so many people were out enjoying the day. Manly gets really busy on weekends, as people from the city come for a day trip to enjoy everything! So the locals get sort of annoyed, especially those locals trying to find parking, as was the case with The Aussie 2 this afternoon.

The boys put the room up on Craigslist to rent out, because I let them know that I'm moving out...so we had about six people come through to look at it today, and they selected a friendly German girl as my replacement. So I guess she'll move in on Saturday! She's really nice, a student going to Macquarie University, which is a school a little closer to Manly. The turnover of tenants is very high in Australia, that they put the ad in last night, and have their new flatmate chosen already! And they got tons of calls and emails, but just chose six to come and look at it. That's another reason I'm grateful that I was able to find housing without too much trouble, because I've heard horror stories!

Ok I best be heading to bed now. I have an "assessment" in the morning (our lecturer was adament not to think of it as an exam) so I have to be fresh! And then he has given us Tuesday off, which is great. I'm going to stay in Newtown tomorrow night and hang out with Marie and Sarah, so that should be fun.

Here's a funny photo for your enjoyment. My friend Chris sent me flowers on Valentine's Day with a really nice note that he hoped I was settling in well and that the flowers would brighten my day. Of course The Aussie and The Aussie 2 were incredulous that I got flowers from Canada, but then they agreed that they were very nice and really added a nice touch to the apartment. (I think it was also good for when people came to look at the place!) Anyway, The Aussie is a photographer, and he wanted to get some shots of the flowers before they died...they've lasted quite awhile in this weather which is great!

So I took a photo of The Aussie taking a photo:


And here's the photo: