First 3 weeks in Australia

Well this is the long overdue update that should’ve come three weeks ago. Since I’ve arrived in Australia, so much has happened but I suppose I will start at the beginning. I arrived in Sydney in the early morning on a Tuesday and had no trouble getting my luggage and getting to my hostel. After checking in to the hostel, I walked around the city for a few hours, and stumbled upon the Anzac Memorial.

The Anzac Memorial is a tribute to all the men and women from New South Wales who have gone to war. It originally commemorates 120,000 people, represented by bronze, plaster stars covering the top. The memorial is located in a vast, beautiful park full of native Australian flora and fauna. At the other end is a giant fountain, where I walked into a Christian rally to raise awareness of Christian persecution. I made sure I didn’t get involved but it appeared to be a peaceful rally.

The next day I did a hop-on-and-off bus tour all around Sydney, which was a great way to see a lot of the city in a short period of time. I saw the largest fish market in the southern hemisphere, which had nothing on Pike Place Market. I walked along Darling Harbour and one of the main highlights was the Sydney Wildlife Park where I saw lots of native wildlife, including kangaroos and rock wallabies. My favorite part was when I got my picture taken with koalas and got to pet one. They are super soft on top but a little coarser closer to the skin. The other highlight was the famous Sydney Opera House. We walked right up to it and the architecture is amazing. It is such a unique design and is framed perfectly with the harbour and bridge. I then noticed a bunch of police blocking off an area in front of the Opera House and I became a bit nervous. I had stumble on a Christian rally the day before, what trouble did I find now? After asking a local, I found out that Prince Edward was making an appearance so I hung out there for a few minutes until he arrived.

As I walked through the Botanical Gardens, I noticed an interesting contrast between the beautiful, peaceful gardens and the modern, busy city skyline above the trees. Sydney has a lot of different contrasts weaved into its culture. It has the modern atmosphere of a major, international city yet within it, quiet, restful places such as parks. Buildings vary between modern, progressive design and Europe-inspired vintage structures.

The following day was an 8 hour train ride to Armidale (where I’m going to school). It was a beautiful train ride from the city out into the country and I saw my first wild kangaroo! My senior resident fellow (boss, mentor guy) met me at the train station and took me back to college. Here they refer to the university as uni and as the specific residence halls as colleges, which still confuses me from time to time.

Resident Fellow training (RF) was an experience for sure. Drinking is such a significant part of the college culture here, so unlike WSU. WSU gets a bad rap for being a drinking school but they look like a conservative, private school from here! Plus, I don’t enjoy beer or wine that much at all yet so it limits my drinking a fair amount. I’m working on starting to like “bins” though. Bins a literally a garbage can with a clean liner filled with an assortment of vodka, cordial (juice) and goon (cheap boxed wine). Depending on the strength, they are ok.

So our orientation week is coming to a close and I can say that I am eagerly awaiting the start of classes tomorrow. This last week has been fun but every night involved tons of drinking (for most people, not me). I still do not like beer yet and that seems to be the main option here because it is cheap. They also drink boxed wine (they call it goon) mixed with juice. It isn't bad but I'm definitely a fan of the fruitier, girly drinks.
I went on a hiking excursion all day yesterday (my Saturday) with the international center here at the university. It was through Dorrigo Rainforest National Park. It was really beautiful and it was great to get out of the university for a bit. About halfway into the 5k hike, it started to rain a little, which most people were not happy about but it was still fairly hot and humid and I enjoyed the misty rain. I told them that the mist wasn't really rain, compared to Seattle! There were also a fair amount of leaches around, and no matter how much bug spray I put on, they still got my ankles. I had to pull three separate leaches off me and my socks were covered in blood so I just threw them out. I'd never had a personal encounter with leaches so it was definitely an adventure. All in all, it was a great day. I'm working on posting pictures online soon and I will email you the link as soon as I do.

On campus, there are wild kangaroos in a fenced in park so I see them daily and I’ve heard rumors that there are also the rare koala that can frequent some of the trees in the university, but they are hard to spot. There are also a fair amount of spiders and a variety of colorful birds, whose names I am still trying to figure out.

Well that’s the short version of the last few weeks. Now that the university internet finally seems to be working consistently, for the most part, updates should be much more frequent. I’m also working on posting pictures so everyone can see Australia as I do.

Updates to the blog will happen on a weekly basis, as much as possible.