Hello Good-vibers!

Hey Everyone!

Well I'm in Australia and loving life. I moved into my apartment two days ago and it's absolutely amazing. I'm living with 4 other girls (who I'm already obsessed with) on the 17th Floor of the Tiffany Apartments in Bondi Junction. My view is spectacular. Yesterday I was cooking in the kitchen staring at the Opera House, the Sydney Harbour, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We have 2 balconies and a huge living room. The surrounding area is great too...kind of like a Lincoln Road with a lot of cute shops and outdoor restaurants. There is a HUGE mall at the end of the road (6 stories) with 2 food courts, 2 department stores, a gym, grocery store, and everything else you can think of. It's all right at our fingertips...the bus and train exchange are in the basement of our building...incredible. We're about 15 minutes by car to the city, 5 minutes car ride to Coogee Beach, and a 25 minute walk to Bondi Beach. It's kind of Americanized (you can find 2 Starbucks and 2 7-elevens within a quarter mile radius) yet it somehow still possesses the vibe of an Australian beach town. Basically, I'm in love (but don't worry Mom I'll still come home :) ).

Orientation was great. I know I sent out that group e-mail but I'm still going to recap everything anyways. The first day we did a 2 hr. walking tour of Sydney. We saw all the sites: the war memorial, Sydney museum, Opera House and Bridge, took the ferry from Sydney Harbour to Darling Harbour, and had dinner over looking the water. Downtown is like an extremely clean New York. There are colorful planter boxes, amazing wildlife (the birds here are different...except the pigeons), and little street malls everywhere. Everyone is super friendly and willing to help. I was dying for a flat iron (I blew my one from home out...not pretty) and asked a lady in a clothing store where I could go. She sent me to a building that was full of beauty stores and hair salons...it was definitely advice you could only get from a local and they love sharing their tips with you.

The other day me and a few friends were in the grocery store and I made a comment about how fresh and yummy the produce looked. All of a sudden a man came up behind us and started making fun of us, pointing at the apples and saying "yea and those are from Washington" and then pointing to the oranges and said "and those are from Florida". I playfully replied with a "there's no reason to make fun of us we're good people" and he said "I know...I love Americans!" 40 minutes later we became friends with Peter the investment banker at the CitiBank downtown. Thanks to him, I now have a huge list of the best pubs and clubs to go to and the nights that they're good, as well as places to travel, hotels to stay at, and websites to get good deals. Thanks Peter! :)

The second day of orientation we went abseiling (rappelling) in the Blue Mountains. It was probably one of the coolest most challenging things I've ever done. They started us out on a 30 ft. cliff, then down to a 60, then a 250 ft. cliff. I wasn't going to do the big one, but I told some friends I would go take pictures for them from the top. Next thing I know they're strapping me in and I'm on the edge of this giant cliff, attached only by my harness and carabiner...and I was the first one to go down. Yes, it was a shock to me too. The ride down was amazing, and we went down into a canyon surrounded by cliffs and a lot of trees...absolutely gorgeous. But what goes down I guess has to go back up...like 250 ft. climb through the bushes was not fun...which is why I only went down one time :).

The next day we went to a wildlife park to see some Australian wildlife. Obviously I freaked out when I got to pet a koala and instead of a petting farm with goats...they had a petting farm with kangaroos. They are super friendly, and they love when you pet and feed them. It was a lot of fun. That afternoon I registered for classes and got acquainted with the campus which is so great. I have orientation for school on Thursday and we start classes on Monday.

For orientation we stayed in the World Towers Hotel/Residence. It is the tallest residential building in all of Sydney and let's just say the view of the city from the 72nd floor was not too shabby. I had 3 roommates: Heidi, Erin, and Jessica. Heidi came late because a bird flew into the propellers of her plane and she was delayed in LA for 2 days and in Fiji for 1. She's great and is one of my good friends here. Since she was late, she missed a lot of orientation, so the day after she arrived we walked around the city and got a good feel for it. Downtown is really easy to get around and there is soooo much to see! We had lunch at a cafe on the water in Circular Quay which was sooo good. (I haven't had a bad meal here yet). We went out that night with some other people in Kings Cross which was also a lot of fun.

We were supposed to move into our apartment on Saturday, but since all of the people weren't back from the pre-semester trips we spent another day at the World Towers. Me, Heidi, and Erin, got on a bus (the public transportation is amazing here and soo safe...it's big with students) and went down to Maroubra Beach. It's about 40 minutes from downtown Sydney but the bus is only like 3 dollars each way. The Surf Live Saver competition was going on which was sooo cool. There were a bunch of teams competing in different events from all the Sydney beaches. The beach was gorgeous and we had a great lunch there too right off the sand. That night we went out to 3 Wise Monkeys which was has definitely been the best night we've had so far.

Sunday afternoon we moved into our apartment. I was the first one to get here and my roommates moved in later that night. They're absolutely great! Leah is from Upstate NY and goes to Pitt, Leslie is from NYC and goes to Wisconsin, Claire is from Boston and goes to New Hampshire, and Lindsay is from Philly and goes to MIT. You'll see their names mentioned a lot :). Yesterday (Monday) was the first day of orientation for the University of Sydney kids and Claire and I are the only two in our apartment that are going to UNSW so we spent the day together. We found a great bagel place and walked around the mall to get some essentials for the apartment. When Leslie and Leah got back from orientation we went grocery shopping and hung out in the apartment. We went out to the Coogee Bay Hotel (they call a lot of bars hotels here) and had a good night out.

Today was kind of a nothing day. We finally had our internet installed so we've just been hanging out. Tonight we're going out for our friend Bryn's 21st birthday in the city. Should be a "massive night" as these Aussies would say. Well, this recaps my first week in Australia. My future posts won't be this long I promise :) Until next time...Cheers!