Rain Rain Go Away

So, I knew it was going to be winter here in July but who knew it would actually be this cold?!  It’s been in the 50s (almost single digits in Celsius) since I arrived here on Sunday.  And just to add to my misery it’s been raining like crazy.  I’m really glad I packed my fleece and my gore-tex jacket (Thanks Mom)!  Also Australians don’t seem to believe in central heating or any heating for that matter.  So my apartment has been freezing and the lecture halls at the Uni have been freezing.  What I’ve heard Australians say is that it’s just normal to struggle through the winter weather and then enjoy the fantastic sunshine when it comes.  I’m definitely struggling.

I’ve had a few things to keep my mind off of the weather though since arriving on Sunday.  We’ve moved into the Unilodge, had orientation, done enrolment (how the Aussies spell it), and even “toured” The Rocks.  Sunday we spent all day in the mall buying new things for our apartment in the Unilodge.  We learned that Target here is not associated with the Target brand at home and that explains why the one here is a bit expensive and kind of sucks.  Kmart became our new best friend.  They had everything we needed for relatively cheap.  Now I say relatively for a reason, because Australia is wicked expensive.  To give you a few examples: a one way bus ticket costs $2-3, a load of laundry (washer and dryer) costs $7, a burger and drink at the food court cost me $11, and the minimum wage here is $15.50.  Anyway, my roommate, Adhi, and I got everything that we needed for our apartment and began to settle in.  We were so exhausted that we fell asleep by 7pm.

I still haven’t even come close to adjusting to the new time zone.  I’ve been waking up at 5am almost every day.  Today was the best when I got up at 6am (woah a whole hour later!).  Getting up early hasn’t been all that bad though.  It’s meant that I can go to the gym and plan out the day before everyone else is up so I kind of like it.

I got up wicked early on Monday before orientation.  Orientation was actually not bad.  There were enough different speakers that it wasn’t boring and all of the things that were said were definitely things I needed to know.  One of the oddest parts of orientation though was that before every speaker began speaking about their topic they would acknowledge the owners of the land, the aboriginal people.  I guess this is just what Australians do.  I really don’t know.  I guess it’s only odd to me because I’m an American and we would never do that at home.  The Native Americans have been mistreated and disrespected so much by our government and throughout history that they would never be formally acknowledged at such a small, non-Native American related assembly.  It’s astonishing to see that the Aboriginal people here are so highly regarded, or at least they seem to be.  I’ll be taking a class from the Koori Center, the Aboriginal studies center, so we’ll see if this is actually the case.

Tuesday we did enrollment and I got my classes all squared away.  University of Sydney (USyd or Sydney Uni) put me in my top 4 choices and my schedule works out perfectly.  I’m really glad because the system they use here to register for classes is so inefficient and just plain strange and annoying.  As a student you cannot sign up for a particular class time, you have to sign up for the classes you want and then look at your “timetable” to see if you have any clashes.  Basically you just keep refreshing your timetable until you get the classes you want but it’s all random so luck is definitely needed.  There are a few good things about the system though, like being able to block off a full day that you don’t want to take classes (I have Fridays off) and that the class times are flexible, so that if you have a major clash and you have to take a particular class you go to the timetabling people and they’ll change the time that your class is offered.  I’m just glad I didn’t have to do much of anything and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way.  I still need Northeastern to approve the classes I’m taking so who knows, maybe I’ll have to use the crazy timetabling system.

My roommate, Adhi, and I

After Tuesday morning’s enrollment there was a BBQ for Sydney Uni Sport & Fitness.  It was mostly to promote the different gyms on campus but the Ultimate Frisbee club happened to be playing nearby (good recruiting choice)!  A bunch of the international students played for a while and I officially signed up for the team.  After the BBQ the group of us from Northeastern went on a “tour” of The Rocks.  The Rocks is a historical district over by the Harbour Bridge and The Opera House.  I thought it was supposed to be a guided tour but basically they led us down there and said, “Ok, meet back here in 4 hours.”  I had a lot of fun sightseeing even if we didn’t get the guided tour.  A group of us decided to ditch the tour group on the way back and so we went to get pancakes for dinner while we waited for the rain to let up a little bit.  It ended up raining for the rest of the night so we just went back to the Unilodge.  No one was really in the mood to go out into the freezing cold rain.

Haibin, Adhi, Me, and Fy

Today we’ve had more rain and cold weather.  It’s the first day we didn’t have to do anything at the University so we’ve kind of been taking it easy and haven’t really gone much of anywhere.  Grocery shopping across the street was the farthest I went today.  The rain is really making me not want to go out.  I’ve very torn between wanting to be warm and dry and wanting to sightsee.  Hopefully the weather will clear up in the next few days and I’ll be able to really explore before classes start on the 25^th (Christmas in July, can you believe I have to go to class?! Isn’t that like a holiday or something?).