Organized activities can be über fun

This has been an eventful week. Which makes me happy because the two weeks before were a tad boring. That is because this week the international student orientation started and (aside from the long days filled with info sessions) it was great fun. I've met a lot of cool international kids. Well, by that I mean Americans. From the 200 or so undergrad int. students, I believe at least half are from the U.S. so it's kind of hard to NOT come across one of them. The six girls that I've become close to and have been hanging out with a lot this week are from Tennessee, New York, Maine, California, Illinois, and Texas. I'm the only Canadian in the group which makes me feel quite cool. But I've also gotten to know a few snazzy Swedes, Swiss, Frenchies, and Aussies so I'm pretty happy.

Besides the info sessions the university has also organized tours, activities, and parties to keep us entertained and socializing. I am not complaining. And because (I guess) the international students pay so much money, we've been getting free food and drinks at all these events. And by drinks I mean alcohol. I know that drinking is big here but I cannot believe they offered hundreds of students complimentary drinks at the different events this past week. I don't think my home university's international staff would ever do that...because of all the money they'd lose. But here it's just a big part of the culture and they're very casual about the whole deal. The undergrad American students were just ecstatic about a university that openly offers them alcohol at events. That's mainly because the drinking age in the States is 21. Okay so not much of a segue here...actually a terrible transition...but I've found myself a church! It's a 20 minute walk from where I live so it's very close to the university. Consequently, the evening service that I attended last Sunday was filled with uni students. An aussie friend of mine suggested that I check it out and I am ever so thankful to her. Thanks Kimber!

Well I think it's time to share a few photos. A few days ago I went on a tour around the city offered to us by the university. We took the train, visited old suburbs and pubs, walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and walked back through the university neighbourhoods.

Me pointing at the Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House with no pointing fingers

The Sydney Harbour Bridge

We stopped at a German pub/restaurant during the tour. Me and another girl ordered lagers and potato wedges because we were a bit hungry from all the walking. With the wedges we were given ketchup, mayo, and this. What is it? It tasted like a wad of butter or cream in the midst of sweet chili thai sauce. If fact, I'm 99% sure that's what it was.

The sun setting near the end of our tour.

Sega na lega baby!

Who's going to Fiji to

-bilibili raft
-soak in mud pools
-river tube
-snorkel
-swim at secluded waterfalls
-drink kava
-and sandboard????

Her name starts with a Z, and ends with an enith.

Just chill ing

Long time no posting.

What have I been doing since I've moved into my new place? A whole lot of nothing much. My days are taken up by grocery shopping, banking, info sessions at school, cooking, cleaning, and eating. It's not a bad life but I must admit I'm getting a bit restless. I won't lie, I actually miss school. However I am very thankful that the Winter Olympics is on because I have been glued to the T.V. cheering on the Canadian athletes. Most of the time I am too loud and probably confuse and scare my non-Canadian roommates.

But seriously. The Canadian women's hockey team is fully kicking derrière. If pounding Italy and Russia wasn't enough...they go on and school the Swedes. I was cheering for Sweden for a while, but had to stop when the home team came on the rink.

Meanwhile, considering that Australia won its first gold medal in the Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City, its athletes are not doing too badly. There are no medals so far but man, there sure are a lot of aussies in cold Turin cheering their country on. Here are some blurry shots to prove my point. Blurry because I am a geek and snapped away at my T.V. You should try it sometime.







This boy above is not only really cute,
but,
more importantly, is a supportive sibling of an aussie luge athlete and shows great pride in his country.
Hence the flag worn as a cape.

A melting pot of society

I am moving into my very own house tomorrow! No more living out of a suitcase. I can finally unpack for good.

My place is located in a suburb called Newtown. But this suburb is located right in the city. I've slowly realized that what "Sydney-ers" call suburbs, Vancouverites call neighbourhoods. So Kerrisdale,Grandview-Woodlands, Shaugnessy, and Killarney would all be considered suburbs, by an Aussie. I've seen and heard the most interesting things about Newtown. And so far, everything has made me come down to the conclusion that it is a lot like Commercial Drive. Judge for yourself.

- "Newtown is an artsy-fartsy suburb filled with freaks, poofs, junkies and weirdoes"
- "Newtown is a suburb where you will encounter anyone from same sex couples, goths, suited professionals, heterosexuals and students from the local Uni"
- "There is an air of tolerance about this place. You can tell there is no expectation either way - you can be whoever you want to be in Newtown."

Sound familiar? I love Commercial Drive so I think I'm going to be down with this place. The area also looks very quaint because...during the 1920s there was a lot of investment going into the real estate in the area and loads of impressive shops were built along the main street while the middle class workers were all shoved into terrace houses built in between the shops. And these same shops and houses are still standing there today. Thought I'd share that little tidbit with ya. Oh and this...it's a montage someone has made from photos of the area.

No bus pass for me this year!

I have finally figured out how to change my blog setting from Pacific Standard Time to Australian Eastern Standard Time! It was a very simple job, but it took me three weeks to figure it out. So from now on it’ll be weird for you Vancouverites to read my posts because (let’s say) when you read my latest post on a Thursday the date on top of my post will read Friday, since I’m 19 hours ahead. It’s like writing from the future…

So I have found myself an apartment yesterday. It’s really a 2 storey terrace house. And it is a dump. The place looks sooo ghetto but I took it because I’m tired of looking and the number of available places near school is decreasing at a very fast rate. That’s what you get when you want to live right IN the city but do not want to spend a lot of mula. This house is a 7 minute walk from school which is a whole lot better than my hour and a half commute to UBC from Surrey. The rent is relatively cheap and it covers all the utilities (gas, electricity etc), broadband internet, and my fully furnished room. My room even has a little t.v. in it. So far I’ve been told that I have two roommates: a petite girl (shorter than me apparently) from China, and a tall guy from Jordan. Sounds like international house to me. The landlord told me that my room used to belong to another Canadian. Oh! Oh my goodness, you will never believe this. Ready? My landlord’s name is…wait for it…Mr. Zenith Wong. I am not kidding you. My whole life I’ve been waiting to meet another Zenith and it has finally happened. It. was. weird. I asked him if I could call him Mr. Wong so as to not confuse each other and the other tenants. After laughing about it for a good minute, we both agreed that I should refrain from calling him by his first name.

I’ve gotten into the habit of including photos in all of my posts, so here you are. This is a photo of a poster I found on the window of a travel agency at my university.


Would love to hear your responses regarding this über interesting advertisement.