too easy, mates

So there is a lot I could write about but I figure I’d start with the beginning. 

I landed in Australia safe and sound.  Yeah, the flights were long but I slept the whole time.  On my way to Los Angeles, I woke up just in time to see the plane fly over a part of the Grand Canyon.  It instantly got me excited.  My flight from Sydeny to Brisbane was delayed so I was late to get picked up in Brisbane by my uni (short for university, what they call college here).  When I finally got on the bus, the bus went into applaud, that the girl from Brooklyn made it alive.

We got to campus and got our housing assignments.  The dorms are pretty much apartments – a kitchen, living area, 2 bathrooms, and 6 bedrooms.  Housing here is also pretty interesting.  It’s co-ed and international so I live with 3 guys and 2 other girls.  Also, you can’t choose your housing, even the domestic students.  So every year, students live with different people.  Pretty cool.  Oh, and if you know me at all, you know having a kitchen where I need to cook for myself is an experience in itself.  You should see our freezer for our frozen food collection.

My dorm area is located on top of a huge hill so I can see the top of my campus.  It takes about 15 minutes to walk down to the classrooms and it’s pretty brutal.  I don’t think I will ever get used to the hill.  I’ll probably just camp out in the library (or the Uni Bar) most of the time so I don’t have to walk up and down this hill.  Did I mention there is a campus bar?

view from the pool

those white buildings are my campus. that's how far it is from the top of the hill

the pool

Campus is beautiful.  Basically feels like a tropical forest.  I saw a koala in a tree a few days ago and there are a lot of bugs and snakes.  The birds also sound like monkeys here.  It’s always noisy.  I’m also currently sitting by the outdoor pool 2 minutes from my room.  It’s a pretty sweet life.  Oh, and that Uni bar …

The students here are really friendly.  Since its “orientation week” everyone has just been drunk every day.  Do you know what it sounds like when a bunch of Australian dudes are screaming at each other during drinking games?  It’s pretty awesome. 

The lingo here is really different, but really cool.  The garbage can is called a rubbish bin and getting drunk is called getting loose.  It’s really funny when they say it in an Australian accent.

Things are also pretty expensive here.  $10 for TWO chicken breasts!  Not that I know what to do with a chicken breast anyway.  Alcohol is so expensive here.  For a 24 pack of beer, it is $35; for a bottle of Jack, $60.  So what do these infamously drunk Australians do? DRINK GOON!! Goon is boxed wine.  You gotta do what you gotta do right?  If you have to drink some goon, you gotta drink some goon.