What I should have posted about 4 weeks ago!

I got in about 7:50 am on Monday the 16th and got off my 13.5 hour flightlooking like a mess went through customs and baggage checking and all that jazz, took a taxi ($30.10) to the Sydney University Village. Checked in, payed almost $200 for pillows, a blanket, ugly 80's sheets and an ugly 80's comforter (i'll post pictures later); and a preused towel (which I have thus far only used to go to the beach cause it kinda creeps me out). Showered, and was about to head into orientation (for all the exchange kids) when I ran into 2 girls from the brockport program, neither of which attend brockport. They're flight was later than mine and this was already some where around 11ish. SO they get checked in and we decided to meet after they showered to head to orientation. Then as i was getting my photo taken for my room key (its a card...they use cards for everything..and not the same one, i have one for my gym, one for myroom/building, one for student id..etc). I met a guy named Drew, from south Carolina who came alone so we adopted him.

So we went to lunch..which had wierd and not good tasting food (except the fresh fruit was yummy). and then went to some part of the orientation and left.We came back to our rooms, (Drew, Cayla and I are in studios and Michelle is in a 5 person flat). And drew went to sleep and the girls and i unpacked. Then michelle, cayla and i went up to King Street, which is about a 2 minute walk from our dorms and found a $2 store which smelled funny and I bought some coat hangers, bowls, cups, tissues and a winebottle opener. Then we went to an internet cafe, got some pizza and bought alcohol (SKYY cost $35...alcohol here is very expensive except for wine and even still its pricey). We were going to go out but fell asleep!

I have yet to see, let alone pet a Kangaroo. They have a lot of Ibises awhite bird with a long black beak (see below). Today we went to all our orientations found out our classes and how to register (as international students we have to go through their office, and for add/drop we have to go to each prof to do so.) There are NO caps on their classes they just add more sections if need be, so unless you need a prereq. to get into classes you can get in no problem. The only wierd thing is for your time tables they pick which section your in if you open your timetable and like it, you HAVE to print it there and then otherwisethe next time you open it, the time table will have changed. I have til the 2nd of march and then theres a shopping week where i can go to any lecture sit in on it and pick if i want to go. There classes here are alot harder and an 85 is very hard to get so they generally aim for just PASSING (which fortunately is my goal since grades dont transfer). They have some fun classes to like australia outdoors, and Australia through sports.

Here everything is wicked expensive Sydney uni makes you pay as i said perMB of your internet service if you're not on the schools website..so no youtube, or skype, or videos or major pictures of any sort so all that will be via internet cafes and such. a gym membership was expensive and 2 slices of pizza and a soda was like 10 AUD so no complaining about MIAS! lol i Think thats the jist of my experiances here and i'll update my blog a little later on and i'll probably detail that a bit better.