My first week.

View from my room

I've been in Wollongong for a week now, but today was the first day I was able to take pictures. They took my big hiking pack with all my cameras at the airport and made it checked baggage. It was supposed to be my carry on, but the bag was really awkwardly shaped so I had to give it up. I thought that was fine - I'll see it in Sydney when I arrive. I thought wrong. I arrived in Sydney with my bag with clothes and essentials - but not the one with my camera. So I've been slacking with the pictures but I was finally able to take some today - I was a little snappy happy!

Wendy

I moved into my 3 room dorm-room where I met my roommate Wendy from California. Our other roommate is Kathryn who's from about 2 hours away from Wollongong (she just arrived today). I was lucky because Wendy came as part of an AustraLearn group and they had just gotten back from a week in Cairns where she met a lot of other people studying at the University of Wollongong (UOW), most of who live in Campus East with us. There are over 600 people living in Campus East, 200 of which are Americans. There are different sections of Campus East - Slums (where we live), Trenchtown, Hospital, the Yard, Alcatraz and the self-catered section. Each section is unique. The caf is in the main building where we have some limited food choices. They have a separate little section that you can get ice cream, tea, coffee and this really good pear and raspberry bread which they toast for you. There aren't any glasses so you have to bring you own Nalgene, and right now more often than not I get my food, sit down and realize I left my Nalgene in my room. Hopefully I'll start remembering it more as the session goes on.

Mt. Kiera

This past week has been O-Week here at UOW, so they had lots of activities for us. They were all really fun - we went out to nightclubs for Disney and Cowboy and Indian themed parties. I was Lilo from the movie Lilo and Stitch for the Disney party and obviously a cowgirl for the second party. The music is very different here as they listen to Dubstep everywhere. It was kind of hard to get used to the different type of music but we had fun none-the-less. We were supposed to go for a hike at Mt. Kiera, which is here in Wollongong, however it was raining and the hike was cancelled. We're going to Sydney tomorrow which I am so excited for! Hopefully the sun stays and tomorrow will be perfect!

We've had awful rains the past 4 days, so although we all really wanted to go and explore we were stuck in our rooms, but at least we got to know each other through movie nights and card games. When it first started raining we were up at Uni doing an orientation for all the international kids. We got pretty wet. And it's really cold - there doesn't seem to be any heated buildings so you really have to layer up. Uni is beautiful though, it's much smaller than I was expecting but it's still really confusing to get around. There are trees everywhere and so many interesting, beautiful and colorful birds - I wish I could record the sounds they make because they are just extraordinary!

Because the rain finally ceased today Wendy and I wanted to get out and be productive! Even though we have a meal plan here, we decided to check out Aldi's the grocery store right over the bridge from Campus East. Our mission was to find TimTams as I ate my entire package that I bought yesterday. As I write this, I'm already more than half way through my second package so I don't think I'll be buying more any time soon. Our second quest of the day was going to the beach. We went earlier in the beach and it was beautiful. The water was calm and the beach was huge. Today, however, it looked like a completely different place. It's been pretty windy so the waves were huge and there was hardly even a beach! We saw some people get unexpectedly wet from the tide coming in really far. We've been learning a lot about surf awareness and rips so we tried to look for rips but the water was just too rough. It was so calming and relaxing to just sit and watch the waves roll in. I saw real sea foam for the first time - I never realized it was like actual foam! Before we left we saw a rainbow over downtown Wollongong, it was so beautiful and made me so excited that I get to live here for the next six months!

Road to the beach

SEA FOAM!

This is my first post, so I have a lot to write and I'm still not sure how everything works. I will try to put pictures up and I will work on the format for the next entry. For those of you that will follow this thank you and I hope you enjoy reading! I know my thoughts can be very scattered, but it's because I'm so excited and I have so much to write about. Also please look at my pictures on Facebook as I will put them up constantly. I also have a check list of places to go and things to do, so please comment if you have any suggestions as I hope to get the most out of this adventure I'm about to embark on. I can't wait to explore Australia and meet the people that get to live here!

PS - we also have lots of really interesting plants here too. Because of all the rain, the landscape looks really beautiful right now.