Bondi Junction

This afternoon I took some time to have a little walk round my accommodation, locating the laundry, the IT lounge, the internal quad etc. and bumped into a group of Italian exchange students who gave me directions to the nearest shopping centre, Bondi Junction. I headed off and after a brief temporary misplacement in the deepest depths of the UNSW campus (everything looks the same, and without a map it's like some kind of bizarre uni brochure maze....) I hopped on the 400 bus.

The journey took about 20 mins and I got off when I saw the huge 'Westfield' signs of the shopping centre. Every single shopping centre they have here is a Westfield... it's so confusing! I then set off in hunt for hangers, lightbulbs, toiletries, pins to stick up my photos, and a little heater. I found the majority of stuff in 'Target', which is like what Woolworths used to be (they also have a Woolworths here, but the sign is green and they're not like the Woolworths from home, they're more like a Tesco), and with the advice from a very helpful security guard, I managed to navigate my way around the shopping centre pretty easily and got everything I needed.

Also, I'm just going to put a little thing in here about Travel Money Cards. You can get them from the Post Office, and they're basically like a card that doesn't have a bank attached to it, so you don't have to set up an account for it. This is particularly useful for your first week in a country when you'll be wanting the buy loads of stuff, but won't want to be carrying around huge wads of cash and don't have a bank account set up yet. Mum can top it up online back in the UK, and I can withdraw cash here free of charge. Also, if you lose it you can cancel it really easily to reduce fraud - particularly useful for scatty travellers, like myself. If you're going travelling and think you might want one, follow this link here. 

Another thing, is that the money here is so goddam confusing. First of all, all the notes are plastic, because they need to be waterproof in case they end up in the sea (inevitable, apparently!?), and so not only do they feel like toy money, but they actually have a see-through bit! 

The $1 coins look like 20c Euro coins... the $2 coins are smaller than the $1s, and look a bit like £1 coins. Then, the 50c coins are just bigger and chunkier 50ps, the 20c are like giant 10ps and the 10c look like round 20ps. Thankfully, the 5c look pretty similar to our 5ps, and they don't even do 2c and 1c! All quite hard to get my head around though, and I thought that the $2 coins were 2c for ages, until some kind shop man explained it to me, and then I suddenly had way more money than I thought! 

Everything is way more expensive here though, I went to buy a pot of coffee, some cereal, a litre of milk and 3 bananas and it cost me $17! The conversion rate is roughly 62p to $1, so if you half the amount in dollars and add on a little bit more, it gives you a rough estimate in £s. A $10 lunch here is a cheap one though, back in Newcastle I would never buy anything that cost over £3! Budgeting is going to be tricky...

Anyway, I still don't have any internet, (so this actually won't be posted for a few days) so I'm going to settle down and watch a crappy film on my laptop to try and see off this jet-lag, and will hopefully feel a little more with-it tomorrow after going to sleep and then waking at a normal time. Tomorrow I'm going to go meet a friend of my cousin's, who apparently is lovely, and we're going to tackle all the admin we have to do together.

Until next time,

B