One Month Milestone

So, as of about 7am this morning, I have officially been in Sydney for one whole month! 

Time has flown and so much has happened since I first got here. Its so funny to think back to my first shopping trip I made and all the muddles I got myself into trying to navigate myself around the city, and first meeting Goose! Although I am still learning stuff about this place every day, I feel pretty well settled and almost bordering on becoming a proper Sydney-Sider! But don't worry, I haven't picked up any Aussie-twang and my accent is, to quote my friend John, still "so very English".
Here's a little list of stuff I've had to get used to out here....

1. They don't do 1c and 2c, they just round everything up to the nearest 5c, and it's actually really common to see $100 notes!
2. $2 coins are smaller than $1, which is just annoying and backwards.
3. Both Americans and Australians have no idea what you mean when you say "Ah, I just couldn't be arsed/fucked" and "She was taking the piss", they just stare at you blankly like you have a mild case of tourettes.
4. EVERYONE says "How ya going?" instead of "How are you?".
5. There are no such things as pints here, everything is served in 'scunas', which is just a little bit smaller than a pint.
6. The green man noise when you're crossing the road is unnecessarily aggressive and gives me a heart attack every time.
7. Shoe sizes are all different, so a UK size 6 is an AU size 8.
8. I have to pay 20c/MG for my internet in halls. Say whaaaa!?
9. A swimming pool in a club is, like, totally normal.
10. Buses run all through the night.
11. Their Burger King is called Hungry Jack's.
12. I live on High Street, Kensington, and there are loads of other places named after placed in London, including a Hyde Park!
13. Everyone wears sports kit, all the time.
14. If you go down to Bondi, everyone is actually surfing and there are hundred of people in wetsuits  either in the sea, running around on the beach, or skateboarding along the shop fronts - every single one of them carrying a surfboard.
15. Everything is easier/quicker/cheaper/free/more funny/on the house if you tell someone that you're British.
16. All wildlife out here is four times bigger, more poisonous and scarier than anything in the UK.
17. Australian's don't tip, unless you're British...! *wink*
18. The price of make-up make it actually physically painful to buy it.

I have some fantastic friends here, who have now come to be know ironically-but-not-so-ironically-anymore as the "Goon Squad". The group is ever expanding and we are a very cosmopolitan group, as we have Brits, Scots, Asians, Americans and even some real Aussies. I love them all dearly and we have a lot of fun together - mainly the Aussies teaching us completely made up Australian slang and convincing us it is commonly used in everyday life. Their recent favourites have been 'turbo' and 'cash' (which apparently mean 'good') and that 'jimmies' and 'jiblets' are two different things (they're not, and yes, they are referring to their balls). We do get out own back though, as one of them, *cough* Josh *cough*, thought that 'ASOS' stood for 'Australian Shirts and Other Stuff' haha! He will never live that one down....

It's also great to have Tally and Harry out here, as it's nice to see a familiar face from home now and then. At the moment, Tally is off travelling up the East Coast and Harry is working in the Hunter Valley, but I should see both of them in about 3 weeks though when they'll both head back into the city. The Maiden's have also been my saviours, Gus and Amber are honestly like my guardian angels! Anything I need and they will be right there to help me, and have said that I can come and escape and stay at theirs whenever I want. It's so nice to have the little back up out here, like a second family.

The weather out here is ridiculous. Every day is blissfully sunny and above 20 degrees, and the most we have to deal with is a bit of wind. If this is what the deepest darkest depths of Winter is like, I can't wait for summer! 

All of my courses are going well and I am not behind on my work... yet. Spanish is making me work hard but I'm definitely picking up everything more easily now. I've joined the gym (one of the personal trainer guys in there yesterday even said hi to me like I was a regular! Score!) and I have a well paid job which is helping me cash in some pennies so that I can save up to go travelling over the summer break. I also have just been offered an Internship with an independent music and arts magazine in Sydney called BRAG. I'll be starting on September the 10th doing 8hrs every Tuesday writing for their website and for their magazine. Exciting! I don't know too much about it all yet, but will update you once I start.

So, to sum this all up, life is going swimmingly and I am loving it out here. Not to say that I don't miss y'all back home, but, y'know... Australia's kinda fun, ok!?

B

Harry and Bean's Big Day Out

Harry calls me 'Bean' because he know's another girl called Becky who he used to work in a pub with, and her nickname was Bean. He says that we're bizarrely similar in mannerisms and looks, and so then I became 'The Other Bean', but when 'Original Bean' isn't around, I just become 'Bean'!

We had a slow morning and then jumped on a bus to Bondi to go and explore. I haven't properly been to Bondi Beach yet so it was a fun touristy thing for both of us to do. Even though it's the middle of Winter out here it was 25 degrees and amazingly sunny!

Despite knowing that everyone back home is having an incredible time at Boomtown Festival, and missing them all loads, we were feeling pretty smug to be enjoying a day like this one together in Australia on the beach. "How did we wangle this one!?"

We spent the whole day wandering around all the little cafes and shops and lying and chatting on the beach. There were loads of people preparing for the beach party that will be hosted here at the end of City2Surf. City2Surf is a huge annual 14km run from the centre of Sydney to Bondi and over 80,000 people come and run from all over the world. My friend Grace is running tomorrow, so we'll be rooting for her (though she'll be fine as she recently ran the London Marathon. 14km!? Pah....)

After we got bored of watching people learning to surf and weird old men running up and down the beach in their pants, we decided to do the coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee. It took us about two hours but we go to see loads of other bays such as Bronte and Tamarama, and we stopped and watched this group of guys who were filming themselves doing stunts on rollerskates at Bronte. One of them jumped down some 15ft stairs and landed it... unfortunately I didn't manage to film it but it was pretty impressive to watch.

When we arrived at Coogee the sun was beginning to set and everyone was out in the park just above the beach having bbqs and relaxing in the last of the (Winter) sun. This is the area that I will probably move to for next semester, as I am hoping to move out of halls and find a house, so it was nice to be able to have a look around.

We were both tired after walking so far and so we just cooked some supper and had another chilled evening. Harry also has to be up off nice and early tomorrow to go meet a friend to catch a train to the Hunter Valley. I'll be sad to see him go but I live right next to Randwick Racecouse (which he got very excited about) and so he'll be up here fairly frequently, hopefully. Similarly, I'll probably go stay with him in the Hunter Valley sometime soon to get out of the city for a while which'll be nice.

I'm slowly amassing recruits out here, now I have Tally AND Harry! To all those still at home though, I miss you all and I'm enjoying seeing your smiling faces every day and I have hundreds of photographs up all over my room - such fond memories of the very brief month of English Summer I had before I came out here. I hope you're all partying through the rest of it on behalf of me!

Missing y'all, heaps of love,

B

Shaawppin'

Having to pack my life into 30kg of luggage which I then had to cram into just one suitcase meant that I actually didn't bring many clothes out here at all. And all of the clothes I did bring I don't actually like very much, and/or are wholly unsuitable for the weather out here at the moment. It's the Australian Winter out here at the moment and although it's not freezing, it's still a little chilly, even if it is sunny.

Cue SHOPPING TRIP(S)!

It's really difficult shopping out here at first, as you think "Oh, I just need to go grab some more shampoo and conditioner, I'll pop into Boots"... and then there is no Boots and so you panic and make a rogue decision of buying shampoo and conditioner from the nearest newsagents-type-place which has been sat on that same shelf since the 90s and turns out the be all congealed and brown inside. 

It gets easier though, and 10 days in I am beginning to know where to go for what kinda stuff and am learning all the names of places so that I can ask someone where the nearest one is.

Also, once you're past the panicked culture-shock 'baffled Brit down-under' stage, you start to notice all the amazing clothes shops out here. They even have Topshop and Zara here, so I feel right at home. All the Aussie makes are far more interesting though so I'll list a few of my favourites here (just click on the logos and it'll take you to the site) so that you can do some fun online browsing. This is also a record for me, so that I can remember which ones I liked!

Goose's Blog

This is Goose...

And this is her blog, which you should also follow....

http://goosegoestoinfinityandbeyond.blogspot.com.au

Darling Harbour

Goose, Tally and I have had the best day! Every Friday, Tally comes down from Manly to do a photography course in the city, and we've agreed that every week once her class finishes at 1pm, we'll meet and explore the city a bit more. Today I brought Goose along with me and we met Tally for lunch in Hyde Park (it's so bizarre, Sydney has so many London names...!) and then headed down to Darling Harbour with the intention of going to some of the good markets in The Rocks. 

In the end, we got totally distracted by the harbour's charm and just wandered around, staring at all the boats and dodging being papped by Tally. 

We eventually settled down for a celebratory 'It's good to be finally here' cocktail at Nick's Bar & Grill right on the water. One cocktail slowly escalated into several cocktails and we ended up staying there for several hours, enjoying seeing the harbour sink into dusk and then all the twinkly lights shine across the water. The atmosphere down in Darling is so nice, I love it down there. It was also great that Tally and Goose got on so well, I mean I knew they would, but it was so much fun to just sit and chat and laugh together.

I'm tired now after so much walking, cocktails, and laughing, so am going to settle down as Goose and I have a big day of shopping planned tomorrow.

B

Tally's Birthday

This morning I met my flatmate, Isabelle. She's from South Korea but goes to Cornell University in the states and is lovely! She was only there for a bit to drop off some of her stuff but we agreed to meet later at the 'Afternoon Tea' that UNSW is hosting for all the international students.

The tea was held at 3.30pm in the sports pavilion overlooking the sports ground called 'The Oval'. We all chatted and grabbed some more free food and drink and I managed to find Dan who's a guy also doing Music at Newcastle who's done the exchange too. We all met loads more people, some great, some not so great... I had to teach this one 6ft American guy called Dylan how to make instant coffee because he filled his cup half full of the granules and then was about to add only milk. Bizarre...

It feels like freshers all over again, which I guess it kind of is because we're all new, but it seems weird because we're two years older now and it should be really easy to just all get along, but some people are just so... awkward!? I have met some really nice people though, and I'm sure I'll meet loads of Aussies when I start lectures on Monday. There are hardly any Aussies in halls because in Australia, most of them live at home and then go to their local uni.

After the tea I grabbed some stuff from my room and then hopped on a bus to Circular Quay and caught the 6pm ferry to Manly to go see Tally, a friend from home, who's birthday it was. Tally's come out here to stay with some family friends in the Northern Beaches to work and travel round Australia for a few months. The ferry ride was incredible as it was already dark and we left the harbour between the Harbour Bridge and the Opera house and the city was all lit up - it looked amazing. I sat outside for the whole journey and happily snapped away.

Tally met me off the ferry at the other end and we were taken out for dinner by Sam and Helen, the people she is living with. Sam is a musician, a hip hop artist, and Helen is his mum and they live in Belrose just above Manly. Helen took us to Hugos, an amazing pizzeria by the water, and treated us to some amazing pizzas and wine. After dinner, Helen took all of Tally's presents and balloons home and we went to go meet Sam's friend Nick in a nearby bar. A few drinks later, we headed home to chill at Sam's house and celebrate Tally's birthday late into the night.

The next day, Sam and Nick had to work, but Tally had the day off and so we headed into the city to go exploring. We spent most of the day shopping and I invested in a new pair of trainers as I have vowed to myself to get fit. I chose the offensive purple and orange colour so that I can't accidentally-on-purpose lose them in my room and actually, I quite like them! They're super comfortable too and should earn me kudos with all the sporty Aussie's.

Tally and I headed to roam round Darling Harbour and we stopped for a drink at the Cargo Lounge, where I also bought her a chocolate fondant as a birthday treat. I really liked the atmosphere down on the waterfront so I asked at the bar if they were hiring, but the girl said to come back in a few weeks when the summer season starts to kick in and they up their staff numbers.

Once we were tired of walking around, Tally came back with me on the bus to see where I lived and I showed her around the campus a bit. Whilst we were in my room, we remembered that we'd heard that Fat Freddy's Drop were playing in a month and a bit, and so we booked our tickets together. If you don't know who Fat Freddy's Drop are, they're an amazing reggae/ska band who we saw at Outlook Festival last summer.

Tally soon had to head back to Manly as she was working early next morning and I went to go find the others to tell them to book their tickets too.

We have an induction day tomorrow with all the other international students... doesn't sound like it's going to be much fun, but it'll be useful I guess.

B

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

24 Hours Later...

…and I’ve finally arrived in Sydney! 

The journey was long but not too bad, being in Business Class probably helped a bit (thanks Mum!). Check-in at Heathrow was quick and easy, and the goodbyes came around pretty quick as I had to move on to go through security. Both my parents and my sister Ella came with me to the airport (Hannah was at a festival...) and they handed me over a goodbye card with some lovely well-wishings and a bit of money to spend in Duty Free! After a few tears and much talk of how exciting it will be to see them all again when they come out for Christmas, I headed off to begin my adventure alone. They hung about a bit to watch me er… well… queue for security (!?) and then finally waved for one last time and headed home again.

Security was also quick, though I did get frisked (as usual – I need to learn to take my jewellery off), and then I followed my nose into Duty Free where I found my favourite perfume on sale. Rather than being content with saving a bit of money, I decided this was money I had to spend in here, and I spent the next half an hour hunting around, trying out all the new ones, to pick a new scent to mark the beginning of the new Australian me!

I wondered around a bit, window shopping and contemplating what to eat, and suddenly stumbled across the Star Alliance Lounge. As I got closer, I saw the sign saying ‘First Class and Business Class Passengers Only’ and a whole list of airlines – including Asiana Airlines. Of course! How could I have forgotten!? I signed in at the desk and wandered into a peaceful low-lit room where tired business men were drinking red wine and furiously typing on their laptops, and a few families were trying to stop their toddlers from screaming. People were coming and going with various combinations of food and drink and settled themselves in one of the hundreds of comfy armchairs and sofas. I suddenly felt very out of place and sheepishly snuck over to a table at the corner. I walked over to the food service area and asked a waitress in a quiet whisper if all the food and drink was free. She laughed loudly and told me that EVERYTHING was free, and so, embarassed and with half the lounge now fully aware of my presence, I helped myself to some mini sandwiches and a gin and tonic.

The lounge was perfect, it had wireless internet, cosy sofas, departure boards on every wall so that you didn’t have to even move to check your flight, and nobody gave you a second look if you went up to get your *ahem* fourth drink. I browsed through some emails and chatted briefly to a mum about how my mum used to feed us drowsy Calpol when we were little to keep us quiet on aeroplanes (she said she’s keep it in mind for next time!).

Sunset at Terminal 1

Finally my flight was called and I made my way to my gate, zooming through the Business Class queue and was ushered to my seat by a smiley hostess. The plane was one of the newest that Asiana Airlines had and the Business Class seats were like little mini cubicles all to themselves. We each had a personal tv, slippers (!?), headphones, a little toiletries bag with L’Occitane (!) goodies inside, a pillow and a blanket. I made myself comfortable, playing with all the adjustable seat controls and was soon offered a glass of champagne. Don't mind if I do!

The plane filled up quickly and we took off on time. Once the seatbelt signs were off, the hostesses came round and offered us each a menu with a Western or Korean choice for supper. Then next unfolded our tables for us, and placed down a white table cloth, placing on top our own personal little salt and pepper shakers, a napkin with silver cutlery inside (apart from the knives which have to be plastic) and poured us a drink of our choice (another gin and tonic please!). The supper they served was six courses long: bread, salad, starter, main, cheese, pudding, and then tea and coffee afterwards. The food wasn’t incredible, but was a hell of a lot better than normal plane food...

The amazing view as we left Heathrow

I slowly felt myself slipping into a food coma and used the seat controls to make it into a bed, falling into a deep sleep quickly and easily. I slept for a good seven hours - which is so unusual for me on a plane! – and woke up just before they started serving a ‘snack’ (which was hardly a snack at all seeing as it was another three courses!). 

We landed at Seoul in South Korea at 6.30am English time, 3.30pm Korean time. Incheon airport was amazing, huge high ceilings and everything was glass and marble. I made my way to the Asiana transfer lounge and here I booked myself in to have a shower (YUP!) and grabbed some more free food. Four hours of wireless internet, food, drink, and a shower later, I hopped on to my second plane.

The plane was delayed 10 minutes but this didn't seem to be a problem as we still landed on time once we reached Sydney. We landed at 7.30am Australian time and I made my way through customs. This queue took a little longer as you have to declare all food and medication etc., but finally I got through and followed the signs to the 'Meeting Point' in the arrivals hall, where I was to meet my UNSW transfer.

Sat in the Asiana Lounge

View from plane as we left Seoul

I met up with a whole bunch of New York students and one guy who was at Birmingham Uni and we were herded into a shuttle bus by two UNSW students who handed us each our welcome pack and drove us to our relevant accommodation. We arrived at my accommodation, The University Terraces, at about 9.30am and one of the guys helped me with my suitcase to the lift, showed me how to activate my access card and wished me luck for the semester ahead. My apartment is in the East Tower on the 7th floor and is very modern and clean. I am sharing with a Korean girl called Isabelle who goes to Cornell University in the USA and we each have our own bedroom but share a bathroom, kitchen, and living are. I haven't met her yet but she will arrive in the next few days.

I've just unpacked all my clothes into my little room (pretty basic but nice; a single bed, a desk, a bedside table and some storage shelving for my clothes and books etc) which took me all of 10 minutes - 30kg of luggage is not a lot! - and have had a quick shower. A family friend of my Step-Gran, Julie, called Amber is coming to pick me up at 11am and I'm going to stay at hers tonight so that she can help me get my bearings and take me shopping to get me some sheets and towels, and stuff to kit out my room.

So far, so good! And hopefully I will stay awake long enough today to make sure that I have a good night's sleep tonight and conquer any jet-lag. My body has no real ideal what time it is and so I am hoping to use tonight to reset my body clock. I don't have any internet in my apartment yet, so this has been typed up but won't be posted until I sort everything out, but next update will come soon!

Lots and love from Sydney,

B.