Living in the city

I am finally starting to get settled in my apartment. I live in the Sydney University Village in my own studio apartment. I have a double bed, wardrobe, mini fridge, microwave, and a complete bathroom all to myself! It is really nice. Luckily Charity is only a few doors down, so she's not far away. I have pictures of my room posted on a facebook album- the link can be found in the previous blog post.

Next week begins orientation, or "o-week" on campus. The village is offering a lot of free activities- such as a cooking class, a sydney tour, a bondi beach trip, and bbq's, so it'll be nice to have a lot of people around, especially some Aussie students!

This weekend Charity and I are planning a lot of touristy things- beach, aquarium, China Town, etc., so that will be fun. So far my favorite part of the city is Darling Harbor- Its really clean, trendy, and beautiful! I plan to go there often.

Here are some things that are different from the US that I have to get used to:
-Military time for everything
-The metric system
-Cars do not yield for pedestrians (except at 1 or 2 designated cross walks)

There are a lot of cultural differences between here and the US, even though you might not think so since Australia seems so much like the US. The area I live in is very urban, with a ton of different shops and restaurants. I am looking forward to becoming more of a resident and less of a tourist over the next few months.

The internet here really sucks- we have to pay 2cents a megabyte- I already spend $4 in just a few days... so I am going to have to limit how much I am on the net. But my Sydney e-mail account is free to use, so you can send me messages there :) My e-mail address is rdio7151@usyd.edu.au

And for those of you who may want to send me something in the mail, my address is:
Sydney University Village, 90 Carillon Ave
Newtown, NSW 2042
Australia

I'll post back soon with some more updates and hopefully a fun story! :)

Love,
Becky