O-week and the Blue Mountains

I survived my first week of being an official Australian resident!  I live in university housing called Campus East with my 4 Australian roommates named Sarah, Matthew, Max, and Sally! They are all first year students here at Uni (the Aussie word for university) and are 18 and 19 years old.  I like them all very much, and feel that we are growing closer everyday.  We each have our own room and share a bathroom and common area.  This past week was O-week (orientation week) and there were a lot of planned activities around campus.  Many of them were parties, and let me tell you, Australians really love to party.  Our dorm even had an organized pub crawl one night.  The beverage of choice here is the oh-so-classy boxed wine, which we refer to as "goon."  Other O-week events that didn't involve partying were soccer games, BBQ on the beach, concerts on campus, and typical things like tours and information sessions.  It was  a non-stop busy week!   

The beach is a 7 min. walk from where I live, which is AMAZING!!!  There is also a bike trail nearby that goes up the coastline to a lighthouse.  There are a bunch of cute cafes and restaurants on the beach that I can't wait to explore.  Campus East is a 40 minute walk from Uni so I bought a used bike to get to school.  It takes about 10 minutes for me to bike to class, and I had my first class this morning!  The classes I'm taking are "Introduction to Aboriginal Australia," "Principles of Ecology and Evolution," and "Landscape Change and Climatology." The Uni campus is so beautiful.  It's nestled at the base of Mount Kiera, and I feel like I'm walking through the rain forest to get to class.   

This past weekend I went on an organized tour to the Blue Mountains with other international students.  I would compare the Blue Mountains to the Grand Canyon except it's covered in rain forest. We went abseiling, which is when you go down a  50 meter cliff in a harness (probably one of the scariest things I've ever done), hiked, rode one of the steepest trains in the world (goes up the mountain at a 52 degree angle), learned how to do Irish dances in a pub, and went grass carting.  The scenery there was gorgeous, and I made a lot of friends from all over the world.  

I'm still adjusting to my new home, but am getting more and more comfortable each day.  I'm learning my way around the city, meeting tons of new people each day, riding my bike on the left side of the road, using the metric system, and learning how to speak the Australian way. I'm hoping to get involved in some sort of club, that's my goal for this week.  Hopefully I can find a soccer team or something!!  I'm also going to try to run a half marathon while I'm here, so I'll start training for that!  That's all for now!  I hope everyone is safe and well.  Off to the beach I go!

Cheers!