First Day in Australia

After I landed in Sydney, I had to go through customs, and then pick up my luggage. After that I was met by my “caretaker”, Hugh. He’s a UNSW student who is essentially our RA (resident advisor). He’s a Sydney local, but he’s done a bunch of travelling and has been to the US several times. I think he even just got a job in America that will start in late November.
Anyway, he picked me up and then we headed to campus. At this point I was pretty out of it so I don’t remember a whole lot about the drive. We went to the study abroad office and I filled out all the paperwork to officially be a student. I got my cell phone (which took a full 24 hours to start working) and a few other things. I still need to go on Monday to get my ID and my password for my online accounts. I’ll get an email address through the school, but I’ll probably never use it.
So then we finally got to my house, which is right down the street from the beach. When I got there, no one was awake yet, except for my roommate who had locked himself out of the room and was sleeping in the common room.
I started to unpack my bags, but realized I didn’t have any hangers, so that made putting clothes away a little more difficult. After a few minutes I decided that I’d much rather take a nap than do the rest of my unpacking. So I took a quick nap then unpacked a little more.
Eventually I decided that I should shower since I hadn’t cleaned myself in almost 2 days at this point. After my shower I figured I’d go out and walk around a little bit to get to know my surroundings. I walked upstairs and there were a bunch of the other housemates were sitting around. They said they’d be going the Coogee to Bondi walk soon and asked if I wanted to join.
We sat around here for a little bit and talked. Most of them are from Duke, UPenn and Georgetown. The majority are from Duke and came together so they all knew each other already. A lot of them are business/finance majors with some engineers too. UNSW has a great engineering school and is very well known for their business school as well.
So then after hanging out for a little bit, we went on the Coogee to Bondi walk. It’s this walk that goes from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach. Supposedly it’s only 6km (3.5miles) but it seemed like way longer than that.

But anyway, it is a BEAUTIFUL walk.  Some of the most picturesque views I have ever seen in my life.  These pictures are all taken with my brand new Sony Bloggie.  I plan on going back on another nice day with my Canon EOS 20D (courtesy of my dad), to take some real pictures and get all the art shots.

                You walk along the edge of the water the entire time where there are cliffs, and then of course all the beaches.

If you want to check out the entire album, here is a link http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10101385683321404.3613383.9379372&l=8a084159bd

                Keep in mind that it is winter here in Australia.  Many people we saw along the walk actually had on winter jackets with hats and gloves!  I guess temperature is all relative.  To me, this is just a cool spring day, but to them, this is full out winter.

                They were having their Winter Fest on Bondi Beach, complete with ice skating on the beach.  Strange…

There are some beautiful houses along the walk too.  The architecture here is amazing.  They’re these funky modern houses with terraces and balconies on every level facing the ocean.  Wouldn’t be a bad place to live.

Also, there’s a giant cemetery along the walk, so I guess it wouldn’t be a bad place to die either.

After the walk we took the bus back to the house where I passed out and didn’t wake up until the next morning.