First Days in Australia

Hey everyone, this is where I'll be posting all the pictures about my trips throughout Australia and China this year. I haven't uploaded any pictures yet but I've only just arrived in Sydney a few days ago so I'm still settling in. The flight was very long (16 hours) but luckily I stayed with my friend in Los Angeles for 3 days before flying to Melbourne (where we had orientation). We actually stayed outside of the city for the first 3 days, at a hotel right on the beach called the Oceanic...it was so beautiful, it rained and was fairly cold by their standards (it's the middle/end of Australia's summer so it should have been pretty hot, but it was still a great deal warmer than New England, so it didn't really bother me.) The orientation staff took us on many different nature walks and we had information sessions about living in Australia (Oz.) and about our universities specifically. I'll be attending the University of Technology in Sydney or UTS for short. On our last day in Melbourne we went into the city and for the most part we had the chance to explore on our own, it's a beautiful city, very artsy with many alleyways lined with little boutiques and cafes. I'm still getting used to a few cultural differences, for one thing they don't have internet access as readily available as we do, right now I'm on campus but I'd have to go to an internet cafe if I didn't want to walk the 10-15 minutes down the road. Things here are also generally more expensive than in America because the minimum wage here is around $14 an hour so they can afford to pay more...I'll be able to get a job once school starts.

As for right now, orientation for UTS started yesterday, but there's not much more to do until next week, when all the students will be on campus. Classes don't start until the 25th so I'll try to spend time exploring the city in the mean time, I'm right in the heart of Sydney, there's a shopping mall, a bank and two grocery stores in this huge shopping center right across the street from me, so it's very convenient. There are also these asian markets near China town on the weekends where we can buy fresh produce and nuts and dried fruit, which is much cheaper than in a supermarket. Well it just started raining so I better walk back home. Cheers!