Green balls

I am now officially part of the 2010 Commerce Revue, titled, industrious basterds. They first had to explain me what exactly a revue is, since if I googled it, I just got a bunch of cancan dancers. As it turns out, it is a series of satirical sketches, ranging from lynching the Australian prime minister while singing an adapted version of the circle of life to dancing on a boybandmedley.
There will be three performances, starting on the 25th of August already. This means I will have an intensive but fun rehearsal schedule for the coming weeks. At most three times, on Thursday, Sunday and Monday.

The first rehearsal was a lot of fun and I met forty Australians in one go. They are theatrical (meaning loud with a lot of arm movements) and funny. After rehearsals we went to the Broadway bar. Afterwards some people were so kind to give me a lift home, but it was quite a hassle, as there are many one-way streets in Sydney.

The next day I had a good night's and a good morning's sleep. I had set my alarm clock, but somehow it failed to go off and I woke up at ten to one. After a hasty breakfast I went to Cockatoo island with Harm. This is the biggest island in the Sydney harbour and it was hosting a free contemporary art exhibition. It was quite impressive due to the cloudy day and the abonded industrial site look of the island. Most of the artworks were videos. They ranged from people pingponging over a naked woman to transvesites appearing out of mushrooms.The one I liked best was actually quite simple,it was a room full of green baskets hanging from the wall.


All in all it was an interesting afternoon, but I must say that I prefer oldschool art above contemporary art.

When we got back we made some delicious pasta with homemade sauce. In the evening we went to the cruise bar, which looks over the harbour including opera house, because a girl we met here was celebrating her birthday. Today we will be preparing for our own party, which I hope will turn out to be great (and leave our house intact) and leave me with a voice so I can still sing when auditioning for songs on the revue on Sunday.

Ethics and tea

Every Thursday at 12.30, my weekend starts and continues until Tuesday. If that isn't a great schoolweek then I don't know.

I now have actually had the first lecture of three out of four lectures and I really like the courses I have chosen so far. On Wednesday I have ethics twice. The morning one has a great enthusiastic guy who keeps walking up and down the isles of chairs. The second one lasts for three hours and we are only with a very small group. The first hour will be the French woman talking and the rest of the time we will be discussing and studying cases. Since I take these two similar courses, it will be easier to study for projects and exams, but also I will be able to compare them. The discussions in class so far are already interesting. One guy in the second class makes my blood boil by his blatant immorality. I never thought that such people actually still existed (he came to class in a suit, then you alreayd look like a prick to me, but ok). He honestly believed that the sole purpose of a firm was to make as much profit as possible, and he thought that making use of sweatshops was completely acceptable, since those firms had to compete with low cost Chinese firms. What I will really learn from these classes is not just to say something is good and right but give proper arguments why firms have to be social.

Today I had PR and the woman who teaches it seems to be on a permanent sugar rush. She has a wacky sense of humour and I am sure I will enjoy her classes. What I noticed so far is that the classes here are smaller (but not by much, also depending on the course) and more about interaction. The profs are also a lot more informal, they all walk around in jeans and casual clothing.

I didn't have Thai food, instead I had simple dinner with Lisianne twice in a row, after which we have a fun evening full of tea, cookies, chatting and movies. I am truly happy to know that there is always somebody to stay at home with.

This evening I will go to the first rehearsal of the commerce revue, which as far as I understand will be dancing, singing and acting, while making fun of business. The last two years they had a show 'men in tax' and 'nightmare on Wall Street'. I am quite curious and I hope it will be a lot of fun and a decent level. I must admit that I do enjoy being on stage, so it would make an interesting extra activity. Let the show begin.

Great start

After a great night, but too little sleep, I woke up to go to my very first lecture today. A tiny bit sleepy, but with a healthy dose of curiosity I went to what was meant to be my first class in marketing communication.

After half an hour, there was still no sign of a lecturer and even taking into account possible cultural differences, that is just plain rude. As it turned out that after all the infosessions on safety and transport, they forgot to mention that we have a blackboard just like back home. Course information and announcements can be found there, including the announcement that my first lecture was actually cancelled. Great. I could have stayed in bed.

I found out all about the blackboard pages with three German girls and we spent the rest of the lecture time in a computerlab looking through the course info. For the interface I wrote an article on plagiarism and how they deal with it at the Erasmus, so I found it very interesting that when I opened blackboard for the first time, there were big red letters stating I hadn't done the academic honesty test yet. When I browsed through my course descriptions, this test was also mentioned. If I didn't get 80% or higher for this test, I would not get a pass for my subjects. In the end I first had to watch an interactive film on the topic of paraphrasing etc. before I could get to the second step. This included three topics, each with a text to read and a test I had to fill out compeltely correct before I could see the next topic. After this came the test itself, containing twenty obvious questions such as 'I paraphrased the paragraph, so I do not have to worry about referencing'. I can now say I am academically honest, woohoo.

Something postive I found out was that I only have to buy books for two out of four courses. The other two are just articles online. At 11.30 we went to the free tea and cakes organised each week by Unimates and just chatted with some other people.

Right now I am still not sure what I will do tonight, as I am a bit tired and I do have an offer to go eat out at a thai place (but as I have never really learned to eat spicy food, I don't think that's a very good idea). One thing is for sure, even though I still have the feeling I am still on a holiday and resits of second year aren't even over, I have started my third year and actually have homework to do.

Reggae in the Irish pub

As I only have classes on Tuesday till Thursday, I could still sleep in on Monday. During the day I mostly tried to figure out which clubs I want to join and if I could find a job. Unfortunately that last thing turns out to be quite hard. To be a waitress you need a permit to serve alcohol, which costs about a hundred dollars. Since I don't feel like spending a lot of money before I can possibly start earning it, I will not be walking around with a notepad and plates anytime soon.
For tutoring most people want you to have certain Australian diplomas and a lot of jobs are also just for permanent residents or are in the middle of nowhere.

I guess I will either become a receptionist of some sort (I applied for something like that already) or handing out flyers, the kind of promotional work I swore I'd never do again. Oh well, never say never.

In the evening Harm and I met up with an old teacher, Faith McGirr. She taught us visual arts for five years in high school, but she is originally from Australia, born on Crown street, which is a stone throw away from this place. She was travelling to visit family and thought it would be fun to see us again. We went to the local and chatted about old times.

After a lovely salmon pasta, we went to the Apple store in the city centre where Angus and Julia stone were performing for free. I am quite a fan and so I was very frustrated when I could see them, but not hear them. The glass framework of the building kept in all the sound and 'I'm sorry, but we're packed mate' we were not allowed in the building. We could see a lot of open space, but the guy at the door would not give in. A bit sad I ate a brownie went we went to Gloria's coffee. A bit later we met with some people from UNSW to go to an Irish bar where they were having a reggae night. It was a live band and they were very good, I especially enjoyed it when they started playing Brazilian carnaval music. I also met some new people, including a Texan girl who is offended if you call her a republican and has now been taught to say 'Lijpe shit ouwe!' Whenever someone asks her for an opinion.

Palm beach

Normally Sunday is the resting day. I however, spend the day running around and 'bushwalking' as they call walking anywhere that is not the city in Australia.

We were meeting up with about twenty others in the city at quarter to ten, but we were running late. That meant we had to run to get tickets and still make it to the bus. Those who had the privilege to witness me in gymclasses know that running isn't exactly my strongest point. Panting we arrived on time, only to figure out that two others were still not there, meaning I might as well have saved myself the effort.

Luckily I had plenty of time to rest, as the busride to the Northern Palm Beach took an hour and a half. Once there we took in the image of a beautiful almost deserted beach. We decided to walk through the sand towards the lighthouse. Since the group was following Lisianne and me, we took a wrong turn and ended up at a dead end (a beautiful rock formation though) and had to walk a bit longer.


That I truly have no stamina to speak of became painfully clear when we had to walk all the stone steps to the top where the lighthouse was. The view was amazing though, and definitely worth it. We weren't able to spot any whales, but we still had a great time enjoying the sun and the blue waters surrounding us.


When we got back we cooked our housemates typically Dutch food: mashed potatoes, carrots, meatballs and homemade apple sauce. It took quite a while due to the amount of food and the lack of good pans, but they all enjoyed it very much.Seems like Dutch food is tasty after all.

BBQ and la bamba

On Thursday I went to the uni to join the city tour, which was just a fancy description of visiting two bars. No, hotels. While I associate hotels with rooms filled with beds, the hotels here do offer crashing facilities, but they are mostly just bars.

I met some a lot of new people, including Singaporean art students, Swedish exchange students and a lot of Germans and Dutch people. All in all I can say IBA spoiled me, since I am already used to going to school with an entire range of nationalities. I'd prefer to meet some Australians, but I guess I have to wait for my classes to start. However, I must say there are also a lot of nationalities here that are not well represented in Rotterdam. There are a lot of Scandinavian students, as well as British and American,

That evening there was a welcome party at Manning bar, which is on campus. It was a party with free pizza, which Harm and I managed to miss twice. First we were having hot chocolate somewhere and when we came back the pizza was already eaten. When we were out to get some food, we missed the second round of pizza. Despite of the minor foodcrisis, we a had a blast and enjoyed the conversations and dancing with our newfound friends.

The next day there was a free BBQ at the university, which I smuggled Lisianne to. After chilling in the grass with our free sausages we ended up in the same place having coco with Linnea, Sarah (Swedish), a German girl I unfortunately forgot the name of (but remembering all the faces, places and names of all the people I met is a massively hard job), A german guy named Laurens I think, A French guy with the perfect last name Salmon (no first name needs to be remembered) and a Chilean (nano, as in the iPod).

During the evening we had a drink in another hotel, which looked far less classy than what you would expect with the name Coogee Palace. Met some more people, including two Norwegian girls both conveniently called Kirsten, but other than that it was not very spectacular. Funny was the moment when Salmon lied to the busdriver about where he had to go so he had to pay less and then got reminded by the busdriver he had missed his stop at some point, so he was forced to get out in the middle of nowhere, far from where he actually had to be.

This morning I had a voice more fit for a eighty year old male, so I took it slow. We visited the Paddington market, which was filled with stalls of self-proclaimed Australian designers (meaning still very expensive) and we looked at hidiously ugly dresses and we tasted liqoirice coated with chocolate. This was properly explained as an accident happening in your mouth by Lieke.

On our way back to get groceries Lisianne and I got completely lost, but with la Bamba stuck in our heads we made it home. We watched a movie in the living room and had the scent of popcorn (ours) and weed (our American roommate and co) fill our noses. For now I wish you all a good night, while I dread my early morning to come.
Boa Noite

From skippy to sniffy

Yesterday's orientation was already a lot better. I still find it extremely hard to get out of bed early in the morning, but I don't think that will ever change.
Information sessions ranged from the activities of the student union to internships and a long session that could best be explained as advertising, as two organisations explained us all about their very overpriced trips.

We also got information on our enrolment, which allowed us to pick up our student card. Not only am I now officially a Usyd student, I can also travel with concession and I look eternally sunburned on my picture because printing issues resulted in two reddish lines over my face. I also had a problem with my courses, as the lectures of two of my subjects clashed. Back in Rotterdam this wouldn't be much of a problem, but here there is mandatory attendance. I also had two other courses I really wanted to take, but I was not approved for them because when I had applied I had not yet passed marketing, which was a prerequisite for both. Dreading all the work it would take to figure out timetables of different courses and seeking approval with the different faculties, it turned out to be surprisingly easy. After sending my renewed transcript I got enrolled in all the courses I wanted. Fortunately this also resulted in a three-day school week, with Fridays and Mondays off and class no later than five in the afternoon.

I will be taking PR, Marketing communication, Management and organisational ethics and Ethics in international business decisions.

Before leaving for home Harm and I registered for the Student Union, meaning I can now possibly join the magazine or a drama club of some sorts. On the way back we stopped by the post office so I could pick up my birthday present from Pedro (A box filled with happiness). After another fun meal we went to grab a beer at the pub around the corner called the local. I normally don't drink beer, but it almost seems rude to order wine in an alehouse and a beer called sassy blonde sounded like something I should try.

Today I am having a bedbugday, as outside it is cloudy and cold and I have a massive cold which leaves me sniffing like a customs dog hunting for drugs. Sometimes a relaxing day like that is good for a human being. Reading in bed and just figuring out what is in store for me the next couple of days (and taking measures to prevent getting lost on campus when I have to go from class to class). Tonight will most likely contain popcorn and a movie with my lovely housemate Lisianne, who is an awesome late-night-conversation-partner and brings me tea. It is on calm days like these that I realize I am happy.

Welcome

Yesterday Lisianne and I didn't make it to the park, but we did go to Bondi beach after sleeping in. The weather was wonderful and we really felt like we were on holiday as we walked towards the sand with icecream in our hand.

We were with some other students, some of whom bought a surfboard and a suit on a whim, hoping they would magically learn themselves how to stand up in the surf. We had a lot of fun watching them try and enjoying what Australians call winter. We also discovered some of the few cookies that not have chocolate (which Lisianne doesn't like) are as hard as rocks, so not fit for repurchase.

That evening we had dinner with a lot of the people in the house, which was very cosy and like a little bit of a welcome. There is a Columbian couple, a German guy, a Swedish girl, an American learning to be a cook and us four Dutchies. The others that weren't present at the dinner are a Japanese and a French girl. The last I have never seen yet.

This morning was brutally early, as we had to be at the universities great hall at nine. I never thought introductions to the university could be so boring. The intoductory speach in the Hogwartsy building was alright and so was the morning tea with massive cookies, but the rest of the day, until about four, was just long boring information session. I have been here three weeks, I don't care to hear about the Australian bussystem, how to stay safe and that there are twelve libraries at the university. Luckily the people I met were friendly and interesting. Also the tour around the campus was fun and made me truly realize the size and the randomness of the buildingstyles. Tomorrow will also be full of information sessions.. Yippe, I guess Ill just steal more cookies to keep myself busy.

20

On the 16th we just had a calm day. After sleeping in we walked to Hyde Park and walked over the promenade. We saw the impressive St. Marys from the inside and just enjoyed the sun in general.

On our way back home we stopped by the Sparkle cupcakery and had amazing cupcakes. I also tried a green tea latte, which will be a first and last, as it resembled a spinach cocktail. After a nice homemade hamburger, I went to my very first houseparty in Coogee. Ignoring the sign 'no visitors allowed', we had fun with a rough fifty people who gathered in the living room and garden. Australia is also known as the land of Goon, Goon meaning cheap wine, made with the aid of fishproducts, nut, milk and egg, which is bought in litercartons. It tastes alright if you are lucky, bit it leaves quite a hangover. I met a lot of new people, mostly from UNSW and when the clock striked twelve those who had met me started singing or congratulated me. It was a bit odd though,not to celebrate my birthday with either family or a bunch of friends like I normally do. Especially when people came in with a cake because another girl shares her day of birth with me. With the risk of sounding egocentric, not to be the centre of attention on your own birthday is a bit odd. However, it didn't matter much and at three we took the bus back home.

In my room I skyped with my mum and brother and then I went to sleep at four, knowing my alarm would go off at eight so I could skype with Pedro. I overslept by an hour and a half, luckily he was still there. It made me quite sad though, not to be with my loved ones on my birthday, even though it is a day like any other.
After skyping I slept a bit more until Lisianne came into my room with a muffin with an unlit '2' candle, as she couldn't find the matches and 20 didn't fit onto the cake. The idea was to do the Bondi Coogee beach walk, but it was around two before we left the house to eat delicious cakes at the Chinese store in the city and almost four when we arrived at Bondi. Since we only have light until five, we just sat down and chilled at the beach.

When I went back home I once more skyped with Pedro and called my dad at his work (he doesn't quite get skype yet). Then we rushed to a place called the Gaff, where we would get a dinner and two free drinks if we bought one drink. So after another fun night we returned home not too late, as we wanted to go to the National park. Unfortunately 6.45 was way too early for the both of us after two nights without too much sleep, so we cancelled the trip. I now have a voice that is more fit for a heavy smoking male, but I most certainly enjoyed my 20th birthday, which lasted eight hours longer than normal.

Brrrr

This is day three in my new room. When I moved here I had to get up at 6.30, which for me is pretty much the hardest thing to do. With a heavy suitcase and a little bit of rain, we made our big move. Luckily we were aided by a friendly busdriver.

That day I didn't do much besides cleaning and unpacking my suitcase, turning a faceless room into something I can call home. We had a cosy dinner with the four of us (Lisianne, my old high school mate Harm and his friend Lieke).One big disadvantage of the house we found out very soon: it's cold!
Its seems like Australian houses are made to be permanently colder inside than outside. They have never heard of heating, or double glass or even proper blankets for on your bed. As I speak I see palmtrees and blue skies, but my own room is cold. At the moment I use my sweater more for inside than outside.Needless to say I found it very hard to fall asleep as I was very cold in my bed as well. Luckily I now have found a way to fix that.

The next day while lisianne and Lieke had their introduction, Harm and I went to the salvation army because he had bought a single bed there. Harm and Lieke share a room, but they wanted to get seperate beds. We made quite some people smile as we rolled the bed through Surry Hills, as thankfully the thing had wheels. The rest of the day was filled with strolling through the sunny park and finishing with a dinner.Today will also be a day of exploring the city and perhaps a house party, which means when the clock strikes twelve, I will no longer be a teenager.

Hey, I've got some new shoes on..

As I skipped a night, I naturally skipped the following morning. I woke up around one or two in the afternoon and we had a long breakfast/lunch. We visited the K-mart so Lisianne could pick up some bedsheets. As I have tiny feet (size 35) I wondered what size I had here. Lisianne reasoned that I should be able to find shoes more easily because of all the Asians here. We walked to the racks with the ‘couple of dollars for shoes’ racks, you know, the type that are mostly laughably ugly, but they have some reasonable sneakers hidden in between. As I still did not fit into the smallest pair that was present there, we kind of jokingly went to the kiddy section. As you might be able to guess, I am now wearing grey sneakers with black stars, size two, $8 and actually meant for kids in primary. I literally just clipped of a tag that says I can get a refund if they are broken before I outgrow them. Oh well, I tell myself these shoes will walk together a great story and like they say, size doesn’t matter right?

That evening we decided to try out the BBQ on the ninth floor of the hostel, where we got a big bun with beef, kangaroo or veggie. There we met a fellow Dutchman, who had been travelling for 18 months, from Africa, to Asia to Australia. Thursday he would head back home. I admire these travelers I have met so far. After two weeks I am already tired of living out of a suitcase and I am not even moving from hostel to hostel. Naturally my suitcase-in-which-I-would-fit is not the right luggage to travel with, but I can’t picture myself with a big backpack either. It is one more day until I move hose and I can’t wait to unpack my things, have constant internet and something I can call home, even though it will be for a little while. The next morning I even got a surprising call from Lisianne, who started her first day of introduction. Not only will I be sharing house with her. It seems my old high school mate Harm, who now studies University College in Maastricht, not only coincidentally goes on exchange to the same university, he also shares a room in the same house. It’s a small world after all.

Sunrise

That night Lisianne and I had some interesting conversations with the nightly guests of the hostel. There was the Chinese cleaner who was working at one at night (poor guy), the blonde dude that made strange kung fu clapping moves in order to get the lift to open and walked a dozen circles around the table (strange guy). After that we had conversations on the judicial system with a big Brit full of tattoos, who also confessed he smoked weed with speed and the Belgium guy that worked behind the desk that admitted he wasn’t able to travel as he was unable to save money.

When the clock showed three in the morning, we went to put on our five layers of clothes (some of them orange) and walked to Darling Harbour. Even though we arrived an hour in advance, the entire harbour was packed, and we were forced to stand.
After watching some weird fan contest, which two Koreans in Borat swimsuits won, the football pitch finally showed on the screen. I have never been more stressed during a football game in my life. My heart was racing every time one of the teams even neared the goal. In the mean time we saw it become light in the harbour and flocks of birds flew over, not aware of the hundreds of adrenaline filled supporters beneath them. We were so sad when Spain scored in the last minutes of the extra time. My football knowledge is not that extensive, but I think both teams could have won. I do know that Nigel de Jong should maybe consider a career in karate instead of football. While the city around us woke up, we walked home disappointed. I found my pillow at eight in the morning.

Football and popcorn

While in the Netherlands people appear to be praying for something to cool them down, we praise another rainless day which didn’t even need my thick sweater. Lisianne and I decided to walk to our future house without getting lost for a change. The distance to the city is definitely walkable, although we have to get used to the hills, which of course we severely lack at home. We then walked on to the park next to our house, where we sat down in a picturesque porch and felt content with our decision. It made me think of the day in class where Anne and I decided we were happy.

While I am typing now, Lisianne and I are being die-hard fans, staying up until the match starts at 4.30. We will leave an hour in advance from the hostel, and we decided we’d rather stay up than sleep a mere two/three hours, with which Annelotte disagreed. Just like yesterday we made our own massive pan op popcorn, to the delight of the other people in the hostel kitchen. Armed with a big pan and a cutting board to a lack of an equally big lid, we happily popped away. A little habit I took over from Pedro, who is addicted to the stuff almost as much as he is to football. Munching away we met up with a Californian girl (lured with our popcorn), who thought Amsterdam was in Sweden (with the clogs and all) and that Dutch, together with the Danish, came from Denmark. Furthermore, Scandinavia could not be found on a map and the Middle East was confusing.

Now left without Geography talk and mostly chitchatting around, we wonder how orange home has become and if we will be able to cheer in a couple of hours. One thing is for sure, the Wilhelmus will never have sounded more loudly in Darling Harbour. Let the game begin!

New Holland

It’s been a little while since I wrote something, mostly because there was not much to write about. It appears to be the worst winter in Sydney in years, meaning Dutch style rainy weather. The combination of early darkness, rain and not a lot to do, left me missing home and a bit depressed. All I did was sleep in, eat, do groceries, visit the internetcafé, play some cards and visit the pool and sauna in the hostel. That may not sound bad, but when you arrive in a new city you want to explore, not sit inside. Luckily now I’m feeling better, especially since the weather today was a lot better. We went for a stroll to Darling harbour, where we walked over the bridge crossing the harbour and visited the maritime museum. There we went to discover the magnetic South pole and figured out that the Dutch arrived long before Captain Cook and dubbed it New Holland. This made me compare my new experiences with home.

-First of all, being a vegetarian here is nearly impossible.
-We are blessed back home to be able to bike anywhere, meaning a bike ride of ten minutes takes thirty minutes by public transport here.
-The city is riddled with convenience stores, which sell overpriced noodle soup, snacks and drinks. Supermarkets are large, but require quite some walking to reach (on the positive side, they are open every day until midnight).
-People walk around with gloves and thick scarves while we walk around in a simple sweater or summer jackets.
- Asians walk right on the road, Australians walk left, you walk clueless in between.
-Corn is cheap, rice is expensive, is that logical in second Chinatown?
- Hardly anyone eats fresh, instant meals, especially noodles with a little flavour (beef, chicken etc.)

Hopefully tomorrow will be another bright day so we can explore the city more and watch the game without an umbrella.

Another bit of news is that Lisianne won’t be my roommate, but she will be my housemate, as she took a room in the same house in Surry Hills. This comforts me a bit, as I will still always have someone to share my stories with when back home people are sleeping. Naturally, it is also convenient for cooking and washing, but most importantly for the good company.

South Dowling Street

The night after the game I fell asleep missing my family and Pedro, regretting I wasn’t in Oude Haven, but on the other hand I felt on top of the world. I found a place, we were in the finals and everything was falling into place. When I woke up this feeling didn’t last long. When Lisianne told me she wanted to talk to me and sat on my bed, I knew something was wrong. She confessed me that she was afraid that sharing a room together for five months would hurt our friendship.

In the end I made a decision to still take the room we saw, as it would be more expensive, but at least filled with other people and in a good location for city, uni and beach. It is quite expensive, but all the housing is here, especially if you don’t share a room. I called Joanna who told me that the medium room was already gone (at $200 a week) and only the larger one was left, the one I would initially share with Lisianne. She said she might have a room of 200 in the house across the street, which was basically the same, but I would have to share two bathrooms with the same amount of people. At the moment I am still unsure which one I will get, but I have a room. Slightly over my budget, but one I think I will enjoy. Not sharing a room with Lisianne does bring one advantage I guess, since it means I don’t have to move out and find something else when Pedro comes to visit (I don’t know if my landlord will be okay with that, but I have a double bed in a room that could be shared, so I presume it is) . I will move in the 14th, as that is the day before last in the hostel, preventing that I have to pay double. A week until I have 24/7 internet, a week until I start my new home.

Finally

Two of the six girls we shared a room with left today. One was an Asian girl I had never spoken a word with who took hours to fit everything in her suitcase. The other was the Dutch girl that talked in her sleep (little did I know then that she would be replaced by a girl that snores).

It was very hard to get out of bed, something I guess means my jet lag is over. After breakfast Lisianne and I went straight to the internet café, having our minds set on something in Surry Hills. We found a suitable house to share, so I called and arranged a viewing for that evening. After that she had to leave to her Uni to register, so Annelotte and I had a relaxed afternoon.

When Lisianne got back we went to the viewing, and contrary to the other house, this felt good. It is in an old school part of town and we would share the house with about 9 other internationals who were either studying or on an internship. There was a little living room, three bathrooms and a small kitchen, all cleaned on a weekly basis by a cleaner. The place is walking distance to the city, next to a park and close to bus lines that run pretty much until midnight or later. We left with the message that we would let the landlord know as soon as possible and then got horribly lost. We took the bus to the centre of the city, or so we thought. We were in a huge traffic jam and didn’t recognize anything in the dark. Finally we spotted a train station, which was way further than where we had to go. We got out quickly and luckily a kind man pointed us in the right direction. We walked back to the city laughing, using the opportunity to see new bits of the city and explore a new grocery store.

Once back we cooked with Annelotte and started talking about the game we would watch at 4.30. After sleeping a rough four hours, my alarm indicated it was time to dress up in orange and go downstairs. This time we didn’t go to the fifa screen, as it seemed too cold outside. In the cinema room filled with fatboys we were already shivering. In Australia they haven’t heard of double glass and it feels like the airco is on continuously. We watched the game with excitement, with only a few other people that were crazy enough to get out of bed. The first goal was a beauty, but our stress levels shot up when Uruguay made the equalizer. Once again we watched the game shouting with enthusiasm, happy that we scored two and stressed again when we got to 2-3. We were very confused by the end of the game when we thought it was all over, but instead van Bommel got a card and the match continued. When finally the last whistle blew, we were happy, but I certainly regretted not being in the Netherlands to witness the orange madness. Finally we made it to the final and we have a shot at winning, and I’m on the other side of the planet. We will certainly watch the final on the big screen, with extra sweaters and everything, hoping to throw a little orange party down under when that final whistle blows as well.

Busy day

The campus of Sydney University is simply random. Beautiful Sandstone buildings stand next to modern glass and steel structures. Today Annelotte and I visited only a small part of the campus, but already we realized it was far larger than our own Erasmus University. We went for an information session where we met other international students, ranging from another Dutch girl studying law to Americans studying history and chemistry. An enthusiastic Australian with a heavy accent introduced us to several topics. He sometimes started laughing about something so much that it made him incapable of explaining us properly what he was laughing about. He had one of the hardest accents to understand so far, although the guy at the night reception in our hostel is breathing down his neck. Australians have the annoying habit to swallow the ends of their words. All in all we got info on accommodation, a very esthetically pleasing sheet on skin diseases, which foods make up a healthy diet, a safety guide on biking and much more.

That same evening Lisianne and I went to our first viewing of a house in Alexandria, which was situated in something that looked like a holiday park with a big gate and a little pool. The house was fine, but the location was optimal. Buses to the house only run until eight in the evening, so we decided to look a bit further. We have until Thursday to accept or decline. In the mean time we ended up being too late for the hostel BBQ we planned to attend, so we went to the McDonalds, as they have free wireless there. Unfortunately the speed of that internet is as fast as a stoned snail, meaning we are still dependant on the internet café.

Luckily we found out later that not all buses stop running at eight, which made us more hopeful. Tomorrow we will start searching again for a place we can call home.

Zoo

Today I saw kangaroos and koalas! We decided to go Taronga zoo, which can only be reached by ferry. This ferry boat brought us a magnificent view over de harbour bridge and a lovely breeze. My mood became even better when I received a call from a landlord I had left a message the day before, saying we could call anytime to come check out the place, which we will do tomorrow.

Once we arrived there we felt like little kids in jungle paradise. We started off with the penguins, and when we walked further we met three care takers, taking one of the penguins for a walk! There were many koala bears, who indeed looked stoned (they become so because of what they eat), Tasmanian devils and all sorts of monkeys. There was also an Australian walk-about, in which you would walk a trail between kangaroos, walibis and more. There were no fences, so we actually got to pet them.


We saw tiny little mice and frogs and enormous komodo dragons and Pythons. The giraffes were naturally present, but also a little baby elephant and a three-legged fisher cat. One of the most impressive animals still is the snow leopard. The way that animal walks like a royal and looks at you as if you are nothing but an unworthy lowlife. All in all it was an amazing day, but also very tiring as the entire zoo is on a hill, but worth it every bit of muscle ache.

phone

On the third of July, I got really pissed off. As the jet lag is still there, we slept in and it was later before we went into town. We walked to the mall in order to get Australian phone so we could start calling landlords soon. We got a Vodafone prepaid, which when we really looked at the rates turned out to be ridiculously expensive. This pissed me off bad, as we were recommended Vodafone, and the Global Gossip service, also by Vodafone, was a lot cheaper! Also our own stupid fault of course, but that didn’t make our mood any better. We decided to get the Global Gossip simcard as well. This means we now first have a temporary number while we use up our initially bought credit and then switch to our new number. After eating pasta again we went to the café to look up adds for landlords and also to skype with Pedro (which cheered me up again). We ended the night with playing cards, tea and lots of laughter. We turned in at a reasonable time as we planned to finally get up early and go to the zoo. However, this was ruined a bit by our fellow roommate, who has the tendency to talk in her sleep, loudly.

Internet

I have noticed how this current age of technology has spoiled me. I expect there to be ‘free’ wireless internet continuously and the fact that I don’t makes me agitated. In the hostel you have to pay dollar for fifteen minutes of wireless, or go to some random internet café to get it elsewhere. As the price for the hostel wasn’t exactly low, I thought it would be included, but now I find myself logging in once a day, annoyed by the fact I have to pay a lot and I am dependant on the closing hours of the café, which is when the Dutch side of the world is awake. I am unable to check e-mails from possible landlords all the time, have been out of touch with the late news, football occurrences, family updates etc. It also makes Skyping a lot harder, but when it actually works out and I get to see Pedro, it makes me very happy. My parent’s I haven’t been able to talk to through skype yet unfortunately (although I wonder if my dad managed to install it, as he didn’t have the foggiest when I said we would skype). Luckily we found that the McDonald’s offers free internet and perhaps the university will have it.

2-1

The First real day in Sydney was one of exploration. Traffic lights here turn green with a ‘pew’ worthy of a video game and I still have to get used to the fact that every walks on the left, except for the tourists/backpackers, so collisions on the street are hard to avoid.

We also made the first trip to the supermarket, which already tells a lot about the Australian way of eating. Almost all the packages are big. Large meat containers, large juice bottles, large packs of sprinkle cheese and many more large packages which are not suitable for carrying for a distance over 5 minutes. However, vegetables are packed in halves or even quarters, so half a cabbage is possible. The peanut butter jars are also very tiny, since as proper Dutch money saving students, Lisianne and I got a bread (or something that has to pass for bread) and peanut butter for our breakfast. There is also no vegetarian meat replacement product in sight and the cheapest product in the store appears to be Asian Noodles. Hardly any juice is without bubbles.

After that we went back and cooked our very first meal, which took longer than normal as we tried to find the proper pans in the big hostel kitchen. In the end we ended up with enough food for three days, and as there were only community fridges and no freezers, we have actually eaten the same pasta with some other side dishes for the two days after as well. Afterwards we were discussing to watch the Brazil-The Netherlands game in the bar that is a part of the hostel. This plan was changed by our new roommate, who had just arrived from the Netherlands as well. She convinced us to go with her to Darling Harbour to watch it with other Dutch people. Since she had just flown thirty hours without much sleep, our excuse of ‘we’re tired’ wasn’t valid, so we decided to join. Expecting to end up at someone’s house, we were surprised to end up in front of an enormous screen hoisted up by Fifa. We watched the game with hundreds of people, including a lot of enthusiastic Dutch and Brazilian fans. It was cold, but we loved every minute. After ten minutes I thought it would be over, so I was shouting in Portuguese, English and Dutch, hoping for our team to score. Imagine three girls shouting that van Persie should be taken out and jumping up and down. We got more and more excited as the first goal was scored (such a beauty by Sneijder) and the second got us even more crazy and we were counting down the seconds. All the way back to the hostel we were in a party mood, but secretly I also looked at the little Brazilian bracelet hidden under my sweater, wishing I could have watched it with him and also that it would be a pity if we would finally win a world cup while being away from home. Still, my sleepshirt proclaiming that Brazil would be a six time world champion made me fall asleep with a smile on my face.

Flying

I have never liked long distance flying. 13 hours it took to get from Dubai to Sydney. 13 very long hours. It already went wrong before we entered the plan, as I got a different seat than I had on my ticket, meaning I would be separated from the rest. Once on the plane it appeared Lisianne’s seat was also double booked and she ended up next to me after all. The personal entertainment system helped to kill time, but the apparently better food of emirates I wasn’t able to enjoy as I appeared to be incapable of keeping my food inside and even the smell made me nauseous.

Luckily I had Lisianne and Annelotte to comfort me and also the crew was very nice. An unknown lady offered me her travel pills (unfortunately I couldn’t keep those in either). This confused the stewardess though; she first asked if the woman was my mother. This was not the case, so she then asked if I traveled alone, I said now and pointed to Lisianne and Annelotte, who was sitting two rows back. She then thought Annelotte was my mother, as this was also not the case, she asked us if we were over sixteen. Oh well, it is not like this hasn’t happened to me before.

Once we arrived at the airport we had to search for the arrival desk, where we would pick up our welcome package from the university. Unfortunately the desk was closed and so was the information desk we had to go to in case the arrival desk was closed. Tired and a bit pissed off, we managed to get to the hostel we booked for the beginning of our trip where we will stay while we look for a permanent place. A good night’s sleep did me well, but I am glad I don’t have to make that trip again for a while.