Nobby's Beach

There is a ridiculous party going on outside my dorm right now, and I can hear the DJ playing some terrible music, so naturally, I am hiding out in my room, syncing up my new iPhone and not so new iPad and blasting some super awesome country tunes to drown out the party!

Yesterday I went to the beach with Renee and Amber, it was fantastic! It was a bit chilly when we first got there but it turned out to be quite a warm day, and I got a bit sunburned, especially my nose! Renee and I once again took the bus again because the beach is about a 2 hour walk from the University. I knew we had to get off on the very last stop, or that was my guess anyways. So we hung out on the bus for 45 minutes, until we stopped and everyone got off except us, and the driver had to tell us we had to get off here. So we got out and continued to the beach on foot. The park that you have to walk through is gorgeous. There were some very different types of trees. 

Amber met us at the beach, and we kicked our shoes off and walked on the beautiful white super soft sand. As we were walking across the sand, I realized that it squeaks, I'm not sure why, but it sounds funny! It was a super relaxing afternoon, just laying on my towel working on my tan, and then when I got to hot, I would walk on the beach in the water, which surprisingly quite cool.

The water was crystal clear, and although there were some weeds, they were nothing like the seaweed at home. I walked along the shoreline and found some sea shells that were super bright in color. The picture doesn't do the vibrancy of the colors justice! Nothing like the "sea shells" we have at home!

After collecting shells I dried my feet and legs off in the sun!

I didn't think I tanned that much here, but now looking that picture of my feet, I see I have a nice flip flop tan going on! We relaxed on the beach for several hours, watching school kids play games on the beach, and some other kids trying to learn to surf, and then we saw this. And because I saw it and it was one of the most unpleasant things I have seen in a very long time, I shall provide my readers with this wonderful image as well. 

Now that I have scared most of you for life, I should point out that this is the norm down here from what I have seen. Nothing like the board shorts the guys wear back at home!

When we left the beach we walked went for a mid-afternoon snack, we walked down Darby Street, which is a street full of café's. I believe the cafe we went to was called Sawyer's, (I could be wrong don't quote me) but I had this chili squid, and it was so yummy! Amber ordered a cheese platter and I then knew we would be great friends because she confessed to me that she can not live without cheese, crackers, and pickles. It's a good thing we aren't roommates or we would be severely malnourished! But I had to take a picture of her platter because it just looked so pretty, you wouldn't get anything like this in Regina. Especially not for $15!

So simple and effortless, yet so delicately put together!

Today I went to the mall and I bought myself a phone finally! I've been without one for three weeks and I have never felt so naked in my life! At home my phone became such a part of me that I didn't know what to do with myself without one. I had to take a camera with me to take pictures, I couldn't look up the weather, I couldn't check my emails, or facebook, or pinterest when I was bored waiting for the bus. I couldn't text my friends and family at home whenever I thought of something to tell them, and most importantly I couldn't apply for a job because I didn't have a contact number for future employers! I guess I no longer have an excuse to not look for a job! So this is the cute little case I bought to protect my new phone.

I think it screams me, and I have said hello in 7 of those languages in the countries they belong to! Such a seasoned traveller that I am!

I don't have anything else to say for tonight, except that I hope the music and party doesn't last till the wee hours of the morning again because I would like some sleep! I shall leave you with some beach pictures to envy and hate me over while you shiver in you sweaters by your fireplaces at home!

Dorm Life

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I really haven't been participating in anything blog worthy!

I just want to start this post by saying a big Congratulations to my baby brother on getting engaged this past week to his girlfriend. I'm very proud and happy for you, and can't wait for the wedding!

I made a new friend here, her name is Renee, I think we are going to get a long great! She is from Canada as well, and is closer to my age than anyone else I have met. She turns 24 this year, and I turn 26, so even though I still feel like I'm ancient compared to everyone else in the dorms, at least Renee can relate to me.

Last night was Opening Ceremonies which was a complete joke, it was supposed to be a bonding time, where you got to meet other people from the dorms in Edwards Hall, and learned what Edwards Hall aka Teds is all about. The ceremony made me so mad that even writing about it now makes me shake my head in disbelief. Basically it promoted excessive drinking, and stripping in public. I was embarrassed that I was even there. Today I read an article about Edwards Hall that says that it tries to portray the typical Hollywood Movie College Life. After last night I believe that. I may be the oldest one in this college, but I just shake my head and wish some of the younger students would show a little self-respect for themselves. I had to keep telling myself last night, they have to live and learn, but I got out of there as fast as I could. The last thing I saw before leaving the dining hall last night were people stripping and dancing on tables, and I told Renee as I walked out that I am no longer participating in activities. That may make me a hermit till school starts, so be it, I am okay with that. Only 10 days left till school starts! Yay!

So yesterday I also got caught in a torrential downpour, it was crazy, I was soaked through and through. I was wringing out my clothes as I was walking up the stairs to my dorm. I was a sopping mess. The reason I got caught in a rain storm is because I went to this iLEAD presentation, I am very excited to join that group, its all about networking and volunteering in the community and at the end of it, if I complete so many hours, I get a Leadership Certificate, which will be awesome to add on my resume.

Renee's really nice room mate Brooke drove us to Kotara mall the other day, I really wanted to go there because they have a cupcake espresso! Which is where I really want to work, because I love cupcakes and they just make me happy! Renee wanted a bar fridge, so she bought one, and it took Brooke and I 15 minutes to get that thing into the boot, aka the trunk of her car. Also, she took us to a shoe store there and was trying on shoes with her friend Bridgette, and it was the first shoe store I went into and didn't fall in love with shoes. There shoes here are so different, they are just weird. They definitely don't look like shoes we wear. Here is an example of what a female would wear to the bar for footwear with a dress.

So at least we know I am going to save money on shoes while down here..

Also while I was at the mall, I found out that a shopping cart is called a trolley, a windshield is called windscreen, rubbish is used in a different context down here, as they call trash/garbage rubbish. The last term that I learned so far, is a kebab, which to me is a skewer with meat and vegetables on it, but down here it is what we would call a pita. 

I know this post kind of sucks. But tomorrow I am going to the beach, and hopefully getting a phone, and quite possibly touring Fort Scratchley. So my next update will be full of touristy information.

I haven't taken many pictures because it's just not as handy carrying a camera around as it is having a phone to whip out when you see something super awesome! But here is a picture of a parrot and another awesome bird. If anyone knows what the black and white bird is called, let me know!

Beach, Buses, and Togas

Hey guys, I know it's been awhile but the internet here sucks, so it's almost next to impossible to post something online! So the past week has been interesting to say the least. 

To start, I made my way to the beach, it was beautiful! The sand was so soft, between your toes, not like the fake beaches we have at home that are full of rocks, this sand was silky smooth. The ocean was amazing, I mean yes I have seen the ocean before, but it was nothing like this. The way the waves rolled up onto the beach and receded was just amazing. I was in awe, I don't even have words to describe how awesome it was. I went into the ocean and I got my first faceful of salty ocean water, oh my goodness, it's like pouring a salt container right into your mouth, and there is nothing you can do to get that taste put of your mouth until you guzzle down bottles of water. The girls I was with that day told me to dive into and under the wave instead of trying to jump over top of it, so I did, and it was so much fun. Sounds silly, but just the feeling you get being submerged in the ocean is indescribable. I should have been a mermaid apparently...just kidding I hate all things under the sea, except fish, they're pretty delicious to eat!

I have also ventured to the mall, this may sound pretty basic, but the mall was a two and half hour speed walk away, so I decided I would figure out the public transportation system and take the bus, which also may seem pretty easy to some folk, but since I haven't taken a city bus since I got my license 10 years ago (wow, I'm old), it was a bit of a task to figure out. Through some really slow very frustrating internet searching, I came across bus routes, and found out which bus I need to take. I then start to wander around campus until I find a bus station, I know there is one here, I just didn't know where. Once I found it, I asked the girl sitting at the bus stop if I could catch bus 100 here, and she informed me that yes I could, in fact the bus that pulled away as I was walking up was bus 100, (my timing is impeccable for some things!) so I'd have to wait 20 minutes for the next one. So unseat down and patiently waited, when my bus arrived, it went to pay my fare and it was $3.70 that's crazy expensive. I'm pretty sure at home it's around $2.00, maybe I'm wrong, but $3.70 for a one way bus ride sounds a little outrageous to me! Once on the bus, I had to pay attention because I needed to get off at the Charlestown mall, hank fully almost every other person on the bus wanted to get off there too, so I just blended into the crowd and got off the bus.

Now the mall, I can't even describe the mall it was huge, halls that went in every direction. I soon became overwhelmed by the mall, I got lost in it several times, and it took me about 45 minutes to find the apple store, granted I did stop for lunch, in that time and had some delicious calamari and French fries for $5. I must say that was a much better deal than the bus fare. I spent about 4 hours in the mall, just looking around and getting lost over and over again, I could have spent longer but I was not spending any money on fun stuff (aka shoes and clothes), just nessesities that day. So when I boarded the bus to get back home that afternoon, I figured next time I came to the mall. I'd need a plan, or a strategy to figure out exactly what I needed so I don't waste time by getting lost.

Just a side note as I'm sitting in an outdoor courtyard watching people walk by as I type this, people dress weird here, clothes and shoes, just weird.

So last night I realized how old I actually was for the first time in a long time. I shall explain. Last night there was a toga party, so I destroyed a bed sheet and got dressed up in a toga with some awesome gold accessories, I figured I was going to have fun and meet some awesome people. I did meet some awesome people, but I think my version of fun has changed since the last time I was in university. We met at the cellar after supper which is like a party common area and started the night off with half a centurion. Now to explain what a centurion is, it's a drinking game, where you take a shot every minute for 100 minutes, a little outrageous right? I thought so, so the music played and at every minute intervals, the music would stop and we'd take a shot. Now since we only did half a centurion, it was only 50 shots, but still you get the point. Ridiculous drunkness, ridiculously fast by everyone. After that we took the train to the club or bar as us people in Saskatchewan call it. The club was called the Argyle, and apparently it is one of the best clubs in Newcastle, the coolest part about this club was the way they checked you IDs, they put your ID in a machine and en you stand in front of a camera and then I have no idea what it does, but i think it matches your face to the ID, but that's just speculation, I got a check mark, which is good, so I was in. Now to the part where I realized how old I actually am. I couldn't handle it. The spilled drinks, the constant bumping into one another, and the terrible, terrible music! I just needed to get out of there as fast as I could. After about 2 hours, I found some people who also wanted to leave, and we caught a cab back to he university, where I drank a gallon of water, made myself and sandwich and then passed out in my bed and didn't stir till morning. 

That my friends has been the past few days of my life, personally that's way to much excitement for me, so I think I'm going to hibernate tonight, and finish my book and watch re runs of How I Met Your Mother. But I'm signing off now, because my battery life is sitting at 4% and I'm getting eaten alive by mozzies.

Jet-Lagged!

Jet-lagged I am, I'm trying my best to stay awake during the day and go to bed later (as in 10:00), but it doesn't matter how late I stay up i am always up in the morning at around 5:00 am which makes the day super long. It would be okay if I could get up and go for breakfast then. But the dining hall doesn't open till 7:30, so I toss and turn, and toss some more, until I am even more tired than I was at 5:00am.

These past few days have been interesting, I found the shopping mall, go me! I walked there and I didn't get lost! Although I thought I was because google maps said it was a 20 minute walk, and I was still on university property at 20 minutes, so either I walk super slow (which I don't think I do) or google maps runs the whole route! The mall is just small, kind of reminds me of Vic Square back at home, but it has all the essentials one would need, such as a Woolworth which is sort of like Safeway, and a Big W, which is identical to Wal-mart, and of course a liquor store. What more could you ask for! After I looked around and bought a few organizational tools for my tiny room, I stopped and had lunch at subway before I walked back to the University. I ordered a subway club, which is like an assorted, and I get it toasted, and as I'm waiting for them to throw my veggies on, they ask me what kind of salad I want on top. I'm like what, okay, salad, they must mean lettuce, tomato, cucumber, etc. So I just went with the flow, and yup sure enough, I topped my meat and cheese with salad. Super weird lingo over here.

Speaking of super weird lingo, everyone asks "you doing?" or "you feeling" and it means in normal english terms, "how're you doing?", "how're you feeling?". That still throws me off when I'm asked that. Another odd lingo term is "pre's" which I was invited to by a wonderful girl on my floor, but once again it took me a few seconds to process what "pre's" could mean. I came to the conclusion of "pre drinks" before we all went to 'The Bar on the Hill' and yes once again I was right, I mean at least that one makes sense. Every thing is just a shortened version of what we say in Canada I guess.

So let's move on to the topic of "The Bar on the Hill", that was an interesting evening, I was dead tired before we even made it there, but I befriended a really nice girl named Annie, who kind of led me around like a lost puppy dog introducing me to people. I was very grateful for her, or else I probably would have been sitting in a corner alone sipping on my sangria, observing people and being the shy introvert that I am. So when we got to the bar, I got a drink, I asked for my usual rye and coke, and the girl that was taking my order literally looked at me and said "I'm sorry, what is that" I had to point over the bar and say "The Canadian Club" she's like oh okay, and she had to crack the seal for me. I stuck to Sangria after that, because Canadian Club is nothing like Weiser's from back home. Speaking of breaking seals, there was a barbecue at the bar, and we went down to get a sausage, which was really good, so I got my bread, and my sausage, then I grabbed the mustard, and went to put it on but nothing was coming out, so I opened the cap and popped off the seal, and put some mustard on my sausage, which I may add is a totally normal thing to do in Canada. But nope, everyone else loaded there's up with barbecue sauce, and then made fun of me, in a joking way of course. They were telling me that no one hear really eats mustard or ketchup its an American thing, I didn't think it was an American thing, I thought it was a normal thing, but apparently I'm weird down here. At 10:30 Annie asked if I wanted to go to a club in the city with her, I had to turn her down because I was so tired, she told me not to walk back alone as it's not safe. So I found a group of people that were leaving and followed them back to the living area, and passed out the minute I got to my room.

The next day was shot. I had no ambition to do anything, it was cool outside so I had on sweat capris and a tank top, and I hibernated in my room all day and caught up on some of my TV shows. Nothing like being in a foreign country and hibernating because you're tired. Super adventurous here!

Next week I plan on going to Black Butt Reserve, I believe it is a national park and you can see koala's and kangaroos, and all other sorts of awesome animals. And then maybe next weekend I will make it down to the beach if it is nice. Also my goal for this weekend is to figure out how the bus routes work, I think I may just hop on one and see where it takes me. Maybe it will take me past a7-11 so I can get a slurpee, one can hope!

Exhausted Arrival

Just want to start off by saying the internet is super slow here, took me 45 minutes to upload this page, just so I can type this post! So I am going to do my best to make it worth it. Although I am super hungry so we will see where my brain takes me.

I arrived in Sydney yesterday, February 3rd at 1:30 in the afternoon, after collecting my baggage, I loaded it all up onto a cart. For those of you that do not know, I took 4 large, and my large I mean incredibly over sized, over stuffed suitcases with me. The airport carts I swear are made to hold children's luggage only. So I loaded 3 of my suitcases onto the cart, piling it sky high, and dragged one beside it. Now, it wouldn't of been half bad if I didn't have to go around corner, but unfortunately it was not a straight road and I turned a corner and my luggage went flying to the ground, yes I got some looks, and one person walked by me and said "wow, that's a lot of luggage" so at least we know there are some very astute detectives that wander through the Sydney airport! I get down to the main level and I find my Happy Cabby transport service waiting for me! Thank goodness because I was three and a half hours late, so I am very grateful they waited for me! Mr. Happy Cabby man, helped me with my luggage and soon we were on the bus headed to Newcastle!

On the way through Sydney, I saw the Sydney Opera House, it looks amazing, and we went over this amazing bridge, where you can climb to the top and see all of Sydney (may have to look in to that!), there was a wonderful couple travelling up on the bus with me, and they were giving me the mini tour overview of everywhere we passed. School had just gotten out here, and there were so many kids in uniforms! Very different from the way Canadian students dress at home.

I finally arrived in Newcastle after two and a half hours, and thankfully the accommodation office was still open and I managed to check in. With the help of some wonderful residents who live in my dorm with me, we managed to get all of my luggage upstairs and me into my room! I then had a mini tour or the facilities and met the important people on my floor who informed me there was a meeting at 8:00 if I was feeling up to it. When I got back to my room I found my bedding and made my bed, then played around on this awful internet for a little while, trying to stay awake till 8:00 for the meeting.

At the meeting with everyone else on my floor I found out that Edwards Hall (where I live) is called Teds, because apparently Ted is a nickname for Edward. During the meeting they were giving out important phone numbers and everyone whipped out there iPhones and started entering the numbers, and I just sat there feeling incredibly naked without my phone. That is up high on the list of things to get soon. I feel very weird without it! After the meeting concluded I went back to my room and passed out!

This morning I woke up around 10 and got ready for the day. Put on some shorts and a tank top, (it was nice not having to throw on pants and a huge sweater in February) and went on a walk to find the student services centre so I could get my picture ID taken. This campus is huge, I am pretty sure walking to the student services centre and back to my dorm room, took me as long as it would have to  walk around the University of Regina.

I am back in my room and am starting to unpack, and have realized that I grossly underestimated the amount of hangers that I need to hang all my stuff up, I most definitely thought 50 would be enough, but I am wrong. So maybe tomorrow I will wander around the city and find a shopping centre which will hopefully have a store that sells iPhones as well.

At the moment, I am pretty exhausted and very hungry, supper is in a half hour so I will fill up then, but I am going to try to stay awake after supper till at least 830pm before I crash and fall asleep just so I can try to slowly adjust to there time change. This 17 hour difference is killing me!

Totally forgot about this temporarily, just have to comment on the men's shorts here, they are short, and by short I mean mid-thigh length short, as in what men in Canada wore in the 80's short. No board shorts here, or at least I haven't seen anyone wearing any. But on a plus side, that means that they aren't wearing there shorts half way done there ass. I'm almost scared to go to the beach if there shorts are that short, what do their swim trunks look like? Just saying, to bad there isn't a happy medium of guys wearing board shorts that sit properly on there hips.

I don't have much else to say, as I was not very adventurous today. If you have any question you want to ask me, feel free to comment and I shall answer them to the best of my ability!

Airplanes and Airports

I'm finally on my way to Vancouver, only going to get there 10 hours late. My journey started this morning at 7:00, with my parents dropping me off at the airport and after I checked my bags, I said a very teary eyed good bye to them.

I boarded my plane on time and as I stared out the window during take off, I said good bye to the flat prairies and snow, cause who knows when I'll see them again. Little did I know, we'd be back on the ground in Regina in a little over half an hour due to mechanical problems. So back in Regina, we a given the stay tuned for updates treatment, a little after an hour we are told that anyone with connecting flights should report to the Air Canada desk to reschedule there flights. So down I trek and get in the never ending line, and 3 hours later I am told, no need for me to reschedule my flight as they are bringing in mechanics and the part and we will be on our way in no time. Fast forward to 6 pm, and we are still waiting to hear if they can fix it, which I found very unnerving as I still have a connection to make tonight! But sometimes the unexpected happens so you just have to take it with a grain of salt. 

Finally 730 pm rolls around and the problem is fixed and we can start boarding, and yes, I am the first one on the plane, I did not wait this long to miss my flight! Finally they fueled up and de-iced the plane and we are up, up, and away. 

My last view of Regina was from the sky and it was beautiful, the city was all lit up with lights, and as much as I hate to admit it, I am going to miss that little city and everyone in it. As I'm typing this, I am getting teary eyed again, I may be overly emotional for quite some time when someone mentions home, but that's okay, cause my new adventure starts here and as my wonderful cousin put it, "You're 25 years old, homeless with no phone and that makes you pretty badass!"

Sending love from somewhere in the sky over Alberta!