Jibberjabbering.

Random thoughts about Australia:

I never really thought of Australia as being a potentially cold place. But it does get cold here! Sometimes at night it dips into the 40s! I told my Australian classmates in art that I was not expecting that. They thought it was pretty funny. But I also told them about how people in MN do the 'polar plunge' and jump through holes in the ice on lakes in the winter. Needless to say they were appalled. :)

Things I don't like about Australia:
-Their internet. I hate how it's in GB and you have to pay for it. It's not like at home where you pay so much a month and you get unlimited in that time. Here you pay for like 2 GB and when it runs out, you have to pay to get more. Whaaa...?
-The fact that it gets cold. It's Australia. There's a hole in the ozone over the continent. Not supposed to be cold!
-How much people smoke here. It's really shocking. They have a lot of hard-hitting commercials out now to entice people not to smoke. Like the kind that show people with throat and lung cancer. Crazy stuff.


Things I love about Australia:
-The accent. Let's face it, it's awesome.
-Tim Tams. They're amazing. I will go through withdrawal.
-Everyone's usually really nice.
-Harry's. Where we go at night for meat pies. Amaaaaazing. We love Dave- he runs the place.
-The beaches. Beautiful beautiful beautiful.
-How easy it is to surf here. You don't look out of place, even if you are terrible at it.
-The trees. They have these crazy awesome trees.
-Kangaroos, Wallabies, and Koalas. Yesssssss.
-The crazy variation of environment. They have desert, rainforest, beaches, everything.
-The Great Barrier Reef. Whaaaaat?!


So, obviously. The pros wayyy outweigh the cons. :)

Anyways, on to more random jabberings.

The crosswalks here beep quietly until the light turns and you're able to cross, at which point they beep really loudly. It's in order to get your attention, which is nice, but most of the time it just freaks me out. Especially when I'm crossing at this one intersection near the train station, where the 'beep' noise is broken, and it's just one loud 'boooooop'. Odd.

There's a harbor a short ways away from my place. The coal freighters that sit out in the ocean for 2 weeks waiting for their turn go in there, and when they're right in front of my place they sound their horns. Their FOGHORNS. Seriously. I think I'm desensitized to it now but when I first got here I was being woken up by it constantly. There was one just the other day that sounded theirs for a solid 2 minutes. I was like really? We know you're here. But then they fill up and ship on out.

Newcastle used to be a really industrial area, and you can still see that when you look at the harbor. It's got a lot of machinery.

I finally saw a pod of wild dolphins here about 3 weeks ago. Amazing. I was so happy to see them for myself, especially after everyone else had seen them. They were chuffing and playing, and that made my day.


Things I miss about home:
-The people- family, friends, you know. :)
-Chipotle, Panera, Noodles, Applebees, and all that good food. :)
-The internet
-Driving
-The fact that it's summer there and winter here. Ha.
-That I don't have to use an adapter to plug something in there.

Needless to say I'm getting really excited to come home, but I know I'm going to miss Australia a lot too. But I'll be pretty busy once I get home because I leave a day later to go to Washington for my cousin's wedding! Crazy busy!

Anyways, enough of my ramblings. Catcha lataaa!