Arriving in Sydney

Day 6: 2/6

Not too much to say about today. I woke up at 3:45am and the flight went smoothly. There was a slight mix up at my housing called UniLodge-Sydney (about five minutes off campus) but it got figured quickly, I made my way to my 15x15 foot room with AC (thankfully) and a small bathroom (small, but cozy and private/no roomies). I purchased my cell phone and unpacked in time to greet the other UTS students and discovered our rooms are all right next to each other, which was great news. We all bought some necessities, including sheets and breakfast items at the Kmart in the shopping center across the street. Kmart is actually much more popular than Target here, but what really sucks is that everything is more expensive. We nearly make up for it with the exchange rate (approximately 70 cents to every Australian dollar) but not really. The currency is very pretty and colorful – it’s also plastic which makes it waterproof and all the notes (not ‘bills’ here) are sized according to their value ($5 and up). Ironically the coins are not – they use metal for: $1, $2, 5 cents, 10 cents, 20 cents, & 50 cents but the $2 coin is the second smallest one (smaller than $1). It’s gold colored rather than silver like the cents coins, but that doesn’t stop people from losing them. If you keep your eye to the ground, you’re bound to find one on the street occasionally (I’ve already found about three without even trying). We had dinner at what’s become our favorite eatery right across the street called The Broadway Café. They have great happy hour rates and pizza specials in addition to some other decent items I’ve yet to try. After our meal we had planned on meeting some other UTS people who are living at another residential housing provided by UTS for its students called Gumal apartments. UniLodge is actually not affiliated with the University, but since housing is so limited in Sydney, this was the best alternative accommodation AustraLearn could provide for those of us who couldn’t get into Gumal. I’m fine with it because, despite missing free wireless internet on the roof, UniLodge is much more comfortable in my opinion. We made our way to the liquor store (Liquor Land), but it was closed and since everybody at Gumal was drinking and we were all still exhausted, we decided to hit the hay.