Pre-Pay, Precipitation, and Pubcrawl

Went back to Randwick Thursday morning for more hangers and a prepaid cell phone. Fortunately, I was able to get one that will work in both Australia and New Zealand (as will the hangers), although I will have to get a new SIM card in NZ. I hit a bit of a speed bump trying to get the thing registered because the law requires that you provide them with a residential address to activate your phone and, of course, my normal dorm address didn’t count, but I was able to get it sorted. In other Randwick news, I went into a grocery store called Coles (which an IH resident told me about, but I had originally thought she meant ‘Kohl’s’ since there are several American department stores here). By browsing through I was able to round out my sense of what’s affordable and what’s not. As my Aunt warned, make-up is extremely expensive, I’m talking $20 for a thing of mascara. On the plus side, good tea is really affordable. I ended up getting a 100 bag box of Twinings English Breakfast for about $8. It would probably cost twice that at home and a box that big should last me a whole semester. Tea is definitely the best study drink.

In weather news, it’s still Rain

Rain Rain

Rain Rain

Rain

Rain Rain

Rain

But that’s alright, ‘cept I haven’t bought an umbrella yet….

Went on a pub crawl Thursday night with a bunch of IHers, through the part of the city called “The Rocks.” I think my favorite place we went was Lord Nelson Brewery.  They brew a dark beer that tastes quite like Guiness, but smoother. Another favorite so far is a beer called “Bee’s Knees,” you can really taste the honey in it. Fortunately, the bartenders are very nice everywhere I have been, as none of them minded that I just had water at most of the places we went. This is easy to understand because back home when we Pubcrawl, we go to maybe 3 places, a fairly reasonable number if you are going to get one beer at each and spend about an hour drinking it before moving on. At this Pubcrawl we hit SIX places, and spent only about half an hour at each…..waters all around please! Luckily, most of the other residents I was with were of a similar mind to myself, taking the opportunity to socialize and check out the various places without having to get a pint at every one of them. It was interesting to see the variety of Pubs. We went to one that was quite Australian, one that was Irish, one that was German, etc. The Irish pub had live music, a guitarist and fiddler who were both very talented.  It reminded me of the guy who used to play at the pub in Petosky when I was working at Camp Michigania.

I’d have to say that I’m feeling very ready for classes to start. I’m having a good time just enjoying the company of the other IH residents, but the rainy weather makes it a little difficult to find things to occupy the day. Also, as much as I am enjoying being in this new environment, my primary reason for coming is to learn, and, dorky as it sounds, I can feel my palms itching for a pen and spiral notebook. We’ll have to wait and see if my eagerness lasts once the stress of actually studying sets in, but with courses like Australasian Mammals, World Conservation, and Animal Behavior, how could it not?

uh-oh……Nerd-Alert!