Dorm Room / Campus / Groceries / Random Thoughts...

Helloooooooooo. This post is a compilation of unorganized thoughts and pictures, so try and bear with it! :)

First off, I know I said I'd post pictures of my dorm room here in Newcastle, so here they are!

^^My new towels, chair and half-assembled fan. I'm glad I got towels because it wasn't fun taking a shower this morning and using my CLOTHES to dry myself! Ha ha. And even though the fan doesn't have it's base screwed on yet, I'm pretty proud because I assembled every screw on there with my bobby pins because I didn't have a screw driver! That's talent my friends!

^^My closet...which currently looks bare (but don't worry, I'll shop and fill it up by the end of the semester!)

^^Closets with the doors closed. I'm really impressed with how much storage this small room has. There are drawers and closets hidden everywhere (like under the bed, next to the desk, etc...)

^^My desk area! It's actually really spacious and the view from that window is amazing!

^^More junk, blah blah blah...

^^My bed! I've never had a boyish looking bed, but all they had in this style was blue! Oh and guess where I shopped for all of this....

The "BigW" aka Australia's version of Walmart! It was an almost exact resemblance! Oh and another similarity is a place called "Hungry Jacks," which is a Burger King in the USA. They have the same logo, Whopper burgers and everything, just called by a different name. Lastly, "Coles" is the Aussie version of a Walgreens. Here are some more differences I found (and bought) while shopping:

^^Doritos as we know them...all of their chips had generic names to them. There weren't any bags of Doritos, or Cheetos, or Lays.Another thing is that in Australia, all of their cheese is white. ALL of it. I checked myself, and you can't find yellow cheese anywhere! Therefor, my EasyMac was white too. ^^

Some things about grocery shopping I noticed were: shopping carts are called "trolleys," the prices are higher, AND stores don't carry grape jelly, chicken noodle soup OR Mexican food and ketchup is called "tomato sauce" ONLY, never ketchup. I bought items that I recognized from the U.S. over things I actually wanted to eat. There were VERY few products that had brand names I knew. Obviously Pepsi and huge labels but nothing else ...

BY FAR, the weirdest thing I saw while grocery shopping were these snack packs of crackers and Vegemite sandwiches, instead of crackers with peanut butter or cheese. I hope you know what I'm talking about, you had to have seen it.... :)

PICTURES FROM MY CAMPUS:

^^There are all sorts of tropical birds that live here. This is one of the funny looking ones, but there are parrots (with rainbow feathers and all) just randomly flying around. It's wild. I feel like I'm inside of a zoo exhibit! OH and the mosquitoes here are horrible! You've gotta cake your whole body down with bug spray just to go outside (and even that doesn't stop all of them!) I guess this is what you get for going to school that's in the middle of a swampy rain forest....

^^This is the "StudentHub" or student union. I'll be going here tomorrow to have a University ID card made and also to register for classes next week.

^^This is just another random photo I really like. The WHOLE campus looks like this!

So there are a couple more things I wanted to post, but they have no place in this entry so here are some random thoughts about Australia:

1. People commonly don't wear shoes in public places. The "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" law is obviously not in place over here. It's really strange seeing bare-footed people in stores!!!!

2. My dorm room building has co-ed bathrooms! Each toilet and shower is in its own separate room, rather than stall. But still! I was going to the restroom and heard a guy talking next to me so I asked him if I had gone into the wrong bathroom and he looked at me like I was crazy. It was awkward. REALLY awkward.

3. Speaking of toilets- the rumor that they spin the opposite way is totally true! Useless information, but it's kind of neat.

4. Everyone is LOVING my accent. It's really weird being the minority! Every time I open my mouth to a new person they cut me off and say, "OH MY GOSH- YOU'RE AMERICAN!" And then ask me a million questions. It's kind of fun but I still think THEY'RE the ones with the accent and weird living styles!

5. The sun goes down here at 8:30pm. It stays light for a looooong time.

6. I played "Cricket" in my hallway last night with the Aussie's I live with. I still have no clue what the actual rules were, but it was fun hitting a ball with this weird bat and running up and down the halls. I don't think I'll be making a career out of it! :)

Anyway, thanks for reading! My new phone number is below in case you didn't see it!

I love you all

--LP--

P.S. There are about 4 BATS hanging upside-down outside of my window right now. YES-- BATS!!!! I'm trying to get a picture but every time the flash goes off they fly away and the picture is blurry. Eeeeeek! Creepy!