just a blog full of updates/info.

hey everyone sorry it has been a little while since i have last wrote anything. I have officially moved into my apartment--got my keys today after having to be without them for awhile so now i am an official resident of 77a Bruce Street. I have been in Newcastle (a city in the New South Wales state) for over 5 days and i have to tell you all-- I am officially head over heels in love with the country of Australia. I love the people here I love the little shops and cafes and buildings. I love this city -- so very much. We live in a little house, but i believe it may be more like a condo or something.It a little old fashioned but it is even more than we ever hoped it would be. We are a little out of the way from where more of the off campus people from Australearn are living, but there are some boys that live just up the street a little ways from us. My roomates and I have become such good friends with these boys (one of the boys is acutally from APU with me so that has been so fun chatting about APU with him) and all of these boys have told us that they will never let us girls walk home alone. They will always walk us to our house no matter the hour.(i am sure it makes a few of you parenty types feel better about walking all around town a lot since we have no cars.) We had our orientation on monday and these next few days have just been pretty chill. We have been learning where the grocery stores (excuse me-- markets)are and where the bus stops go and where our new banks are located and figuring out our prepaid phones.... just in time for schoolto start.

I got my schedule for school finished yesterday. I am absolutely in love with my schedule. Wish America had this system. Basically every class meets once a week in a huge lecture hall for the lecture where we are just talked at anywhere from 1-3 hours (this always depends on the class and how much lecture time it demands). Then other than that the same class has then usually has a tutorial meeting time which has less students (probably 20 people or so.. im unsure) that lasts only an hour. I actually have made it so my tutorials and lectures for each class are on the same day so i have four classes, one on each day (including the lecture and the tutorial) it will be nice because i will get to focus on just one class a day. O and i dont have class on Monday so that is nice aswell. I will be taking a class with my friend Allison one day and on another day I have class with Jeff (the guy from APU) so i guess in my other two classes I will be making some friends.... haha. O yes and for those who do not know, I have already said i am only taking 4 classes, but do not worry that is normal here. yes that means i will only be able to transfer four classes to APU but fortunately each class here is 4 units so i will get to still transfer 16 units back to school so it will still be a full semester of units.

other than school we have been just chilling out like i said.We have been shopping for food and household stuff (luckily for the most part the house was furnished with things down to linens and silverware). The beach is quite nearby which is quite lovely for walks. I am trying to find a job asof now, but it is quite difficult. But the rate per hour here is get this.... 17.50 and hour.pretty awesome.i am determined to get a job here.... haha. As some of you may know,I have no internet access at my place. There is a coffee shop I go sometimes to get someinternetbut the internet is slow. I can also get wifi at my University (the University of Newcastle). I am currently at a student hub which is an extension of my university just a few blocks away from my house and it is open till late on weeknights for homework purposes. Here there are computers and wireless opportunities for UON students. Just a side note--our University is about 20-30 minutes away by bus ride so going to the university to just run a few errands is not something wewill be doing on a whim. This farness thing may get annoying....

Specifically today Allison and I walked all the way to the real estate office to sign our lease cause we came on our own flight we were not taken to the office beforehand. I got my keys finally cause me and Allison had to share keys until we signed the lease. This office is located by the harbor about maybe 20 minutes or so walking distance from our place. It wasnt too bad to walk. I love the walking cause it gets us more acquainted with the area and helps us to learn new streets we can use so we can find shortcuts to get places. its quite nice. sidestory..... I brought my Pushing Daisies season one dvds with me and now my new three roomates (allison, Carly and Caitlin) are pretty obsessed with the show. In the show, the main charater is a pie maker and shots are constantly shot with him in his pie shop and everytime we watch the show we always have the urge to eat some pie but we have never seen a pie place yet. Well when Allison and I were walking to the Real estate place we happened to stumble by a place that sold pies!!!!!!! we were so stoked let me tellya. we immediately told Carly and we will be going to the Pie Shop shortly. Lets just hope it is not called Miss Lovettes......(Sweeny Todd any one?) so yea thats been our day so far. It has been pretty nice chill day. Nothing we need to run off to. love those take it easy days.... well i am heading out soon. Hope this update has been enjoyable to read. i will blog soon.