Newcastle - settling in! Sun-Sat 15-21 February

Yiehaa! I'm catching up!! Not much more to write and then I'll arrive at today!!!

I left Byron on the bus to Casino, where I jumped on the train - luxury train! Real seats, a restaurant wagon - tjoho! Just like back at home =)

Fell asleep fairly quick, and read a coupe of books once I woke up. Never used the restaurant wagon, only the seat.

Got to Broadmeadow around 8pm, and now I'm a real idiot... I had read on my ticket that the train from Broadmeadow to Newcastle Station wasn't booked, so I tried the day before to see what times the train left - and got the info that after 6pm no trains from Broadmeadow to Newcastle are available.... So I checked out the bus timetables instead, and then once in Broadmeadow I got off and started dragging me and all my stuff to the bus stop. Er, well, I couldn't really find the bus stop first, so I had to ask at Shell - why oh why aren't there proper street lights and signs saying exactely which street I'm on?!?! It's not easy being a stranger in this country/city - you need to know where you are and where you're going all the time (which of course you never do), otherwise you're better off guessing/asking people...

Finally! Got on the bus, into town and crawled the last couple of metres to Nomads Backpackers by the Beach!

Here, a fine gentleman informed me of my misunderstanding of the trains - the 'big' trains from Sydney/Brisbane don't go into Newcastle after 6pm, but the local citytrains do....

Anyway - let's say that was my exercise for the day..

Monday:

Upgraded to Grand Hotel - ah, almost home sweet home!

I actually got welcomed home by Mike, the owner, who also let my bag out of the closet - so now I have my computer and a proud gay suitcase! =D

That day was the last relaxing day I've had for almost three weeks now...

I went down to the beach, spent some time on the internet, and read my book while having a proper restaurant meal at the Grand that night (their super nice nachos and a fine red wine).

Slept like a queen!

Tuesday:

ohohohoh... here we go...

Now I had twice as many things to carry - and I barely made it on the bus.. I had to ask a man to help me lift my suitcase, although it turned out that of course I'm asking the only man at the bus stop who just had surgery... He didn't look so good afterwards... ooops...

At uni I got off at the Design stop (I didn't know I could have gone off one stop earlier.. hehe, there's lots of things I don't know yet...), and started making my way down to IH - International House. Apparently it was obvious how much I struggled, 'cause Neil from Service came like a shiny knight to help me out - he put all the stuff in the truck and drove me down - it would take perhaps three-four minutes to walk there, if you're not carrying around 50-60 extra kilos... So I was very grateful! =)


And wieha!!! I'm in my room!!!



I'm in room 213, which means block 2, unit 1, room 3 - normally we only say that a person is in 210, 830, 920 etc, and leave out the number of the room. It's easier that way =)

The last pic is of my first dinner in my room - baked potato with mashed avocado and blue cheese, and some red wine of course! All set in front of Wall-E =)

The rest of this week passed so fast I have no idea where the days went...

- I cleaned my room, and got some cheap sheets and pillow cases from Jesmond
- Got all my student stuff in order - i.e. got my student card, enrolling and registering in courses and tutorials, got the hang of blackboard, my studentmail and myHub
- Got Internet to work (!)
- Washed all my clothes - 8 machines the first day, a couple of more machines over the week...
- Applied for casual work at Bar on the Hill
- Became a member of the Forum (the gym)
- Wrote a CV in english for the job
- and much more...

Here's some of the 'much more':

Friday I went to Wallsend with Aaron (my RA - Resident Assistant) and Blevan (philipino-canadian), to visit some of the op-shops (think you spell it like that) to buy secondhand school uniforms for Monday night - the big Back to School Party =) I got this cute little dress that the girls in oz wear when they're between 10-14 years old - you'll see the pics when it comes to O-week.

Saturday I went to Islington (the redlight district of Newcastle - if you're a girl and wants to make some extra money - go here, but if you're a girl and wants to be safe and maybe even stay alive - don't go here - at least not at night), to get a secondhand bike from Newcastle Bike Ecology Centre! A guy in Wallsend had given me a tip of this place in Carrington where you could get an old bike for 50 bucks, and then get the money back when you return the bike. Well, I googled Carrington + secondhand bike and all the varieties you can imagine - and eventually I found this place - and it's not in Carrington but in Islington (okey it's very very close to Carrington but what the heck..).
Took the bus down and walked to the Bike Centre - well, it's not really a centre, it's a house filled with bikes! All in all, I payed 62 dollars for a bike, a helmet, a lock and a red light (! red light !), but I'll get 40 dollars back when I return the bike - and I'll probably return all the other stuff too since I won't be needing them back at home, but that means that I've payed 22 dollars for a bike for four months =) great! yabba-dabba-doo!!

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Biked my way back - and since the seat was still a bit too low, my arse wouldn't let me hear the end of it for the rest of the weekend....

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Sunday night - welcome party for all the new residents at IH - and whieha! here we go!
First we played some ice-breaking games in the Green Room (such as dodgeball - see video), then we had a BBQ, and then almost everyone went to 910 to make the night last longer =)

oieoie - do I have some new drinking songs + games to teach y'all when I get back! =D

Okey, most of you probably would have noticed by now that all of a sudden a lot of things are about parties, drinking and playing games to drink even more - and how much I would like to keep you in the illusion of that we're drinking lemonade, it's not really going to work...

So I hereby warn you - all sensitive readers, you might want to steer clear of the O-week-post, 'cause it's going to get a lot worse...!!! (I'm just easing you in at the mo..)

For all others, the ones that would like to know what all this O-week-stuff is about, and what it's like to live on campus during this week - keep on reading =)

in i dimman - into the fog!
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