It's now my second full day in Newcastle and I love every little piece of it! The University, or Uni as they call it, that I'm attending is called The University of Newcastle and I'm enrolled on the Callaghan campus. I thought that the ISU campus was large and this is at least three times the size of that! It's set up similar to the University of Iowa in the sense that campus is like a town. There's several restaurants on both sides of campus and quite a few pubs, go figure, along with little campus shops and trinket places. We tried to walk around yesterday and find our classes and failed miserably. We walked into town almost and then on the way back got stuck in a rain storm, just my luck. We eventually found our way back and next time I will definitely take someone from here along with me so I don't get lost.
The colleges here are set up quite differently than they are at home. The college is actually the residence halls, so I live in International House College. The campus is the actual 'Uni' and no one calls it University, they love shortening up words whenever possible I have noticed.
Everyone here has been so nice and taken us to the shopping centre, which has The Big W and Woolie's (Wal-Mart and grocery store) in it, twice now. I finally have sheets and a blanket and towels, you know the necessary things. Went to the grocery store twice now and I think I finally have enough stuff to make a decent meal. I made yummy guacamole tonight for Steph and I. :) The produce here is wonderful, the meat-ehhhh not so much. Anything besides sheep and red deer meat is outrageously expensive compared to at home and cheese. Don't even get me started on how expensive cheese is BUT I bought some today and its glorious. I found a really cheap brand of soda I sort of enjoy and coffee too. They don't brew coffee over here unless you work in a cafe, all the coffee is instant. HATE IT, but I make do. While we were traveling someone told us this neat and absolutely amazing thing to do with your coffee. Over here they have these biscuits called Tim Tams and they are GLORIOUS, I'll probably send like 10 boxes home before I leave, but they're a chocolate coated wafer cookie. If you bite the ends of the Tim Tam off you can use it as a straw in your coffee and it gets all gooey and melted and absolutely amazing. I don't even care that I'm having a cookie for breakfast because its AMAZING.
Not only are Tim Tam's going to kill me but the chocolate here is soooo much better than it is at home. I love it. Everywhere we go I want another candy bar. I've discovered Cadbury pods which helps my cravings. They're a little chocolate circle with filling inside of it, kinda like stuff we have at home; they're bite sized so a little better for my craving.
Needless to say I love it here and will probably struggle to come home. I have a feeling I'll want to go home but then want to come back two weeks later. I wish it wasn't so darn expensive! But Dad, Mom, and Sara are coming in a month and I am SOOOOOOOO EXCITED. I only wish they could bring Libby with:(
As a nice little closing treat, these little creatures are roaming all over the college. Scared the living daylights out of me the first time I saw one.
cadbury pod = cadbury egg. i miss you!!!
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