G'day mates! I'm here!!
After a grueling 15 hour flight from LAX to Sydney, I arrived in Newcastle on May 29th. I missed May 28th altogether so I hope it was a good one for those of you who got to enjoy it. I probably would've enjoyed my flight more if I had all those hunky, young Aussies on the other side of the plane sitting next to me rather than Michael Moore's doppleganger...who watched Her all the way there...on repeat. Thank God for sleep meds and travel pillows.
When I finally landed in Sydney, I was greeted at customs by an old, long-haired, tattooed rock n rolla from Newcastle. He was hilarious and definitely made the customs procedure a lot more fun.
It was a crystal clear blue sky day with temps in the 60s and 70s ( 14-20 ish Celsius...yup going to have to get used to that as well as the metric system...that was fun to remember when driving in km instead of miles). The drive from Sydney was gloriously beautiful, especially once out of the city. The only downside was seeing my first kangaroo...dead on the side of the road. I decided to pretend that I hadn't seen that and that I will see my first kangaroo once in the Outback.
Finally, we reached MY Newcastle!!!
Newcastle was...not what I expected. I am staying in Jesmond which is near the University. The first thing you will notice is the unbelievably prolific amount of American fast food joints; like Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonald's and a joint called Hungry Jack's which looks and smells exactly like a Burger King. They can't fool me! Luckily, there are also several cafes, coffee houses and food courts, but I have yet to find a really great sit down restaurant, which makes me a little wary about the situation. I do not want to spend 3 years eating mall food. At least there will always be fish and chips by the sea...
After looking at several apartments within this area near the Uni, I decided to branch out towards Newcastle town and the beach more. I surprised to find that the real estate listings had some cheap options in the area so I decided to investigate something that seemed too good to be true. Lo and behold, it wasn't! I looked at an apartment on Scott street located across from a charming sit down local cafe/restaurant that makes a superb breakfast and is rumored have some the best, most creative burgers in town.
The cafe also has a charming outdoor seating area where the sea breeze blows in just right under some palm trees and colorful twinkle lights. It reminded me of some of the quaint french cafes you might find in Provence or along the Riviera. My breakfast at this place, plus the abundance of great stores, architecture, promenades and beach accesses sold me on the apartment before I had even seen it! Then I saw it. The studio is newly renovated and comes furnished with brand new furniture as well as great lighting on the top floor and my own washer/dryer. I move in June 4th and cannot wait to decorate it and show you all how cute it is.
After some long, painful, stressful Catch 22 situations involving enrollment, apartment hunting, communication via an aussie phone, and setting up my bank account; everything is starting to come together. I was enrolled today and meet some lovely, lovely, LOVELY people at the university who helped me get settled in and showed me around the campus and where I would be working. I have the option of being in three different buildings sinceI am a special case of being an interdisciplinary project involving the tourism/business/law department, the education/arts/sociology department and the linguistics department. All of the spaces are lovely, but having the option of working from my laptop at home or from the library, I will most likely take the latter for now. This will allow me to explore a little bit more and meet more people. Happily, I am now a member of the Linguistics club, who like to meet up for drinks and chatting....which I'm sure after a while develops some VERY interesting linguistic adventures for sure.
Well mates, I'm off to Sydney tomorrow and will be sure to fill you in on all the fun, sun and adventures down there and plenty of pics to prove it. I will also post pics of the apartment once I'm moved in.
It is Fall here right now so I will try to get in as many outdoor picturesque opportunities for you before Winter sets in. And by winter I mean 50 degrees and cloudy with chances of rain. Definitely beats those polar vortexes in the city.
Lots of love and until next time!
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