Ta

"Ta": slang for "thank you" in Aussie.

(I hold open the hotel door for a young girl.)
"Ta!" She cheerfully replies, walking off and leaving me in bewilderment.

I realize that I haven't made any posts in a very long while, but I blame it on my Orientation schedule. EAP moved me to the Vibe Rushcutters hotel, which is situated in this really dodgy place in King's Cross. Seedy bars line the streets, along with random stripperAccording to the conceirge, "at night, 'things' come out." It was incredibly reassuring. Anyway, ever since orientation started, I barely have the time to seek out a decently-priced internet cafe to blog. Even now, I'm on a time crunch. I have about 20 min left on the computer before I have to go grab dinner with a friend, run to the hotel, change, and then go out bar-hopping with a couple of the EAPers. It sounds glamorous and all, but in actuality it's very tiring, especially since I have to still pack and be ready to catch a taxi to the airport at 9 a.m.

Okay, so I better start writing what I've been doing for the past few days. Um... I went to Bondi Beach for the last day before Orientation started. It was slightly overcast when my roomie, another EAPer and I arrived, so the scenery wasn't too impressive. I would say the highlight was when the three of us walked up to this little park on top of the hill and came across a bunch of Australian magpies. Those birds are the freakiest little avians ever! When they warble, they sound like velociraptors, no joke. I discovered this weird little sound when I was hand-feeding them bits of granola bar. Needless to say, it was just a little bit creepy.

First day of orientation was spent scrambling around to get my luggage checked in, figuring out hotel room arrangements, saying hi to as many EAPers as possible, and then dragging my luggage into my room. We then went to the Darling Harbor Wildlife World, where I got to see koalas, wallabies and butterflies up close.

Second day of orientation was spent in a meeting, where the EAPers were pumped with information about culture, academics and random mishmash. We then were taken to Darling Harbor and had a cruise of the surrounding area. It was pretty cool, even though everyone else hated it. Afterwards, a bunch of EAPers and I just walked around the area, scrounging for food and drinking wine (well, they drank. I watched.) Afterwards, through an entirely chance occurrence, I bumped into another new EAP friend as I was getting ready to turn in for the night. She convinced me to go clubbing with her and her friends, so I consented (and dragged along two friends of my own). That night was eventful beyond words and deserves its own entry.

Third day of orientation. Last meeting with information about Australia and its different Unis. I then spent the rest of the day at Bondi Beach (again) except this time it had much better weather with a more girly company. It's amazing how different a place can be with the right climate and the right people. Most of the time was spent suntanning, taking photos and oogling at the very attractive Australian men.

Which now brings me to tonight. I just realized that the events of the past three days are missing some sections and not entirely chronologically correct, so I'll have to go back and change that later. Until then, please tolerate the horrible spelling and grammer mistakes. Ta!