First Day of Classes

Today was my first day of classes. I had Animal Structure and Function and Analytical Chemistry. Neither professor got very far beyond introductory stuff today, but I think I'll enjoy both of them once things pick up a bit. Tomorrow I get to go to Anthropology. This will be a short post because it's dinner time.

Orientation

Orientation lasted all day today. Half the time was spent listening to travel company representatives who wanted to sell all sorts of expensive trips to the international students. I did get to register for classes though, and they turned out just how I was hoping they would. I never have a class before 10 am, and no classes on Friday. Everything starts on Monday.

Koala Park

I went to the Koala Park today and was able to hold one of them while it ate gum leaves. They're really laid back and funny critters. Besides koalas, the park had lots of kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, emus, sheep, cockatoos, parrots, penguins, and dingoes. All of those are native to the Sydney area. It was a great day, and I took well over a hundred pictures. Lots of them are posted on my photo site. These are probably some of the best pictures I'll get on this trip, so be sure to have a look.

Sydney Aquarium

Yesterday afternoon I took a train to Sydney Town Hall and walked over the the Aquarium. They had a bunch of really neat things to see, most of which were completely new to me. I took lots of pictures and posted them on my pictures site, so click the link and take a look. The glass on the tanks was scratched up in some places though, so just ignore the annoying glares in the photos. Of everything in the aquarium, the seals loved attention the most. They swam all over the place and did all sorts of neat tricks whenever someone was watching. My favorite exhibit was the platypus habitat. They're a lot smaller than I thought they'd be, and they have a funny way of swimming around.
When you're looking at the pictures from the aquarium, make sure to take a look at the ones of the Queen Victoria Building too. That's an old and famous four-story shopping mall right in the middle of Sydney. I think it was built back in the 1800's. Now it has some of the nicest and most expensive shoppes in the city. I've also included one picture of town hall. It's the one with the big tower with clocks on it.

Moving In

I moved into my apartment yesterday evening. My room is small, but there's a big living/dining room and kitchen. Plenty of space for four people. I'm right across the road from campus, and there's a huge 4-story mall only about a third of a mile down the street. Bus stops right out front allow me to get pretty much anywhere in the north part of the city within half an hour. I've posted a few pictures of the apartment on my album website (follow the link at the top left of the page).

Stuff Here's Expensive

Myra and I spent the weekend with Julie at her boyfriend's house on the north beaches. They took us for a full day tour all around the area. The waves at the beaches here are a lot bigger than they are at home, and the water is so blue it looks like that fake blue dye that some people put in their ponds at home. The camera's batteries weren't charged yet when we saw all that stuff, but we'll be back to all of those places at some point and I'll get plenty of pictures.
Stuff here is at least twice at expensive as it is back home. The price is in Australian dollars, but the American dollar is so weak that we got a really bad exchange rate. I gave the bank $500 US and only got back $550 Aus. A few years ago when you came to Australia you almost doubled your money when you exchanged. I bought a medium sized bottle of contact solution today for $20. I'm always handing over a couple of 50's at the store and only getting back a few coins.

Camera's Here!

My digital camera came in the mail yesterday, and I've been playing around with it to learn how it works. It looks like I'll be able to get some really good pictures in Australia. I look forward to posting them. Here's one of the close-up pictures I took today.

Packing for Australia

I've spent today packing for Australia. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be because I used those plastic bags that you put all of your clothes in and then vacuum the air out. Those things work great! If only they worked on SCUBA gear...

I'm also waiting for my new digital camera to come in the mail. Then I can start to add some pictures to the blog.

First Post

This is my first posting to this blog. Looks like it's working just fine.