Orientation and Sightseeing

I've been pretty busy the last few days. We've been having orientation week which involves going to lots of meetings and basically hearing the same stuff over and over again but also getting free food which is nice and meeting people. I've joined a club called QUEST which is for international students and they organise trips for you, so that will hopefully be alot of fun!

We went out on Tuesday night to a bar called Down under. It was a very good night! I kept on bumping into people who I'd met earlier in the day at orientation as well which was cool as I wasn't expecting to know anyone in Australia. Drinks are quite expensive here, beer seems to be the cheapest when you're out or "goon" which is boxes of wine for pre-drinks. So it seems I'm gonna be drinking alot of those while I'm here as I definately cannot afford spirits. It's going to be very different from back home! Luckily I don't seem to get a hangover from these drinks at all though, so I'm hoping that will carry on! Bad times though I have 8am lectures every day except fridays when I have the day off. No going out in the week for me I guess. I'm very pleased about having fridays off though as hopefully I might be able to go away for the weekend sometimes :D

Yesterday me and Ryan did some sightseeing. We went to the botanical gardens at mt coot-tha. They were very pretty and so different from anything at home. Absolutley huge as well, we were there for hours!

The lagoon.













Me in a big plant













Me trying to take a photo of us at the lookout.





You could see the whole city from the lookout. I hadn't even realised we were so high until we got there. Until that point you're pretty much surrounded by trees so can't see out.














Totem poles by the lake. I'm not really sure what the story behind these is but in my head they were carved by the aboriginal people.

After we'd looked all round the gardens we thought we'd head for the summit of mount coo-tha and there was an arrow on our map of the gardens that pointed towards it so we decided to walk that way. It was AWFUL! We walked for so long up the steepest hills along the grassy verges in the middle and at the side of what was quite a busy road. It felt like at least an hour or maybe 2!
It was probably actually only like 40mins but it was horrible! Saw this on the way which was something of an ominous sign.....
We stopped for a little rest in a field and then Ryan got stung by a horrible insect/plant. It was a long, long walk with no bus stops and I definately do not reccomend it! But at least I have some slight sense of achievement from doing it. The view was worth it though, amazing. And then we got nachos.

Me being exhausted.
The CBD from mt coot-tha.
Viewing.

We saw kookaburras for the first time while we were there! They seem naughty though one of them swooped down and stole chips from a lady's plate whilst she was eating them! Also, the other day I saw a pelican! I had no idea they even had them here. It was amazing!

There are so many huge birds here, they are so different from home! I've seen so many odd looking things. Havn't seen a parrot yet though. Anyway I think I might head down to South Bank today, we went there the other day and it is lovely.

Lots of love
Claire xxxxxxxxxxx