Rough Beginnings

So, yesterday was a MESS, but today was much much better! Yesterday can pretty much be summed up by me running around in a state of absolute confusion. First of all, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay in the apartment complex I had moved into because the rules said that I wasn’t allowed to ever have anyone over (which would have made Cody visiting much more difficult), and that I wasn’t allowed to decorate the walls with anything (impossible for me!), and the flatmates were nowhere to be found. But, if I wanted to cancel the lease, then I had to decide within 24 hours and find myself a new place to live. And, to do that, I would have to get my mobile phone working over here in order to call all of the people who had housing advertisements hanging on every telephone pole. So, with these thoughts in mind, I boldly set out on my first walk to the Macquarie University campus… in the wrong direction.

About forty minutes later, I made it to the beautiful Macquarie campus. I was lucky enough to arrive on a perfect “winter” day, with bright sunlight streaming past fluffy cumulus clouds, a light breeze, and a temperature of about 18C, reminiscent of fall, and warm enough even for me. Everything here seems saturated with a vibrant green light, even though the trees are bare, proof that the grass really is greener “on the other side.” The campus (and Sydney) also has the most amazing variety of wild birds: parrots, cockatoos, white-spotted crows, and ibises that fly around and squawk down at you from the trees, a true cacophony of sound. It feels like you’re in one of those zoo exhibits where you get to walk amongst the animals, quite neat!

By the end of the day, I had finally signed up for a mobile plan, exchanged some money (difficult process!), bought a long distance calling card, ingredients for sandwiches, toilet paper, got rained on, finally felt a little bit more acquainted with the layout of the campus, and gave up on the idea of finding a new apartment since all of the people I called were only able to speak Chinese. With all this in mind, I returned back to my apartment (which took five minutes when going the correct way) and finally met one of my flatmates wearing, to my surprise, a big white facemask.

Meet Shan, age 27, a Chinese translator, who grew up in the most progressive city in China, went to high school in New Zealand, college in Hong Kong, finished her Masters at Macquarie Uni and is currently thinking about breaking up with her boyfriend and figuring out what’s next for her in the future. Well, she doesn’t actually live here, her boyfriend does but he’s in Finland right now, so she’s staying here until he comes back. Turns out that I’m just about the only person who not only read the “Rules Handbook,” but actually thought about following them. Room decorating, here I come.

So, that was yesterday. Quite a difficult first day given the absolute lack of guidance or information, but successful overall in the end. So, I went to sleep in my little half-full room, only to awake in the middle of the night and find someone sitting up across the room and staring at me from the other bed. First thoughts: mirror illusion, criminal?

Nope. Meet Zdislava, age 22, a Masters student in International Relations from the Czech Republic who was mistakenly given the wrong housing envelope and deposited in front of Balaclava Apartments in the middle of the night, to find that, instead of a single room, there were two beds in her room and someone sleeping in one of them. It’s beginning to sound a little like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, no?

Well, clarity comes with the morning light, and day 2 immediately got off to a much better start because now I actually had people to talk to and explore with. To keep it short, today was a great day, between hanging out with Zdiska, attending my first Australian “barbie” (a BBQ), getting to know a bunch of other international students, and being the “expert” on the campus and mall (which completely overwhelmed me yesterday), I had a lot of fun. I’m beginning to feel that this will be a wonderful home for the next few months☺

Last but not least: You’ve probably never considered this but our whole system of doors and escalators is designed based on the pattern of driving on the right side of the road. When you go to the escalator, you immediately go to the escalator to the right. When you go to enter doors with both an entrance and an exit, you immediately go to the door on the right. Think about it next time. Everything is reversed here since people drive on the left side of the road, and I’ve spent the last two days walking into people on escalators and trying to enter buildings through the automatic exit. Learning curve, I’ll figure it out soon. I’ll leave you with that and go and start decorating my room.

Tomorrow: Sydney, here I come!