Hurry Up Summer!

I thought it would be a lot easier to keep this updated. I'd like to do it every week, but whenever the time comes, I feel like I don't have anything to say.

The weather has been pretty constant the past couple of weeks. I check the weather every morning before I go to class and everyday, never fail, it's always 57 degrees Fahrenheit. It doesn't feel quite that cold usually though, especially in the sun! Temperatures usually get up to the mid-60's, and it's not too bad. It seems like every day it gets above 65, then it's super windy so you can't even tell that it's warmer! The news always gives the temperature in Celsius. A quick way to approximate the conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit is to double the temperature in Celsius and add 30. So if the temperature is 18 degrees Celsius, which it frequently is, that's approximately 66 degrees Fahrenheit. So there you go! There's your "science" lesson for the day.

If you're wondering what the time difference is, I'm 14 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, 15 ahead of Central Time. Another quick conversion (I'm all about the quick conversions today I guess) if you're in EST is to take whatever time it is, add 2 hours, and flip the a.m./p.m. (Central - add 3) Pretty crazy to think of how different that actually is! When you're getting ready for bed at 10 p.m. Thursday, I'll be eating lunch at 12 noon Friday! Makes it a bit challenging when trying to Skype with friends and family. It usually ends up being either really late here and early at home or vice versa. We still manage to make it work though! I believe I changed the timestamp on my blog so that it show when I post it in my local time, not what time it is at home.

This past weekend I went on a wine tour to Hunter Valley, about 2 hours outside of Sydney. (Pictures below) The legal drinking age in Australia is 18, so nothing illegal was going on =) We were picked up in a nice, about 21 passenger bus at 7 a.m. Made some stops to pick others up, and made it to the Valley around 10:45. Throughout the day we went to 4 wineries and 1 brewery and had tastings at all! It was really interesting to try all the different types of wine. I'm not an extremely experienced wine drinker, so some of the flavors really surprised me! I thought I would like the sweeter wines, but for the most part they were too much for me. We had a couple that tasted like straight maple syrup. Yuck! Not exactly what I'm looking for in a wine. I ended up buying a bottle at the last winery and got one free with my purchase! What a deal!

The rest of the weekend I was pretty useless. I was exhausted from a long day, and I had a lot of work to do!  Thankfully I've gotten everything done I've needed to do so far. Lots of reading to keep up on though! I usually spend at least 2 hours reading (or trying to read) every day. You know, sometimes it's just really hard to stay awake!

I went to my first footy game on Monday! (Picture below) We saw the Sydney Roosters play against the Gold Coast Titans. Feel free to look them up to figure out what league they're in, because I'm not sure. It's kind of a long story, but I'll tell it anyway. I'm in a class called Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and for this class we are building our own businesses in groups. My group is manufacturing a product called "ComfyBag." It is a backpack that folds out into a seat cushion to fit over those uncomfortable stadium seats. (If you weren't sure, I'm practicing my pitch on you!) It has plenty of room for snacks and drinks and can be designed in support of your favorite team! I know in the States there are plenty of seat cushions you can buy, but in Australia there isn't any sort product like this in existence, that we've found. So, we needed to do some market research to see how the public would respond to the ComfyBag. The whole team went to the game after class Monday, and (I think) had a great time! There are 3 of us that are not from Australia (one from Denmark, one from South Korea, and me) and 3 from Australia. Quite a diverse group! The three of us from overseas had never attended a rugby game though, so it was very interesting to see. One of our group members, Dave, was a professional Cricket player for 8 years, so he was quite familiar with sport of all kind and was helpful in explaining the rules.

Round 2 of postcards went out the other day. Check your mailboxes sometime next week! I was pleasantly surprised with a letter from my Uncle Bob on Monday. As I told him in an e-mail, it's nice to receive some "snail mail" every now and then! Hopefully I will be sending even more letters out over the next week or two.

That's about all I have for the time being! Hope everyone who's reading is doing well.

A quick view from inside our bus.

Inside the first winery, my favorite, Savannah Estates.

Actual vineyard!

My group of girls minus a few!

This is the only picture that turned out halfway decent from the footy game.











Love, Em.

Everything Australian

Sorry for the delay in posting! It's been a busy week - I had my first assignment due Thursday. 500 word essay and using the library catalogue to find 5 sources relating to the topic at hand. Not too much, right? Right! But that's 15% of my grade right there! YIKES! Hopefully I was on the right track with my essay. I can't really afford to be wrong here.

Besides writing about my daily activities, I thought I might enlighten you to some (not so huge) differences between Australia and the U.S. First rule of thumb: it's not wrong, it's just different.

We'll start with driving.

As you can see, they drive on the different side of the road. I'm really glad I'm not driving here. As easy as it might seem to just switch sides of the road, it still freaks me out when I'm on the bus and we're making right turns into traffic.

It's not just the sides of the road which are different, speed limits are much lower here. It's not uncommon to see 40 km/h which is just about 25 mph. When I've been on the highway, the max speed limit I've seen so far is 80 km/h, a conservative 50 mph.

Australians also seem to be quite tolerant of pedestrians. Everyone will wait for you to cross the road and not seem pushy. It's kind of a nice change not to feel like you're going to get run over when you cross the street.

Despite all that, Australians are big fans of using their horns. Frequently.


Next up, money money money!!

I put two pictures up just to show how cool the money is. Probably not the best time to be posting pictures of money, seeing as how this is the only bill I have. Bills come in $100, $50, $20, $10, and $5. Coins are $2, $1, $0.50, $0.20, $0.10, and $0.05. Any price not ending in $x.x0 or $x.x5 is rounded.

When you take $100 out of the bank, it's given in 2 $50 bills, not $20's.

With this system, you really realize how important keeping the change is! Those $2 coins are quite handy.

By the way, the man on the $50 bill is David Unaipon, a notable Aboriginal writer and inventor.

Now for how cool the money is! The notes are made of a plastic polymer, so they are very durable. They don't tear easily, and you can take them swimming!! (Way to be practical, Australia!) They have quite a few security features, the most notable being the plastic window seen on the right hand side.

Also, the higher the value of the bill, the bigger it is in size.

Next, electrical outlets!
I don't have as much to say about them. They run at 240 volts, compared to our 120. There is an on/off switch at the outlet itself (see pictures below), so even if something is plugged in it doesn't necessarily have power running to it.

Off.

On.















For any of my American appliances to work (mainly my laptop), I have to have my handy dandy converter.

I plug my laptop into the front and the back plugs into  the wall. Super exciting, I know.











Last but not least for the pictures are the light switches.

When then button is up, the light is off.

When button is down, light is on. Kind of opposite from home!

















Now for your Australian language lesson. Just a few random words and phrases that I've noticed since being here.

straight away = right away (Not that big of a difference, and maybe some American say this too, but Australians say it all. the. time.)
How ya goin'? = How are you?
capsicum = peppers (like green and red bell peppers)
Maccas = McDonald's
tyres = tires (said the same, just spelled differently)
petrol = gasoline
Uni = college
school = high school (So I can't tell people I'm here for school or else they think I'm in high school. I have to tell them I'm here for Uni!)
brekkie = breakfast
heaps = lots
chemist = pharmacy

So there you have it! Should you ever visit Australia, these are things you are quite likely to encounter. Hope this was at least semi-interesting! and hopefully next time I update, it won't be so far from now.

Love, Em.

Almost a month under my belt!

It' hard to believe, but I've been Australia for almost a month! I also can't believe that it's already August! I'm really pleased with how everything has been so far. I feel very welcome and comfortable here. I haven't met too many Australians yet, just talked to a few in class. Hopefully the more I'm in my tutorials (see last blog if you're not sure what this is), the more I'll be able to get to know them!

I'm not too sure what to write about since I'm settling into a routine. I have class Monday through Friday, but usually only one or two classes a day. I've visited the gym a couple times and it's pretty nice! The equipment is pretty limited, but for the most part it's all functioning, so that's all I need. This past weekend we visited the pool, hot tub, and sauna. I didn't even know we had a sauna! Definitely enjoyed putting those amenities to use. I stepped outside for a bit to see if it would be warm enough to lay out, but it was just a little too chilly to stay outside. I also went to the beach Sunday in hopes of working on my tan, but again too cold! I was able to wear shorts, but I had to keep my sweatshirt on and still I was covered in goosebumps.

Saturday a group from our apartment walked down Oxford Street to Paddington to visit the market. They have one set up every weekend featuring mainly boutique clothing and jewelry, but there were also a few food stands, as well as some specialty/trinket items. It was really nice just to walk around and check everything out! I ended up buying a bracelet and 2 pairs of earring at a bargain of $20 all together! Since everything was so specialized, much of it was pretty pricey. Also on Saturday, I was surprised by flowers arriving at my door! My boyfriend, Luke, sent me a massive, beeeaaaauuuutiful vase of flowers - light pink and orange roses, gerbera daisies, and lilies (my favorite)!! The lilies just opened up today and they are HUUGE! What a nice surprise that was =)

So! Not much else to say. If you have anything you want me to answer, just let me know! Also, if any of you have Skype and want to talk, just search for me. I'm pretty sure I'm the only Emily Nicholson in Indianapolis. Hope you all are well! (Oh, and postcards are being sent soon!)

Love, Em.