7/21

So I have been here for over a week now and I have had an amazing time. It was hard leaving familiar friends and moving in to a place not knowing anyone but things have gone better than I have expected here at Campus East. Everyone is SO nice. If you pass anyone anywhere they automatically give you a smile and a “G’day”. The only challenge is coming in to a place half way through the year because a lot of the people already know each other and have their “groups”. But there are surprisingly a lot of new people and even the people who have been there for a semester have been really welcoming. I have made two really good girl friends from Indiana and we have been doing a lot of things together. I have met hundreds of people but I am working on establishing a close group. I can just remember all these feelings moving in as a freshman in Wilmington. Everything is so exciting and new but I learn to see that as the adventure part of it. My roommates are still not here yet. They have both been here for a half a year now and everyone I have talked to here says such good things about them. I have two roommates and they will both move in this weekend. Maggie is American and is doing all 3 years of study here in Australia. The other is Amy and she is Australian. I’ve heard such good things about both and can’t wait for them to move in!  In Sydney we went out both nights which was a blast. The nightlife is amazing there! I also got to meet up with my roommate from Wilmington (Jackie, she is studying at Sydney Uni). It was so good to see her and to travel around the city. I saw the opera house, Sydney Harbor Bridge and we took a day beach trip to Coogee beach. It was all so beautiful but it made me miss the mountains and coast at Wollongong (I definitely feel more at home in Wollongong). After getting settled at Campus East back in Wollongong we have had a lot of activities planned for orientation week. Themed parties and pub crawls every night as well and some sports activities that have unfortunately gotten cancelled because of rain (yep…COLD wet rain the past 3 days…why did I leave summer??). Oh yeah, we had orientation for the actual school part of this trip as well. It was good (okay enough about school).  I am supposed to hike Mt. Keira tomorrow if the weather holds up so hope for me it does. I love everything so far and the people here are amazing. I hope everyone is doing well and has gotten a chance to see my Australia picture album on facebook.

I’ll post again soon!