Top of the Mornin' to ya!

The day started out bright and early with a trip to the University of Sydney. We really wanted to check out the University with our own eyes instead of just looking at pictures. Being unsure of which way to go, we had to ask a couple Aussies for help, and like usual, they were all pretty helpful. Their street names remind us of many things outside of Australia; Crown Street for UNCC, Riley Street for obvious reasons, and Broadway street for New York. We knew we finally made it to the university when we walked through Victoria Park and saw the long pathway leading up to the main entrance:

   


We decided to explore a little and figured the best place to start would be the Student Centre. Surprisingly, they had a big lounge with cool couches dedicated only to international students! There is also an international support desk where a lady helped us get our uni of sydney log in information. We think we are one step ahead of the other international students because this is probably something that we'll do at orientation. It was really nice to finally be on a desktop computer with secure internet that wasn't going to go in and out. Of course, since it seems like its been forever, Facebook is the first thing that we checked. We also got a head start on looking for more permanent places to stay, ones that are preferably closer to campus. And this is the first time that we spoke to Lee.
Lee is a tenant that we tried to contact first with a payphone that would not work for us, and then with an Australian girl's cell phone who was kind enough to let us borrow it. So we set up a time at 3:30 PM (12:30 A.M. East coast time) to take a look at a potential place for Lauren or Riley. We started making our way to the apartment to ensure that we could find the place in enough time. Unfortunately  when we arrived promptly at 3:30, Lee decided not to show promptly at 3:30. We waited 45 minutes until we finally asked another guy to borrow his phone to call. Once we got up with Lee again, he gave his sincerest apologies and said he would be down in five minutes... which turned into another 45 minutes. Knowing that we had to get back to the hostel before it got too late we regretfully decided we had waited long enough for Lee and walked away defeated. Yet, we were not down and out. Once we were back at the hostel, we decided to go to the kitchen and make some dinner. However, people like to apparently eat late here and at 7:00 when we arrived back the kitchen was packed! Finally, we were able to eat it on the balcony and look at what Sydney's skyline had to offer at night. Exhausted from the estimated 10 miles of walking we went to bed super early!

P.S. We have come to a conclusion that:

~ Grocery items that are cheap over in the US is definitely not cheap over here (ie a box of Mac 'n Cheese is  4.95, canned vegetables are 1.79, one cookie at Subway is a dollar!)