School? What's that?

The dreaded day arrived this week when we had to start classes. I am sooo not in school mode. All I want to do is spend every day out and exploring the new city I live in. Even though being in class is the last place I want to be, my schedule isn't bad, I don't have too much class and a lot of the time we have field trips and my classes are really interesting. I am taking Australian Culture and Society and The Australian Political System. We have already learned a lot about the origins of Australia and the Aboriginal people. In my Political class we have a lot of really interesting conversations with our professor who doesn't have experience living in America and has a completely different view on politics from us. Its really refreshing and I think its really important to listen to other people's opinions even if they differ from your own. We also went on a field trip this week to the Hyde Park Barracks and the Customs House. We learned about where the convicts stayed when they were sent over from Europe and what a day in their life might have looked like. (Check out me and my roommate Mary Grace on the first day of class.)

In other news, my team won the scavenger hunt (see last post)! We are super excited and as a prize we each got Tim Tams and we are all going out for dinner (on BU) on October 25th. I'm not sure where we are going yet but we are all ready to get a free meal together. (to the left is my team from the scavenger hunt minus Alex who took the picture. We were pretty tired!)

This week has been another week of getting used to things that are different, but I really like it here. Its just little things like having to walk on the left side of the sidewalk or the birds here being a lot louder and making some pretty strange noises. I think we are all adapting well though. Last night a lot of us went out to a place called Ivy and it was a lot of fun. We all got to hang out and dance and just have a good time together. Honestly, being able to drink legally is so different. Drinking is a huge part of the culture here. After our class on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings, our professor always invites us to go to a pub with him for drinks to relax after lecture. Also, we have been told that people go out for drinks with their co-workers all the time here and I'm really excited to get to experience the work culture in Australia for myself later this semester. Speaking of, I have an interview next week for my internship so I'm hoping that goes well!

This weekend I have plans to go to a rugby game on Saturday and I am hiking the Blue Mountains on Sunday so I will probably make a post just for the events of the weekend, stay tuned!