Olaaa chico's et chicaaaa's!

There are many great, life altering lessons that can be learned on an exchange. This journey has been a moment of great reflection to me and the most important insight that I will soon be writing Haiku's about is that I have ZERO discipline when it comes to writing blogs! :D

So anyhow, let me try and compress what happened since I've arrived in sydney TWO MONTHS ago into a readable story (has it really already been three months?).

Upon arriving I was picked up by my cousin Annemarie, who gave me some smashed eggs to hold in my lap for the duration of the drive to her house, which is 2 hours away from Sydney. That brings me to the observation the perception of distances is very different in Australia. Living in Macquarie Park next to my uni's campus, It takes me approximately 40 minutes by trains to get to the city centre. When I tell people here that my parents live " nearby" Amsterdam meaning it takes 20 minutes to the train, I am forced to acknowledge that the entire Randstad is actually just one city from the Australian perspective.

Anyhow, after a lovely weekend spent at Annemarie and Ben's, we drove back to the city and went searching for what was to be my home for the coming semester. Macquarie University, home of both horrible and cool architecture, but mostly horrible. The library I'm sitting in right now is pretty awesome and I have spent many a paper here, but the rest of the buildings remind of WOII bunkers with an interior a la ' That 70s Show' . They do have Macs everywhere though. Not to fret, the awesome trees and patches of grass make everything pretty and nice :) I live in an apartment complex 10 minutes walking from Uni (and yes, I still don't go sometimes cuz of oversleeping - but that doesn't matter, as lectures are optional :D ) Which has a nice party vibe going on on wednesdays - there's a disco-club kind off thing across the road. My roommates are lovely and we've become great friends! There is Grace from Essex, Britain, Julia from 'Merica and Claire whose Aussie parents live 20 minutes away from us! Bas, who is also from my University College Utrecht, lives a 10 meter walk away and I hang out with him and his roommates as well. Good stuff ^^ I recently went on a fabulous trip to the Outback with Bas, but that is way too recent to talk about in this blog.

I'm doing anthropology, neuroscience and marine geology here, as well as what I refer to as my hipster music class, where we're basically bashing justin bieber and lady gaga all the time. Some random quotes from that class "I can objectively say that there has never been and never will be music as great as rock" plus "I, as a drug-user myself, can say that LSD has very different effects on your creative output than, for example, cocaine" and, by the teacher herself: "I just think it's f***ing stupid". So, apart from that crazy s***, classes are nice and easy and some i have made some fun papers about neuroscience and magic ("What Sorcery is this?") and the impact of Rock 'n Roll. As I said before, lectures are optional (you can listen to recordings online), but tutorials are mandatory. This means that I go to half my classes mostly. No ok a little over that :p But it's fine as I only have two exams anyway. Oh Australia and your funny workload..

Back during introduction time I went on a surf camp! I was rather unsuccessful as I stood up by myself only once, but I discovered that failing at surfing is actually also good fun. Unlucky: I ripped of my toenail somehow and got hit in the head with a surfboard of someone else. Lucky: both events earned me hugs from the god-like surf-instructor. Win allround. I also went to an Aussie Rules Footbal match, where the New Zealand team did that Haka thing! :D

I've done lots of other lovely touristy stuff around Sydney, going to the Opera House and all that, and tomorrow I will be chillin' at Bondi Beach! Huzzah for spring weather :D

I've done some lovely touristy stuff around Sydney, going to the Opera House and all that, and tomorrow I will be chillin' at Bondi Beach! Huzzah for spring weather :)

The birds here are crazy. Them cacatoes sound like they are dying, no lovely songbirds on this part of the globe! When I told Claire that we have very different birds, she enquired as to which ones, I told her, and she responded with "Omg fairytale birds!" :D Oh cultural background differences.... Other than Claire, I don't have that much close contact with Aussies, unless you count groupmembers and lecturers, because I hang out with internationals mostly.

When thinking back to the last two months, the abovementioned things are what comes to mind immediately, so the rest of it must have been less important ^^ School is school pretty much everywhere, I actually find it rather surprising that this uni is not that much different in system than back home. Bytheby, there's a lot of international students here in general. If you would see me sitting in the library right now, you'd think I was in Asia.

I reckon that's it for now, soon more about my spring break, which is now sadly over.. Exam period starts in like 4 to 5 weeks and I can't believe I'm already over half my time here. It flies when you're having fun and all :)

Oew and I'm currently looking into going to New Zealand in December. Preperations session with Lord of the Rings marathon? I think yes.


Latah!