And so it begins

So, now that I've been here a few days I felt like an update was much needed.

Life at 103 Beach St is just marvelous. Wake up every morning to a great view of the beach. Plus, it still hasn't really rained here yet. I can stand 70F weather and no rain :)

So far I only have 1 of 2 roommates. His name's Brett, he's from North Carolina. Swell guy, I must say.

Apparently, the building I live in has 12 apartments. 9 of these 12 are filled by students. 1 is for the landlady. The other 2 has assorted other folk. It's good that there are so many students here, it's a good ice breaker generally and so far everyone has been really nice.

The room directly below mine has 3 girls from UM in it, which was awfully exciting. Although I'd never met any of them before, it's nice to have people that you can relate to about school and the areas back home. It definitely helps make the transition period less difficult.

Yesterday was a fairly relaxing day. Woke up, opened an Aussie bank account, got some lunch at a local sushi place, checked out the Scuba Dive Shop out here (it's only a 10 minute walk away, which is really nice!) and then went to the beach for about 2 hours with people from the building. I think I may be burning a little bit but I think it's my own fault for forgetting that the ocean washes off sunscreen... On the plus side, all this sun is giving me a spectacular tan :D

Class doesn't start here for another week or so which is really nice. All the abroad kids are able to go out and meet everybody else which is good. It's nice to start school already knowing people instead of trying to meet a million people in class. The only problem is that I am absolutely atrocious at remembering everyone's name... I'm sure I'll figure it out though. I was going to get name tags and each time I met somebody I was going to stick them with a name tag but I decided that I didn't want to be known as "that jerk who keeps stickering everybody."

I think I'm getting used to things out here. It's fairly laid back which is nice. I never realized how much I despised tipping waiters/waitresses back in the States (it's not common to tip here) and how much American coin money sucks. I went through it with a friend the other day... We have a penny, which says on it "One Cent" which is nice. Then, the quarter says "One Quarter" which is also nice because its like, yea, it's a quarter of a dollar. The dime however, makes absolutely no sense since it says "One Dime" and while yes, I'm aware that Dime is a term for ten, most people probably don't... Plus, what if you can't read English? Then our money makes no sense since you can't even read the English wording on the coin.

Granted, money here is equally as bizarre... They have 1 and 2 dollar coins which is confusing, mainly because I'm just not used to it from back home. Plus, the $2 coin is REALLY small, it reminds me of a thick US penny. It's impossible to find which makes paying for stuff annoying because you don't know how much you have in your pocket. The were at least kind enough to make the $1 and $2 coins gold instead of silver like the cent coins. For cents they have a 50, 20, 10 and 5 cent piece... The 50 cent piece is really weird... It's about the size of a US Half Dollar but it has 12 edges. You're just going to have to believe me when I say that it's weird.

So, enough about the money for a little bit... I think I've finally gotten used to people driving on the left side of the road. I'm looking the correct way while crossing the street, which is very helpful. I'm also used to a lot of the terminology like Chips = French Fries and Crisps = Potato Chips. They also don't have Ketchup, they have Tomato Sauce, which is kind of similar but still not the same. It's been a learning experience but at least it's still English.

Check back later today at my old posts from New Zealand, I'm adding pictures to all of them!

Enjoy guys :)