Where are you from?

Dinner at Red Rock

Day #2 in Adelaide. Last night was a success.. some of us went out for dinner at a Thai noodle bar called Red Rock and afterwards grabbed drinks at The Elephant. Woke up around 7:30am this morning, showered and ate breakfast before meeting up with Oliver about 10am. We walked to Uni, stopping for coffee along the way again, and getting to campus about a half hour later. Oliver went off to get a tour of the library while I went to the cafeteria for some breakfast and to begin enrolling for my classes. I was only able to enroll in 2 of the 4 I wanted to take because the other 2 were already full, but they informed me yesterday that they reserved some spots specifically for international students. I then went to find some help on how I could get those spots, and it became quite a scavenger hunt around campus to try and find this office. When I finally found it, they wound up just giving me this woman’s email who supposedly could get that taken care of for me. I hope I get into the courses I want!

After working through that mess, I met up with Ben and the 2 of us went for a walk along the River Torrens. It was gorgeous! We then grabbed lunch and coffee at T-Bar where I had a fla-t to eat. It was basically like a Panini with chicken and avocado and cheese. It was delicious! The iced coffee was even better, and wasn’t really iced coffee at all! It was milky and sweet with a little bit of espresso and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. One of the best things I’ve ever had to drink! Something I’ve found Adelaide does NOT lack is delicious food! Soon after we headed back to Uni to meet up with Oliver, who was working in the library on finishing up his enrolling. Afterwards, Oliver and I headed back to The Village to take a nap and then went out around 8pm for drinks with a group of the international students. A few students from Uni had organized a welcome event thing at one of the bars in the city for the new international students, so we all headed over there about 10pm. It was packed! I met tons of new people from all over the world who had all come to study at the University of Adelaide or the University of South Australia. It was a really fun night of meeting and talking to all kinds of different people.

At The Elephant

At the Welcome Party

Today, Wednesday, I don’t have many plans. I believe there’s another welcome party tonight at a different bar so I hope to go to that. Otherwise, exploring the city and taking pictures! Often I find I forget I’m so far from home.. mainly because things aren’t really that different here. The Australian culture does not differ much from US culture and I find myself feeling at home here. Every so often I remind myself, “Nicky, you’re in Australia” and still it sounds so crazy to me! The time difference from here and back home is huge.. yesterday around noon I was able to skype with my sister, Al, and it was like 11pm there! When I wake up in the morning, everyone back home is eating dinner.. yesterday! And when I’m going to sleep at night, everyone back home is just getting up. It gets really confusing sometimes when I’m attempting to contact anyone from back home. Anyhow, I’m just so happy to be here.. so far from home. I miss it, but know my time here is limited and Adelaide has much to offer me through the next few months. It makes it much easier to not miss home when I think about it like that.

My 22^nd birthday is in 4 days. I wonder what I’ll do for it?

View of the city over the River Torrens