G'day!

So we're on a slightly different time schedule--I'm 18 hours in the future! I have a phone here but it's only for local calls/texts and I have like 4 numbers (my roommates lol) and I only have 500 texts...i'd go through that in like a week at home lol. (The girl who I bought my phone off was a study abroad student from last semester and when she chose the number it's 0027 GO OBAMA :):) thought you'd appreciate that!) We have a lot of orientation activities coming up so that's good, and I've been hanging out with Martin (he's my flatmate from Denmark) and Katie (who is the girl he met on the plane and they've both been here almost a week now) so it's good to have people to explore with. Yesterday we went to these botanical gardens Katie discovered on a run she went on and there was an aviary too, so we saw all kinds of parrots and stuff, and it's not a very far walk at all (I'll show you pictures of this crazy ass bird there is when I go back--I didn't have me camera that day) then we walked through some neighborhoods to what's claimed to be the steepest road in the world--it was raining and it's fuckin shit cold here. Like shit cold. I sleep with a sleeping bag, a sheet, and 3 blankets, as well as wear sweats and pajama pants, 2 pairs of socks and usually a few layers on top--no central heating or insulation. Then I went on a campus tour and came home and me and Martin made soup and we played cards and watched Dogville--have you ever seen it? Crazy movie. Today we had an info session and then we walked to the store and have just been hanging out. It's a very neat town though, all of the buildings and streets have a lot of character and the hills are rolling and everything's really green. I've never been compelled to shop much but downtown in really cool and so many people walk around despite the cold that I like just walking to see stuff and talk with people. I have yet to go down to the harbor though--this weekend we'll take a boat ride to tour it though, so I'm really excited about that--we should get to see a lot of wildlife (dolphins, albatross, penguins...we'll see!) The people are very friendly here--they are eager to help if you look lost, which is really nice, lol it's hard to understand them sometimes though with their accent. Some phrases: They'll say something is "sweet as"...but then that's the end of the sentence, like there's no completion of the simile, it's just something is "sweet as." and it means it's cool or good. "Cheers" is thank you, and instead of saying "I'm joking you," or "I"m kidding you," they say "taking the piss". I also just wrote to my parents to see if I can go bungee jumping...among other things, like wine tasting..but it's expensive, so we'll see!!