Food!

Living on college means eating on college. A meal plan is a part of the deal of living on campus. The food is not the best on TEDs, but its food. There are specific times for breakfast and dinner. During the week, we only get brekky (breakfast) and dinner. On the weekends, we get brekky, lunch, and dinner. Brekky usually consists of yogurt, cereal, and toast. Toast is so huge here! Everyone eats toast all the time!! Lunch on the weekends is usually deli sandwiches with some of the things from brekky like yogurt and toast. Dinner is always a surprise. Sometimes, we will get something good like chicken burgers, but other nights we get something like slop essentially. It is either some type of red meat or chicken. There is a vegetarian option if you're lucky, you can get that which is typically better than the meats. Especially for me since I'm so picky with meats. There is always veggies and some type of potato. There is also a salad bar, white rice, and soup. Everything is served with a tray unless you want take away then you get cute little plastic containers.

Other places to eat on campus for lunch and such consist of coffee shops, Subway, and other places that serve burgers, crepes, sushi, noodles, and meat pies. Those places are all very good. Off campus, of course, has some pretty decent places. There is a main street (Darby Street) that is full of little restaurants and cafes. This street has Kim and my favorite Mexican food place Macho Nacho along with the girls' favorite place, Zinc, oh and 3 Monkeys. 3 Monkeys has the best milkshakes or smoothies ever!!! The only problem with eating anywhere but TED's dining hall is it is extremely expensive. A decent meal for lunch or dinner is around $20 just for the plate. If you want a drink or desert, you'll have to pay another $4-10 depending on what you got.

Carly in line for some dinner!

Dining hall

Lunch at Zinc

Meat Pie

Kim and I on Darby with our 3 Monkey's milkshakes.

Until next time...Kylie <3

Australian Style

So I've decided to blog this week about Australian clothing style. They definitely have a style that is similar to the US, but also very different. I say similar because they have obviously the casual look of jeans and a shirt, beach clothes, and whatnot. The thing I thought was interesting was that the girls dress up nicely for class and when I say nicely I mean way more than jeans and shirt like I usually go to class in. High waisted skirts, shorts and pants are very popular with the ladies. The evening attire is mostly dresses and skirts. Nothing like the jeans and boots the Flagstaffians go out in. The dresses are mostly tight on top and very flowy on the bottom. The tops that are popular are usually see through or lacey. The girls wear singlets underneath. a Singlet is a tank top. They are all very cute and I love the style. If I had enough money I would definitely come back to the US with all Australian clothes!

The boys dress differently too. There is a lot of button up shirts, sweaters, and rugby jerseys. They are big fans of skinny jeans. I have not seen one male that has had their pants at their ankles like certain individuals in the US....thank goodness! haha Of course, you have your surfer guy with the shaggy hair and beachy clothes...which I love! Oh and they wear short shorts for a guy like mid thigh! They dress nicer too. I'm going to have some high expectations of style for the men when I go back home that's for sure! haha

My dress for Hall Ball.

One of the popular lacey see through shirts

High wasted skirts

Boot like heels that every girl owns!

Kevin and Angus demonstrating typical guy attire.

Australian style is very hard to describe. Just like home, there are different groups of people with different styles. It is the same here. There are tons of different groups and each has its own style. I have taken some photos of the clothing that my friends wear, but that is just a sample.

Catch up on events!

Living on campus or as the Aussies say it, living on college, it is like Harry Potter. We have formal dinners with each student wearing a robe, each dorm or house has a crest and colors, we compete against each other in sports, and there are house rivalries. Living on college allows us to go to events such as the sporting events, formal dinners, and the upcoming event called HallBall. This is the prom of uni for kids that live on college. Everyone dresses up to the nines and you can take a date if you want. Apparently there is a bus that all of the students take to the ball at a nice venue. There is a dinner and dancing. The ball will be happening in two weeks.

At the beginning of the semester, there was something called proposal week. During this week, residents of TEDs could "propose" to someone that also lives on TEDs. They could be anyone you want, a crush, a friend, an enemy. Well, they have a week to come up with some thing clever, entertaining, and funny way to ask this special someone to marry you. After this week, the ResLife committee vote on the best proposal. The winners have a bachelor and bachelorette party aka hens and bucks night. They then have a wedding and are "married". This past weekend was the hen's party and the wedding. All of the girls went on a pub crawl for the hen's night and the boys did the same for the buck's night. Saturday night was the wedding. All of TEDs dresses up and attends the wedding. The tradition is that the same wedding dress is wore every year and the groom has to get a funny hair cut. We celebrated at the reception at the popular bar, Customs. It is a very fun idea that some of us Greek kids here want to take it back to our unis as fundraiser or Greek week event.

The wedding!

On our way to the reception.

Grace teaching me how to score in AFL

This coming weekend I will be heading to Melbourne to see 2 AFL, Australian Football League, games. It is it's own sport and has nothing to do with rugby according to my friend Steven! I will be meeting up with my friend Jason who lives in Adelaide. I met him this summer through a coworker. She studied abroad here in Adelaide and started dating Jason. he visited her this summer and we all met and talked Aussie things! Any who, we will be touring around, and seeing some of the best games of the season according to Jason. Grace attempted at teaching me about the game at dinner tonight with pepper packets and plastic knives. It was very entertaining.

Pool time!



Hey!

So today I went to the pool with some of my Aussie friends, Kevin and Angus. The facility that houses the pool is called The Forum! It is a really nice place to go and work out! Today, though, we only swam! It was absolutely amazing being able to get back in the water! Both Kevin and Angus used to be on the swim team just like me! As you can see in the photo, I am wearing my RECognize intramural shirt from my university back home. I work at the gym on campus there. The head of the intramural department gave me this shirt to bring and wear in Australia. The goal is to wear it and take pictures in front of some cool places in Australia to bring back! Here's photo number one!

This photo above is Kim and I being silly, but also of us in our brand new Edwards Hall rugby jerseys. We thought it would be a souvenir to bring back with us! Plus they are super comfy! :D

Until next time! 

Girl's Night Out!

Hi!
This weekend Kim, Amy, Grace and I went to Sydney for the night. We decided to make it a fun girls night out along with some touristy stuff. Oh and by the way if you haven't caught on yet Kim is my best friend I'm here with, Amy is our good friends from London, and Grace is an Aussie who lives down the hall from Kim and I. We took the train into the city and stayed at a hostel called "The Funk House". haha It was really funky to say the least, but a cool place to stay since it was right in the middle of a place called Kings Cross which is where we went out. Apparently it has some historic background, but I have yet to figure that out yet. Since it was a bit rainy, we got lunch then headed to the Sydney Aquarium that was in Darling Harbor so we could get out of the rain. We saw tons of cool under water animals like jellyfish, sharks, sea turtles, eels, and crabs. Oh and the cast of Finding Nemo made an appearance also. :D I even got to touch a sea star and a sea cucumber! We had a nice pizza dinner with wine (well I got beer...not a big wine fan). It was then off to Kings Cross for a fun night out. We hit the popular bar "World Bar" where they serve their drinks in tea pots! We for sure got our dance on! It was a blast. The next day, it was off to the Sydney Harbor to see the bridge and Opera house. It was a beautiful day for sight seeing! We got some great photos! Kim and I posed with our hometown newspaper with hopes that they will post our photo in an upcoming paper! After a delicious lunch on the harbor with a perfect view of the water and the bridge, we headed back to college to rest up and catch up on some homework. It was such a good weekend get away!

Silly at the aquarium!

In the shark tunnel!

Girl's night!



Amy, Grace, me, Kimmy at World Bar

Kim and I with the News Herald

Bridge and Opera House!

Australian flag on top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge!

The hostel we stayed at!

Autoday and Slang!

Howdy Y'all!!
This past weekend the school celebrated their separation from the University of New South Wales! This celebration is called Autonomy Day aka Auto day! The students that live on campus get up before the sun gets up and starts celebrating. It was absolutely insane!! They had a bunch of different booths and games and such all over campus! Everyone makes shirts! It was a blast!

Now for some Aussie slang that is oh so ever popular here..also kind of confusing at first and it definitely takes awhile to get used to!

Car park- Parking lot

Arvo- Afternoon

Park- Parking spot

Brekky-Breakfast

Jumper- Sweatshirt

Heaps- A lot/many

How you goin?- How are you?

College- Dorms

Queue- Line

Spew- Throw up

Busting- Really have to use the restroom

Toasty- Toasted sandwich

Maccas- McDonald's

Take away- To go

Booking- Reservation

Sunnies-Sunglasses

Boot- Trunk of a car

Singlet- Tank top

Lollies- Candy

Doona- Comforter

Keen- Up to do something

Runners/Joggers- Running shoes

Cuppa- Cup of tea or coffee
Snag/ Banga- Sausage
Mash- Mashed potatoes
Fringe- Bangs
Thongs- Flip Flops
Plat- Braid
Hit the bricks- To leave
Texta- Marker
Drongo- Idiot
Rank- Ugly
Dodgy- Sketchy/ Shady



 Well that's it for now. If I think of more, they will be on here! This weekend, we are having a girl's night in Sydney! We will be touring around some and then going out for a friend's 21st birthday!! Hope to hear some comments from y'all soon! Bye! :D

On our day off...

Kim and I got done with classes early the other day and decided to spend the rest of our afternoon in the city of Newcastle rather then be stuck in our dorms for the afternoon. We are definitely getting used to the whole train system...we accidentally missed the first one by like 5 seconds...we even ran to it! It was a funny sight! Though, the next train came 20 minutes later so the wait wasn't too bad! It was a very relaxing day. We walked over to Noddys Beach, sat in the sand (It was sooo soft!), put our feet into the water which wasn't too cold, and went to an amazing Mexican food place!! I finally found one good enough! Yay!! Though I will probably only treat myself once in a while. That was pretty much all we did.

This was the photo from last week!

Customs- a popular bar!

Nobbys Beach!

My car but Australian version!

View from train station!

Me being silly! :D

Tomorrow is a University wide celebration called Festival of Autonomy! It is the celebration of the University of Newcastle separating from the University of New South Wales. It is a HUGE thing here. There are fun events all over campus! Everyone makes shirts and get super into it!! I can't wait! I need to get some sleep! Talk to y'all soon! :D

Ocean!

Just thought you guys would like to take a peak since I was so in love with it when I was there the other day! :D <3

Bush walking Adventure!

Hi!!
So yesterday, I went on a bush walking experience! We went with a group of international students! Our means of transportation was nothing but entertaining since we rode on a bendy bus to the location...I nicknamed him Bendy!

The adventure was led by 2 Aboriginal people (for those of you know don't know what an Aboriginal is...a native person of Australia). They were very nice and were full of interesting information about the land of Australia and the bush. I heard tons of different types of birds, saw tons of different types of plants and trees (even some poisonous ones..ahh!), but sadly we didn't get to see any wild life on the walk. The tour guides informed us of different trees and plants that can be cut open and have the water sucked out of them in case we ever got lost in the bush! They also pointed out the ones not to eat and the ones to eat! There were trees with leaves that felt like sand paper that helped with skin disease and other illnesses. They told us that there is a plant to cure just about everything even cancer! They have trees that will give you rashes, trees that will make you pregnant(Kim and I stayed away from those ones!!), fresh water creeks, and at the end of the trip we found birds that will swoop and poke you with its pointy/sharp wings if you get too close to their eggs! But the sad part was someone had moved their eggs therefore, making them abandon them since someone had touched them.

The trail we were on led us all the way down to the beach! This was one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen! I felt like I was in paradise! The water was so blue and the sand was so soft! The tour guide said that this beach wasn't patrolled so the currents were really strong and the rip curls were really bad! There were only a few surfers. We walked along the beach for a while until we hit Bar Beach which is one of Newcastle popular beaches. On the way, some of us girls decided to make a Chariots of Fire video! We were filmed running slowly on the beach and my good friend Amy from London edited it and added music! It turned out really funny and can be found on my Facebook page! I will try to upload it to the blog later. I met a new friend Michael and we took a picture on some rocks and had a huge wave crash up on the rocks behind us, giving us an epic photo. One of my friends from Canada has it though and sadly hasn't posted it yet...another photo soon to come!



Cut Vine, Suck and enjoy some H2O

On the trail, the guide warned us that there was a whale close to the beach we were walking to, and were almost not able to go since they thought the whale was sick. Turns out the whale had just gave birth to a calf and was just resting. So we hurried down to the beach, but sadly, she had already left back into the ocean. She was supposed to be close to the Newcastle though so we kept our eyes peeled for a whale in the distance, but didn't get to see her! :( Going to an aquarium while I'm here is definitely on my to do list!! But that was pretty much the end of the adventure! We walked through the bush and rain forest and on an absolutely beautiful beach! It was a day for the books!


Poisonous Plant

Water Fall

Ocean!

Michael and I!

Hollow tree!