Grange Beach Video

Lisa found a video that the university made about the international students' visit to Grange beach. If you watch you can see some familiar faces having a race running through the water ;)

Fringe Opening & A Tea Party

We got home Friday night exhausted and ready for bed, but the night wasn't quite over. We came home to FINALLY having our internet installed and a new, working fridge! I missed cold food. We hooked up the internet then headed out to check out the opening night of the Fringe Festival. 


The Fringe is a really big festival here in Adelaide. It includes lots of arty shows and acts, and Friday there was a big parade for the opening day. We could hear the commotion from our apartment, so decided to go check it out despite realllllly wanting to hop into bed. The idea of stopping by Hungry Jack's for some quick food was also pretty appealing since after being away for 2 days, and not having a working fridge, we didn't really have any food to speak of. 


When we got down to the streets, it was sheer chaos. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but the number of people who had all gathered really surprising. It felt a bit like I was in the middle of Times Square. In the end we actually had missed the parade, but we were so tired that just walking amongst the crowd was enough excitement for the night, so off we went to bed.

Saturday we were invited to a tea party for Cameron and Aisha's birthdays. We all donned some floral outfits and took the train out to meet Justin on the way to the shack. They had put together a bunch of picnic tables, made some oversized toadstools, and had pretty tea sets and cake stands everywhere. There was even a sword fighting ring to one side. It was really well done and reminded me of all the themed parties we used to have back home. The big difference is that we were constantly on film haha. I'm used to photographers being around (hi Jon, hi Jen), but Justin's friends veer more towards videography. I've seen some of their stuff, so I'm sure it'll turn out brilliant. 

The tea party was really sweet, but we were all dying of heat on the 40 degree day, so we eventually abandoned the tea in favour of a dip in the river. The river was followed by pies for dinner (Australia has the best meat pastries. I never knew there were so many different types), which was followed by strobe lights and dancing, a night dip in the river, a warm up in the bath, and then a crash wherever you could find a place to sleep. 

Everyone had told me that if I left for Australia, I might not make it back home. I expected to have a good time, but I didn't quite understand the not leaving part. I could never quite see living in another place feeling like it's home. Australia still isn't home, but I've definitely fallen in love. It's so different here, and yet so much the same. This place is pretty amazing.

Canoe the Coorong

I am sore. And I am exhausted. And I could really go for a massage about now. So basically, it was a good weekend.


On Thursday Ali went to tea to meet her extended family here in Adelaide. Unsure of whether or not she needed to eat before her 7pm tea date, she decided to munch a bit before. Apparently tea here is supper, or dinner, or whatever you want to call it. Completely different from the tea and cakes we were expecting. After she got back Justin chauffeured us off to the shack so we could get an early start to canoe the Coorong the next morning. 

The Shack

Stairs from the back of the shack to the river 

Justin's friend Brenton is owner and tour guide for Canoe the Coorong, so Thursday morning the group of us shipped out on the hour and a half drive to Goolwa. We waited on the beach and learned the cockle dance while some of the guys went to fetch the boats. 

Doing the cockle dance (Photo by Heather)

The first stop was to one of the locks where a few new zealand furs seals have been hanging out recently. They were adorable. They were sunbathing and swimming up near the kayaks. I had only ever seen wild seals from a distance, so being within a few feet was pretty amazing. We then stopped at a bakery in Goolwa for a quick lunch before continuing on.

New zealand fur seal sunbathing

Ali in the locks (Photos by Heather)

As we kayaked to our camp site Ali and Heather sang songs the whole way. The site is right on the edge of the water, so we would wake up on the beach. Brilliant. We took a quick swim, set up camp, and strolled over to the nearest sand dune for some sandsurfing.

I have never before gone sandsurfing and I was definitely a little nervous looking down the steep hill of sand that I was about to slide down headfirst on a wakeboard. First attempt was a dud. Instant wipeout haha. At least the second time I actually got down the hill! Actually it was really fun, I guess I'm just not as graceful as I'd like to be haha. Oh well, Dave's wipeout later completely overshadowed mine, so's all good. As much fun as it is to surf down the dunes into the water, the trek back up that stupid hill is hell.

My terrible first attempt, as filmed by Heather

Later on the group split up, half of us went fishing in the mouth (where the Murray River meets the ocean), and the other half went for a seaside stroll down the beach, chasing pelicans, attempting to catch fish with our bare hands, and just generally wrecking havoc on nature.

(Photo by Ali)

(Photo by Dave)

The night ended with a dinner of sausages, lamb chops, and fresh fish. Drinks were had around the fire, and a stupid game of There's a Moon in My Bowl was played (yes Justin, it's a stupid game).


The perfect way to wake up is a morning swim in the river. Especially when it's only a few steps away from your bed. After breakfast we all marched over to the other side of the island to try our luck at body surfing in the ocean. There was no way to really stay on shore very long since it was so hot out, so we all mucked about in the ocean for a few hours and passed around a bag of water to keep hydrated.

(Photo by Heather)

After the not so ideal results of our last beach excursion, we all religiously reapplied our sunscreen every hour to ward of the strong sun rays.


Packing up was a chore (as always) peppered with some more swim breaks since it was so ridiculously hot. We had a slight detour on the way back due to some misdirection, but made it to the main land intact and very happy. Then someone had the brilliant idea of going for ice cream before taking the winding route through the hills back to the city.

Heather and Justin on the car ride home

*Thanks Heather and Ali for your photos, since I mostly left my camera in my bag...

Update

I think I'm getting better at walking on the left side of the side-walk.

Tropfest

Yesterday we didn't have many plans. Mostly we were still recovering from a little too much sun at Grange beach, so many of the plans that we had (involving being out in the sun) had been cancelled. 


Most of what goes on in Adelaide is pretty underground. It seems like there's lots to do, but you just don't know about it. This is where having a few friends is really helpful. Justin informed us of Tropfest (conveniently happening just as the sun was going down, perfect) down at the Glenelg foreshore. 

This is where the tram lets you off. 30 seconds further and you'd be in the ocean.

Surrounded by shops and restaurants, Glenelg is definitely a tourist beach.

I had never heard of Tropfest, but apparently it's this really big independent short film festival. It gets screened live in Sydney to a huge crowd of people with hosts and celebrity guests and all that jazz, and the footage is broadcast live to parks and the like in different cities around Australia. 

We weren't really sure what to expect, but luckily the guys brought some blankets for us all to lounge on. The quality of the films was definitely way better than I had expected and it was a nice warm night, perfect for sitting by the shore. We even had an amazing sunset to start off the night.

Ali and I had a lot of fun and I'm really thankful to these guys for adopting us into their little group and showing us the ropes.


P.S. I'm super stoked for our overnight canoe trip on the Coorong!

Ikea & Grange Beach

The other day, Ali & I went on the massive adventure to Ikea for some cheap home furnishings (massive only because we had yet to tackle the bus system here in Adelaide). We got lost and walked around for about 6 blocks before finding the bus stop we needed.


In Adelaide, there is one major street that most of the buses go down in the CBD (Central Business District, their downtown). Instead of having all the buses get congested by stopping at the same stop, they have a huge lineup of stops that each only serve a few buses. This means that while you see a bus stop or two on every block, there's only about two in the CBD that will serve the bus that you actually want to get on. Clearly we were unaware of this, but luck was on our side and we found our stop by happenstance. We ventured on to Ikea, grabbed our flat packed furniture, and were on our way.

Velvet dog wallpaper at Ikea. A little too weird to pass up a photo shoot.

Yesterday was the international students' outing to Grange beach, one of the many beaches around Adelaide. We rode the train to the last stop, listened to the beach safety lecture, and divided up to groups for some life guard games. We paddled on lifeboards, learned the basics of cricket, played a game of flags (lie in the sand facing away from the flag, when the whistle blows jump up, run, and try to grab the flag first), did some sand sprints, and raced to see who could save the drowning victim fastest. After feeding us some lunch (all of their meals seem to be really heavy on the meat, at least today they fed us assortments of beef and chicken versus the kangaroo and wombat they had fed us on the first day), we were given free range over the beach to tan or swim or whatever else we wanted to do.

Lifeboards: this one is what the Surf Life Savers use in competition, and a variation is used to save people.

Game of Flags.

Orientation and an introduction to the Hills

On Sunday Justin invited us out to his friend Dave’s for a BBQ. He told us to hop the train and bring our bathers and he’d pick us up on his way. Being the gracious host that he is, he took us on a detour to Mt. Lofty (an amazing name, I know), the highest “mountain” in Adelaide. The view was amazing. We could see the city and surrounding ‘burbs, and in the distance we could see the whole shoreline to the ocean.

Views from the top of Mt. Lofty 

Dave lives in the Hills around Adelaide. It’s a bit more rural than the suburbs, more like Cumberland in Ottawa. A big group of us went kayaking and swimming in the river on his property. Many fun times were had on Steve (the air mattress turned raft), and the Greatest River Race of All-Time included many winners and losers. We even spotted our first two wild koalas in the tree over the river. Unfortunately I was swimming and therefore had no camera for pictures :(

The BBQ portion of this outing contained many grilled onions, and of course, lots of seafood. Bowing to peer pressure, I tried some cockles (quite salty, not a big fan) and a type of fish that was a king something-or-other that was actually pretty good. Other bathtub and twister shenanigans ensued and a good time was had by all.

Outside on the patio

Apparently warming up in the bath after a cold dip in the river

Double mat twister

Orientation started this week. There’ve been a few helpful hints, but generally it seems the whole international week is mostly to help those from countries that have a greater cultural difference. Mostly, the information has been either common knowledge, or stuff that we’ve learned in first year, so we’ve been skipping a few sessions. 

One thing the sessions have been helpful with is meeting people. We met one girl from a school in Toronto in Interior Architecture, and another girl from Holland in Communications who we’ve been keeping in touch with all week.

As 3 girls on exchange, we didn’t exactly have any grandiose plans for Valentine’s day. So when Lisa (our new found friend from Toronto) invited us over for some drinks and conversation, we weren’t exactly opposed. Valentine’s day in Australia was spent on Lisa’s patio, sipping sparkling rose, and watching the sunset. The night was finished off with a trip to McDonald’s for a McFlurry. Perfect.

The Torrens

Saturday February 11, 2012

After a couple days in Adelaide, we FINALLY got power. It was this whole confusing battle between us, the building coordinator, and the power company, but yesterday night the lights finally went on.

We met up with Justin, Nadia, and some of their ID friends for drinks at Ed Castle, that reminded me so much of Heart & Crown in the Byward Market back in Ottawa. It had a very unassuming front, but seemed to be huge inside, with a big enclosed patio out back.

Apparently cider is a big thing here. You won’t see me complaining, I love cider, but every single person at the table was drinking cider. And you can order it by the “jug”, which is the exact same as ordering beer by the pitcher in Canada. His friends were a hoot. We had the obligatory “you say tomato, I say tomato” debate, while actually talking about tomatoes, as well as ketchup vs. tomato sauce, fries vs. crisps, and the importance of sweet chili sauce.

Everyone down here is also apparently fluent in sarcasm. Not like back home. This is full on “I-don’t-know-whether-to-believe-you-and-be-scared-out-of-my-mind-about-Australian-wildlife-or-not.” They kept on telling us about drop bears and land sharks and jellyfish. They were almost all half truths and they were scaring Ali silly. Luckily I’m usually pretty good with detecting sarcasm, so while it was quite difficult with them, I seemed to have a general sense of what it was they were making up. I still laughed my ass off though.

Today we went for a walk by the Torrens, the river running through Adelaide. It’s so

close to our apartment I can’t believe we didn’t do it sooner. First of all, the University of Adelaide campus is gorgeous. It’s all old, carved, stone and brick buildings, with columns and all that jazz. It’s not like Canada where you have to worry about crazy weather fluctuations and then design for that. Right beyond that campus, you find yourself at the prettiest little river getaway with so many different kinds of birds wandering around. Magpies, black swans, parrots, seagulls, birds with mohawks, birds that couldn’t stop clucking their heads, pelicans, birds with feathers sticking up the top of their heads, and what we believe to be kiwi birds. From the rivers, you can barely tell that you’re literally a block away from the city.

Courtyard at University of Adelaide

The Torrens

Black Swan

I think we’re going to try and go for a run on the Torrens tomorrow morning. We just need to remember to keep left. I’ve been running into people all over the place just because I’m used to passing them on the right, and they’re used to passing people on the left, so when we start walking straight into each other, neither of us knows what to do because we both believe that the other person is the one that should be moving aside. It's a bit of a problem...

Arrival

– Alright here's the deal, I arrived in Adelaide, Australia on Wednesday, Feb 8th, but have had a very difficult time with internet. We actually still don't have internet at the apartment, so bear with me. I have however written up a post or two in the meantime that I can put up now. Better late than never. –

Friday February 10, 2012

We landed 2 days ago, safe and sound, after traveling for over 26 hours straight. The plane rides were long and disorienting, but I somehow managed to hit the jackpot. My first flight was low capacity, so I was able to stretch out across 3 seats all to myself! I didn’t get much sleep, but it was definitely comfy. The 15.5 hour flight from the US to Australia was a whole other ball game. Luckily I was sitting next to this really nice woman on her way to Melbourne to give a presentation so some art gallery officials. Watched 3 movies, and that didn’t even come close to taking up half the time of the flight. At least the food was actually pretty good, and they served it to us on these cute little reusable trays. It made the airplane food seem a little less cheap.

Qantas Airlines - the fleet of flying kangaroos

This was my first big trip by myself, and I’ve got to say that I’m pretty proud of the fact that I didn’t get horribly lost in the various airports. When I got to Melbourne I looked for some food and found a Hungry Jack’s. It looked really familiar so I decided to get that. Now I know, why: Hungry Jack’s = Australia’s Burger King haha.

When I got to the apartment, I settled in, and found the library across the street so I could let my parents know that I’d arrived alive, then headed back to meet Heather and Ali who had just arrived.

The State Library

Our apartment is awesome. Right in the middle of downtown with 3 balconies and an amazing view. Unfortunately we are still fighting the battle to get electricity and internet in the place, so our nights have been pretty romantic, being lit by candlelight haha. Hopefully we can get this sorted soon so that I can start putting up some proper posts.