Brissie and Whitehouse party and beyond.

Where to start?? Well today signalled the start of week 4. So we have been in class for 4 weeks already. Time flys when you are having fun. School is quite busy amd shiv and I are living in our second home ( the library). The library mmakes me angry because there are no bathrooms or water fountains on the second floor ( no water fountains IN the library).
But other than that, life is good. I find that my program has a really positive vibe to it. Its hard to explain. I feel that the education system in Canada is constantly trying to test you, to make sure that you can tough it out, make he cut and stay in the program. Here i find they are a little bit more "coachy" if that makes sense. And i feel that the professors want you to do well, and suceed. its a strange vibe. I'll let you knwo if i still feel the same in week 10.
On the 23rd ( i think) of May, there was this Party called White house party. It ended up being really cool. Every one had to wear white, the event was fully licenced and there was lots of food and good music. I was really happy with the whole event and I was super happy we didnt get on the buses to Surfers, because that meant I could be in my bed by a reasonable time.
The next day we lounged around till mid day then got on the Translink Queensland rail express train to Brisbane! (Brissie)
Other wierd Aussie Short forms
schoolies, brissie, lollie, sunnies, bullies (for bull sharks!), toastie, and the list goes on and on. I will keep adding more as I come across more.

But back to the post. The train ride was lovely, and it was so nice to see different parts of Robina and a bit of queensland. we only got a little glimpse of surrounding towns, but once we get more time, it would be great to go exploring the state. Brissie was awesome. Its a proper city, big buildings, shops, shops and more shops, and things were a bit cheaper than in Robina, so we were quite suprised. We walked around, took some pics, ate at Krispy Kremes and bought 2 back packs. We have finally relegated our selves to student life.

A good day all round. Got home, ordered the 3 for 25 deal from dominos and chilled out.

Weird weather and the start of School

Hi all. sorry for the long lag in writting this 2nd post. But I have a good exuse, the south easten part of queensland has been getting battered by crazy sideways wind and rain for the good part of a week!

The rain started last tuesday i think, and the rain hasn't really stopped since. It rained heavy for a sold 3!! yes 3 days, and then since friday it has been raining hard in continual shifts. regardless of the weather we have still been going to school. There was one morning when i prayed that there would be a message on my uni email saying "We have cancelled class due to the terrible weather, please stay warm and dry at home". But alas... that message never showed up in my inbox. The wind ruined my unbrella, and basically tore apart every one in robina's umbrella as well. The little metal spokes that held my unbrella together were all mangled, and my unbrella spokes looked like the legs of a daddy long legs (after it had been stepped on).
Shiv managed to save the fabric part of his umbrella for a momento of the crazy Queensland storm 09!

School is going really well. The 1st day i went to lecture, it ended up being cancelled and moved to the following day. After walking in the sideways rain for 10 minutes to get to class, i was not impressed to have to take that walk right back in the opposite direction so soon after arriving at campus. Shiv is really on to his 2nd week of school, because his "Bond week (orientation week) really thre him right into Law school mode. My 1st week has proven to be really overwhelming because there is so much work/readings thrown at me right from the get go.

Because bond has 3 semesters a year. Every thing comes at you very fast, and you pretty much hit the ground running ( or reading, in my case) But I think it will be good for us. This weekend, spent friday at school, saturday at school and sunday at school. Wich may make us look like big nerds, but what ever. We did splice some fun into the mix by getting all dressed up and going to CBD ( a swanky lounge/ bar/ casino?) sort of near our house. We heard they were having a live band, and we decided to stop by. And boy were we glad we did. It was a great night, and there was a really good cover band playing awesome tracks the whole night. The magic of the evening was supplied by 2 random dancers who had had way to much to drink and were the sole entertainment on the dancefloor for the entire evening. The man-dancer could closely be compared to an autistic will ferrel type character, who liked to do the side step, but was trying to be restrained from starting a fight.

His moves were of the hook. At the end of the night we got caught in a little bit of a rain storm, but made it safely home, and to the library the next morning!

Here is our top 10 for this week
1) there are resse's peices in this country
2) If we eat like aussies, we save money
3) MEATPIES, people have told us they are a working mans meal ( sort of lower class grub, if you will, but We dont care. we are ADDICTED to meat pies, and we have found a great brand at our local IGA.
4) Finding used bikes has proven to be alot more difficult than we 1st imagined
5) we got "burners" tabs and ed will know what we're talking about
6) Bond has an awesome selection of DVDs for rent/loan
7) theres is a free BBQ at school, every wenesday of the school year
7a) we are still on the search for the infamous punjab sweethouse on the GC (gold coast)
8) The manager at this resturant tepanyakki ( a japanese restaurant) had mentioned to us that she may start an all you can eat sushi night every monday, Shiv has vowed to call the resturant using different voices/profiles to convince the manager that there is a real demand for all you can eat sushi in our hood.
9)its pretty chilly at nights, they dont tell you that on the gold coast website. i wish i bought more hoodies
10) we saw wild canaries in a little patch of trees near our house. WILD canaries! like come on! i thought canaries grew in pert stores. You cant make this stuff up!


xoxoxo jan

We came to a land down under!

Hi all.
Welcome to the new blog. I itend to make it more sparkling and entertaining than our previous blogs. If that is possible.
Well for a quick update... the date is May 13th, and we are in Australia! I have no dowubt this blog will be easier to maintain because we now have wireless in the apt.

Oz is amazing. When we look out our window the place stll makes my jaws drop. Its warm (and its winter). Ozzies don't know what a real winter should feel like. Its quite green, the buildings, skyline and area we are in is just great. We can walk all over the place and people for the most part seem quite friendly.

we arrived here on the 9th. We left edmonton on the 7th evening, flew to san fran on a tiny plane ( that was a regional jet), it was suprisingly small. The sort f plane you would fly to Ft mac in, But any ways we got to san fran in one piece, and then took a huge jet from san fran to Oz. I thought the flight felt like 6 hours because i took my sleeping meds, and was out for a good portion of the trip. The flight was about 14 hours, but it was pretty smooth. As soon as we got into sydney, we made our way through the airport, half glues to the aiprort terminal windows, in shock that we were finally down under. The weather was great, Blue skies, all green. People looked quite healthy, sort of tan, and happy. We were really happy to be down under, and it sort of kept getting better through out the day.

We got on our next flight to brisbane, which was lovely, and then took an airport coach/bus straight to our apartment. Easy as pie. The one thing that strikes about oz, is how easy it is to live here.It has all the comforts and technology of home, but its nicer, warmer, prettier, so its sort of like home, but different.

As people would say in thailand. Its same same but different. We got settled into our apt by our land lord Charlie. Hes very nice, sort of like our previous land lord "Archie" in halifax! Our place is great. its in a tower at the end of the complex, and we are on the top floor. from our balcony we can see the horizon, bond and a bit of the broadbeach coast line. Although the apt came fully furnished, we still needed to get some odds and ends from Target (rice cooker), i really dont feel at home till i can eat rice!. Then we went to K mart, big W and some other stores to get all the comforts of home.

2 nights ago, we went on a pub crawl that was a little young, but a good night out in Surfers, the nights are quite warm, and we decided to walk home... from surfers. A good adventure, and a few hours later. We got home. We signed up at school 2 days ago, and today we are going back for more orientation sessions. I have a introduction/tea at 1 30, a welcome international students session at 10:30, and movies under the stars on campus at 7 pm.

Miss you guys lots. xoxoxo
jan and shiv