Good on ya - settling in to Canberra

Hey all - My first few days living in Canberra have been wonderful - at least after I have been able to settle in. So much to process! I will try to share some...

So I had 1 more day of orientation which went well. We went to the National Museum of Australia in the afternoon (very neat architecture) and had a very exuberant guide tell show us through the "Native Australian" and aboriginal exhibits which were awesome! I really am intrigued by that part of history here. They have been here apparently for like 60,000 years. And their customs were very impressive. An interesting and adaptive people! Especially with their fishing, headdresses, possum furs, boomerangs, tools, etc. Beautiful art. Then we walked about a bit, and had our farewell with the orientation with drinks. Went to a pretty good Thai place, then to the Uni pub for some night entertainment. But we went home early - 9:30 ish. Maybe it's the fact that the sun goes down at 5 or everything closes early, but there's not much to do here at night!

So the next day the group left, and I got picked up by Steve to go drop bags at my new apartment! So nice to actually have a stable place to stay - a place to unpack suitcases. Went to work the rest of the day, then met up with a guy in the program who's my roommate for the first week (until his housing opens up), and we walked around and went to decent Malaysian food. Then got some groceries (only place open past 5 or 6pm in the very proximate mall) on the way home.

Friday was awesome - I went on my first long bike ride in Canberra! So yes, it was chilly and rainy, but it was beautiful! I said this place is like a big park, and I rode down to the lake (past the famous War Memorial), and then entirely around the huge lake - all around the city and Parliament buildings, then out west through forests and dams were you don't see much but nature! It was a long, but wonderful ride. But I had to keep reminding myself - stay to the left! Although it is scarier when you are trying to cross roads then when you are just on a nice track :-). Over 23K later, I was able to come back home! Felt great :-). On the walk to school, I tried to find a mobile phone which was very frustrating and I had no luck. But then at work, my mentor had an old mobile phone with minutes on it to give me, so yay! And plus he set me up with internet at home - bought me the modem and everything. He's been great to me... Funny things here - receiving calls on the mobile is free, and texting is way more common. Calling a cell phone is more expensive than calling a land line. Also on the internet - I have a 3GB per month plan meaning that you pay per MB! So I'm conscience of how much time I'm on. But I do now have Skype - my name is "JennBSartor" so I encourage you all to get that if you want to talk to me. Anyway... Friday night went to sushi dinner with Steve (mentor) and family which was nice. He has 3 small children so they dominate the interaction. But we did a sushi train which was fun for them! And I thought of you, Mind. Then did some errands on the way home - went to "Big W" - Walmart without the stigma :-).

Saturday woke up and did some Kung Fu which was very nice. Then got ready and went out to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve - a 45 minute drive from Canberra. Weird to be in the "drivers seat" - I felt very close to the left curb and kept wanting to adjust mirrors :-). But beautiful countryside. Although we saw (still) a ton of the fire damaged area from the HUGE devastating Jan 2003 fire. And we passed some astronomy and space stations. So, I saw the 2 animals on the coat of arms in the wild - the kangaroo and the emu!!! So neat. We tried to see koalas on our hike, but they were hard to see. Then we went to a park and had a picnic lunch of sausages and all. So tasty! Did I mention how awesome Steve's been to me? So, came back to the city, and was feeling down so I went across the street for a walk in the mall. Even on Saturday everything closed at 5! But I did do some more food shopping to make some tasty omelets for dinner - my first cooking experience in my new apartment. Oh yeah - did I mention my 2 balconies and the built-in electric blankets on the bed? So awesome!

So today - went for an 8K run - again around the lake which I love. Went over the 2 main bridges in the city that form a triangle where the apex is Parliament. Good run. And one of my favorite new Australian sayings is "Good on ya" - which is what Steve said when I told him I did the run (one he used to do all the time). Fun times. Then I rode down to meet Steve for AFL - the Football game between Sydney Swans and Melbourne Demons. But first, on his recommendation, stopped by the neat Glassworks building and Old Bus Depot Markets on the way! Neat to see them blowing glass, although I've seen it before. And hte Markets were fun - I tasted a lot of awesome foods - they love curries and chilis and hot sauces and sweet dips and dates and figs and the like! And some fudge too. We don't seem to have Turkish Delight in the states, do we? And had some really awesome Chili Wine! Mostly to be sipped, but fun :-). And there were artsy/crafty booths that I wandered through - fun, but I didn't buy anything. Then I met up with the big gang, and went to the football game! The stadium was huge, but the game was low-key. The sorta didn't care about searchign my bag, and everything was pretty informal. You could bring in anything but glass (food, anything). So, Steve brought us a bunch of small meat pies which apparently are an Australian favorite! And some chili chocolate for dessert - yum. But the game itself - we all were routing for the red Sydney Swans (cheering - routing means having sex with apparently). The game is really fast-paced and high scoring. Altho there's tackling, that isn't the main thing - people just move the ball from person to person fast and run a lot. You can volley-ball hit to each other or kick, and goals are made by kicking through big tall polls. But Sydney won in the end with over 100 points (goals are either 6 or 1 point, so they scored a lot!) to around 70 for Melbourne :-). So it was fun. Everyone was allowed on the field afterwards to run around and kids brought their footballs to kick them around. So, it was great! And Steve's friends were all very nice. Another saying I love is "no worries" - they say that all the time (maybe I apologize a lot). So I biked home over 3 miles back! I do love this city :-). We decided it's not as exciting as Sydney or Melbourne, but it's a good place to live.

So, general thoughts - I love having a home where I can be comfortable - I really need that. I need exercise too, of course :-). The weather here - I'm getting used to it. Friday was rainy and Steve said that was abnormal because it's dry here. When the sun's out during the day, the afternoons are quite nice and feel pretty warm, but it's chilly in the morning, and pretty darn chilly after the sun goes down. Aussies LOVE LOVE their sprots. We have about 10 TV stations, and 5 of them at all times are showing some sport - cricket, AFL, Rugby Union, Rugby League, tennis, etc! There are birds here everywhere - parrots, kookaburra, cockatoo, swans, magpies. They are beautiful.

OK, I think I've written enough. I'll put some pictures up maybe tomorrow when my internet is not limited :-). G'day! Goodnight to y'all actually :-).