Australia 3

Saturday is where I left off I think so its where I shall start from again… Oh joy for all you reading this, no day will be missed out! Haha, remember this is not a compulsory read.

Anyway, so Saturday started off well with a free pancake breakfast from the hostel and after several hours of Internet abuse I finally got the bus up to my new home. I dumped all my rubbish and had a potter around Rozelle Market. All the suburbs in Sydney have their own local markets, which sell everything from music, to vintage clothes to kebabs. It was a really nice hot day and I bought a white wicker chair for my new room.
I then headed off back to Glebe to meet Nina, we wandered round the market there and I considered buying a new leather belt as Ross has stolen all of mine…. Decided my budget should be reserved for the essentials though so Nina and I headed off to find bed sheets etc.

We walked down to Newtown (yet another fashionable suburb behind the university) but out sheet hunt was seriously scuppered by a complete lack of shops selling sheets. We made the most of it though and had an amazing Thai lunch for 3 quid each! I have really never seen so many vegetables; I was a very very happy bunny. We then headed into town to explore Paddy’s market and again failed miserably. It was worth the trip though as it really is an amazing market, it feels like you have stepped straight into China, with a funny amount of Australian themed souvenir stalls.

Finally we found everything we needed in the shopping centre right by where we started and I headed back on the bus to Rozelle to make my new bed. Had a speedy change over then bussed back to Glebe (yes my life is similar to a yoyo) to meet the Americans for dinner.
Alexa had cooked this amazing fish stuff, which she had got from Sydney’s famous Saturday fish market… I dealt with it all quite well until I found a baby octopus on my plate. Like an entire octopus with all its legs and suckers and head on still. I sadly couldn’t deal with this so I made Tyler eat it and relished in the moment when the head popped and he nearly chucked up all over the table. The four of us got through two bottles of wine and the better part of a bottle of Whisky before we left to walk into town. The plan was to go see Hybrid play but I was looking forward to a long sleep in my own room so caught the bus home and fell asleep instantly.

Sunday had been our Bondi beach day, but the weather looked horrible. It was really overcast and grey so Nina and I decided to save it for another day and we met at lunch and went to the Australian museum. A guy called Ed from the hostel came along as well and we went round 2 exhibitions, one on aborigines and one on Surviving Australia that we thought could be useful. Saw some of the weirdest stuffed animals ever and have decided that my new favourite animal is the greater Bilbo. Has amazing ears. I left at 5 to go and meet Annika the girl who had been on exchange at Glasgow last term. We, and 3 of her friends from SCA, went to get dinner at the Shakespeare pub and managed to walk a stupidly long way to get there. Had a cheep dinner then ventured out into what had become torrential rain. By the time I got back to the flat I was drenched and I spend a really chilly night not warming up properly.

I woke up this morning still quite cold and realised that the clothes I had washed the day before were wetter than they were to start with. Put them on spin again and hung them up in the sun, which was finally warming me up.
I got to SCA and headed up for our Mini induction. It was the same old stuff as last week but at least a little more relevant. After, Marlene (head of exchange) gave us a tour of the campus and then gave us our time to go to our respective subject. I was the only sculpture person so I went home for lunch and then came in for the 2 oclock class. I met my tutor Adam who can only be described as terrifying. I think the problem is he’s not that old. All my tutors at Glasgow are beardy and ancient, which makes you think that they are wise. Obviously being younger makes him need to be a complete hard-nosed, totally blunt B@$%&£d. Not sure he is really as bad as that but that was the impression I got from the other students.

Adam told me that I have to present all my work to the class next Wednesday morning so I am currently suppressing a massive panic as I have left all my work on my external hard drive somewhere packed away safely in a box in Scotland… could be Glasgow… could be Linlithgow…

I had my studio health and safety induction with the technician Colin afterwards, and it seems that it is a universal fact that Technicians and totally and utterly brilliant. He showed me round the studios and then ended up showing me the main workshops and introducing me to the guy who ran it Tony, who said he will teach me how to weld properly!

After all that and a bit of timetable sorting out I decided to head out and back home to try and find some of my work on the computer. I made myself a set of shelves out of two shoe racks and a load of bricks that were lying around the back yard. So at least now my room is much more tidy that it was before.

I did my first supermarket shop in Woolworth’s, which is still alive here (and seems to be food based rather than the uk type or woollies). By the time I got back to the flat Belinda was in so we had a chat and then dean came in and we all had a glass of wine (very civilized eh!) So I am in my room now panicking about my lack of work. I’m going to see what I put on my blog over the last year and see if I can use some of that…

Lots of love.
Me xxxxxx
P.s Have my first hot Glass Class tomorrow. Very excited!!!!!!!