There and Back Again

But not a Hobbit's Tale this time.

Today was an adventure for sure. Woke up at the crack of dawn in case I got lost. Mary-Ange who is one of the people that runs the hostel/house where I live and I walked (super fast and my shins were burning) to the train station. She thought I had to pay for a ticket, but nope, my travel pass covered it. So that was good. Then I went to the platform #2 and she went back.

Me. All alone. What a journey. First I waited for the train. That was easy since it said when it came and their trains are a lot less confusing than in New York! Got on the train at 8am. Estimated 8:14 arrival at Central (my stop) although some delays pushed it back a few minutes. No big deal. Then I had to find Broadway Ave. I decided rather than asking anyone, I would just walk and go from there. So I exited the station and got into the streets of downtown Sydney. I walked and could go right or left. I went left. I walked a little bit before stopping into a convenience store to ask about where Broadway was. The clerk thought I meant a shopping center named Broadway, but we cleared that up and he told me to walk to the end, in the direction I was going. So I chose correctly. I am not sure if he meant to tell me more instruction or not, but I said thanks and left. I did what he said, got to the end and there was no Broadway.

So I chose to go left. I got to a busy intersection and asked someone again. He didn't know the way, so I kept walking until I found more people. One guy asked me for directions and I couldn't help him. Then I saw some people around my age and asked them, they said it was right over there and I could see it from where I was. I chose correct once again. They also said they were heading that way too. I followed them sorta. They were ahead of me but I could tell they looked back to see if I wasn't lost. Anyways, I made it and was supposed to find out where the bus stop was. I saw one but went past. I got to the campus of UTS (uni of sydney) just fine since it's a huge tower and you can't miss it if you tilt your head up and aren't blind. There's a bus stop in front of it, so I planned to come there after, at 12:36 the bus I needed to be on goes by.

So I got to UTS way early, which was good. I sat around a good while before finally going upstairs and getting a nametag and booklet and more sitting around. I talked to a girl from Germany for a little. Then we all went into their Great Hall for an aborigine dance. That was cool. They had a couple speakers and I really didn't need to be there. All the stuff I needed to know, wasn't there and all the stuff that was there, I didn't need to know. Oh well. After that, we had orange juice and cookies. I met up with a guy and a girl from the Netherlands, a girl from Canada, a guy from Denmark, and two girls from Sweden. Then there was a talk about what's going on the rest of the week at UTS. Too bad I have class at Wesley...at 2pm...so I had to duck out of the presentation during it. That was kinda awkward but oh well.

So it was noon now and I was done there. I waited in the bus stop for a little. I was way early so I sat back in the school a little more. I finally went out near 12:36 and the right bus came...and went. So...yeah. I waited a little longer before walking back to the other bus stop I mentioned before. This bus stop was the biggest bus stop in the area, with an info building and everything. The other one was just a payphone and a glass wind shield/bench. I found out that the bus I needed arrived at 12:55. So I sat around waiting for that. It finally came and I got on just fine with my travel pass.

I knew I had to get to Lyons something. I didn't know what it looked like and judging from the bus map, it looked like the bus only went near it. So I didn't know where to get off. I just knew that Wesley was out of downtown. So I finally turned around and asked a little old lady that came from Hong Kong where to go. She started giving me other buses I should have taken instead or telling me to transfer. I eventually got her to tell me where to get off so I could walk to school a little. She said after I get off, ask the driver. So I did and he helped along with another passenger. First we got to Lyons Road and I knew the next road to look for was Janet (not pronounced like the name, but "Ju-net") and he directed me to that and the direction to the next road, Mary Street which is where the school is.

As I made a short walk that way, I saw Cameron at a corner waiting for a bus. He must've been done with class and was on his way back. I chatted with him a few minutes, confirmed where the school was again, and went on my way. I got there with 20 minutes to spare. The Swiss girls were eating lunch in the student center so I joined them. Then I went to class and after that, rode a shuttle for my group back home.

-My class had 4 people in it.
-2 books to read, no assignments, just 1 final essay and 1 critique of 1 book we read, and a presentation summarizing our finaly essay--that's it.

I might go to UTS again this Wednesday since I have nothing to do that day and they are giving a campus tour. We'll see.

-Lemonade here is always carbonated
-Advertisement is pronounced (here): Ad-vert-tis-ment without the long I. More like "'tis" the season...instead of "ties." Funny.