Busses, Birds, and Brissy

Tanya's thoughts upon immediate arrival in Brisbane:

Oh, look. A huge group of students going to UQ. I should stand with them.

Hmm... most of them seem to know at least one other person. None of them came alone.

Time to board the bus.

*bus starts moving as a conversation starts*

Everyone on this bus goes to the same school back in the states.

They're all together in the same program.

There's a guide who knows most of them.

...crap. Wrong bus.

---

So that was fun.
Other than being incredibly silly in hopping on the wrong bus (although I ended up where I needed to go, so that didn't matter), I had a solid enough first day in Brissy.

• Everything is SO GREEN. Going through the surrounding neighborhood was like going through a jungle (not really) that had houses and apartments in it.
• My campus is a freaking park. It sits on a river. There's a lake. THERE ARE STRANGE BIRDS EVERYWHERE. And ducks. But mostly strange birds.
• Said birds are not bothered by people at all and don't really move when you're walking in their direction.
• I had some lamb in some sort of pita sandwich but not with actual pita. Not too bad, but it's no gyro. But it was in the food court on campus, so I don't know if that's a good comparison.
• The city is really kinda quirky. The architecture of the bridges and buildings aren't so business-y like downtown. And there are bits of color and whimsy-ness to some of them.
• Queen St (where I got the SIM for my phone) reminds me a bit of some of the smaller streets in Europe (maybe London? I can't remember). It's pedestrian only and has a bunch of shops next to each other. It's comparable to a cleaned-up version of downtown Las Vegas.
• Campus at night is eerily quiet but so far seems incredibly safe. The scariest thing are the noises the birds make when they should be sleeping.
• Actually, the scariest thing in general is the fact that everything closes at like 6pm and you have a full bladder. I'm not sure where the Aussies stand on urinating in public, but since there's a lot of shrubbery in general, I should look into it (Mom, if you're reading, I'm just kidding... mostly).
• I saw a gecko! Or maybe it was just a lizard. It moved too fast for me to get a close look. I'm gonna just call it a gecko.
• There's a ferry called the CityCat that goes up and down the Brisbane River and is basically a normal part of public transportation. It just takes a bit longer than the buses.
• Steering wheel on the right, driving on the left. I keep thinking there are these cars that have no drivers until I realize I'm just being an idiot.
• Speaking of being an idiot, I've walked into a couple of people already because I'm not used to walking on the left side of the sidewalk. Fun fact.
• Weather's nice. I don't mind the heat, but the humidity may begin to bug me in the next couple of days. I can feel my face breaking out as I type.
• Fashion (or lack thereof) is pretty funny after being in LA for so long. I've seen crocs, gladiator sandals, and people who seem to have decided to pick whatever happened to be the cleanest things in their room regardless if they matched.
• I've seen a few high school students (who may be called college students here if I'm not mistaken) and some of their uniforms are silly. Why do you need a hat and knee length socks?
• I saw a big ferris wheel (smaller than the London Eye, bigger than the one in Santa Monica). I'm determined to ride it.

That's all I can think of for now. Priority number 1: find permanent housing.

Cheers! (<-- A lot of people say this. I'm not sure if I like using it. I'll let you all know.)

P.S. It's actually day 2 now, but I couldn't post this last night.