On
Tuesday, Manny and I walked over to the South Australian museum for 11am. The
greatest part was that the museum is free! We joined a two hour tour that took
us through the Aboriginal gallery, animal gallery, Egyptian room, Mineral room,
and more. It was your standard museum tour with tons of interesting information
that I can now impress friends and family with. I think my favourite part was
the giant squid that they had added to their gallery in an unused elevator
shaft. The squid spanned the entire 3 storeys! There was also a wall that held
a ton of boomerangs. The tour lady said she was able to get the returning ones
to land back at her feet! Cool! I may have to invest in one of those…
After
lunch, we headed over to the Adelaide zoo. Some of the highlights for me were
the giant pandas, giraffes, alligators, hippos, wallabies, kangaroos, and
flamingos. We ordered a couple of Slurpees and found, to our surprise, that it
was actually just frozen coke! Yummy!
Wednesday
was your standard beach day…lots of sun, swimming, and suntan lotion. Manny, new Aussie roommate, Emily, and I enjoyed a couple
hours on the beach before we went to a small restaurant nearby where we enjoyed
a good lunch and a couple beers.
Thursday, we had a bit of an
adventure trying to find the lecture halls where our classes would take place.
The University of Adelaide campus isn’t very big but its rather confusing as
many buildings are connected. Manny and I managed to get lost a couple times
and find doors that led us right back around in a circle to where we started.
We also ran into a problem when Manny’s schedule listed a class in Computer
Suite 239. That room didn’t exist! The student advisor for our program had to
check his computer to find out why such a room was listed on the schedule.
Turns out that because of the recent construction, the university had changed
the name of the regular CAD lab, formerly known as Computer Suite 508. We found
the rest of the lecture halls easily enough and now I can say I’m officially
ready to start my classes on Monday. I even bought some school supplies! Don’t
worry mom and dad…I won’t forget that I did come to Australia to study (though
I do plan to make my day off every Friday my weekly beach day).
On Friday, Manny and I woke up
early to walk to campus for the trip the University had planned for the
international students: Victor Harbour and Urimbirra Wildlife Park! Turns out
that it was a perfectly sunny and hot day to go…a little bit too hot for my
liking; it got to a scorching 39 degrees!
Our first stop was Urimbirra
Wildlife Park which was an hour and twenty minute drive from the center of
Adelaide. We got to walk around the park and get super close to emus, koalas,
and tropical birds. We also saw dingos, wombats, crocodiles, chickens, and
wallabies. It was a totally different experience from the Adelaide zoo as all
the animals were active and curious. The best part of the park was the fact
that they had food for 50 cents that you could buy. I bought a bag and got to
hand feed it to the kangaroos! Yay for getting my first picture up close and
personal with a kangaroo!
Around noon, we hopped back on the
bus and drove to the nearby town of Victor Harbour. The bay was discovered in
1802 by Matthew Flinders. The town was originally called Port Victor, but adopted
its current name of Victor Harbour in 1921. Apparently it was going to be
chosen as the state capital of South Australia, but the sparce water resources
were unable to support a large population and therefore Adelaide became the
capital city. The town may have had a small population, but was very spread out
along the surrounding hills on the coastline. It is largely a tourist town,
showcasing the nearby island called Granite Island.
Manny and I had a quick lunch
before crossing the footbridge to the island. The hiking trail that runs around
the perimeter of the island takes approximately 45 minutes to complete. We only
explored a small part of the trail as the rocky island only heightened the
already scorching outside temperature. We did manage to climb a few big rocks
and take a few pictures of the the bay before heading home.
The next day I went to Glenelg
beach once again…this time with all my LA friends from Guelph. Turns out, it
was even hotter than Friday! The temperature at around 2pm was 43 degrees in
the city (so a little cooler at the beach, but not much)! We spent a ton of
time in the water, bought ourselves some ice cream, and were super excited to
get back to our air-conditioned rooms in the evening.
Overall, what a great way to spend my final week of vacation! This week: the start of classes
and back to reality...
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