A picture tour of ANU!

So to make up for not posting pictures yesterday, I'm going to try to make this post extra photo-heavy. Today was the International Student Orientation, which was half interesting and half for first-time uni students, a LOT of 'blah blah blah'.

It did make me happy that the first point of business was to acknowledge the ancestral lands that ANU is on, and though the Aboriginal Elder, Aunty Ruth, said the name of the tribe multiple times, I didn't catch it. With a little research I believe they are the Ngunnawal Peoples. Aunty Ruth also let us know that Canberra, when it's pronounced Can/berra rather than jumbling it all together, is the aboriginal word for 'meeting place'.

Most of the rest of it was helpful and boring all at once, so Simon left promptly after the Study Abroad section was over, and I left at lunch after visiting all of the various booths that were out front. That part was the most helpful, I found out where to get a bike (which I put aside and will be picking up tomorrow - pics to follow!), where the Graduate House is (yay, I'm actually allowed in now instead of sadly hovering outside the McGill one!!),

The Graduate House.

and what the Graduate Students Association is up to. Simon had less luck, he tried to get his phone set up but is sort of getting the runaround, which is no fun. Hopefully that will be solved tomorrow when he gets to pick his classes.

Anyway, I said pictures, so here we go!

Simon in our 'living room' (it's all sorta one room, as per my last post!) You can see the sliding doors to our 1st balcony, the tv on the wall, the two cozy chairs (one of which Simon is on), the door to our room on the left, the desk with the desk chair and a chair for our table in the foreground.

This is our building, though you can't see our room from this shot. Our balconies look like these ones though! The building is an L shape, and this is the smaller part.

The quiet study area that's off of the common room. I didn't get a picture of the common room itself because there were people in it and I felt awkward.

Simon in the computer/printer room that is opposite the study room.

The flag we brought is hanging on our door. The doors are sort of transparent, so it serves dual purposes! (This picture should be rotated once to the left, you can see the door handle in the top left)

Lunch on Day 2 (aka Super Bowl Day) - crackers and cheese and green tea for me.

So this view is from where Simon was sitting in the first photo, looking in from the balcony. Our room is now on the immediate right, Simon's at the desk, the table and chairs are there, the door outside with the flag on it is in the background. And you can barely see it, but there's a kitchen behind Simon too!

This is a terrible shot, we're tired and weary and frustrated, but it's our first glass of wine in our new place, so it needed to be documented! This is from our first night in town.

This is the pond below our balcony, that all of the frogs croak from at all hours of the night.

This is Black Mountain Tower. It sits atop Black Mountain, which is behind our place, kinda like what Mount Royal was to us in residence in Montreal, though a little farther away. We aren't on the mountain, but can see it. Simon and I have decided this tower is actually SuperVillain headquarters. Watch for Dr Evil peeking his head out!

This is the view from our living room balcony. Actually, the view from both balconies is exactly the same. The tents are covering a barbeque area, which Simon and I plan on using as soon as we find a good fish market. We still have almost nothing in our fridge. The residence rooms you see are the other side of the rooms that were in the picture a few back, the small part of the L. (I can only imagine how confusing this is to picture, sorry!!)

So the tea cup stayed in the same place, so the other picture was looking right and this one is looking left. You can see the pond on the foreground, and Black Mountain in the background.

For those of you who know about my passion for Burma, you'll be happy to know there's a Burmese Curry Place in town. It's $7.99 for 2 dishes and rice, and there are 9 dishes to choose from. I intend on visiting this place quite frequently!

Simon indulged me by having dinner there with me yesterday. I had the veggies and beans and chicken, and Simon had the fish and veggies. So happy we found this place!

Here it is folks, my equivalent of high school for the next 10 months - the Hedley Bull Centre, home of the College of Asia and the Pacific, and the Graduate Studies in International Affairs, aka the only building in which I'll have classes. I'm one excited nerd. I've already emailed someone about volunteering to help set up a Burma Conference the Center is hosting in May. Yay Academia!

A little more about the Hedley Bull Centre. Let me know if you can't read it and would like to.

Inside the middle of the ground floor of the Hedley Bull Centre. In the background is the cafe. I should've ventured into a classroom to take a picture but they were closed and I didn't want to come across as a strange person to everyone in the Centre.

And finally, I got to take my new bike out on a test drive today, so I drove it down to (man-made) Lake Burley-Griffin, named after the architect who designed Canberra.

Check out The Recyclery to see where my bike is coming from. I could've bought it today but I didn't have cash or a lock. It's kind of beat up, but the fact that it's significantly cheaper than anything else, and that it's made from recycled parts of other bikes, and that the place its made is so cool and a non-profit, all makes it a really feel good purchase. I'll take pictures when I get it tomorrow. Simon's going to come too and hopefully pick up a nice one, then we'll get him a lock and me a basket (picked up a lock for me today), and we'll be off!

Til soon,

Chelsea