Soooo cold!!!

Photos:

• Top left: Newtown
• Top right: Sydney Harbour Bridge from Circular Quay
• Bottom left: Sydney Opera House
• Bottom right: view of Sydney
  

As I sit here typing this post, it is currently about 10:15 in the morning (Thursday the 6th) and absolutely freezing. The weather report says it's supposedly 18 degrees Celsius (which is something like 64 degrees Fahrenheit), but let me tell you--absolutely no one sees the value in central heating here and it feels very much colder than it actually is. I'm never far from my fleece blanket when I'm at my friend's apartment.

Yesterday was nice weather, though. I had prepared myself for the same wet and cold that I had experienced the day before and, much to my surprise, soon after leaving the apartment found that I was over-prepared. I have pictures of myself the day I arrived wearing multiple layers, a jacket, and a scarf at the Aquarium, but yesterday I felt like I was baking. Haven't gone outside yet today, but I'm hoping the temperature will end up more like yesterday than the day before.

I met up with Carla yesterday as soon as she got off work on campus at UNSW and from there we went to Newtown to look around and do some window-shopping, etc. We went to a grocery store and picked up a few things for lunch, got on a bus and headed over to the Circular Quay (pronounced "key") where we found a bench to eat on with an absolutely fantastic view. There we saw the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. I took the picture of the city from the top of the steps at the Opera House. The park you see on the left side of the photograph is part of the Royal Botanical Gardens, where I hope to go sometime next week.

From there, we took a quick walk through a section on the other side of the Quay called The Rocks. Lots of *really expensive* shopping, clubs and restaurants there. We'll go back there probably on a weekend to look around some more.

Next, we took the bus back to her apartment to make dinner and watch Australian soap operas and gameshows. Still taking it fairly easy in the evenings because I haven't fully adjusted to the time change yet. I keep waking up obscenely early in the mornings because it's actually early afternoon at home, and going to bed at 9pm here is actually like going to bed at 4 in the morning. It may take a while but as they say here, I'll "acclimatise" eventually. :)