Karima and I decided to go and buy bedding so we at least had something to sleep on the first night. After making our way to Macquarie Centre we soon discovered the existence of Woolworths; not just a bargain high street shop, but a WHOLE supermarket..AND.. Woolies has a big sister in Oz too..Big W. I don't know how shocking this is for most people, but in the UK Woolworths had just gone bust and is known as a typical retail store selling water pistols, pick n mix and £2 out-of-date books in dingy town high streets.
Also for me, I had never come across such an array of shops under one roof. I mean we have shopping centres in England, but Mac Centre has Supermarkets, a Food Court, electronic stores, donut stalls, a fish market, a shop called 'Athlete's Foot (???) and a teahouse which I would become a lot more familiar with later on. Definitely beats my Derby local, the Westfield. At this point we soon realised how expensive Sydney is. This resulted in buying Kiddies' bedding on offer..it does the job.
Over the next few days we met up at the International Office to meet with other new Internationals and go see the famous Sydney Sights. This included trips to Manly Beach, Bondi Beach, the Sydney Opera House and the Botanical Gardens. Having never been much of a city person I had had very mixed feeling about moving to Australia, but as soon as I began walking through this multicultural city I fell in love.
During this first week I met Katya, Amy, Sarah, Joey, Martina, Amandine, Dan, Lindsey, Ryan, my amazing room mate MK, and, of course, Breezy.
I distinctly recall sitting on Karima's bed watching Tropic Thunder when this tiny, blonde American girl comes in and starts talking to me. My first impression was 'Oh god, if she's not American I don't know who is'. Little did I know this would be the beginning of many disastrous baking sessions and a friendship that I hope will last forever.
MK. Chicken Mum. Possum. 'The responsible one' of Flat 9. When I first heard MK speaking norwegian (Eriiikkkkk!!!) I thought it was the weirdest language I had ever heard..and still do. It's all clicking and tongue rolling. The first night out MK came back hammered; a preview of what was yet to come. Having established her reputation as an alcoholic (:P) early on in the semester, she preceded to announce that she is responsible and therefore should be the Chicken Mum. We soon realised she had actually meant Mother Hen, but the name stuck.
Having met most of the Parklanders it was a few days before Uni started. However, my flat still had two empty rooms. well..almost. One was full of 'junk' which turned out to be my future flatmate's possessions. However, Karima, Katya, MK and I had decided that no one must be living there..it was simply a store room for previous Parklanders' unwanted junk. So....we decided to have a rummage through. I found a couple of letters (sorry for reading!) addressed to someone called 'Jeremy' and I figured that the previous owner of the room must have been this ' Jeremy'. Anyway, we confiscated some useful items from this aptly-named 'room of requirement'.
A few days later I left the flat to go to the shops. When I had left MK had put a large bowl of liquorice allsorts on the lounge table. I resisted the temptation to eat even one them. Later on, I entered Block 2 of Parklands and heard music. Where was this awful thumping noise coming from?? I climbed the stairs, nervous because I was already guessing the source of the 'music'. The door of Flat 9, my flat, was propped open. Entering, I immediately noticed the absence of any liquorice in the bowl. I turned to the kitchen and came face to face with two tall, lanky boys. They were giants. One had crazily fluffy, curly hair and a massive smile. The other was wearing black and was even skinnier than fluffycurlyboy.
Meet Jeremy and Dean...
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