I leave Melbourne in less than a week, and I can't express how much I'm going to miss it. I feel like this is the only place away from my family that I feel truly at home. It's such a beautiful city, and I've found the Melburnian culture just to be so welcoming. Coming here and going through this experience has changed me; while I'm still myself, I feel like I'm going back a different person.

No sense dwelling, though. I'll be back...count on it.

G’Day, mates! How’re ya goin’? I’m writing to you from sunny Australia! It’s currently 12:40am on Monday, Feb. 18. I arrived here last Monday, Feb. 11, but until now, had been unable to get internet into my room, and was therefore unable to write. I hope that everyone’s doing well. I arrived in Australia without incident (save a small drop while flying through an air pocket on the way to New Zealand). Also, might I suggest that the next time that you fly to Australia (or New Zealand for that matter), take Air New Zealand!! The service was amazing, and the flight was amazingly comfortable (and for once, the airplane food wasn’t absolutely awful—in fact, it was pretty good!).

I have so far been enjoying my time in Melbourne. Melbourne is a beautiful, CLEAN city (which I definitely appreciate, especially after coming from the States). It is also truly a multicultural city, in which I see many people…from Indians, to Malaysians, to Argentines. I’m still working on finding out exactly where the closest Gurdwara is, but I’ll definitely be getting there soon. One thing that I’ve noticed about Australia is that it’s light here for ages! It’s light well through 8:30-9pm at night, which is nice.

The campus here is humongous…articularly compared to home. While LC is roughly 4600 students, my uni here is about 55000 students—definitely a big difference. The buildings are very spread apart, and instead of referring to buildings by any sort of common name (e.g.: Sellinger Hall), they are referred to by number (e.g.: the Campus Centre is Building #10). My room is moderately sized…but I don’t have a roommate, which is nice. I’m still working on decorating it and making it more homey, because right now, it looks something akin to a prison cell.

Classes haven’t started yet (they start on the 25th), so my friends and I have been trying to get to know the city a bit. We’ve explored the Queen Victoria Market—a large market that sells everything from food (try the seafood paella—it’s delicious!) to Chinese New Year’s trinkets. Every Wednesday, there’s a night market, in which bands play, and all sorts of other vendors come to sell their wares. We’re going to try to head there again this week. We also visited China Town for a little bit the other day, inadvertantly. It appears to be rather similar to a lot of other Chinatowns in large cities…although I didn’t get the chance to properly check it out, so I hope to do that soon.

We are also trying to plan a trip to a beach soon. We’ve been trying for a couple of days, but plans have been falling through. We’re told that there are some nice beaches around the Great Ocean Road, although we’re trying to hold off on checking that area out, since we will be driving along the Great Ocean Road at the beginning of March. I’ve also been told to check out Byron Bay, which is south of Brisbane. I was told that the Gold Coast in general is a nice area, although has some trashy beaches (a la Ocean City), and Byron Bay is a nice clean area that people don’t often check out. OH! And I get to play with koalas and kangaroos and emus next week! I can't wait!

At any rate, I’ve got to go, as it’s getting late, and I’m planning to get up early tomorrow to get some organizing and things done. I hope that everyone’s doing well. I miss you all.
xoxo

It's strange to think that in five days, I will be on the longest flight of my life to head to Australia. I'm studying there for five months, and as nervous as I am about the trip, I'm incredibly excited. I'm at that strange place where it hasn't quite hit me yet, but at the same time, I know that I'm leaving really soon. It's quasi-surreal, if that makes any sense.

I'm also excited about spending my 21st birthday in New Zealand. Hopefully I'll see Caitlin when I travel there, as she's studying in Auckland.

I've got most of the stuff done that I need to get done, so now I'm just getting antsy...

So I'm going to fall into this trap of wasting time by filling out a useless survey...enjoy!

100 facts Tag

1) Full Name: Simran noneofyabusiness

2) Male/Female: Female

3) Were you named after anyone?: No

4) Does your name mean Anything?: Simran means prayer in Punjabi.

5) Nick Name(s): Sim

6) What do you think you look like... name wise: What does this question even mean?

7) Date Of Birth: 24th March

8) Place of Birth and Current Location: London. Currently not in London

9) Nationality: US

10) Astrology Sign: Aries

11) Chinese Astrology Sign: Rabbit

12) Religion: Sikh

13) What’s your favorite smell?: Freshly washed clothes

14) Political Position?: Moderate--I have both liberal and conservative political tendencies.

15) What do you prefer to drink in the morning?: Milk or tea.

16) Hair + Eye colour: Brown for both

17) Do you look like anyone famous?: nope

18) What do you look like?: Myself

19) Any unusual talents?: I have this innate ability to make anything as unfunny as possible.

20) Righty, Lefty, or Ambidextrous?: Righty

21) Gay, Straight, Bi, or Other?: Straight

22) What do you do for a living?: Student, and lab tech.

23) What do you do for fun?: Read, travel

24) What are your favorite art materials to work with?: my digital camera

25) What kind of materials would you like to work with?: I like to photograph landscapes

26) Have you met your grandparents?: Yes.

27) Boyfriend/Girlfriend: None.

28) Crush: None.

29) What celebrity would you date if you could?: Joe Armstrong! (see avatar)

30) Current worries?: Getting everything ready for Australia

31) Favorite online Guy/Girl(s): Tom from myspace. lol just kidding.

32) Favorite place to be?: Home, London

33) Least favorite place to be?: Physics lab. lol.

34) Do you burn or tan?: I tan usually, but burn when I'm in the sun for too long.

35) Ever break a bone?: No. *knocks on wood*

36) What is your favorite cereal?: KIX!

37) Person you cry with: No one.

Do You Have...

38) Any sisters: No.

39) Any brothers: Yes.

40) Any pets: 2 fish.

41) An Illness: nope.

42) A Pager: No.

43) A Personal phone line: No.

44) A Cell phone: Yes.

45) A visible birthmark: Yes.

46) A Pool or hot tub: Neither, but I wish I had a hot tub.

47) A Car: I need one.

Describe Your...

48) Personality: Laid back, but also focused and determined.

49) Driving: I'm a pretty good driver. I do get irritated with bad drivers, though.

50) Your clothing style: Jeans, polos and such.

51) Room: boring.

52) What’s missing: nothing.

53) School: LoCo baby

54) Bed: flowery

55) Relationship with your parent(s): Pretty good.

56) Do you believe in yourself: Yeah.

57) Do you believe in love at first sight?: I don't know.

58) Consider yourself a good listener: Yes.

59) Have a future dream that you would like to share?: I want to be a doctor--focusing on oncology or infectious disease--with a focus in public health

60) Get Along with your parents: Yes...

61) Save your e-mail conversations: Not really.

62) Pray: Yes.

63) Believe in reincarnation: Yes

64) Brush your teeth twice a day?: Yes

65) Like to talk on the phone: NO I hate talking on the phone. I'm serious.

66) Like to eat?: Sometimes.

67) Like to exercise?: Yes

68) Like to watch sports?: Football and tennis

69) Sing in the car?: Absolutely

70) What is a dream that you have all the time?: Nope.

71) Dream in colour: Yes.

72) Do you have nightmares?: Not really.

73) Sleep with a stuffed animal: 2 Winnie-the-Poohs and an Easter Bunny

What is…

74) Right next to you: My desk and chair

75) On your favourite coffee cup?: It's pink with LoCo late night stuff written on it. It's the first free mug that I got from school. lol.

76) On your mouse pad: I'm using a laptop, so I haven't got an external mouse hooked up.

77) Your favorite flavor of gum?: wintergreen

78) Your brand of deodorant?: Secret

79) Your dream honeymoon spot: Espana o Francia

80) Your dream husband/wife: Someone intelligent, honest, funny...

81) Hiding in your closet?: lol, I just cleaned it today, so clothes and two backpacks.

82) Under your bed: pajamas, indian clothes

83) The name of one of your closest/best friends?: Lindsay

84) Your bad time of the day: None

85) Your worst fear(s): Not achieving everything that I want to achieve.

86) What's the weather like?: COLD!

87) Your favorite time of year?: Late Spring/Early Summer

88) Your favorite holiday?: Thanksgiving

89) A material weakness?: handbags (god I sound so shallow)

90) The weirdest food or drink that you like: What is weird to one person is not always weird to another.

91) At the top of your "to-do list"?: Finish packing for Aussie

92) The hardest thing about growing up: The whole responsibility thing lol.

93) A pet peeve?: Hypocrites and people with bad grammar

94) Your scariest moment: I don't know.

95) Your attitude about love?: I'm sure it's awesome.

96) The funniest or most desperate thing you've done to get the attention of the opposite sex?: Do I strike you as that desperate?

97) The worst feeling in the world: disappointment

98) The best feeling in the world: achievement

99) Who sent this to you?: No one, although Chesney and Ruthie took it before me

Woot! Series 2 of BBC's Robin Hood starts tonight! Now, just to figure out how I'm going to watch it, as I'm obviously not in London right now.