Welcome to 17 Coogee Street. Although it looks small, it goes on forever into the back, much like many DC townhouses. This will be home sweet home for me and 16 other study abroad students for the next 4 months. Yes, you read that right, 16 students. Luckily, all the roommates (thus far) are pretty awesome and easy going.The accomodation is great, especially living upstairs as I do. The windows on the right of the building are directly above my bed. My roommate just arrived today. She is from New Jersey and it seems like we should get along well. Funnily, I am in the minority in the house in that I am neither Canadian (we have 3 Queens' students) nor a business major (all but one).
The first floor is kind of boarding house style, while the upstairs is more homey. They boys are downstairs while the girls are upstairs. Obviously, the boys are jealous of our digs upstairs and tend to hang out up there. There's no aircon in the house, but the fans do a good job so it's okay. There's also a guest house/love shack in the backyard with another girl and a house manager, Justin. He's the guy we go to to troubleshoot problems with the house. Basically, his story is exactly the story my parents don't want to tell about me; he was a study abroad student last year and fell in love with the place and transfered.
Front door from the top of the stairs; Upstairs kitchen; Upstairs common area
A picture of my room will be forthcoming, but it needs to be completely unpacked and cleaned first.
One of the things I'm most appreciative of (other than the lack of communication issues) is the general lack of culture shock. I am, however, enjoying discovering the differences between well known American items and their Australian counterparts; grocery shopping especially pointed these out to me. I debated, but finally bought the Rice Bubbles over the Frosties. I passed on Cheese Supreme Doritos. The 2 liter Coke bottles are kind of awesome because they look exactly like the one's you would get from a vending machine, except bigger.
Just to make you all jealous: I am simultaneously 15 minutes from the beach and 15 minutes from Uni (although there's a killer hill to get there). Some postcards have been bought and will hopefully be in the post shortly.
Key: aircon = a/c, air conditioning; Rice Bubbles = Rice Crispies; Frosties = Frosted Flakes; Uni = university (duh); post = mail
