Now that I’ve been in Sydney for 3 whole days, I’m starting to get over a little of the whole shock of being immersed into a completely new city, environment, and culture. That shock can obviously affect your perceptions and give you a skewed interpretation of your new home. I feel that I’m at a point where I can start giving clear first impressions of Sydney.
The city is large, over 4 million in Sydney proper, the largest city I’ve ever lived in. With it comes many things, not limited to lots of crowds, lots of buildings, decent public transportation, crime, poverty, diversity, etc.. I haven’t witnessed all of these things, but I’m sure I will over the course of my stay here. There are over 300 different languages spoken in Sydney. It really is quite a diverse group, and you can’t help but notice all the languages you here walking down the street or when you hop on the train.
The public transport is good, I’ve never really lived in a city with a useful rail system. This one seems to be able to take me anywhere I want to go. At least, anywhere I’ve wanted to go in the last three days, and will have to go for my internship. Living a 10 minute walk from Central Station probably has much to do with the usefulness of the rail, as I can grab just about any line in the city. Between the rails, the buses, and the ferries, I’ll be able to get around no problem sans car.
There is a large Asian influence. Being so close to you know, Asia, probably has a lot to do with this, but there are tons of Australians with Asian heritage here. It adds a very interesting dynamic to the city and you can see its influences in many aspects of the central business district.
The city is beautiful. Having some time to spend around the harbor and downtown today I was able to take in the beauty of the city. From the gorgeous skyscrapers (hey, I’m an engineer…) to the breath taking harbor and artistic Opera House, there was nay an eye-sore in sight. It’s also impressively clean for such a large metropolis.
I will like it here. I can definitely see myself already settling in and getting comfortable with my surroundings. I’ve missed turns while walking and found my bearings, getting back to my destination in a completely foreign city. Maybe it was luck, maybe just a good sense of direction, but I think I’m getting the feel of the land.

Yesterday after our program orientation, a group of us made our way to Bondi Beach, taking the rail by ourselves for the first time. We navigated a transfer and then hopped on a bus that took us to Bondi. This was an absolutely stunning scene of a beach and residences built into a cove. We waded in the Pacific Ocean for the first time this trip (likely the first time for some of the group) and walked down the beach to a rocky out-jutting. We climbed out onto the rocks, for a spectacular view of the cove and the one just south of Bondi. Unfortunately I forgot my camera on this trip, but I will be going back, just for pictures if need be.

Today we had our internship orientation, which was a powerpoint presentation about what is expected of us, and what we can expect. We were also given addresses, dates and times for our interview with our placement company. Mine is on Monday at 10am. After that, we walked to the Australian Hotel down in ‘The Rocks’, a historic Sydney district, where we feasted upon the tastes of Kangaroo Pizza and Emu Pizza. The kangaroo was a little gamey, but the emu was very nice and tender. After lunch, we split up and a some of us headed down to the Harbor and around Circular Quay (pronounced key) where the ferries head out. We just wandered, taking in the sites of the Sydney Harbor bridge, the Sydney Opera House and downtown in general. We stumbled upon a didgeridoo player rocking to techno music and took our picture with him, then headed back home for a barbecue hosted by the owner of Georgia House. Must go, missing the barbecue!

I’ll have pictures up soon. I’ll add a link here! Pictures!
Cheers!

Friday, August 29th, 2008 @ 2:37 AM Australia, Travels
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