July 7
This morning I got up at 8:00 am. I borrowed Sam's pot to cook breakfast (oatmeal!), then spent some t
ime in my room trying to figure out how UC's online class registration and student web portal features all work. I looked at the two courses that I am already enrolled in, and the other possible courses that will fulfill my requirement, and I found some conflict between classroom meeting hours. I will definitely be able to get one more class, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get another one on top of that, atlhough it does conflict slightly one day. I must have not figured things out right when I was looking at classes and chose to come here, because I realized today that even if I can get those courses to work out, I might come up one or two credits short on "biology electives" that I need to graduate. Yikes. I guess I'll just have to see if I could get those credit(s) waived once I get my classes all sorted out, and if not, I might have to just take one class in the spring semester back home. I'm not gonna stress about anything for now, I'll do what I have to when the time comes.
By using the handy Australian yellow pages website this morning, I was able to locate a Salvation Army store about 4 miles or so from my campus. I decided in the early afternoon that I would try to catch a bus down at the Belconnen interchange (UC is in the Belconnen suburb of Canberra) and see if I might get a ride over there to do some shopping for some supplies that I'm going to need here in the dorm. On my way over, since I didn't really exactly know where I was going, I happened to go into the Westview mall. I was gonna turn around and go back out and try to find the bus stop, but a store caught my eye just inside the entrance that was called "The Reject Shop". It turns out it's a discount surplus store of sorts, and there was lots of really cheap stuff there. I wandered around the store, then went throughout the rest of the 3-story mall, and ended up deciding to shop at some of those stores. I got a lot of stuff at the reject store, including tissues (10 pack of pocket tissue packs for $1.00... that's 75 cents U.S.$!), a 48 pack of "super" AA batteries for THREE DOLLARS, scrubbing pads for washing dishes, a can opener for $1.50, some chocolate-covered sultanas (raisins = sultanas in Aussie.. It's funny to see Kellogg's Sultana Bran cereal...), some laundry detergent, and some water. I found a grocery store in the mall that had some cheap stuff too, including $0.99 Cambell's condensed soup, and really cheap oranges and other stuff. I was going to buy a plain white polyester blanket for my bed at the reject shop for $19, but I found a much nicer blue one with stars/moons on it at a store that had a lot of stuff on clearance. It was regularly $50 (the normal price for the lower-end scale for blankets and comforters here..), but was on sale for $25. It was supposed to come with a matching pillow case, but I found out when I got back to my dorm and put it on my bed that someone had stolen the pillow case out of the package. It's ok though, I didn't really need the pillow case. I'm glad I brought my sheets along with me, because it looks like you can't get a set of sheets for less than $20 around here either. So I got a deal with my blanket. :)
I was looking at shoes in the mall again today too. I checked several different stores, including a Foot Locker, a sports store, and a shoe store called "Athlete's foot", and was dis
appointed by the high prices in each place. Normally I can get my Asics Gel-2110 running shoes back in the states for $89.99. They're kind of expensive shoes, but they're the best running shoes I've ever had, and it's worth paying the extra $$. Here though, EVERY store I checked today had them for $189 or $199!! The sport store had them on sale for $149.99 but even when you figure the conversion with the U.S. dollar being worth $1.25, it still comes out to being $112 for a pair of shoes that I'd normally pay $90 for. Everywhere they're not on sale, it'd be equivalent to paying $150 U.S. I guess I'm gonna be wearing my old running shoes for a while!
This mall was bigger than the one back in "City Centre" mall by the hostel. I saw a lot more stores that I recognized from America, including McD's, Toys R Us, K-Mart, KFC, Foot Locker, and a few others. It's interesting when you walk through some of those stores though, because a lot of the goods they sell are different than you would see in the U.S.; for example, there's a LOT more Australian-made and produced products. I've noticed it is the norm to see everything say "made in Australia" on it. Rarely is there a "made in China" sticker that is so commom back in the US. Kinda funny considering how Australia is much closer to China, and actually seems to have a lot more Asian people than the U.S. does.
After I was done shopping at the mall I decided it was too late to go to Salvation Army; it was already after 4:00 pm. I think I might try going tomorrow or something instead. I still need a pot, a knife, some silverware (I'll keep using my plasticware until I buy some), a dish towel, etc. I'm not gonna spend big bucks on those things when I might be able to get perfectly good ones at a salvation army for a fraction of the cost. I did go back this afternoon though to an electronics store in the mall and purchased a card reader for my digital camera card. It was $30 Aussie money, but it's well worth it to avoid the frustration of my camera refusing to upload directly, and it will come in handy because it's a card reader for up to 5 different kinds of digital media cards. I uploaded my pictures to my computer tonight, and am working on putting them on their respective blog entries so you can all see the pictures I'm talking about. I've seen several advertisements here in Australia about the next gene
ration of uploading for digital pictures -- wi-fi cameras and camera cards. Apparently a lot of people find it appealing to have the ability to beam their pictures directly to their computer without plugging anything in, especially travellers, and an article I read made it sound like pretty soon in the future most cameras will have this capability. Technology sure is advancing quickly!
Today the maintanence guy came by when right before I left for the mall, and he had to leave to get some tools and parts that he had forgotten. I had no curtain, and my bed had a broken leg, and he was going to get me a curtain rod put up, and a curtain for the curtain rod. When I got back from the mall, however, I was pleasantly surprised to find not only a completely installed and fully-functioning curtain, but also a brand new bed frame. Apparently he took my old bed stand and brought in a new one and put my mattress on it for me and everything! The new bed is a little higher, which is nice, and is a much sturdier, smooth, steel pipe frame that's painted white. I'm not used to the maintanence people at Mansfield being so on top of the needs of their residents... it's kinda nice having things like that get done. :-D I still need another closet door though. But that's not too big of a deal.
ime in my room trying to figure out how UC's online class registration and student web portal features all work. I looked at the two courses that I am already enrolled in, and the other possible courses that will fulfill my requirement, and I found some conflict between classroom meeting hours. I will definitely be able to get one more class, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get another one on top of that, atlhough it does conflict slightly one day. I must have not figured things out right when I was looking at classes and chose to come here, because I realized today that even if I can get those courses to work out, I might come up one or two credits short on "biology electives" that I need to graduate. Yikes. I guess I'll just have to see if I could get those credit(s) waived once I get my classes all sorted out, and if not, I might have to just take one class in the spring semester back home. I'm not gonna stress about anything for now, I'll do what I have to when the time comes.By using the handy Australian yellow pages website this morning, I was able to locate a Salvation Army store about 4 miles or so from my campus. I decided in the early afternoon that I would try to catch a bus down at the Belconnen interchange (UC is in the Belconnen suburb of Canberra) and see if I might get a ride over there to do some shopping for some supplies that I'm going to need here in the dorm. On my way over, since I didn't really exactly know where I was going, I happened to go into the Westview mall. I was gonna turn around and go back out and try to find the bus stop, but a store caught my eye just inside the entrance that was called "The Reject Shop". It turns out it's a discount surplus store of sorts, and there was lots of really cheap stuff there. I wandered around the store, then went throughout the rest of the 3-story mall, and ended up deciding to shop at some of those stores. I got a lot of stuff at the reject store, including tissues (10 pack of pocket tissue packs for $1.00... that's 75 cents U.S.$!), a 48 pack of "super" AA batteries for THREE DOLLARS, scrubbing pads for washing dishes, a can opener for $1.50, some chocolate-covered sultanas (raisins = sultanas in Aussie.. It's funny to see Kellogg's Sultana Bran cereal...), some laundry detergent, and some water. I found a grocery store in the mall that had some cheap stuff too, including $0.99 Cambell's condensed soup, and really cheap oranges and other stuff. I was going to buy a plain white polyester blanket for my bed at the reject shop for $19, but I found a much nicer blue one with stars/moons on it at a store that had a lot of stuff on clearance. It was regularly $50 (the normal price for the lower-end scale for blankets and comforters here..), but was on sale for $25. It was supposed to come with a matching pillow case, but I found out when I got back to my dorm and put it on my bed that someone had stolen the pillow case out of the package. It's ok though, I didn't really need the pillow case. I'm glad I brought my sheets along with me, because it looks like you can't get a set of sheets for less than $20 around here either. So I got a deal with my blanket. :)
I was looking at shoes in the mall again today too. I checked several different stores, including a Foot Locker, a sports store, and a shoe store called "Athlete's foot", and was dis
appointed by the high prices in each place. Normally I can get my Asics Gel-2110 running shoes back in the states for $89.99. They're kind of expensive shoes, but they're the best running shoes I've ever had, and it's worth paying the extra $$. Here though, EVERY store I checked today had them for $189 or $199!! The sport store had them on sale for $149.99 but even when you figure the conversion with the U.S. dollar being worth $1.25, it still comes out to being $112 for a pair of shoes that I'd normally pay $90 for. Everywhere they're not on sale, it'd be equivalent to paying $150 U.S. I guess I'm gonna be wearing my old running shoes for a while!This mall was bigger than the one back in "City Centre" mall by the hostel. I saw a lot more stores that I recognized from America, including McD's, Toys R Us, K-Mart, KFC, Foot Locker, and a few others. It's interesting when you walk through some of those stores though, because a lot of the goods they sell are different than you would see in the U.S.; for example, there's a LOT more Australian-made and produced products. I've noticed it is the norm to see everything say "made in Australia" on it. Rarely is there a "made in China" sticker that is so commom back in the US. Kinda funny considering how Australia is much closer to China, and actually seems to have a lot more Asian people than the U.S. does.
After I was done shopping at the mall I decided it was too late to go to Salvation Army; it was already after 4:00 pm. I think I might try going tomorrow or something instead. I still need a pot, a knife, some silverware (I'll keep using my plasticware until I buy some), a dish towel, etc. I'm not gonna spend big bucks on those things when I might be able to get perfectly good ones at a salvation army for a fraction of the cost. I did go back this afternoon though to an electronics store in the mall and purchased a card reader for my digital camera card. It was $30 Aussie money, but it's well worth it to avoid the frustration of my camera refusing to upload directly, and it will come in handy because it's a card reader for up to 5 different kinds of digital media cards. I uploaded my pictures to my computer tonight, and am working on putting them on their respective blog entries so you can all see the pictures I'm talking about. I've seen several advertisements here in Australia about the next gene
ration of uploading for digital pictures -- wi-fi cameras and camera cards. Apparently a lot of people find it appealing to have the ability to beam their pictures directly to their computer without plugging anything in, especially travellers, and an article I read made it sound like pretty soon in the future most cameras will have this capability. Technology sure is advancing quickly!Today the maintanence guy came by when right before I left for the mall, and he had to leave to get some tools and parts that he had forgotten. I had no curtain, and my bed had a broken leg, and he was going to get me a curtain rod put up, and a curtain for the curtain rod. When I got back from the mall, however, I was pleasantly surprised to find not only a completely installed and fully-functioning curtain, but also a brand new bed frame. Apparently he took my old bed stand and brought in a new one and put my mattress on it for me and everything! The new bed is a little higher, which is nice, and is a much sturdier, smooth, steel pipe frame that's painted white. I'm not used to the maintanence people at Mansfield being so on top of the needs of their residents... it's kinda nice having things like that get done. :-D I still need another closet door though. But that's not too big of a deal.
posted by itsbenrael at 6:29 PM
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