Selvfølgelig!!

Selvfølgelig means "of course!" in Norwegian, and is a phrase used often by myself when I am in a room full of Norwegians who are not speaking English. :)

Photo-a-Day Challenge (I'm going to post these in groups, rather than daily)

Day 2: I made this!

Kangaroo steak and string beans.

Kangaroo meat is very lean and quite tasty. It tastes like... beef, but more gamey and sweet. It's got a great flavour, but its a little hard to describe! The meat was bought pre-marinated in herbs and garlic. The string beans were sauteed in butter with salt and pepper.

Day 3: Key.

Yep. Darth Vader made the trip out to Sydney with me! Richie wanted to send me off with some flair, and something to keep my keys company with. We also got awesome free lanyards during O-Week.

'What is O-Week?' you ask. Well, it's this huge week long orientation gathering the week before term begins where you can get heaps of free stuff, participate in lots of silly games like quidditch, walk on stilts, do an obstacle course and join lots of cool clubs and societies if you're keen -- all in the name of free stuff!!! Well, no. All in the name of "school spirit". Or something. My roomies and I gourged ourselves on free pancake(s), fairy floss, krispy kreme, candy, soft drinks, snow cones, and managed to score a bunch of free stuff, like DVDs, reusable bags, pens, planners, coupons, free laser tag and bowling, tshirts, hats, beauty products, etc, etc, etc. It was exhausting! Towards the end of the week they have a huge party, this year was "Fire and Ice Party + Foam Pit". 'Sounds awesome!' Right? Well, they said, admission is free before 7:30pm, and $5/10 after that. We arrived around 8:30pm (couldn't get everyone going fast enough) and they had stopped letting people in, and said they weren't going to open it up again because it was to capacity. Lame. It was raining so basically we tramped around getting soaked for nothing. Though we did manage to fashion some very lovely hats out of cardboard boxes! ;)

On Friday we were all planning to go to the Taronga Zoo, but it was pouring rain and we decided against it. Had a pretty lazy day where 4/6 house mates ended up watching the same movie, separately. Too random (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, because I know you're curious!).

Yesterday, Bibi, Chelsea and I all went out to watch the Sydney Mardi Gras parade. It's a HUGE deal here, and since Fat Tuesday, apparently there's been festivities going on. We didn't get a very good view, even arriving early. Most of the parade was admired via cameras being held over head and randomly snapping shots. I was too short to get anything good, but Bibi is quite tall and she managed to get some good ones. Then we were getting a little too claustrophobic and didn't have such a great view, so we left. It was so neat to see everyone who participated in the parade and those who came to watch it. It's a HUGE support to the LGBT community, and its amazing to see so many people coming together. The variety of groups participating in the parade itself was astounding. Everything from armed forces, to religious groups, to private groups. Maybe I'm behind the times, or maybe its Australia.

"Since 1 July 2009, same-sex couples receive the same level of recognition as de facto opposite-sex couples in federal legislation including tax, health, superannuation, and aged care." (Thanks wikipedia: LGBT Rights in Australia)

Today, the girls and I headed out to Ikea. It's about an hour and a half by bus, with one transfer. This was my first experience in an Ikea store. I was blown away. First by the food (!!) and then by the sheer amount of STUFF. Only bought a handful of things (only needed a bathmat and some towels). After our big adventure, we headed to Bondi Junction (Westfields mall) to get a few more things for cleaning and things we needed for the new semester. Classes start tomorrow!!

Courses are typically split into lectures and tutorials (tutes), and sometimes seminars and practicals (pracs). Practicals are the same as laboratory sections, and tutorials are basically discussion sections. Most courses have their lectures beginning week 1, and tutes/pracs starting week 2. I only have 2 course lectures in week 1! I don't have to start until Wednesday! Which, basically gives me time to get my books. The courses I am currently enrolled in are:

Intro to Criminology

Intro to Italian

Philosophy of Science

Vertebrate Zoology

Really excited to start my last semester as an undergrad!!!! :)

I shall leave you all with a question. My quandary for the night is: 

Where should I go in Australia on my mid-semester break? 

We get Friday 29 March through Sunday 7 April off from class. Not sure if I should go North or South...