Tuesday through Wednesday... (Sorry we are so backed up!)

Tuesday was Bill's official day to enroll… fortunately he had figured out what he needed to do on Monday (at the failed attempt!). We spent most of Tuesday morning working out Bill’s schedule and making sure we had everything necessary to enroll. Then we made our first venture into the city on our own! The train takes about 40 minutes to get to the Uni from Gymea (where we are staying now). When we got there, the somewhat torturous enrollment process (from Monday’s experience) went very well on Tuesday, now that we knew what they needed from Bill! We made it through the first two stages quickly, but were met by a line at Stage 3 that lasted over an hour! Apparently the data entry stage was battling computers prone to crashing! Just our luck! Soon we were finished and wandering around campus, admiring the beautiful architecture. (The picture above is of their main building on campus - the grounds were set up for Orientation week... Sorry it is so dark!)

The station closest to the Uni is Redfern... trouble is that area is conflicted with some of the worst crime in Sydney! Don’t worry (Moms!), we won’t be living anywhere near that area!

Wednesday (1/3) morning was an early start. Glenis’ Rotary Club had asked Bill to come to meet people… They will have him back to speak sometime later. They meet at 7 in the morning! The club is small – only with about 20 members present. The group was very friendly. At the end we met two members that moved to Sydney from Alaska – the husband is a retired professor from the Sydney Uni (he and Bill discussed his Master’s classes) and the wife is originally from the East Coast and is an artist. It was great to make some new relationships… Everyone in Australia is so friendly!

Later that day we went to Cronulla beach. It was a little bit cloudy (about 80 degrees) and most of the locals weren’t around. It was a little bit cold – Bill got in the water some, but I just focused on working on my tan. I still don’t have too much progress in that area! (Go figure!) :) On our way home we wandered around the local mall area and found some local real estate agents. We went to see one apartment (way too small!) and made appointments to see more on Friday. Later that night we had a great meal cooked by Glenis of Roast with a fantastic salad (Mom, you would have loved it!). We also had a little taste of home playing in the background... We listened to Michael Buble through dinner! It was a very nice evening!