Philadelphia

Dearest family and friends,

On Friday I left my home in Georgetown and caught a bus to Philadelphia with Hilary for what would be the start of the end of my time in the USA.

Philadelphia is a pretty cool town, full of sculptures and art and museums - it still surprises me how much of a rich history America has - Australian history pales in comparison.

Hilary and I had a bit of a walk after we got to Philly, we had dinner at the hotel and watched a movie and proceeded to have the most comfortable sleep in months - I didn't realise how uncomfortable dorm beds actually were.

On Saturday morning we woke up relatively early to go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art...

Those are the steps that Sylvester Stallone runs up in one of the Rocky movies and probably yells Adrian or something...

We had breakfast in a place called Lemon Hill which was absolutely DELICIOUS...

I had eggs baked in a spicy tomato sauce with pancetta and ricotta with crusty bread... it was insane!

It started snowing when we were in Lemon Hill - I have never been so cold in my life as I was in Philadelphia that day, it was so windy and we almost got blown away. 

We walked over to the gallery where we spent a few hours looking at all the paintings - I saw the Degas dancer who I saw in Canberra with Mum and Paris with Dad. 

We walked back to our hotel and had a rest and it was about time for dinner and we felt like italian so we looked up trip advisor and chose Barbuzzo on 13th street which was absolutely delicious! After Barbuzzo, we had a night cap at a place called Vintage where we had a very chatty (and good looking) waiter. 

On Sunday we caught the SEPTA (metro) to the Old Town and saw the oldest street in America, had brunch, patted a sweet as cat, saw the Liberty Bell through a window - the line to see it up close was too long - the window was just as good and a nice and creepy. We walked back towards the town hall and our hotel and had a look at the shops along Walnut Street and went back to the hotel. We had dinner at an english pub called The Dandelion... 

On Monday morning we were awoken at 6am by a fire alarm in our hotel building but thankfully it was a false alarm and we were able to go back to our rooms and miraculously fell asleep again and woke up to go to Western Market where we had crepes before our bus ride to NYC! 

Philly was a great city, I wish I had more time there and will definitely go back at some stage in the future. When I get my photos developed from my film camera, I'll put more up! 

Here are a few more pics that I took (note: I didn't take that many photos because it was so cold I couldn't take my camera out and take photos!) 

19 days till I leave the USA - I miss you all and will see you all very soon,

Edi xxxx 

Hurricane Sandy.

Good evening family and friends.

I write this post as I am bracing for Hurricane Sandy to hit within the next 24 hours. Class has been cancelled tomorrow and basically the whole campus has shut down. At the moment it's raining but not heavily and the wind isn't too bad either.

I am safe and I have plenty of food and water and am hopefully in a safe location (I'm not actually within the Georgetown campus, 2 blocks away from the library).

I got an email from ACU asking for my whereabouts and whether I was ok and I replied that I was fine and had food and water and whatnot.

With a bit of luck the storm isn't as bad as it is purported to be but I'm not entirely sure, I will definitely keep you updated.

If you want to check its progress I'm sure it's all over Australian news websites but I am looking at http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Love you all!

Edi

NEW YORK CITY (an overdue story)

Mirjam, myself and Hilary in Central Park

On Friday the 21st of September, my friend Hilary and I went to Union Station to get the bus to the Big Apple. It was all a big rush because my class didn't finish until 3 that day and I had to pack beforehand, run back to the other side of the university and run to meet Hilary so we could get to the station. She bought some salads at our favourite place, Sweet Green for the ride which was delicious!

On the way to Union there was a problem with the train in front of us which meant that we had to get off and catch a cab. This should have been an omen for us but we thought that that could be our bad luck for the day and were hoping nothing else went wrong... this was a serious error on our behalves, I'm pretty sure we jinxed ourselves or maybe it was just that the traffic in Maryland is 50million times worse than anything I've ever seen in Australia.

It took us 8 hours (YES 8 HOURS) on the bus to get to NYC. It should only have taken 4. Now I know you're my family and friends and that you put up with my faults (because you have to) but Edwina + a bus for 8 hours + a man behind her sneezing, coughing and saying "ohhhh mannn he's going the wrong way" = the worst mood of all time. I was cranky. Poor Hilary and I were trying to snooze on the bus but it was all so cramped and uncomfortable. The bus finally got out of the Maryland traffic and we had to stop on the New Jersey turn pike because the bus driver had driven his allocation of hours and we had to switch. After a 30 minute pit stop (where I was getting increasingly annoyed) we got back on the bus for another 2 hour ride to NYC!

By the time we got into town at almost 2am, I was ready to just go to bed. We got to our room where Mirjam and Saori had already arrived (Saori was on a bus that left DC after us and she still got there before us) and quickly got changed so we could go and have a drink in the Meatpacking district/Chelsea. I was surprised because NY was supposed to be a 24hr place, the place we had a drink was so quiet and closed straight after we left. We went back to the hotel for a well deserved snooze.

On Saturday morning I was buzzing - on Saturday night I was going to see Bon Iver at Radio City Music Hall...

The inside of this place was immense - it was so huge and I hate to say it but maybe it was better than seeing them at the Sydney Opera House in March! 

On the Saturday, Hilary and I split up from Saori and Mirjam and went exploring around Chelsea (we had breakfast at Chelsea Markets), 5th avenue (Tiffanys), Times Square (The M&M store, Hershey's mega store), The Rockefeller Centre and caught the subway back down to the lower east side and had the most delicious Arepas from here. I had the chicken and avocado ones with their special spicy sauce which was delicious! My mouth is watering whilst writing this, I wonder if they do delivery to DC?  

After walking around the Lower East Side we had a look at an art fair which to be honest wasn't that inspiring... and Hilary and I got $4 sangrias at a bar that was perfect for people watching. After that we caught the subway back to 14th and 8th Street to our hotel, got changed and treated ourselves to the most delicious Italian food on our street at a place called Crispo which was relatively expensive but definitely worth it.

After dinner Mirjam and I went to see Bon Iver at Radio City which was wonderful, I had such a lovely evening! When it was over we went to meet Hilary and Saori in Times Square - they were meeting some of the other French exchange students from Georgetown but I didn't feel like it so I went back to the hotel.

Skyline Park in Chelsea

On Sunday morning we caught the Subway to Brooklyn which was full of Hipsters. We had breakfast in a delicious little cafe that served baked eggs in little bowls full of vegetables and cheese. I also had the world's worst coffee there so I guess you have to take the good with the bad.

We had a look around some of the little boutique shops and wandered around for a while before catching the Subway back to Central Park. We sat up on a hill and were accosted by a crazy lady who told us that she was trying to write a novel (she wasn't) and we were talking too loudly (we weren't talking much at all). I also ate some delicious fairy floss (cue Dad's disappointed face).

We were getting pretty hungry by this point so we went back to Chelsea markets to grab something for lunch and ate in the Skyline Park. It was beautiful but pretty chilly up there...

The park was actually supposed to be a monorail link that never eventuated. It was nice to see how much work had gone into making it fit in with the rest of the city.

After this we had to go back to the hotel and pick up our bags to bid farewell to NYC. I must admit that NY wasn't quite what I had in mind and certainly a lot of exciting things were more underwhelming but I look forward to spending some more time there at the end of my exchange... providing it doesn't take 8 hours to get there by bus!

Segway Tour!

Hi all,

Just wanted to put a few photos up from the Segway tour that Steph and I went on on Sunday morning around the National Mall and the Memorials. Steph got a deal with groupon and I reluctantly agreed to go. Apparently the guy who owned the segway company died after riding one off a cliff in England in 2010... I didn't really want to share the same fate as him but it was really easy to get the hang of and insane amounts of fun!

We had such a good time, I'm hoping I can go on the tour with Dad when he comes to visit me in Georgetown.

Georgetown University

Dearest family and friends,

I decided to create a blog for you guys to see what I'm up to. I will upload photos and stuff so it saves me having to email gigantic photos to you all.

I might as well start from the beginning here, I'll stretch my mind back to August when Stephanie and I left Sydney.

After the world's worst ever flight (2 nosebleeds, 4 vomiting episodes) and 15 hours in economy class we arrived in Dallas, TX to catch our connecting flight to D.C. Unfortunately the customs line had other ideas for us and we missed our connecting flight and had to wait for the 5pm one instead.

After the 3 hour flight from Dallas to D.C. We got in a cab and made our way to our hotel, Washington Plaza

The hotel was really good, we ordered room service on the first night and after the trial of flying such a long way we fell asleep almost immediately after eating.

The week before we started International Orientation was spent looking around our new home, getting essentials like American phone numbers and all important shopping expeditions.

We decided to check out our new University and were instantly awed by its gigantic presence on the hill at Georgetown...

During the international orientation week we had a lot of pizza and other free food (as us Australians know, free anything is always a good thing). During the O week I met a lot of new friends, some who I discovered lived close to me my whole life! Hilary is from Lindfield and Ellie is from Manly! We made friends from Ecuador, France, England, New Zealand, Spain, Belgium, Germany and a lot more places.

From L-R, Stephanie, Hilary, Ellie, Sharne and my good self!

The week went by really quickly and we formed some really good connections within the university. The week after was a little scarier as we started classes and met our fellow American classmates who have been very welcoming and eager to learn Australian phrases, I have tried unsuccessfully to convince people of the existence of the "Drop Bear", I have encouraged people to "go to the bottle-o for a bevvie" and not to say "throw another shrimp on the barbie".

I have been to my clinical placements in Arlington and Washington, both have been very interesting and it's amazing how quickly I have adapted to life in D.C.

The Lincoln Memorial

Classes are different to ACU of course, they go for 2.5 hours here and as you can imagine by the end of class I am almost out of my mind with boredom. Our teachers are really great and flexible with assignments and are always including information in our lectures pertaining to Australian statistics and facts which is always funny.

In Arlington I have been educating mothers about things such as immunisations for children and asthma and allergies with a girl called Julia. The best part is when I get to have a cuddle with the babies!

I am really loving my time here in the US, I think that taking this opportunity to study abroad is the best thing I have done, I am so glad that I have settled in so well and made such good friends and I can't wait to share more of my experiences with you all!

All my love, Edwina.