Varsity Shores

G'day mates!

All moved in to my new place at Varsity Shores and I can say it's far better than Varsity Towers.

To think I was paying MORE to live in a studio apartment and was charged an insane amount for internet and laundry. About the same distance to the university as well.

Varsity Shores is located on the other side of Lake Orr and about a 10 minute walk from Bond Uni. From the street, you can actually see the university. The site consists of about 100 or so units that range from 2 story units to 3 story waterfront properties. There is a pool and rec room but will probably never use it since I work out at Fitness First. I've also noticed there are actual families that live here. While it is definitely suitable for families and kids, I feel bad for them come midnight when the drunks come out (haha). I will probably be spending the rest of my time here at Varsity Shores while in Australia as I don't like moving (even though it's easy when you just have a suitcase).

For Semester 111, I'm living with Thomas (German), Nick (S. Korean) and Chad (Canadian). So quite the diversity of nations that we have. Living with Thomas will be great as I can begin to re-learn and re-use my German as much as possible while at the same time learning Chinese. We'll see how that turns out... Nick just arrived today from Jakarta (visiting family) while the rest of us have been living there for about a week now.

The house (or would it be a duplex?) is two stories with the 1st floor being the entrance and garage with laundry room and Chad's room. The 2nd store leads upstairs to the kitchen and living room as well as Thomas' room, Nick's room and my room. I currently have the master bedroom with own bathroom and share the balcony with Nick who resides next door. Nick and Thomas share the public bathroom. I'll be sure to post a video blog soon of the place so be on the look out!



Cheers and 再见！

-H

iPhoneless.

你们好！

Sad to say, I recently sold my iPhone. So the video blogs will be on hold for a bit until I can fancy myself another iPhone or an actual digital camera that can take video.

Nothing new lately. As the semester winds down, you'll see more blogs as I travel around Australia for the holidays. My lease at Varsity Towers ends December 18th, so it is fast approaching. I've put in my application for Varsity Shores, as I want to still be relatively close to campus (just on the other side of campus to be exact). However, if I'm good to go for there, I can't move in until January 8th! Therefore from the 18th of Dec to the 8th of January I'll be officially homeless :-D.


I've been looking at different options to see which would be the best option to go with:

Option 1: Stay in a hostel on the Gold Coast for those few weeks until the place becomes available and then move in.

Option 2: Travel around Australia/Tasmania for those few weeks since I will be homeless anyway. Con for this is I have to lug around all my luggage while traveling.

Option 3: Butter up one of my Aussie mates to hold my luggage so I can travel light.

Option 4: Find short term housing until my lease at the new place starts.

Right now I am looking at Option 3 at the moment, as I have three weeks gap before classes start on Jan 17th. Store most of my luggage and then just have a backpack with all the basic necessities in it. For those of you who know me, you know I pack light anyway. So not a problem.

Still got a couple of weeks to decide, but looking to get it taken care of now so that I don't have to worry last minute. Christmas will either be spent in Sydney or Alice Spring (middle of Australia), so it will be fun!

Also, my facial hair is coming in nicely. I opted to just go with no shaving at all and adhere to my WSU roots instead of just rocking the moustache for Movember. But it's interesting to see all the women who talk to you NOW that you have facial hair compared to when you are clean shaven. Good to see the different tastes in women. No worries though, I'm still single. Plenty of American lovin' to go around ladies!

Cheers! ( 再见！）

-H

Varsity Towers

Ah! Finally a place to live! It only took about 9 days! Ha. Not my first choice, but hey, can't complain right?

So initially I had wanted to live at Varsity Shores but they were all booked up. Really nice townhouses and my main goal was to have roommates to bond, intermingle, socialise with. After that failed attempt, I came across a very nice place called The Reserve, with a guy by the name of Frank looking for a roommate. The place was EXTREMELY nice, the dude a bit quiet but whatever. After a few days he texted me stating he had already rented it to someone else. So, that left me with my final option, Varsity Towers.

The place is a student accommodation or as we call it in the U.S., a dormitory. So you pretty much already know what to expect. Haha. It's a studio apartment and I hate it. Reason being partly I came from a very nice 2 bedroom apartment in Pullman to THIS. Secondly, because the fridge is extremely small, there is no oven and the bed is ON THE FLOOR. But hey, when the sun shines, may hay.....

The lease is for 15 weeks and I am expected to be out by December 18th. So as the end of November approaches, I will be looking for a new place to live, preferably a house, preferably beachside and obviously with roommates. Frank was telling me I won't get a\ny sleep as VT is one big party place. Tonight is my first night sleeping there, so we shall see if he holds true to that. As always though, if anyone wants to come out to visit, or even live and work, hit me up! We'll get a place, I'll introduce ya to some Aussie girls (or guys I guess...) and we'll have "heaps of fun" (trying to adapt to the lingo).

If you are looking to send me a letter, postcard, pieces of your hair, WHATEVER. Here is my address!

Hardy Awadjie
Room 140, Locked Bag 1010
Robina, Queensland 4226
Australia

Cheers.

-H