connecting the dots.

Many people ask:
"How do you like San Diego? How is it different to Sydney?"

In terms of the city itself it is very similar to Sydney. The weather, its laid-back-ness, the friendly people ... it's so similar that if there weren't palm trees I would be mistaken for being in Sydney. However the biggest difference comes obviously in the fact that San Diego is in California. Sounds stupid, but it's a big difference.

Australian population - 20 million. Population of California - nearly 40 million. The big numbers mean more things to do and it's quite surreal. You only have to turn your head to keep yourself busy. If anything, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco is only a couple of hours drive away. That's what I find so amazing. Growing up in Sydney you only hear about these places through songs or movies but living in California, those places are your locality.

I've met people that had their birthday parties in the coast of Santa Monica, people that went to school together with Blink-182, people that grew up with the Golden Gate Bridge outside their window, people that grew up in Hollywood. It still sounds unreal but that's all very normal here.

Enter College.

College life in America is something else. The 4 years of college are the years of your life that you cherish the most, have the absolute most fun and gain the most influence shaping your future. College is a whole new lifestyle, and I have been enjoying every second of it here.

Living at the International House on campus with just so many amazing people from all around the world - I feel like I can go pretty much anywhere in the world now and have good friends there. Also I am pledging a Fraternity. To those at home that do not know what this means, think about it as having half-joined the fraternity. The fraternity experience just lifted the dynamics of my experience to a whole new level, and I shall write about it in a later entry.

I find that university life is quite different in Australia: in Australia we don't have fraternities or sororities, not many students live on campus - unofficially reserved for the rich international students. As a result the universities are busy during the day and absolutely deserted by late afternoons. I find that there isn't much action at the university.

That being said however, if you're looking to study in Australia, you'll still have one heck of a time. There's still plenty of things to do, plenty of places to have fun at, just that the university isn't the place to do it.

So that's just my intro to what it's like living here. And I thought I could get around to reciting a lot of the things that happened but there's just so much s*** to cover.

Enough writing now. A picture says a thousand words. Let them do the talking.
A few pictures that summarise my time here so far very well ...

Till next time,

Adiós.

D-day


My birthday party in my dorm


the Frat party


Heart Failure for $5


Halloween as a Beer Keg


The Fraternity


My pledge brothers

The Beach


California.