Winter in Australia?

Arrived in Toowoomba (great name for a city, yeah?) and it was freezing! Literally. Zero degrees Celsius. My preconception of a year round, everyone’s always at the beach, summer country has proven to be a misconception seeing as how there was frost on the grass this morning and the tragic fact that even if it was warm enough, the beach is over 2 hours away. I did bring two fleece jackets, but as I stand on my tile bathroom floor, with a permanent outdoor air vent in my window, I long for my puffy down jacket. I’m told that this is the coldest it will ever get in Australia, which is apparently why no buildings have central heating, and only a few rooms are extravagant enough to have a shoe box sized space heater in the back corner. The other exchange students are in the same boat though—we all showed up wearing shorts, tank tops, and a hat with the biggest brim we could find. It is really sunny here though (Queensland, the sunshine state), and warms up quite a bit during the day. Right now, the full time Aussie students are on holiday, so the campus is quiet except for the international students. My new friends are from Finland, Germany, Switzerland, England (my roomie!), the US, Malaysia, and Denmark. I definitely impressed the Danes with my words of jordbær (strawberry) and aebleskivers (Danish pancakes), and having heard of Odense. Don’t know what I’ll say to them tomorrow since I’ve exhausted my entire Danish heritage in one day. Orientation has been exciting so far, I feel like I’m starting uni all over again! My campus is pretty, with tropical trees and bushes everywhere, and exotic plants like birds of paradise flowers scattered around campus. Our college (uni is the word for tertiary school, college for the residential buildings) has scheduled morning and evening meal times, so its like we have a family dinner every night. I was invited to a “party" as well, which turned out to consist of four guys sitting around the TV drinking beer. A similar scenario of what you might find in the US except swap out football for rugby. But I went with the Danes, so we said a few jokes, and then made for the exit. Ace day J