So far

Everything is going great. I think I'm falling in love with Canberra. I like the laid back atmosphere of the place. Just yesterday while on a bus on our way to Woden (one of the districts of Canberra), I saw a mother with her two kids biking along a path that runs adjacent to the beautiful man-made Lake Burley Griffin (pictures soon). The image stuck to my mind the rest of the day and I toyed with the idea of Tina, Mikey, and I moving here and doing the same thing one day.

Lunch With a Davaoenya
I had lunch with a fellow Davaoenyo today together with her Australian husband. At the Canberra Centre's food court she recounted her experiences here in Canberra and how much she preferred living here than in Sydney which was a little too fast-paced for her. One of her experiences though was rather surprising: when she returned to Davao City after studying here for two years, she said she went through some sort of a culture shock (a reverse culture shock, perhaps?). Davao City's malls, she recalled, felt so overcrowded compared to Canberra's that she avoided those places for some time.

Friendly check-out clerks
Another thing I like here is that the check out clerks are very friendly. They smile and greet you with "How's it goin?" or "How are you today?" and they do it as if we've known each other for some time. I know there's a possibility that they were trained for that, but still, the end result is that it leaves a smile on your face.

Here's a picture of us at Civic which is some sort of a plaza/park near Canberra Center. I think this was taken last Sunday on our way back to UniLodge from Big W, a large department store in Canberra Centre


A number of stores here in Canberra including Big W allow their shoppers to take their carts anywhere within the city which is a great convenience for us because Big W is probably about 3 or 4 kilometers away from where we're staying.