Hello! (... or should I say G'day? - no, I shouldn't because nobody under the age of 40 here actually says G'Day). I'm ann, otherwise known as @autheras, and I am here to tell you about Adelaide, Australia.
For those (everyone) who don't know, Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia, the state covering the central lower half of the land down under. We have a population of about 1.25 million and we're one of the smaller capital cities in Aus (yes, we always miss out on world tours. Looking at you 1D, the year I drove NINE HOURS TO ATTEND YOUR 2012 CONCERT.)
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You're going to receive a broke uni-students recap on living in Adelaide, so buckle in folks.
I'm going to start with some general facts that make living in Australia a little different from other countries, and some things you may miss when considering settling down your story here.
Writing at an Australian School
⋆ Our school system is waaay simpler than some other countries (*cough* USA), we have reception and then year levels one to twelve. How simple is that? Primary School is years reception to year seven (ages 5 to 13), or reception to year six (ages 5 to 14) for private schools. High school is years eight to twelve (ages 14 to 18).
⋆ Our seasons are converse to northern hemisphere countries, so summer is in December and winter in June. This means our school years balance out to one year over one year, if that makes sense? Classes start in January and finish early December, which leads me to my next point. We also have a summer Christmas, yay!
⋆ We don't get a big ass three month break. Nope. For school, we have four 'holidays', or breaks from school. One six week one from early December to late January, and three two week periods.
⋆ University (or college, to other parts of the world) is a little different. We have break from mid-November to March, and then another over July. Between these are non-teaching periods.
⋆ Private schools and public schools wear uniform. Private schools are generally a little stricter whereas some public schools just keep to a polo shirt and colour scheme. Private schools are often discernible by adding 'College' to the end of their name instead of 'High School' (ie, Unley High School vs Trinity College).
⋆ Although we learn to drive at 16, we can't actually drive ourselves until we are 17 at the earliest. So in year 12, you may drive yourself to school, but this is probably a minority of the school population in most cases. There is also loads of rules enforced - such as only being allowed to carry one other teenage passenger and not being able to drive between 12am and 5am.
Writing in Adelaide
I'll start from the centre. Adelaide's city itself is made up into a very simple rectangle. The North end is comprised of some gorgeous new and old buildings, attractions such as the museum, zoo, art gallery, football stadium, casino and clubs/pubs, the main university campuses - the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia - the river Torrens and my favourite, Rundle Mall.
