89 Bream Street

I guess we should start with our home for these 4 months. UNSW owns a lot of property in Coogee, a beachside section of Sydney, and since Coogee is so nice, almost all of the study abroad students choose to live there.

Coogee has pretty much everything you’d ever want out of a small suburb. Most obviously, the beach sits right in the center of the suburb, especially popular on weekends among Australians looking to swim or play sports on the beach. The rugby oval next to the beach is the weekend home of the Randwick Rugby Club, and their practice field right behind the stadium is great for pick-up games of soccer. Walking up Coogee Bay Rd, the suburb’s inclined main street, leads you to plenty of restaurants and a Woolworth’s grocery store, as well as pharmacies and other specialty stores. Even the nightlife is great thanks to the two local bars, the Beach Palace Hotel and Coogee Bay Hotel, both of which get pretty packed on weekends or when a big match is on TV. Despite all this, Coogee remains pretty concentrated, so all of the study abroad students live 5 minutes away from each other at most.

I’m pretty happy to live at 89/91 Bream Street. Not only are we just a minute’s walk from the beach, but it’s also a great 16-person house with two common rooms and two kitchens, plus a washer & dryer, grill and backyard. Moreover, we have people from Duke, BC, Rochester, Emory, Illinois, Denver, Miami of Ohio, Ireland, and ltaly, all of whom love exploring both the daytime activity and nightlife of Sydney. When you factor in the frequent visitors, it’s an awesome place to be.

I also came to Sydney with four of my fraternity brothers. I’m currently rooming with Jon Murray, and even though Nick Dorf technically lives in the city center, his air mattress in our house and frequent presence give him a great claim to residence at 89 Bream Street as well. Dan Darcy and Andrew Messer live on the opposite side of the beach, but they make the 5-minute walk to our house pretty frequently to hang out. Plus plenty of other Dukies came out to Sydney as well, including Ethan Settel, who has gone to school with me since 7^th grade. I’ve made a lot of other friends here and see most of them pretty regularly, but unfortunately there are too many to list.

In all, Coogee is a great home base for a study abroad student, with all the friends and amenities I could ask for. We’ve seen a ton of what Australia and Sydney have to offer (which means I still have a lot to write about), but it’s great to call Coogee home.