Helloooo everyone!
So first of all I want to apologize to everyone for not updating this thing for such a long time but you really and truly cannot blame me because I was without internet and a phone for five days and it was honestly really different and wierd and yeah, never again I hope!
Okay so I will start at the beginning...
WED Feb. 9: Day of endless and endless and endless traveling. Woke up nice and early to catch a 905 flight from Dulles to LA which wasn't bad, flew over Vegas (made some mental notes for future travel plans), and Aspen (if only I could ski well...) and then landed in LA at noon their time. My first experience with some time change, went pretty well... I slept a little on the plane anyway so I wasn't terribly disoriented. So in LA I met up with the wonderful Caroline Given who picked me up in her lovely red car and took me all over LA because my next flight to Sydney didn't take off until 1025... can someone say longest layover ever? In LA we drove around, went to a wonderful little fresh healthy "LA" place for lunch, spent 8 dollars on a glorious salad thing (little did I know that would be the cheapest salad or lunch item that I have purchased so far- more to come on that) and we went to a wonderful little carnival on the pier in crap some beach... I don't think it was Venice beach, eh she would know. Then she showed me her cute little apartment and I met her boyfriend etc. probably the best way to spend a layover I'd say. Then I arrived back at the airport around eh 7 is (silly LA traffic) and got all checked in and ready for the flight to sydney.. a nice 15 hours. When I got to the airport there were a ton of people (college students) all ready waiting to get on the plane and go! I flew on that new plane the airbus 380 on Quantas airlines. Seriously the nicest and coolest plane I have ever flown! Two flours, comfy comfy seats, not terrible food (I missed dinner after passing out almost immediately after combining a sleeping pill with alcohol, woops) but breakfast was yummy, and the movie selection was incredible. I watched Eat Pray Love- eh not terrible. I imagine the book is better but I wouldn't know. That's a task for this summer..
FEB 10: No idea, was sleeping and lost it in travel time
FEB 11: WELCOME TO SYDNEY BITCHESSS. woot finally landed in Australia to gorgeous sunny 80 degree weather and was instantly in heaven. Went through the shortest and easiest customs + security I have ever done, and met up with my program to UQ (University of Queensland) which ended up being about 40 of us- which is still much much bigger than I thought it would be. In the airport I exchanged some money, and cried a little bit since the silly Aussie dollar is worth a pinch more than the American dollar. Hopefully that will change while I'm over here. In Sydney the group of IFSA-Butler (the program I am staying with) took up to the Sydney Academy of Sports for the weekend to not only orient us to the new time change, cause we were all soo messed up, but to get us to get to know each other and go through a mini orientation. Drove over the bridge in the Sydney Harbor and only saw the opera house (went in a couple of days later) and wow was it smaller than I imagined it would be!! The only way to describe the Sydney Academy of Sports was it looked exactly like the Dharma Initiative.. which was odd since I am in Aussie arguably somewhere near the LOST island... After we all got settled in, in rooms we shared with 3 our people going to our same uni, we were treated to a lovely bush walk- I have a feeling that was the first of many that I am going to be doing here... and then just kinda settled in the for the night and started to meet people. I met a wonderful group of people all from Vanderbilt who only half of them knew they were coming so it was funny for them and honestly in three days I don't think I have ever laughed so much in my life- may come back (if I ever come back) with a nice six pack of abs from laughing. The group included Maya, Marguerite, Meredith, Katie, Binder, Alex, and Dan- pretty much hung out with them all of orientation and even though they all live off campus, still definitely going to hang out with them a ton this semester I hope! That night Meredith introduced us to Scattegories Pictionary arguably the best game to pass the time in the entire world- I will definitely be bringing that back with me into the states.
FEB 12: Adventure into Sydney FINALLY! So after getting up super early, breakfast was from 745 to 845 and the fact that I was already up due to jet lag anyway.. We all loaded up onto buses and went into downtown Sydney! Our first stop, the Tonga Zoo- saw soo soo many animals from a Wombat who I probably want to take home, even though they are vicious, to a koala, to a kangaroo, to elephants, to a platapus (which does NOT look like the beanie baby surprisingly!) and I pet a wallaby! so so cool, and got some nice shots of Sydney cause the zoo was kinda up on a hill by the river across from the Opera house. Then we all finally split up into groups and took the ferry across the river and landed about 10 feet away from the Opera House, got some nice shots of it and in front of it- went in, almost got kicked out because we tried to go into the room but there was a show going on (I know, silly Americans you are all thinking) This group was me + the Vandy kids + a new friend I made named Sophie who is living with me in my residential college who is pretty legit! Continuing in Sydney we made our way through the Botanical/Royal Gardens which are located next to the Opera House but honestly there was nothing really exciting to see there- I would say the gardens at Miami by the Inn are nicer bahaha. Then we walked around to the "Rocks" district which is an older more historic part of downtown Sydney and immediately found a bar that us now "legal" drinkers could consume at. Found a lovely German bar bahaha will full liderhosen costumes and all and sat outside and draaaank. Everyone be extremely proud, I had some mango beer which actually tasted really good. But as I learned, everything ESPECIALLY DRINKING and ALCOHOL in Australia is like 40 thousand times more expensive than in the states, which makes me a little sad. From there, got back on the bus + ferry back to Dharma ville and drank drank drank the night away. What a really fun way to get to know everyone better- playing catch phrase as a drinking game is much more fun than I though it would be. But the night came to an end around 11 anyway because we were all still extremely jet lagged and tired from all of our travels around Sydney!
FEB. 13: Mini Orientation + Surfing! (or atleast me trying) Woke up around the same time as the day before and honestly the time change was starting to get much easier! In the morning the members of UQ had a mini orientation about just things we should know and some info about BRIS-VEGAS the most lax/chill city in Aussie + UQ = number one party school in Australia (: Of course it is! and then after lunch we went surfingggg- actually stood up once! the waves were really good and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but my balance is definitely the worst, I will probs just stick to either laying on the beach, boggie boarding or running on the beach from now on!
ah! the fire alarm is going off in my dorm! more after breakfast!!
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