Welcome to Australia!

OK, so first thing first I’M HERE! :) I have a lot to write about because I have been so busy the past week I haven’t had any time to write in this dang thing. I guess I will start from the beginning! I got to LAX and had a six hour lay over which I was clueless what to do with my time. It ended up being a good thing my layover was that good because I got lost in LAX and had no clue how to check into my next flight to Sydney. I landed in US Airways which was terminal one, and had to find my way to Quantas which I had no clue what terminal it was in. I walked from terminal one to terminal three (and back to terminal one) about four times before asking someone for help. That would be me and my stubbornness. So finally I ask someone who works there and he tells me it is in terminal four, so all that time all I had to do was walk one more terminal over lol. So that adventure of me people lost took about an hour and a half. Good way to waist time and not be aware of it!! So then I went to Quantas and checked in, originally I had a middle seat. I asked the guy if there were any window seats open and he said he wasn’t allowed to change my seat, and then handed me another ticket that was a window seat and winked at me. He then continued to rip up my old ticket so there wasn’t any proof of the change he made. Haha!!!

My flight to Sydney was not bad at all. It ended up being about a sixteen hour flight all together. We had really cool touch screen televisions on the back of every seat. They offered basically everything from television, to movie, to shopping…it was pretty darn cool! I watched high school musical 3, which took up about two hours of flight time. Honestly, the movie wasn’t that bad either lol. After that I took an Ambien to knock myself out and slept for about 8 or 9 hours. Once I woke up I watched two and a half men for a couple hours and the what do you know, we were in Sydney!

Sydney is gorgeous!!! I had no clue that Sydney would be as big as it is, and yet so beautiful. The beaches were like something out of a movie and the entire city is filled with trees. Our orientation spot was at Narrabeen Lake, which had a bunch of cabins for us all to stay in. In my cabin there were 9 beds (in bunk beds, and triple bunk beds) for us all to sleep in. Our room also had a mini kitchen in it that we didn’t use once because they served us breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily. The best thing about our location was it was a 5 minute walk from a gorgeous beach, which we went to daily. The first day at orientation we really didn’t do much except for get to know one another.

The second day we woke up had breakfast and then went to the zoo. The zoo is the prettiest zoo I have been to yet. Only down side was that it was raining. Bad weather seems to follow us wherever we go. We were all bummed because we didn’t expect our first view of Australia to be cloudy and raining…we expecting sun, sun, sun! We had a tour around the zoo for about two hours and then made our way down to the ferry boat. Our boat was huge, it was pretty much a yacht for us all to go on a tour around Sydney Harbor. We saw the Opera House and The Sydney Bridge, followed by downtown Sydney, a nude beach, and a castle. Sydney seems to be a very random city. On our boat ride the sun finally decided to come out and man oh man the sun is strong here! Basically everyone got sunburns regardless of how many times we put sun screen on.
The next day we went Surfing, which was a blast! I officially suck at it, but will be going again while I am here! I want to at least stand up once before I get home. It is so much harder then it looks. Surfers have a nice body for a reason, they are using every muscle in their body! I didn’t get any pictures of myself because I was to busy surfing so I will try to do that some time in the next four months. I am proud to say that out of a group of 40 people me and two other girls were the last ones out there. The boys gave up pretty easily lol.
After surfing we went back to the camp and me and the girls from my cabin decided to go on a hike around the beach. Simply gorgeous, yet very painful…surfing and hiking right after one another will make your body soar! That night we saw Aboriginal dancers and it was very interesting! I actually volunteered to learn one of their dances in front of the entire group. It is not a dance move I will be taking to the club any time soon though lol.
Then yesterday we had to pack up, say our goodbyes to everyone going to different schools and head to Gold Coast. It was the fastest flight ever. We literally had to the seatbelt sign off for five minutes before it got turned off for landing. Remember how I said earlier bad weather seems to follow us? Well when we got to Gold Coast it was a downpour! Nothing like a little rain to move into our new places! Our apartments are really nice! I live with one Australian guy and one girl who is from New York.
What I love most about my apartment is we each get our own room and bathroom, and our bedroom doors lock so we can have our stuff nice and safe. The rooms are pretty big, I have a full size bed and a walk in closet. Only downside is the distance from school. I think I will be buying a cheap bike to ride to school instead of relying on the bus system.
Six of us went down to get pizza last night (which is literally right downstairs) and were very pleased to see how cheap and good the pizza was! Not to mention you can get two cans of soda for 2.50 and the cans here are larger then back home. There is also a grocery store, Chinese place, sushi, liquor store and a blockbuster literally downstairs. We went to the grocery store which was an interesting experience because you have to put a dollar coin in your cart in order for it to unlock, then once you return your cart you get your dollar back. Us being use to free carts were completely clueless how to get the carts unlocked until a friendly Aussie told us how to work it. Then at the check out you have to pay for grocery bags, which surprised us as well. After going grocery shopping we had a barbeque so everyone here could meet one another and so far it seems like everyone will be really cool! My neighbor is from Holland and actually studied abroad at ASU two years ago, and lived in the same dorms as I did…crazy huh?
There are a few things I have learned so far. Australians are very conservative and won’t use things if they don’t have to. For instance every electrical plug has a switch so you can turn it on and off. So that way if nothing is plugged in you are not using any electricity. Then the apartments don’t have AC/Heating (which I am trying to adjust to) and they suggest four minute showers. Also the toilets (every toilet I have seen so far) has two buttons with a circle symbol over it (half full is for #1, completely full is for #2). That was when you flush you can use minimal amounts of water as well. Also, everyone who told me the water would flush the opposite way, you are wrong. It doesn’t flush clockwise or counterclockwise. It just fills it up and flushes at once. Kind of hard to explain but I thought I’d let you know. :)


So that is my adventures so far! Nothing else to write except for I am taking a shower because I am not use to humidity at all and my skin is so sticky! Love you & Miss you all!
P.s. I went an hour behind now that I am in Gold Coast so instead of being 6 hours behind you guys (and a day forward) I am now 7 hours behind you.

P.s.s. I am setting up a photobucket account so I can just have a link up for you to look at all pictures which will be easiest! Love you!