Hello everyone! I am finally here in wonderful Sydney and enjoying every minute. My journey has only been a few days, but I've already learned quite a bit. Here's a not-very-brief recap:
Tuesday, February 12th
Boarded a plane in Houston to head to LAX and begin my trip! My family and I did a little crying in the airport, but once I got on the plane I was sitting next to an Aussie who was very pleasant. By the end of the flight, I was feeling a little hot and sick, so I left the plane rather quickly.
At the international terminal, I saw Perez! Perez Hilton is a self-proclaimed "gossip gangstarr" who writes in his celebrity blog. It's a fun little distraction my friends and I read. When I saw him, I THOUGHT it was him because of his haircut (pink, orange, and yellow), but I was so nervous that I only said "hey" and he said "hi" back in a very high-pitched voice. Saw him later buying food before his flight to London, but I was in no state to chat.
I went to Burger King, ate a little bit to "feel better" and quickly realized that food was not going to help. I filled the remainder of my 5 hour layover trying to reduce stomach flu symptoms in every part of the terminal and crying to many Qantas employees that I needed an isle seat. My phone card ran out after 2 calls (so many hidden fees!), but a couple from Georgetown let me use their cell phone and my family decided it was not a good idea to get on the plane. Mum reserved a room at a nearby hotel, and with a quick taxi ride I made it to my temporary home.
Friday, February 15
After spending two days resting in the hotel room, I felt much better and headed to Sydney. At the airport, I was put on standby and waited at the gate for a few hours. I was easily entertained, however, because there were many senior citizens available to chat with. A cruise was leaving from Sydney, and a large percentage of our flight was going on it. Also during my wait, paramedics came in and out (not sure why), and later a lady loudly screaming profanities was practically dragged through our terminal. My new friends had some funny comments about both occurrences. I received the last seat offered on the plane (yes!) and was finally leaving the States! I got lucky and was placed in an isle seat. The lady next to me was an older Cuban woman going on the cruise who loved to talk. She told me about many amazing trips she had been on since her husband passed. She had such cool experiences and made me even more excited to be exploring a new country!
Sunday, February 17
When you travel to Australia, you lose a day, so I arrived Sunday morning. Got through customs fine, but my bags were lost. Thirty other people on my flight (including some cruisers) were also missing luggage, so I did not worry much. I called Heather, a girl from UT who arrived a few days earlier, and took a confused taxi (running on no gas, by the way) to the space she just rented with two boys from UT (Josh and Alex). Their house is a beautiful yellow house two minutes from the beach! The landlord, Bobby, is from Poland and lives above them with his beautiful family. We went to the beach for a bit and got some food at a sports club ($6.50 steak!). The club has bingo, and we're thinking about checking it out soon.
In the evening, we went to the local grocery. Here there are many classes of groceries - very expensive, expensive (compared to the U.S.), and cheap. Their grocery is cheap, which we thought was great. It comes with a price - there wasn't a very good selection of anything, I noticed many of the fruit for sale was old, and even some of the eggs were broken in many of the cartons. We got what we needed and headed out. Not surprisingly, the boys were more than satisfied with the place.
That night we went to Tropfest, the largest international short film festival. It was so neat! There were screens set up in a park, and everyone was lying around watching the films. Every film had to include the number eight somewhere in it. My favorite was The Code, about kids who use different noises (coughing, yawning, burping) to cheat on a test. Another great one was Scab, which had no words, but showed a boy who was distracted by a man's scab on his upper lip and removes it in his sleep. Marry Me won, and showed a little girl who wanted to marry a boy who was more interested in his BMX bike than her. She also won best actress and was very good. Tropfest definitely reminded me of something that would happen in Austin, and I really enjoyed it. At Tropfest, I ordered a double burger sanger, assuming that's a burger but was very wrong. It was like an extra long hot dog with two hot dogs in the bun. It usually comes with onions and some sauce, but they were out (which I did not mind at all). It was VERY filling and almost vulgar to eat. I'd eat it again though.
Heather let me stay at their place, which was a huge relief.
Monday, February 18
Yesterday I woke up (in the same outfit from Friday...) and went to campus to figure out school/housing/life. Most exchange look for shared housing, but they don't tell you how difficult it is until you get here. In the mean time, I begged the international office for temporary housing and they sent me to live at a monastery for the week. The monastery is VERY nice. Once I arrived, Father Tony showed me around. He seemed pretty stern, but after 10 years of housing 20-somethings I'm sure he's had some fuss. My room can lock and has a desk and sink. There's wireless internet (finally!) and a kitchen we can cook meals in. Breakfast food is provided. In the laundry room, he scoffed at how the person drying his clothes as "ruining them" and kindly regarded on those who hang their clothes to preserve them and keep them nice. Here no one uses dryers, including Father Tony. After that he showed me how to use the dryer, if I dared.... A German girl named Alexandra lives across the hall from me. She is so sweet! She introduced me to her friend Daniel. All three of us have classes together, and I'm very excited to get to know them better.
In the afternoon I got a few errands done around campus. From there, Heather and I headed downtown to meet up with ze Germans for a few minutes. We spoiled ourselves with some Starbucks and started walking towards the Sydney Harbour Bridge which shows over the treeline. Once we got up close, you can see North Sydney behind it and the Opera House to the right. It is all so beautiful! At night many people were running around and watching the boats. And of course, all my friends on the Celebrity Cruise ship were just departing. How wonderful! I wish they could see that I was safe (they were very worried I did not have housing yet).
After a beautiful view, Heather and I ventured to find a KMart for some toiletries and house needs. Instead we found a Coles, which is a larger, better supermarket. It was MUCH nicer than the first supermarket, and I plan on going back. Then we found the Bikram Yoga Studio her distant uncle owns (crazy) and looked into classes.
We got back too late to take the buses. Everything closes down so early here! Most of the businesses/shops close precisely at 6, and very little stays open after that except bars. I stayed at Heather's again.
TODAY, February 19
Today I awoke to a phone call from Qantas that my bags were coming! Heather and I waited outside and enjoyed the weather until they came. Every morning we wake up so early because of the birds. No one has air conditioning, so with the windows open all the bird calls are very noisy. It's much better than an alarm.
Once I had my bags I hauled them across town to the monastery. Quite a work out. Then I FINALLY changed and headed to campus for errands. On campus I went to a study abroad office that is not mine to see if there were any rooms they knew of. I was lucky enough to get the LAST space in their flat! It is so wonderful. It is a 20 minute walk from campus in Coogee. (Google map 17 Coogee Street, that's where I'll be!) I'm very excited because it is all exchange students living in this small house. No one has moved in yet, but by estimation it looks like at least 15 of us will live there. There are 2 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, 2 big sitting rooms, a balcony with a "barbie", and another building in the backyard for maybe 6 more. No views, but hopefully lots of fun. It reminded me a lot of the sorority house environment, which is what I wanted. I'm very excited to meet everyone! My room is the smallest shared room. There's no place for a desk, but I'm stoked with the small refrigerator it comes with.
Tonight we plan on swimming in a natural rock pool on the Maroubra beach. Maroubra beach is south of Coogee and campus. It's where my other Texas friends (Heather, Alex, and Josh) all live. It's nice to already have friends here to hang out with, but I'm sure we'll all be meeting many new people in the next few weeks!
Well for now, g'day.
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