So this is my first blog update since I arrived in Sydney, Australia! I’ve been thinking about how I wanted to go about describing my time here so far and I think I’m just going to give you a run down from the time I left Nashville to when I’m typing this (it’s currently Saturday but I won’t post it till Monday which will probably still be Sunday for everyone back home J). My family took me to the airport on Monday, February 20th, and my flight left from there around noon, I landed in LA around 3pm local time (so about 5 at home) and had a 7 ½ hour layover there. I was a little bit nervous about finding my way around LAX because I had heard that it is very big and busy but I actually found my way to the international terminal quite easily. At 7:30pm local time I met up with the rest of the students that are doing the same program as me, they are from different schools all over the country. Our plane left at around 10:30 that night, we settled in for a fourteen hour plane ride! When we arrived it was 8:30am on Wednesday, February 22nd. So I can now say that I have successfully time traveled. J When we got off the plane we were greeted by sunshine, and a lot of people from the school that welcomed us and helped everyone load their stuff onto a bus. Everyone was so friendly and they quickly began to tell us things about Australia as we made our way to the school (including a story about an animal that they called “a drop bear” that lives in tree’s and will fall on you if you walk under it, which we quickly realized they were making up after the story kept getting more and more ridiculous!) Throughout the day on Wednesday they did their best to keep us awake the whole day and get us acquainted with each other and the school. By the time I went to bed that night, I was exhausted and fell asleep right away. I’ve been very happy that they made us stay up the first day though because it forced us to switch to the time zone quickly and I’ve been adjusting very well, sleeping the whole night through and only dealing with a little bit of drowsiness during the day. Thursday was more orientation, we met some of the first year students at the school (this is their fall semester so they’re beginning their school year). Thursday, mid-afternoon, we split up into groups, loaded onto buses and made our way into the city. I got my first glimpse of the Sydney opera house and the harbor bridge! Then around five o’clock we took a cruise around the harbor which involved, eating dinner, listening to live music, and watching the sun set. The city of Sydney is absolutely gorgeous at night! After the cruise, my roommate and I got the fun experience of finding our way back to our host family’s house by bus. One of the Australian students came with us part of the way and was kind enough to tell our bus driver where we needed to get off. But when he dropped us off, it didn’t look familiar to either of us so we just started walking for awhile. We eventually stopped at a gas station (they call them “service” or “petrol” stations but either way it was Shell J) and found a police officer that told us we were walking in the wrong direction. Turns out the bus driver had dropped us off exactly where we needed to be but for some reason we just didn’t recognize it at all (shows how jetlagged we were when our host mom had shown us the area the night before). Anyway, we made it back safely so that was good J. Friday was our last day of orientation, my roommate and I found our way to school by the bus for the first time (or host dad had dropped us off the previous day). The first day they gave us public transportation cards which allows us to get anywhere in the city by bus, train, or ferry! Friday night we all went back to our houses to spend the evening with our host families. I’m at a house with parents and two little boys, ages 8&3. The dad is originally from Fiji and the mom is originally from Italy but the whole family has Australian accents and has lived here for awhile. Me and my roommate share a room and have a separate bathroom of our own. The house is beautiful and is only about 20 minutes away from the school. Today (Saturday) has been a day of running errands, and just enjoying the summer weather which I’m told will not last much longer!
I feel like there’s a ton of other things that I could type up but it’s hard to get all the details of the last three days that have just been packed with a lot of new experiences. So I’m just going to leave you with the overview of my trip thus far as well as give you a couple of little details about the Land Down Under: it is true that the constellations are upside down; when I wake up in the morning, I automatically remember where I am because the birds sound so different and strange here; and lastly… it’s hard to describe the feeling when an Australian tells you (an American) that they “love your accent!” J
Thanks for reading my blog!
-Rachel
