Welcome to Sydney

So I'm finally here. I'm not moved in to my actual apartment yet, instead I'm staying with three other girls in a two bedroom suite at the World Tower. The travel experience was hellish. I left at 3pm on Thursday and had a two hour flight to LA. I slept the whole time so that wasn't so bad. I got into LA at 5:30pm and had to navigate my way to the international terminal, which didn't take too long. I then had to wait until 11:50pm for my plane to board. I sat by myself and watched while groups of mostly girls started showing up, obviously on their way to Sydney. When we finally boarded, I ended up letting a girl switch with me so she could sit by her friend. I shoved my way back up the aisle like a salmon swimming upstream; the steward glared at me and kept asking me for my seat number like I was trying to scam the airline out of a seat that was a few rows better. I finally made it to my seat and realized I was sitting next to the most over-excited sophomore boy ever and that most-likely he was going to talk through the whole flight. Much to my suprise, he took a Nyquil and fell asleep with his mouth hanging open about an hour into the flight. He kept elbowing me in his sleep. The food was pretty gross, we got a chicken dinner and then a fresh  fruit and cereal breakfast. I watched a few movies and then slept for most the flight. My bod felt like shit when we finally landed though, cause I was so cramped up.

We landed at 9:30am on Saturday, and I found my luggage right off the bat and made it through customs pretty quickly. When the group of students who had been on the flight finally gathered, we all got on a bus and took it to a conference room. They gave us lunch and told us our itinerary, then we were divided into our rooms and sent to the hotel to get cleaned up before dinner. It turned out my roommates were the two girls I had let sit together on the plane, both super nice. We went to the hotel and shower and got ready for dinner. Walking to dinner, I tried to take in as much as the city as possible. It was kind of difficult since we were all moving in a pack and trying to keep up with our group leader. The harbor was pretty touristy, we were all excited to see a Starbucks looking out over the water.

Dinner was pretty crazy. All 100 of us spread out upstairs at this place called the Blackbird Cafe. I was confused as to whether it was a club or a restraunt, because there was hardcore house music thumping over the voices of everyone in the place. Our group leader suggested we get kangaroo, but I played it safe and got a salad. As soon as everyone ordered their food, there was a mad rush to the bar. Most everyone was underage in the states and excited to order an adult beverage. I ordered an Illusion, which tasted like pineapple juice.

After dinner, my roommates and I decided to head back to the hotel so we could get ready to go out. Well, it was monsooning when we walked out the door. I had on a white button up shirt and a bright green bra and it looked like I had jumped in a pool. Walking back from dinner was seriously probably the most uncomfortable and embarassing thing I have ever experienced. Needless to say, that nice consisted of going to the sauna, getting internet, and going to sleep early.

Today we woke up early and went with our group to an Animal Park  This little guy greeted me when I got off the bus. I saw koalas, and kangas, and emus, and all sorts of birds and reptiles. We watched one of the zoo hands get chased by a tazmanian devil. My roommates and I were trying to feed the kangaroos and ended up getting chased by a hungry emu, which was kind of scary. We spent an hour there and then headed back to the city to go on a walking tour. Which we ditched out of. Instead we took our own tour of the city and went and ate at a pizzaria, forgoing the packed sammies supplied by the program. We made it back to our hotel in one piece and now we're just sitting here watching the best of the 90's music videos. Tonight, since its Valentines Day, I think we're going to go out to dinner and then out out, it still looks pretty rainy though so who knows what will happen.

Anyways, I miss everyone and I'll be updating soon!