Well, it's 4:00 in the morning here and I'm up because I went to bed at 7 p.m., so I might as well start my blog! For those of you that don't know, I'm in Sydney, Australia studying for a semester at Macquarie University. I'm staying in one of the residential colleges on campus (like a dorm in the U.S., but we have a dining hall and they cook for us right in the dorm). It's called Dunmore Lang College (DLC for short). I'm not sure what classes I'll be taking this semester yet, because we don't enrol and get our schedules until Wednesday.
I guess I'll start with the plane ride. I took a bus from Janesville to Chicago, then a plane from Chicago to LA, then another plane from LA to Sydney. The flight from Chicago to LA wan't too bad; it was about 4 hours. I tried striking up a conversation with the man sitting next to me when we first got on the plane, but he was clearly not in a talking mood, so I watched the Three Muskateers and an episode of the Big Bang Theory to entertain myself. However, I quit watching when they put Storage Wars on (I really didn't get the point of that show, so I started reading a little booklet titled A Call to Prayer instead, which was very good). Towards the end of the flight, I attempted to talk to the man to my left again. He told me that LA was his final destination, and then asked where I was going, to which I replied Australia. Then, the girl that had been sitting on the other side of him who had been really quiet the whole time got all excited and said that she was going to Australia too! She was going to Brisbane though, but we had a nice time talking about our impending adventures for the last 10 minutes of the flight.
After that I had a 2 hour layover, where I met a girl named Joy going to study abroad in Australia also. (she was studying in Melbourne) We had a fun time talking about it and chatting with an elderly lady sitting near us. Then I got on the plane for the insanely long 14.5 hour flight. Fortunately, I ended up sitting next to a guy who goes to Maquarie University and he was very funny and friendly, so we had a good time talking about that:) The plane ride was sooooo looooong. I watched 3 inflight movies (Footloose, Real Steel, and One Day) and some TV shows they had playing (Glee, NCIS, etc) because I realized that my Nook was out of battery power and I couldn't read at all:( I didn't sleep very well on the plane--they're really not that comfortable, so I was pretty tired afterwards.
After the plane ride, I made my way through customs and got picked up by a driver from the University. His name was Mark and he was really funny. People kept calling him on his cell phone and he would pick it up, talk for a while, then hang up and grumble under his breath every time lol. I love Australian accents!! He dropped me off at my dorm, so I went and checked in and got settled in my room. I wanted to take a shower sooo badly, but they had shut the water off to do repairs, so I had to wait about a half hour.
When I got cleaned up I went to an early arriver's BBQ at the bar on campus, where I got to meet other study abroad students. There were more Americans than I expected (I met someone else from Wisconsin! lol). I ended up talking with a girl named Bua (from Florida), a guy named Taylor (New York), Tony (Wisconsin), David (Georgia), and Danielle (Washington D.C.). We also chatted with people from Costa Rica, Germany, France, Holland, and Denmark. It's so cool to meet people from so many different countries! The BBQ was delicious, and I even tried Kangaroo! It was pretty tasty. (See Isaac, I'm branching out and trying new things! lol)
After the BBQ, Danielle and I went to the shopping center to buy cell phones. I had to exchange my money first though, so we stopped at a bank. Exchanging money sucks!! I lost $67 in the transaction:( Australian money is pretty though, very colorful. We bought phones from Vodofone, because apparently most students use that service so our calls to other students will be free:)
I went back to my dorm after that and organized my room a bit. I left my door open so that people would feel free to stop and chat, and I ended up meeting the guy who lives across the hall (Artyom, from Russia), a guy named Jack who came in and asked to use my computer to go on Facebook, and a guy named Mitch who lives a couple doors down. They can all tell I'm American right away, but only some of them know where Wisconsin is haha.
Before I got to Australia I signed up to have a "buddy" (named Jeff) to help me through orientation, and he and I have been exchanging emails. We decided to meet up for dinner so we could talk and he could answer any questions I have. He showed me around campus a little bit and then we went to the shopping center for dinner (they have a bunch of restaurants there). It was really fun! He's very friendly and entertaining.
After dinner I went back to my room and tried to stay up a little bit longer, but I caved and went to bed at 7 lol. So that was my first day! It was fun--a little overwhelming--but I know I'm going to have an awesome semester:) P.S. It's warm here!! It was around 80 degrees and sunny when I arrived, but cooled off and rained in the afternoon:(
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