Arriving in Sydney

So I made it all the way to Australia!! Though it was a long day of travel, it wasn’t so bad. The worst part was my wild goose chase search for the Qantas check in desk at LAX – by the time I finally got there I was soaked in sweat from running around what felt like the entire airport. But I made my connection with plenty of time, hung out with some other students from my program at the airport, met some new people, and boarded our rather crowded plane. We had our own TV screens at each seat, and a large selection of movies to watch on demand. I started off the trip with “Sunshine Cleaning” – which was surprisingly dark yet witty and touching. They brought us dinner – chicken or salmon (I chose the chicken) – and it was pretty good. The chicken came with broccoli, carrots, and potatoes, and the whole dish was swimming in butter – probably what made it taste so good. After dinner, I actually was able to sleep for about 6 hours – impressive for me, as I usually have a hard time sleeping on planes. I woke up, watched a couple more movies, had breakfast (spinach fritatta), watched a few episodes of 30 rock, and, just like that, we were in Australia. Going through customs was super easy, and the luggage carts in Sydney are free!! So we all grabbed our luggage, found the big BU sign in the lobby, and headed out to the bus that brought us to our apartments. Being in the School of Education program, we live in a separate building than the Internship Program students. There are 12 of us, and about 60 or 70 of them, about 30 of which are from schools other than BU. Our apartments are great! We have a nice big living room, a good sized kitchen, and a great balcony! Our beds are upstairs – in our apartment we have a room with 2 beds (where my roommates sleep) and then on the landing at the top of the stairs is my “room” – a bed, a desk, a dresser, and a clothing rack. I actually fit all my stuff in the drawers and on the rack, and it feels pretty homey. We had our first day of orientation, where we got our Australian cell phones and learned about safety in the city. The greatest thing about the phones is that we can receive calls and texts for free! And filling your phone up with more minutes is called “topping off.” We were also able to get cheap calling cards to the US. We then had some free time where I did some preliminary shopping, followed by a barbeque (or a Barbie) out on the roof of the building where the internship students live. It had the most beautiful view of the Sydney skyline – so cool. There is also a big billboard near our apartment building that is neon yellow with red writing that says “Making love? Make it… longer.” The rooftop had a great view of that as well, especially when it got dark and the sign seemed to glow. The burgers at the bbq were absolutely delicious, and I got to meet several more of the internship students. Our program director, Mark, also brought his adorable kids, including his baby. Needless to say, I wanted to steal her. She was so cute. But I decided that wouldn’t start me off on the right foot here, so I just admired her from afar. Around 7 pm we were all beat, as our flight had landed at 7:30 am that morning. As for Sydney itself, from the very little I have seen of it, it doesn’t feel very foreign. At least not yet. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm in Australia. Of course there are certain things, like they drive on the wrong side of the road, and the toilets have two buttons – one for pee, and one for #2 – it conserves energy by using less water to wash away just pee. There is a HUGE mall right across from where we live, and there are several grocery stores inside the mall – something very European. We also live right near the University of Sydney, and they have this great green park that is supposed to be great to run through – I’ll definitely be checking that out soon. I’m off to my second day of orientation, now, but I’ll post more, including pictures, soon!