Australia. I cannot possibly fit all I want to say about the trip so far in such a short amount of space. Yesterday was DEFINITELY brutal. If you have every taken a long plane trip, you will know what I mean. Everyone was SOOOO tired yesterday. They made us stay up so the jet lag would not be as bad, but it was like staying up until 4 a.m. at home. BOOOOOO! It   was a long day to say the least especially after a not-so-pleasant airplane ride.

The airplane was huge, but it was still really tiring. It was our first experience with Australians. Man, I really do love the accent. It is absolutely gorgeous! The sarcastic humor is even better. The steward on the airplane was an Australian man probably in his mid-50's who kept cracking jokes on me... I don't know why I am such an easy target, but it always seems to happen that way. The plane was so big that it actually had two stories. I could not believe first class. The chairs would MASSAGE! I hope to get bumped up on the way back (wishful thinking for sure). The plane ride was 14 hours. It was a nice surprise for me, but still too long. It did not seem as long because I slept off and on for about 8 hours. We arrived in Sydney at about 8:30 a.m. (we lost an entire day!!!) I never had a Tuesday because it was lost somewhere in between time zones.

Yesterday was basically a day to keep us up. We were so exhausted, but they made sure we stayed up all day. It was pretty much torture although the Australian accents all around did help. After a long day of orientation, my two roommates and I came back to our home stay. Our house mom and brother are great. They are both very friendly and helpful. This is certainly a plus for the semester.

Today was filled with fun activities in the afternoon. We did a scavenger hunt around Sydney. An Australian police officer handcuffed us just for fun (the only time that will be happening during this trip!) We went around the city and then met up at the harbor right by the opera house. We took a cruise around the harbor just to relax and hang out. It was absolutely gorgeous. The trip ended with a scare. A man FELL OVER THE RAILING INTO THE HARBOR. I do not exactly understand how it happened, but our cruise ship was just coming in when it took place. He couldn't swim and was drowning. A member of the cruise jumped in and swam to him. (OK... I must admit, as scary as it was, I was more scared that the men would be eaten by sharks or something before a rescue boat could get to them... probably farfetched, but I have quite a fear of deadly animals... also the name of the dock is "Man-O-War"... if you don't know what that is... you should look it up. All I'm going to say is that it is DEADLY).  Luckily, it ended well. The rescue boat came before the sharks and as far as I know everything is fine. Thank GOD for Australians who aren't afraid to jump in the water.  

So... I'll leave you with this wonderful story... and the anticipation of a description of the people, city, culture, etc. in my next blog!

P.S. I LOVE Australian fashion!