Orientation Day 1

It is officially the end of a very long day.

After a 2 hour plane delay in Chicago and a 4 hour layover in LA, I boarded my flight to Sydney.  I was sitting in the middle of a row between my friend, Bekah, and another girl who would be going to the University of Sydney with me.  I also met some girls in Chicago who were going on the same program as me but a different school in Sydney.  The flight from LA to Sydney was not as bad as I expected.  The first few hours were long but I watched a few movies.  I then slept for about 6 hours, waking up in time to watch the plane cross the international date line (the monitors had maps with the date line marked).  I passed the last few hours watching movies and How I Met Your Mother.  Overall it was a pretty good flight and the flight attendants and service was really good.

Arriving at the airport, I was met by people from the program and as a huge group we drove over to the youth hostel that we are staying at.  It is in a part of Sydney called The Rocks and is about a 2 minute walk from the harbor.  I've never stayed in a youth hostel before but I think this one is pretty nice.  It has a roof top balcony with an amazing view of the Sydney Opera House, Bridge, and Harbor.  I got some really nice pictures up there!

After some info sessions and a lunch, our group of about 45 students split into 2 groups to go on walking tours of Sydney.  This was a 3 hour tour and we saw a lot!  The tour guide really liked telling us about all of the hangings that occurred and how Australia started and was funded through prisoners and criminals.  We got to see some really cool sites including the Sydney Opera House, Harbor Bridge, Botanical Gardens, and the Sydney Tower.  The tour guide also showed us underground Sydney (the city has a maze of underground roads that are mostly shops and restaurants).  In the botanical gardens, we saw kookaburra birds sitting on a gum tree (like the song: "Kookaburra sits on an old gum tree")

For dinner, we went to a restaurant and had pizza.  They served us kangaroo pizza and I actually tried some.  It wasn't too bad.  It tasted a lot like beef but a bit stronger.

I am really liking it here.  I've met quite a few people who I really like and will be going to school with this semester.  From what I can tell, it sounds like a lot of us will be living in the Sydney University Village apartments together.  Thats all for now.  Its early but I haven't slept in a while and we have to be up at 7 am to go to the Blue Mountains.

The Sydney Opera House

Kookaburras in a Gumtree

The city skyline