Global Crossroads Study Abroad Blog

Hey, I made it and I’m alive!

After a long flight, I have finally made it to Sydeny, Australia! It is absolutely beautiful and still seems so unreal that I am actually here! The best part of the flight was watching the sunrise while flying into Sydney. Soo awesome!

When we arrived into Sydney, it took about 20 minutes to go through customs and by 7am a bunch of us grabbed a taxi to our apartment in Waterloo, Sydney. It was definitely weird to see the drivers side on the right side of the vehicle and that they drive on the left side. It was also really hard to understand what people were saying, but I am getting used to it now.

Upon arriving to the Apartments, we checked in with our CAPA program and were given our transit passes and keys to our room. I was the last of the roommates to arrive…it kind of felt like I was on an season premiere of The Real World on  MTV entering into a house with a bunch of random strangers.  I was greeted by my roommate Maddy from South Carolina followed by Liz from California and Maria from ASU. The apartment is absolutely ginormous! It is similar to a split level with one room with its own balcony and bathroom on the top floor and the kitchen, living room with a walk-out balcony, bathroom, and second bedroom with a balcony on the bottom floor. It is way cooler than my apartment I lived in last year at the U. Pictures to come later….having trouble uploading at this moment!

After getting unpacked, Jennifer, the girl from my last semester physics class that I  am traveling with, and I went on a walk around waterloo to check out all the cafes, restaurants, grocery stores, and the scenery. It is a very interesting place…the houses and buildings are very tightly compact against one another and in general very different from home from the people to food. Yup…culture shock setting in.

Later, I went with my roommates to get some groceries….the typically pb&J essentials, cereal and milk, and some fruit to get me by. Then of course went to the liquor store to pick up a few $7 bottles of wine because beer and liquor is really expensive. Looks like I will be drinking wine my entire trip because a 12 pack of beer is $38. SOOO Ridiculous! When we got back, we went to a quick meeting with the CAPA staff and enjoyed a roommate bonding night. Was in bed and out by 7:30pm. It felt soo great to sleep in an actual bed!

I woke up at 5:30am and decided to go work out at our gym near our apartment. When I got home, I went to make some eggs and could not figure out how to turn the damn burners on the stove, so I said screw that and had cereal. At 8:30, we left for our school, Australia Catholic School, in North Sydney. It was around a 40 minute bus ride through downtown Sydney to the school. There we went through our program orientation and had a lady come talk to us about travel opportunities offered throughout the time we are here. The trip to Cains to scuba and snorkel at the Great Barrier Reef looks awesome, as well as the trip to Port Stephens were we would wine and beer taste,  take camel rides to the sand dunes to go sand boarding, and feed sharks. I finally got internet and a phone today, so I don’t feel completely lost. I got to skype with my mama and chat with a few friends from back home!

Finally after a long day and getting lost in North Sydney trying to find where we catch our bus back home, I am going to bed so I can sleep and be ready for round #2 of internship orientation. It definitely has been fun meeting everyone in the  CAPA program and I love that after 2 days, I have become pretty close with my roommates.

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