Thursday, 17 May 2012

First Few Days


Tuesday, May 15, 2012
                Of course the plane out of O’Hare was delayed, scheduled for 4:03pm my plane started lifting off the runway at 5:45pm.  No problems taking off and getting up into the sky.  After a little bit a movie was started, one for the money.  It has Katherine Heigel in it.  It was a cute movie, she is need of money and takes up a position as a bounty hunter and is caught in a case with past history.  It took me a while to get used to her talking in a Jersey accent.  It’s definitely not my favorite accent.  The movie ended and I open the window and see frost accumulating on it.  Definitely took me by surprise even though I understand why.  And then below me were mountains.  Which I love and I know Jeremy does too, and probably the only reason I tolerate those long crew bus rides to South Carolina and Tennessee, the winding driving through all the mountains.  And then there was the snow on the tops, another pretty site.  I sat on the plane for the remaining time with my headphones connected into the plane’s “new hits” radio station.  Which just like every other teen or young adult was perfect for me, no need to waste my iPod nano battery playing the same music.  My mom will be happy about the next thing I did – took out the Kaplan GRE Strategy, Practice, and Review book my roommate lent to me.  Let’s just hope the habit sticks up into the next flight if I’m not too busy sleeping or watching more movies.  I am positive I annoyed the person in the seat next to me since the arm rest in between us has my control settings of radio stations and volume.  I am constantly changing the volume of the music for each song, because I need just perfect loudness to semi tune out the engine and not too loud where I can’t hear myself read the book. 

Thursday, May 17, 2012
                Into the night and hit Sydney by morning.  Landing in San Francisco was no problem.  The international terminal was nice including the Coach and Burberry Stores.  Yet they didn’t have any fast food stops, only restaurants.  One was a deli like and the other a Mexican restaurant.  Nothing at the deli stood out that I would have enjoyed for the price of 12 dollars.  So at the Mexican restaurant I got pork quesadilla, with lettuce, pico, sour cream, and guacamole.  All of which was very spicy, but the quesadilla was really good and filled me up and was cheaper.   The gates for these international flights are so large for just one flight.  Which made my flight and everyone else on it look so tiny.  My flight has little to no one on it.  I am in a row that no one else was in.  So pretty much as soon as I could, I put all the arm rests up and laid out across the three seats in my row.  I slept for probably ten hours, all broken due to turbulence and readjusting.  I remained awake for the last three hours of the flight, which meant I woke up at 3 in the morning on Sydney.  Hopefully I stay awake the remainder of the day.  I got breakfast, French toast, it was fine, the bottom half slice had been burnt and gave more of a deep fried bite to it.  It also included fruit, melon, grapes, and pineapple, and a raspberry pastry.  I got off the plane quickly since there were so many little people on it.  Then followed the signs to baggage claim, easy.  Hit customs and was in line, all was going fine but the man in front of me was having some problem.  Visa wasn’t showing up and the code he had wasn’t working.  Wonder if he was ever allowed in, he had to go with some man in a suit.  I go through all that, get my suitcase and start walking to where my dad said was called the central meeting area.  Well it was a lot harder to find, felt like a deer in headlights.  I got my shuttle, man kept asking me where I was going.  Well I wasn’t really sure, but I showed him my papers and I assumed he understood.  Goodness did he drive fast, not to mention the whole driving on the left side of the road and the driver on the right side of the car.  He luckily dropped me off at the right apartments.  I get there and get sent to this little café called crystal café.  There I got some more breakfast, which for me probably was lunch but since it was only 7:30am it only felt right to get that.  I ordered bacon and eggs.  It came on two slices on toast, eggs scrambled, and with bacon on top.  Not just two or three strips of bacon, but large massive sheets of bacon, larger than the size of toast.  And then on the side it included a cute and tasty roasted tomato.  Of course no one’s rooms are ready and everyone is arriving at separate times.  But almost four hours later, we started a walking tour of the neighborhood. 

I live in Waterloo, on Danks st.  So we took a walk to the north-east direction up into Surry Hills.  It reminds me of the area where Katherine lives in Chicago.  Small cute houses all built really close together with café’s at the corner of every street basically.  There must be as many salons as there are café though that’s for sure.  So we just took the tour though the neighborhood and basically stopped at the library there.  It was very modern; the whole thing is glass with wooden shades that open or close.  We then got back on a bus and that took us straight back to the apartment.  Our transportation is free via train, bus, or ferry.  We finally got into our rooms and they are very nice.  You walk in and straight ahead is a room for two people.  Then if you go down stairs is where the kitchen, living room, and second bedroom is.  My roommate and I have already rearranged our rooms, hopefully to not get in trouble and have to move back.   But besides sheets we don’t really have a blanket.   But the closest is definitely big enough.  And the kitchen is extremely nice, plenty of room.  But as I can tell no 9x13 Pyrex pan :/ I always am using mine back home.  But plenty of big pots for the stove and basically anything else that’s necessary.  My roommates and I went out to aldi to do our first shopping trip.  I barely saw any brand names I recognize.  I tried to think of meals and things to make for lunches.  Eating out is probably one of my favorite things to do and is where most of my money goes normally back home, but everything here is just so expensive.  Mostly just got bread, turkey and chips for lunches.  Got pasta and sauce and cheese to make baked pasta, which will have to be made in two small batches in the 8x8 pan we have.  Two premade pizza crusts, so that will be a quick easy meal to just throw sauce and cheese on it and put it in the oven.  Some peppers, pears, clementines.  Until I get my usb drive that gives me wifi anywhere I have to wait and go to the café to send emails or check anything.  Until then we’ll see what happens.  Its 5:03 right now and its getting dark already.  Tomorrow I get a tour of Sydney just need to be ready by 8:50.  I ended the day with a glass of red wine, I believe it was called red jacket.  It was good my roommate offered me a glass, I had a hard time finishing it.  Usually when I drink wine the first few sips taste great and then after that it seems hard to get it down.  Hopefully that Australian wine class will help me get over that hump.  We sat and opened a bag of cookies I got.  They were chocolate cream in the middle of two biscuits.  Which Im pretty sure biscuits is the word for any kind of cracker or cookie here.  Oh yeah and I took a shower! Let’s see I took it at 5:30 am on Thursday may 17 eastern time and the last time I showered was Monday night. Ha! My hair was a grease ball. 

Fun things ive learned so far
-cars don’t stop for you
-footpath = side walk
-toilets have two different buttons – half and full flush
-most owners don’t use a leash for their dogs
-its night time come 6:00pm – yay for winter season, not
-STAY TO THE LEFT basically anywhere you go

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