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This my first official writing from abroad.Today has been the longest day.I left LA at about 10pm west coast time and arrived in Sydney at 1pm west coast time, 6am local, for a total flight of over 13 hours more than 30,000ft above the Pacific Ocean.At one point we were flying only a couple hundred miles off the coast of Hawaii!There were about 6 movies shown over the duration of the flight, of which I only watched one.I tried my best to stay awake for the first few hours so I could sleep for the last few, but it was harder than you'd think.Trying to sleep in an upright position in an aircraft that occasionally hits a patch of turbulence is not easy!I ended up sleeping for sometime around 5 hours.Upon arrival my passport was stamped, my luggage was sniffed by a beagle drug dog, and I stood in line to exit the "quarantine" area for a great amount of time.I finally met up with my transportation to the school about an hour after landing and waited another hour for other students to arrive, which all but one did.On my long flight I made one friend who is from Spokane and attended school in Sydney as his primary college, not study abroad, which I thought was pretty sweet.It's too bad I haven't had access all day and am not able to add new friends on Facebook!After the ride over from the airport, the driver took two other students and myself to the "accommodation" office where we got our room assignments and apartment keys.The driver then dropped us each off and we were off on our own.I unpacked all my stuff in a matter of 30 minutes and contemplated what to do. Since neither of the two roommates I appear to have were here I decided to trek out on my own and explore.This led to me getting makeup applied to my face by a persistent French girl working at a makeup kiosk, a new bank account with a decent interest rate on the savings account, a free lunch paid for by the banker who set my account up and just happened to be going on his lunch at the same time I had finished signing all 70 of my travelers checks, and a go-phone account.I was relieved to finally figure out how to make out-of-country calls on my go phone because I was able to call and talk to my parents for almost half an hour.So to sum up the ups and downs of my day today:
Pluses:I now know my address, I can call my family and friends for a decent price, I have a bank account, I technically made $250 due to the exchange rate being in my favor, got free lunch and made a friend, explored campus.
Minuses:I have yet to meet my roommates, I feel incredibly alone, I'm not sure when to sleep, don't have internet, I actually got locked out of my apartment on the balcony because - for some reason - there is no outside door k*** (I ended up having to shimmy my way down from the second floor and let myself in, I was fortunate enough to have my keys on me), I miss my dog, I forgot to pack sweats, it is colder than I thought, and I found a dead cockroach on my floor, haha!
It's not as bad as you might think, I am really enjoying the independence and have only seen a glimpse of the beautiful things this country has to offer!I have uploaded some pictures, so browse through those and see how beautiful it all is!!
Lots of love from abroad,
Heather
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