Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Study Australia Orientation

I think I finally have enough time to sit down and write about everything that has been going on here in Australia!

Let's start at the beginning!

SO MUCH FLYING. Providence -> Chicago -> LA -> Sydney. I think that totals up to about 22 hours of flying. Having a layover in Chicago was heartbreaking. All I wanted to do was run off of the plane to frolic around the city. By the time I got to LA I was already sick of worrying about all of my luggage: 2 huge duffle bags just under 50 pounds each, my backpack, and another bag (full of just shoes). I hung around LAX, which actually wasn't as nice and cool as I was expecting, until I met up with MK. We checked in to our international flight and ate some much needed dinner in the airport. Before we knew it it was time to board our huge Qantas plane and head to Australia! By chance my seat was right behind MK's. The plane was fairly nice and had SO much movie options. I tried watched Ides of March but fell asleep about 20 minutes in. I think I watched 20 episodes of Modern Family and I was probably laughing out loud on the plane. The kid I was sitting next to goes URI which was pretty weird and coincidental. We left LAX around 10:30 PM on Monday February 13th and after 15 hours and a few couple hour naps we arrives in Sydney, Australia at 7:30 AM on Wednesday February 15th.

Day 1:
After going through customs and finally retrieving our luggage we met up our study abroad program. From the airport we headed right to downtown Sydney where our hotel for orientation was located. This hotel was GORGEOUS. Our room was on the 72nd floor and we had an amazing view of Sydney. Supposedly the rooms go for about $2,000 a night! After a brief meeting we were finally able to shower and clean up which felt amazing after all the traveling we had been doing and the sudden exposure to 80 degree weather. For our first dinner we ate at a restaurant called Blackbird which was located on Darling Harbour. I ate kangaroo. That sounds so weird to say. It was surprisingly really delicious. Here in Australia people are encouraged to eat kangaroo because there are so many of them and also because kangaroo meet is really low in fat and very high in protein. After dinner we walked around Darling Harbour a bit and then headed back to the hotel.

View from our hotel room

Sunset from our hotel room

Kangaroo dinner at Blackbird

Delicious sangria at Blackbird

Day 2: 
We went on a super long walking tour of Sydney. We saw so much of the city. There are a ton of beautiful parks and a lot of neat museums that I definitely want to go to while we're here! On our the tour we were in Martin Place where they shoot their morning show (similar to our Today Show) and we actually got to be on TV! They called us all over and we got to wave at the end before the show ended. Success. For lunch we ate at a place called Harry's which they told us most of the locals go to. It's a famous food stand for meat pies. It was... interesting. After the walking tour we headed to the Sydney Harbour Bridge to climb the bridge. While on top of the bridge we got to see ROD STEWART. He was in the group ahead of us. Absolutely wild! Standing at the very top of the bridge was ridiculous. I couldn't believe that I had just climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge and I was staring right at the Sydney Opera House and the rest of the gorgeous place. It's still hard for me to believe i'll be living here for four months. We were absolutely exhausted after the events of the day. On our walk back to the hotel from the bridge a group of us stopped and ate at a restaurant called Star Bar. I had the most delicious wrap and then we went back to the hotel for the most needed shower ever. That night we hit up a bar for a few drinks and then headed to bed.

Australian morning television

Harry's meat pie

Birds that we hung out with on the walking tour

An amazing view of the bridge and opera house
At the top of the bridge!

Day 3:
Today we finally got to go to our campus! I'll be studying at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the campus is absolutely gorgeous. It's completely different than what i'm used to at Columbia. I'm really excited to be surrounded by a ton of grassy quads. The campus is large but i'm sure i'll be able to navigate it just fine after a couple of weeks. We finalized our schedules, got our student IDs and ate some lunch. MK and I also got the most delicious smoothies. Our campus has so many placed to get food! After this we headed to Featherdale Wildlife Park. Here we got to see wallabies, koalas, dingos, Tasmanian devils, pretty birds and crocs. We also got to play with kangaroos both big and small and see a 7 month old baby marsupial. Adorable. It was a really neat place because the kangaroos and wallabies weren't in cages, they were just hopping around all over. Also, koalas seriously DO NOT MOVE. I honestly thought they were fake for awhile, hahaha. I was exhausted and took a nap when we got back to the hotel. For dinner we ate at a little place right across the street and I actually got falafel. Hello Israel. A few of us went down to someone else's room and before we knew it there were about 35 of us hanging out. That night we went to Star Bar for a little dancing. Overall, another fantastic day!

Campus

Campus

7 month old marsupial

Koala 

Kangaroo

Albino kangaroo

Koala

Day 4:
The final day of our orientation activities. We met up at Hyde Park, got into groups, and began the Amazing Race. We traveled around the city completely tasks and receiving clues. It was super helpful because we had to take trains and buses so we kind of got used to that whole process. We were in second place for such a long time but then someone gave us the wrong directions and we ended up in 10th. We ended at the Opera House and ate a super delicious lunch. I had a salmon salad sandwich and it was so great. Back to the hotel we went. We showered and got ready for the Harbour cruise. The cruise was a ton of fun and hilarious. We laughed so much at dinner. All the Australian waiters were just adorable. Dinner was a really great fish dish and then some chocolatey thing for dessert. We saw amazing views of the bridge, opera house, and skyline. I haven't edited photos from this day yet so I'll post them in the next entry (or just edit this one later)! MK and I wanted to go to TropFest (the film festival here) after the cruise so we attempted running over there right after we docked. Unfortunately we were too late but we did get to see the closing fireworks. Another exhausting day and off to bed we went. 

Orientation was amazing. Our hotel was incredible. The food was delicious. The sights were unbelievable. I still can't believe this is all real! 




No comments:

Post a Comment