unfortunately, my luggage decided to stay in LA when i left for brisbane, so it did not arrive with me in australia when i did, approximately 7:30 am on Monday. so i had to come to school with just my carry-on which, thanks mom, i decided to pack an extra set of clothing and some toiletries, etc.
so we took what ended up being a 2 hour bus ride from the airport to Uni (like that aussie lingo?) and the bus driver just dropped us off at the front entrance and was like, okay enjoy your stay bye! so we had to lug all of our stuff around looking for what we were supposed to do because turns out, we just arrived in the country. when we finally figured out what was going on we got our keys and such, unloaded are baggage (which went quickly for me) and then took a few trips to some stores to buy things such as towels, alarm clocks, and clean underwear. these things are not only incredibly difficult to come by but also extremely expensive. for example, $15 bottles of shampoo, 2 for $20 towels, and $60 dresses at target.
well, that night the school was hosting a "traditional" aussie party where we were provided singlets to wear, thank goodness, because i didn't have any clean clothes. a singlet, btw, is like a long, sleeveless t-shirt which is neither attractive or long enough to cover my cheeks (you know the ones i'm talking about) so i had a decision to make. either make my first impression on the country a strong one by not wearing pants, or wear the dress i had been traveling in for the third day in a row. i went with the dress.
drinks, p.s., are also very expensive costing approximately $3-$5 for a pint of beer. luckily those of us newly arrived academics (what they call students and profs) were jet-laggged and dehydrated and it didn't take much for us. the party ended at midnight (by then, i had been awake for approximately 48 hours and crossed about 4 time zones) and we were provided with a free drink coupon and they wrangled us all onto 2 buses (standing room only) and carted us off into the city where we partied at a nightclub until 3:30, when the buses then picked us back up.
ok, well, the plan was that you were supposed to stay until 3:30 but after one of my new friends got beyonce-booty-danced on by some american boy (so embarrassed) and licked in the face we decided to call it a night early and went home around 2 am. this presented a bit of a problem because we still had an hour and a half until the buses came back. so we asked the bouncers how you get a cab around here and they pointed us in the direction of what appeared to be a dark alley. we didn't know better, maybe they keep cabs in dark alleys here? so we walked and walked and maybe this wasn't the best decision but the story ends well so don't worry too much. eventually we came to a road with actual cars and caught a cab fairly easy. turns out there isn't a huge call for cabs at 2 on a tuesday morning.
we ended up paying $30 for a cab ride that couldn't have been more than 10 or 15 minutes, but split between the 4 of us it wasn't too bad i guess. needless to say i slept pretty well that night, but needed to get early the next morning to take care of administration stuff. ask me to see my student ID picture that i took the next morning if you ever need a laugh. it may or may not look like a mug shot.
after eating some delish food for lunch (the food is REALLY good here, especially the smoothies. i think mango is my fave so far. yum), we went down to the pool for the rest of the afternoon, went on a campus tour, and then MY LUGGAGE CAME. so i happily unpacked and then make the executive decision that if i was going to survive the rest of my life, i would have to get some sleep at some point, so i made it an early night.
today, also known as wednesday by the water, was a BBQ by the olympic sized pool outside my dorm room. and by BBQ i actually mean breakfast sausages wrapped in white bread with some mystery sauce pretending to be ketchup and chunks of fried potato disguised as chips.
plans for tonight are still pending, and as all of you over in the US are probably still sleeping, i will keep you posted. don't miss me too much.
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