I’m pretty tired. About a week and a half ago, my parents dropped me off at LAX (headed to Australia for study abroad) and waved goodbye while I walked towards check-in. It was probably a bit before 6, a little after at the absolute latest. It was a lifetime ago at this point.
I had never flown alone before. I always had my parents or a school chaperone right next to me, telling me what to do. It’s good to realize that right before an international flight that’ll take you 6,000 miles (or something like that) away from home. No big deal, checking in was easy and security only took 3 minutes which is awesome. Except I had planned on spending an hour or 2 going through security. So I had about 4 hours to kill at the gate in a terminal with 3 shops. Of course I had stuff (ipod, laptop, books, and a magazine) with me to distract me from the crushing boredom of a 14 hour and 45 minutes flight, but I had brought them for the flight. I didn’t want to burn out on them waiting to get on the plane. So I called up a few folks: a friend halfway across the country, my sister in Santa Barbara, my mom who was on her way home, and a certain girl. It was a nice goodbye to America.
The plane waited to take off somewhere on the tarmac for an hour or two. I got in a little late the next morning but 2 calender days later (stupidest time change ever). I saw the sun rise over the Pacific. It was weird. Hours in customs, starving (“what’s the deal with airline food?”) and standing in line. The drug sniffing dog got upset at my backpack but after rifling through my only possessions they let me into the city. Grabbed a cab to a hotel in Coogee beach. Checked in, flipped through the channels and decided it was time for a nap (only 3 or 4 hours of sleep throughout the flight). 2 and a half hours later, I wake up feeling slightly better and wander around a little bit. I grab some Indian food and eat it on the beach. It’s nice even though July is supposed to be their January. I actually changed into a t-shirt and shorts because it was too hot out.
The next morning (after hanging out all day and sleeping for 12 hours) I checked out, dragged my stuff two blocks over and checked into the hotel the study abroad program’s hotel. Nothing was scheduled until dinner at 6:30. I wandered around alone some more. Coogee is a great place.
My orientation roommates weren’t there yet so I left my stuff there. Later I came back for my notebook/journal/paper-for-letters-home and they were asleep but I didn’t wake them. When I returned later, they had locked the door, probably after housekeeping woke them up. Locked out and unwilling to wake them up to get in, I wrote in my notebook more and waited for dinner. So began my study abroad program’s orientation.
The zoo, the Blue mountains, Darling Harbor, the aquarium, and general “don’t get arrested” lectures for about 3 days. There was also expensive beer and weird sports on television. Worthwhile but I got sick of it after a few days of sleeping on the hotel’s pull out couch. We finally moved into our housing. Some moved into apartments while others, like me, chose the dorms. Specifically, Basser College at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Basser orientation began.
Get to know you games (just like summer camp, although I never went to summer camp so I wouldn’t really know… moving on), a crazy scavenger hunt, the Regent Hotel (Rege), the World Bar, games of “trays” and never-have-I-ever, a “fresh fresher” dance, sailor hats, and an early morning aerobic workout assimilated us into life at Basser. At the end of our mini O-week there was a pub crawl. It was also my birthday. It was awesome. Drinks in Australia are expensive. Let me rephrase that: they are so expensive that people here pregame going out with cheap boxed wine called “goon.” It’s so expensive that cheapest boxed wine is necessary to a) drink and b) not go broke. I didn’t care, it was my birthday and one of the O-staff members as well, which meant we got free drinks. Happy Birthday.
In case you don’t know, we hit 12 bars/pubs/hotels all around Sydney as a group with silly rules at each one (every sentence had to end with “shark” at one of the places) starting at 3:30 pm. And we had started late. Met a lot of people and had a lot of fun.
I’ve made it to Sydney and am now properly oriented.
More on this semester down under later.
