In heaps of Love with Sydney

So you know that question I was asking about when it would finally hit me that I was going to Australia for four and a half months? All I can say is as soon as I stepped onto the plane at LAX and the flight attendant said, “Welcome aboard mate,” I knew my adventure had started. As soon as I heard those words, I could not stop smiling because I was thinking about what the future held for me. 

With that said, I AM FINALLY IN AUSTRALIA! I landed two days ago, but I have not had time to update my blog. Luckily the 16 hour plane ride was a breeze because for 8 of the hours I had three seats to stretch out on and sleep. I made a deal with a random girl I met on the plane that she could get the three seats for 8 hours, and then it was my turn for the next 8 hours. Since the plane was not very full, it worked out perfectly. When we first boarded the plane, they gave us an itinerary of when meals would be served and when they would hand out certain snacks. This is when I realized that when I write my first paper here, I am in for a big treat. Even though the people here speak English, they do not spell things the way we spell things. For example, yogurt is spelled yoghurt and while is spelled whilst. This was just the beginning of learning a whole new language and learning to pronounce things correctly. On the plane, we were served dinner right when we took off at midnight. I had a lot of trash from the meal on my tray table when a flight attendant walked by. He looked at me and said, "You have heaps of rubbage!" I looked at him really confused and told him I didn't understand what he was saying. This was when the girl sitting next to me said, "What he means is you have a lot (heaps) of trash (rubbage)." Needless to say, I was quite embarrassed that I did not understand this extremely good looking Australian guy with an amazing accent.

After I landed I was picked up by a shuttle and was on my way to where I am staying. The shuttle pulled up to the curb and I walked around to where our passenger door would be to get in. The shuttle driver came around and started laughing and said, "Mate do you want to drive or something?" I turned bright red and forgot that in Australia they drive on the wrong side of the road and their drivers seat is our passenger passenger door. There were many times during the ride that I thought I was going to die because I kept forgetting that the roads are opposite and their turns are different from ours. This is something that is going to take getting used to!

I am staying in a village that is right next to campus. It is made up of about 6 buildings with about 20 apartments where 5 people live in one apartment. I am living in an apartment with 4 other flatmates (this is what they call roommates), making 5 of us total. There are two guys and three girls in my apartment. One of the guys is from Thousand Oaks, California and the other guy is from New York. For the girls, one of them is from Australia (about 3 hours south of Sydney), and the other is from Singapore but is a full time student at this university. I absolutely love my flatmates and really lucked out. Since they have all been here a month already, they have been showing me the ropes. The girl from Australia is awesome and is teaching me about everything and teaching me how to say different things here. One of the many things I have learned is that a couch is calling a lounge. She also taught me that they call college "Uni" and not college or school. This is something I am going to have to get used to because I keep saying college and she tells me that people are going to think I am in high school (college is their high school). The guy who is from Thousand Oaks (Adam) has saved my life by showing me EVERYTHING. From the second I landed, he has taught me things like make sure you look right instead of left when crossing the street and how to use the bus system.

The first day I met a ton of new people and explored the area around where I am living. I am falling in love with Sydney more and more each day. Even though I have not seen any kangaroos or koala bears yet, I knew eventually my dream will come true to touch them! 

Check back soon when I post the next entry!

With heaps of love,

Heidi