My First Post From Australia

Well I'm here. Sydney. Australia. Half way across the world and a hop skip and a jump from Antartica. Now that I've been here for a weekend its starting to sink in that I'm actually here. The flight out here was ok. Going out to LA was your stantard american flight experience, and then I got to spend almost 12 hours at LAX airport. The highlight being a nice conversation I had with a lady who lives in Sydney named Christina. Got some inside tips on where to go and what to do.

My flight from LA to Sydney was an amazing experience. If you ever have the chance to go to Australia fly with Qantas airlines. I'll swear up and down it will probably be the best flying experience you've ever had. Not only were the crew extremely friendly but the seats were fairly spacious. I actually could stretch out my legs under the seat in front of me. The meal was excellent. I had lime chicken with a corn salsa, bean salad, and some bread. Oh and all beverages they have are free...none of this charge you 6 dollars for a minature alchoholic beverage crap. I personally went with one of the local beers the Victorian Bitter. It was decent.

They also gave us a snack bag that had chips, cookies, a bottle of water, a whole package of breath minutes and other odds and ends.

Now here is the best part. Each seat had a TV screen in it. So I was able to take my pick of 40-50 movie choices and watch it on the screen in front of me...FOR FREE!. So with 14 hours to burn I opted to watch The New World and Match Point. Besides this I had an amazing breakfast and also managed to sleep for a solid 7 hours. Trust me. Go Qantas.

We arrived here in Sydney at 6:00am in the morning. We were met by a staff member who kindly helped shuttle us back to the building we are staying in the Unilodge. I have a wonderful apartment/loft...complete with a minature kitchen and a decent view.

After a couple hours break to take a shower and get settled it was off to orientation. Mainly orientation was to take us around Sydney a little bit to give us a feel for the area. I was able to see such famous landmarks such as the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge.

Saturday we were given another tour of Sydney. This time we covered more of the historical side of the city getting a better feel for the surrounding areas. Sydney has a population of approximately 4 million people so its rather large, and as we were to discover on Sunday, its rather exapansive. On Saturday, we had the afternoon to ourselves. My friend and I decided to wander around the Public Botanical gardens (check out the fruit bats!). It was beautiful to say the least. 3 some odd hours later we ended back up at the Circular Quey (where Sydney Opera House is) and enjoyed the setting sun.

Sunday another one of the faculty members, Daryl, took us on a beautiful trip around the northern end of Sydney. Starting in Manly(which I have to briefly mention caused us to run smack dab into the show The Amazing Race...they wouldn't admit what show they were filming, but it became pretty obvious when you saw teams running around with film crews running after them), we ended up in Palm beach which is where, despite the frigid waters, a couple of us decided to go swimming. We then headed back to manly where we caught a ferry back to Circular Quey and on home after an exhausting day of adventure.

All in all it has been an exciting and busy weekend.