Cairns

So we got up and went to the Airport where our play was delayed because of the fuel gage or something.. just our luck. Finally they fixed it and we were off to Cairns. When we arrived it was sunny for a bit but then it started raining so I didn't feel so bad for having to wait for our luggage/on our shuttle etc. We finally arrived at our resort and wow. It was awesome. We had a HUGE room with a balcony looking right out at the pool. After that we pretty much just had dinner, came back and went to bed.

Wednesday was our day at Michaelmas Cay. We had to be on our shuttle at 7 a.m. so it could pick up some more people and to at Cairns by 9:00 because our boat left at 9:30. When we got on the boat Dad and I signed up to SCUBA DIVE !! I think he was a little nervous at first but didn't want to admit it. So anyways, we took an extremely large sailboat to an island full of birds (literally--- yuck.) that was about 2 hours away. Once we got there mom and I took a semi- submerged submarine ride for about a half hour where we got to see some of the fish and the coral. After that dad and I got our scuba gear on and got ready to go diving! Dad was extremely nervous I KNOW because he was asking the guy 2000 questions and getting extremely jumpy and flustered. Well, he did fine in the water and we had no problems. It was AMAZING. The colors of all the different fish and coral that we say and just the variety of all the different coral and fish we saw was breathtaking.. ha, literally! It was awesome... by far one of the coolest things i've done. Mom went snorkeling which she also said was cool and that she saw a lot of different fish and coral. After that we pretty much just layed out on the boat while it took is back to shore! We ended up eating a late dinner then heading to bed early.

Again, Thursday we got up early for our trip. We got into the bus and headed to Kuranda, an aboriginal village in the middle of the rainforest. We took a train up the mountains and it was again, incredible views. We stopped at a placed called Barron falls where the waterfalls were absolutely beautiful. Afterwards we made our way up the mountains and when we got to the top we went to the Koala park where mom and I got to HOLD a Koala (the state law in Queensland is different from new south wales where you can only pet it ). It was soooo cute and cuddly and I wish I could have one for a pet. After that we fed the kangaroos who were also soooo cute ( probably because they were really only wallabies)! They pretty much smelled/saw food and they ran up to you and looked so cute you just couldn't resist! After this we took the WORLD LONGEST sky-rail back and it went over the top of the rainforest. Once AGAIN, talk about amazing views! We had the pacific ocean, then we had flat land, and behind us/ALL around us we had the rainforest. It was breathtaking. When we made it back to the village we had the "Aboriginals" give us a show, teach us how to play the didgeridoo, and help us throw a boommerage.. which was actually cool cuz we actually got to throw one! Anyways, that was the end of that, and again we just got home, cleaned up, and I got ready for my last night/dinner in Aussie land :( .

Weekend in Sydney with mom and dad

So Friday I woke up thinking that I would be getting a call from mom and dad around 7:00 because their plane was supposed to get in at 6:45. I didn't get a call until about 8:30. Thanks. Anyways, I eventually made my way over to their hotel and it was so great to see them! We walked around circular quay where we then ate lunch and had 26 dollar fish and chips! Ugh. I then met up with my roommates at max brenners for some chocolate! I had a chocolate suffle with icecream.. so good! Then I went back and went swimming with Daner. We went back and showered and got ready to go out for dinner! We went to Darling Harbour to Helm bar.. aka "time out- world cup bar" and got chicken schnitzels and fries and my parents met all my roommates which was cool! After that we went back to the apartments to get ready to go out for the night.

Saturday I woke up and had to say bye to Melissa because she was leaving for the airport early.. it was very sad because she was the first one to leave and she cried. After that i went to meet my parnets where we then took the ferry to Manly where we walked around and got lunch. We went back and took them to my apartment where I got my stuff and i said bye to dana :( . It wasn't as sad as saying goodbye to Melissa because I dont think it really hit me. Then we went back to the hotel and just relaxed for the night.

Sunday we got up and went to the rocks where we waited for Danielle to come with her bags. Once she got there we headed to Circular Quay where we went to the Botantic Gardens and then St. Mary's Cathedral. Then we went to see Derek's old hostel and bar that he went to where he would try to "figure out what the hell he was doing with his life." Then I took my parents to steak and potatoes for one last time and it was delicious! I also showed them where I worked. After that we went back and my mom, Danielle, and I went to the rocks and did some shopping. Afterwards we got pizza and then it was about time for bed.

Monday we got up early and I said goodbye to Danielle. That also wasn't very sad because we both were pretty tired and it was really informal. My parents and I got on the shuttle and went to featherdale and did the blue mountains! It was a great day for it and I could actually see the mountains this time. It was a much better tour the second time around.. the views were beautiful! When we got back I just packed and relaxed and got ready for our big day to Cairns.

Port Stevens Weekend

We took off for Port Stevens which is about 2 and a half hours north of Sydney. We drank on the bus again but once we got there we were all pretty dead and ready for bed. Saturday Morning we got up early and went to the Shark and Ray Centre where we actually got in the water and pet and fed sharks and sting rays. Scccaarryyy! After that we headed to somewhere in the middle of no where in the desert where we were surrounded by sand dunes. We took a four wheeler to the sand dunes where we were going to go dune boarding. Apparently the other week people got hurt by standing up and going down the dunes so they only wanted us to sit on the boards, which is fine because I wouldn't have been able to stand up without breaking my neck anyways. So pretty much we just sledded down sand .. we only went down twice because the hill was so big that it was extremely hard to walk back up. After dune boarding we headed back to Port Steven to go whale and dolphin watching. When we got into the boat my roommate and I went to the bar to order a drink, but the bartender told us he was told not to sell drinks because it was going to be extremely choppy out there and drinking wouldn't help. Thank God he didn't sell us any or I would have joined the other 10000000 people that were puking. Not kidding there were people EVERYWHERE puking over the edge and carrying around barf bags. I have never seen so many people throwing up at one time in my entire life. Wow. Anyways, we ended up seeing quite a few dolphins and we saw a few whales but they were harder to spot. The water though was SOOOOO blue! After whale watching went and got a tour of Murrays Brewery and then we had dinner there. After that we went out to the one and only bar in the whole town, and i'm pretty sure that was the most action that bar had ever seen since its been there. There were about 30 of us who walked in and everyone kind of just stared at us. But they had a live band with an older lady and older man and they placed 80's music pretty much the entire time.. it was actually a blast.

The next day (Sunday) we headed to Hunter Valley where we ate lunch and then did wine tasting all day. We went to three different vineyards, and the last one we did liquor tasting. Our last one was a hot chili pepper shot, and they made everyone do it. It BURNED my mouth for like 10 minutes straight!

All together it was a very successful and fun weekend! Unfortunately that was our second to last weekend here and now we only have one more week together! :(

Our busy Sunday! (6/27/10)

Sunday we had a really busy day. After a long somewhat relaxing weekend, we got up and headed to Darling Harbour. First we stopped at the chinese garden of friendship which is basically a huge park with a bunch of pretty trees, sculptures, plants, waterfalls, etc. Then we had lunch at a place called "pancakes on the rocks" which had AMAZING pancakes, however because we aren't supposed to tip here the customer service was horrible. After that we went to wildlife world where we saw one of the largest crockodiles in the world, some ugly kangaroos, and of course the cutest koalas. Then we headed over to the aquarium which was AWESOME. I'm not sure if its because I've never been to an aquarium before or if it was just this one.. but I was amazed by the HUGE turtles and the sharks. Once we were done there we headed over to the big sydney tower where we went up to the top to look out at the city. I would compare it to the john hancock building in Chicago. It was awesome because we could see everything from our apartments that we are staying, to our internship sites, to the olympic stadium, to the opera house. Very cool. After that we headed to circular quay for our 5489589 attempt at the ice bar. We FINALLY were able to get in and it was awesome. Literally everything was made of ice . The walls,sculptures, the cups usually are however they were out of cups because they didn't get shipped in on time, so we got in for 20 dollars instead of 30, which was fine by me. Anyways, after that we came back and relaxed the rest of the night. It was a great day.

Saturday 6/19/10

Today was an AMAZING DAY! I got up hearly and headed to Paddy's market which is a really cheap souvenir place to get the rest of my souvenirs. This took all of ten minutes, so I decided I would take a walk around Darling Harbour because i've never actually seen it in the daylight. I walked through where Fifa Fan fest was held, I found where the chinese garden of friendship is, where the WORLDS LARGEST Imax is, and also where the Aquariums and Wildlife World are located. It was a beautiful day and I walked around pretty much the whole harbour. Then I headed over to circular quay and caught the ferry over the Manly beach which is about a half hour ferry ride. There were so many sailboats out on the ocean and it was so beautiful. When I got to Manly, I walked over to the beach and pretty much just layed in the sun and took in what a great day it was. Eventually I headed back to get ready to go to the rugby game at the 2000 olympic stadium! After the game we headed to this outdoor bar where we could watch the world cup game on some big screen TV's. I finally headed home around 1:00 and slept until almost 12 on Sunday.

Thursday 6/17/10

Today at work I shadowed Noel (the caseworker) around. I went through goals with one of the kids and he also wanted me to go through goals with ben (the one that I keep seeing out) but thank god I didn't have to because I think that would have made ben a little bit uncomfortable. It was cool to see how the casework was done but to be honest it was kind of a boring day! After work I went home and ate dinner then got ready to go out! I went out with my roommate dana, ashley, and two other girls from our program to my friend Joey's house (the one who is here on the spring semester program from Minnesota) because it was his birthday! Then we headed to home bar/unipackers in darling harbour just like any other Thursday! :)

Tuesday 6/15/10

So today at work I had a meeting with my supervisor and he said that next week I am going to be doing some other stuff such as education, drop in, and freeway (which is basically activity day where the kids go do something such as rock climbing, go-karting, etc.) He also said that I will get to do Francis street within the next few weeks which is medium term care so the kids living there are a little bit more under control. He said he has heard nothing but good things which made me really happy! The only thing he had a complaint about was that I needed to wear longer shorts, or pants. Whoops!

Saturday 6/12/10

I woke up feeing very refreshed and ready to rock. So, I went shopping and again spent way to much money. After that I came back to get Dana and Melissa so we could go to the beach. While I was waiting, there was a knock at the door with a flower delivery for Nicole Anderson! Matt sent me tulips for our 6 month! Awwwww what a sweetheart :). Anyways, we took the train and then hopped on a bus over to the beach. The beach ended up being kind of cold so I ended up buying a sweatshirt so I could keep warm! Then we walked around this 6 story shopping mall for a while, and then headed back. As we were on the train on our way back, this homeless man who was on some mad drugs and reaked of alcohol came over and sat right next to me and tried talking to me. I was sooooo scared! He tried talking to me about how much he loved puppies and I was just nodding my head and trying not to make eye contact . Finally, he laughed, got up, and ran to the other end of the train. Wow, that was an experience. After that we came back and took a nap because we needed to be ready to go at midnight and we needed to make it to the world cup game at 4:30 in the morning. We ended up going out around 1:00, but one of my roommates forgot her ID to get into the game. So after spilling my 8 dollar drink all over my brand new coat and jeans, we came back to our apartment, changed, got the ID, and headed on our 5 million hour long journey to Darling Harbour for the game.

This is basically where we were

http://www.sydneyfifafanfest.com.au/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Sydney+International+FIFA+Fan+Fest

So Dana and I decided to leave at half time which was about 6:30 in the morning already. We got home and I finally was in bed by about 7:30 a.m. What an exhausting weekend. Today we basically just layed around allllll day and relaxed. Not much else to say about that. Tomorrow I start my 3rd week of work and I think I am finally going to be able to start writing case notes!

Also, I put my Third album of pictures up on facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=182140&id=515348694

2nd week of work

So this week of work went extremely fast and I'm really starting to enjoy it!! I interact with the kids mainly .. but I also do things such as answer the phones, read over the kids case notes, fill out paperwork, etc. Next week my boss told me that I'll actually be able to start writing some of the kids case notes.. which basically means that I'm treated like a staff member, so i'm really excited about that. One of the kids there I am starting to get really attached to, his name is ben and he's 19 and he's pretty much the only normal one there (and by normal I mean he doesn't get stoned out of his mind every day and night, doesn't shoot heroine or snort coke, and doesn't rob stores or mug people.) He beat me at connect four 11 times in a row, no joke. I honestly could not figure out what he was doing either. Crazy! But anyways, on Tuesday night me and my two roommates went out for 5 dollar steak and potatoes at a place right down the street from my work, and we ended up running into him. He asked us if he could charge his phone by us because that is where the outlet was, and so he ended up sitting down and drinking with us before we got our meal. I was extremely paranoid the next day that I was going to get in trouble at work because I'm not supposed to be hanging out with clients. Oops. Anyways, yesterday (thursday) my roommate and I went to the library after work (which is also down the street from my work) and we ended up running into ben again. He was telling us his plans for the night and apparently he was going to the same place that we were going to go. Anyways, so we went out and ended up running into him at the bar. I talked to him for a bit but then tried to stay away because I didn't want to run into any problems with that at work! I can't wait to see him on Monday though, he's pretty much the only one that I can hold a decent conversation with there.

So today (friday) Dana woke me up at 10:00 because she wanted to get up early and go shopping! Well, we all know how pleasant and fun I am in the mornings after a night of drinking. So, we didn't end up leaving until about 12. But anyways, we went into china town and got some chinese food at this chinese food court ( i've never seen so many asians in one place in my life). Then we went souvenir shopping and I ended up dropping 300 dollars on souvenirs for people .. uggghh.. but it was actually quite fun picking things out!

"I'm sorry, you can't eat that here."

After doing some shopping, Danielle and I decided that we were hungry and we wanted to get some pizza hut bread sticks. So, we walk in and go up to the counter to order. Before we told her what we wanted she asked "for here, or takeaway?" and we of course said, "for here." So we order breadsticks and the lady tells us "i'm sorry you can't eat breadsticks in here, you have to get takeaway" (the place was nearly empty) . So we were order takeaway and sit on a bench right outside of the restaurant but before you go outside. After about 20 minutes (does it really take that long to make 5 breadsticks) they called our order. So we got our breadsticks and go back to our bench to eat them because the only other place we would be able to eat them is outside as we walk on a crowded sidewalk. As we are eating, the lady at the counter comes up to us and says "i'm sorry, you can't eat that here." REALLY?! We just bought your food and you are kicking us out of your restaurant?

Moral of the story = customer service here... SUCKS.

Anyways, the rest of the day we ended up shopping a bit more and then coming home. I'm staying in tonight with Danielle because I am EXHAUSTED and I want to be feeling great tomorrow because I think we are going to the beach. But thats all for now.

This was a really long post. Sorry.

Surf Weekend (6/4-6/6)

What a weekend!!!!! Thursday night we went to a place downtown called side bar and it was SO fun. One of our friends has an internship at the hotel that is above it and so he got us all in free cover and free wine and beer all night. So we can imagine how that turned out! Anyways the next day we basically just layed around all day until it was time to leave. So we get on the bus .. only to find out at this place was SIX hours away AND we were basically going to be CAMPING!!! WHAT?! I swear they never told us that. BUT it ended up basically being like a party bus for the last three hours. They didn't care if we drank and they cranked the music up super loud. It was SO much fun! We didn't end up getting there until about 2:00 in the morning. I ended up getting less than an hour of sleep that night! So the next morning they woke us up at 7:00 for breakfast and then we had to put on our wetsuits to go SURFING!!! It was one of the most fun things i've ever done, even though i kind of sucked! However, I DID end up getting up and making it all the way the the shore ONE TIME! I was quite proud of myself. So after we surfed for a while we layed on the beach all day and then came back and ate lunch. After that we hit the beach again and brought our wine with us this time :). Soooooo after THAT we came back and ate dinner and then had a bonfire and drank the rest of the night on the beach! Sooooo this morning we ended up being woken up AGAIN at 7:00 in the morning to eat breakfast and surf for the last time. Then we packed up and left!! So I am running on about 4 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours right now. UGh. Anyways, that was my weekend.. and I didn't die!

So my pictures should be up sometime soon .. Unfortunately I didn't get any videos or even really any pictures of me actually surfing because no one was on the beach to take them for me!

First week of work! (Thursday 5/3/10)

So today was my 3rd full day of work and it was definitely a lot less boring than the first two days. I got to interact with all of the kids and chat with them for a while. Some of them i'm a little bit afraid of still, but for the most part they all are really nice to me. They think i have a really weird accent and they all could tell I was american right away. I also did wake up calls and one kid told me he didn't like me because I woke him up this morning, and then when I told another kid what my name was he told me he didn't like me because that was his mom's name. Ouch. The only thing that really bugged me today was that the police called today about one of the kids and apparently he beat up and mugged someone last night. It seemed as though no one even thought twice about it or even cared that he was out doing that last night, it was like no big deal. I'm not sure how much I believe in providing food and shelter for someone who beats people up and steals all their money. But oh well I guess. Anyways, tonight we are going out on the town and then tomorrow we are going to go shopping and then heading north to the beach to SURF!! Pray for me!

First day of work Tuesday (6/1/10)

so I just got done with my first day of work! and OMG ... was it BORING! Ugh. Pretty much all i did was sit around and read manuals about how to deal with their behavior issues and their policies.. it was so boring. Towards the end my boss took me down the street to show me where they go to get clothes and cheep food and stuff though, it was kind of sad. But yah .. nothing really that interesting happened today. I guess the most interesting thing was probably that one chick got in a fight last night and when one of the staff went to do wake up calls this morning there was blood all over her pillows and sheets from her fight. And some kid came in puking at like 11:00 in the morning from being drunk... THAT morning.. not from the night before! Other than that.. nothing really. I guess I found out more about what actually goes on. So I work upstairs.. which is where the bedrooms are. And there are 13 beds that kids are able to sleep in.. so there are 13 kids living there. Some kids stay up to 3 months, other kids are there from one day to a week depending on if they get placed in a more permanent place, if they don't come back for the night, if they do something to get kicked out, etc. My boss said next week that i'll be trained on the computer system and all of the stuff they do, and i'll basically be like another staff member because they are short one right now. So that'll be pretty cool I think. But thats about it for the day!! I'm going to go back and go in the HOT TUB! Adios mates!

Monday (5/31/10)

Okay, so I just had my interview! Where to begin. So I first walked in and I was a little intimidated because a lot of the kids were standing outside smoking and being loud and obnoxious, and here I am dressed up with my northface backpack on my back. I heard one kid go WHO’S THAT! and i was like omg .. but anyways, after waiting for like 15 minutes feeling really awkwardly overdressed, my supervisors came out and welcomed me! They were both super nice but I felt so dumb because I still am not used to their accents and so I kept having to be like “pardon?” cuz I couldn’t understand them! But anyways, we went upstairs and they told me pretty much all about the program. They said that the part that I am going to be starting at is called crisis connection. That is their main building and it is for 16-21 year olds who are basically don’t have a home. Once they demonstrate that they are somewhat responsible they are moved to a different part of the oasis with assitant living and then once they demonstrate they can live on their own the are moved to a different place. Or something like that. So basically they said that the first two weeks will basically be getting me acquainted with the building and stuff (cuz its super confusing, every hallway and door looks the same), reading papers on how to deal with a lot of the behavior problems, reading the clients case notes so I can get to know a bit about the kids, helping in the kitchen with breakfast and lunch, that kind of stuff. Then he said once I get the hang of things I will be able to go to the different activities they do (like last weekend they went rock climbing). He also said that I can probably do some stuff with the school (its not like a regular school, its really informal). So yah! He basically said that i’ll be doing a lot and the first few weeks may be a bit overwhelming, but after that I will pretty much be treated like any other staff member and i’ll be able to move around a bit! So yeah i’m super excited!! The only thing he said that kind of scared me was that although its pretty quiet during the day time because they kids aren’t allowed in their rooms between 8:30 and 4, they still stand around at get drunk outside and at times they may try to harass me (great). He also said if i’m doing a night shift thats usually when crazy stuff happens so if something ever happens and he isn’t there I need to call him and talk to him and he can talk me through what happened. (like i’m going to be scared and in shock or something…) Bah. But hopefully it’ll be okay.

The rest of the day I am going to spend relaxing and getting some last minute groceries! Maybe I’ll go shopping downtown! Okay thats all for today!

Day 4 (5/29/10)

We had to be on the bus at 8:00 to start our adventures for the day. Our first stop was the olympic grounds where we only got about 10 minutes to look around. We didn’t get to see much because it is SO HUGE but we are planning on going back a different day to go to an event! Even though we didn’t get to see much it was still super cool. After that we made our way to featherdale — the coolest place EVER!!!!! We got to see the pade melon (the smallest version of the kangaroo— soooo cute!!!), wallaby, kangaroos, penguins, and KOALAS!!! It was one of the coolest places i’ve ever been because the kangaroos just run around pretty much wild there and you are able to feed them and pet them and everything. We weren’t able to hold any koalas but we could pet them! After featherdale we made out way to the blue mountains. It was extremely foggy.. which kinda sucked, but it was still REALLY pretty. I’m glad I will be going back with my parents again so hopefully this time i’ll be able to see a little bit of something. We then took a walk down the mountains in the rainforest where we ended at the very bottom. From the bottom, we took the STEEPEST TRAIN IN THE WOOORRRLLLDDD (literally, it is) up the mountain. It was so scary. We were basically going extremely fast, completely vertically up the mountain, I thought I was going to die. But i didn’t ! :) So after that we made our way back to our apartments. We got ready to go out for the night and all of our capa group met in one room to drink. We all had a really good time together and everyone was EXTREMELY dressed up. Apparently you cannot get into the bars here if you are wearing any sort of shoe that is not a heal for girls and a dress shoe for guys. So we eventually made our way down to circular quay and went to a bar near the opera house that I forgot what it was called. But it was SOOOOOO FUN!! All of the bars/clubs that I’ve been to have topped any bar i’ve been to in minneapolis! I am SO IN LOVE! And their accents… I just can’t get over them! I swear I am going to have it perfected by the time I leave!! But that was it for day 4 ! No complaints yet! :)

Day 3 (5/28/10)

I woke up feeling a little under the weather from the night before (to say the least) and we had to be downstairs again by 8:30 to go to ACU for our internship orientation. After our orientation they took us to a little restaurant where we ate… kangaroo!!!! It was okay to be honest.. It tasted like any other meat, but the thought of eating kangaroo just grossed me out. After eating, we made out way to circular quay. This was basically when I realized I am IN LOVE with Sydney!!!!!!!! It was so gorgeous. We saw the opera house and the bridge, and then we went to the Botanic garden which was one of the prettiest places I’ve ever seen. Palm trees, flowers, exotic trees, blue water, blue skies. WOW. It honestly may be one of the prettiest places I’ve ever seen. And I have came to realize these last few days that everyone in Sydney is SOOOOOOOOOOO friendly!!!! They are so helpful and so nice, maybe even nicer than people from Minnesota, Wisconsin… sorry guys! Anyways, we ended up getting a bit lost downtown trying to find out bus and the train, but we eventually found it! So we eventually got back and now we are just crashing on the couches and going to take it easy for the night. We have a big day tomorrow because we are going the blue mountains and going to the zoo to pet koalas and see kangaroos!

Day 2 (5/27/10)

So I woke up in the morning and we had to be downstairs by 8:30 to go to our orientation for CAPA. They took us to the bus stop and we hopped on the red 20 to take us to central station. From central we took the train across the Sydney harbour bridge to north Sydney station where we got off and went to our orientation at Australian Catholic University where we will be having class once a week for our internship. After that, we finally went to get cell phones! YAY! Once that was taken care of we went to town hall and got something to eat. I got “bondi bites and chips” (chicken nuggets and fries). They were okay. We looked around town all for a bit then decided to go back home. We did our individual grocery shopping that was much needed and way too expensive. The new came back and went to the gym and the pool. Afterwards, Dana and I decided to go to the liquor store, where we ended up getting caught in a MONSOON! UGH. Then we came back, showered, and ate a delicious meal that Danielle made! Once we finished getting ready after dinner we made our way with our fellow capa friends to an extremely sketchy bar. We obviously didn’t stay long, and we ended up taking a taxi to my friends’ house (Bernie and Joey) from home who are still here from the semester study abroad program. They then took us over to darling harbour. The club we ended up going to was called “home” and it was seriously one of the coolest places I’ve ever been to. It was basically like we were on a boat partying because it was on a balcony looking over the water with all the city lights around us. It was awesome!!!!

Day 1 – (5/26/10)

I arrived at the airport to see Ashley and all of the other girls from the U waiting at our terminal. They were all really nice and we all clicked right away which definitely make me feel at ease right away! We got some food once we arrived in San Fran and we also exchanged our money into Australian dollars and the guy at the counter tried to rip me off at give me 400$ for 500$… I thought I showed him who’s boss by making him give me 75 more dollars.. but I later found out that I was supposed to get more back than I gave him. Oops.. oh well! Anyways, we then went to our terminal and sat and chatted for a while. Then, my roommate Danielle met us! She seemed quiet at first but once we got on the plane she wasn’t at all! On the plane we have a few glasses of wine so we would be able to fall asleep, and it obviously worked. I ended up sleeping for about 8 hours, besides the every hour that I woke up to a crying baby sitting in front of me. UGH!

After 14 and a half hours of being on a plane, we finally got to the Sydney airport and customs went extremely fast. We took a bus to our hotel in the POURING rain and we couldn’t even see out the window which kind of sucked. Once we got to our hotel we ended up going to the café down the street called CREMA that has wifi for 3$ a day. The bad news about that place is that it closes at six, so we may need to find a different location one of these days. After catching up on my facebooking and skyping, we walked to the grocery store to check out the food and prices that were OUTRAGEOUS. 45 dollars for 3 cases of soda. 20 dollars for mascara. It was ridiculous! Once we got back to the apartments they told us that our room was ready. All I had to say was WOW. They are the most amazing apartments I’ve ever seen. They would probably be about 2000 in Minneapolis. We are basically being treated like royalty except for the fact that we only get 3 channels on TV and we have no internet. After we were all settled in, we hopped on the bus, then on the train to go get cell phones, only to find out that we could not buy them because we didn’t have our passports. It was beyond annoying considering we traveled for like 45 minutes in the pouring rain for absolutely nothing. We ended up coming back and going grocery shopping. For dinner we decided to make spaghetti, but it turns out their spaghetti sauce is basically salsa.. so we ended up eating salsa over noodles for dinner. After dinner we had such bad jet leg that we pretty much just unpacked and went to be

I arrived at the airport to see Ashley and all of the other girls from the U waiting at our terminal. They were all really nice and we all clicked right away which definitely make me feel at ease right away! We got some food once we arrived in San Fran and we also exchanged our money into Australian dollars and the guy at the counter tried to rip me off at give me 400$ for 500$… I thought I showed him who’s boss by making him give me 75 more dollars.. but I later found out that I was supposed to get more back than I gave him. Oops.. oh well! Anyways, we then went to our terminal and sat and chatted for a while. Then, my roommate Danielle met us! She seemed quiet at first but once we got on the plane she wasn’t at all! On the plane we have a few glasses of wine so we would be able to fall asleep, and it obviously worked. I ended up sleeping for about 8 hours, besides the every hour that I woke up to a crying baby sitting in front of me. UGH!

After 14 and a half hours of being on a plane, we finally got to the Sydney airport and customs went extremely fast. We took a bus to our hotel in the POURING rain and we couldn’t even see out the window which kind of sucked. Once we got to our hotel we ended up going to the café down the street called CREMA that has wifi for 3$ a day. The bad news about that place is that it closes at six, so we may need to find a different location one of these days. After catching up on my facebooking and skyping, we walked to the grocery store to check out the food and prices that were OUTRAGEOUS. 45 dollars for 3 cases of soda. 20 dollars for mascara. It was ridiculous. Once we got back to the apartments they told us that our room was ready. All I had to say was WOW. They are the most amazing apartments I’ve ever seen. They would probably be about 2000 in Minneapolis. We are basically being treated like royalty except for the fact that we only get 3 channels on TV and we have no internet. After we were all settled in, we hopped on the bus, then on the train to go get cell phones, only to find out that we could not buy them because we didn’t have our passports. It was beyond annoying considering we traveled for like 45 minutes in the pouring rain for absolutely nothing. We ended up coming back and going grocery shopping. For dinner we decided to make spaghetti, but it turns out their spaghetti sauce is basically salsa.. so we ended up eating salsa over noodles for dinner. After dinner we had such bad jet leg that we pretty much just unpacked and went to bed!