Let's Give This Blogging Thing A Try

G'day avid blog readers! (of which I'm sure there are thousands). Let's get this blog on the road.

Quick disclaimer: I am a HORRIBLE story teller and basically very few people think I'm funny so bear with me. At least my parents will read this.

Alright here we go!

So I have safely arrived in Sydney, Australia! I flew from Chicago to LA where I met up with my two friends from school, Natalie and Sidra. We then flew a grueling 14.5 hour flight to the land down under in which I slept through everything except for this amazing sunset,

 this amazing sunrise,

 and this killer view of Sydney from the sky.

After going through customs, drug searches, and more customs, I was able to step foot on Aussie soil at last.  We hopped on some busses that were going to take us to the BU Sydney Academic Center which is where we would be living for the next 3.5 months.  Our bus driver was apparently set on trying to get us to get right back on the plane that we just got off because for the entire 30 minute drive, he gave us a detailed description of all of the deadly wildlife in Sydney/Australia.  But it didn't scare us! Who cares if a microscopic spider can kill you in 30 minutes right?

We finally got to our apartment after not so gracefully carrying 100 lbs of luggage across the street (aka I dropped all my luggage in the intersection, shocker). Sidra, Natalie and I are all living together along with our 4th roommate, Ruthie.  We all have our own rooms as well as a kitchen, a living/lounge area, and 2 bathrooms. Yay for being independent grown ups!

My first couple of days in Sydney were pretty boring to tell y'all the truth.  In addition to adjusting to the 15 hour time change, the first 3 days were filled with orientation sessions and shopping for food/apartment necessities.  But on a more exciting note, I signed up for Surf Camp, whoop whoop! (more to come in a later blog post).

Orientation ended Friday afternoon so that the entire program could go on a boat cruise of the Sydney Harbor.  We got lost on the walk there so a 20 minute trip ended up being a 45 minute trail of tears.  But alas, we made it to Darling Harbor and boarded this beauty:

Despite it being a little chilly (keep in mind it's still "winter" here), the cruise was super fun! The boat took us all around the harbor, right under the Harbor Bridge and alongside the Opera House. We were served a grand ol' dinner and had a grand ol' time :)

After the cruise, we were all pretty beat so we headed back to our apartment and watched So You Think You Can Dance until we passed out. Side note: did you guys know that there is an Australian version of The Bachelor? It's exactly like American bachelor but way better because everyone has accents and every date looks like it's a destination vacation date.

When we woke up on Saturday morning, it was rainy and cold which did not make good weather for the Drop Bear Cup, a scavenger hunt that the BU team put together for us.  In case you were wondering, a drop bear is a fictitious carnivorous koala that sits in the tops of trees and attacks passing tourists by dropping onto their heads from above. Yeah, I just learned about them today too.  Thankfully the weather cleared up in time for the hunt and we were sent off into the city in search of checkpoints, photo spots, and local grub as well as a page of trivia questions that local Aussies had to answer.  All in all, as all scavenger hunts are, it was fun but semi-miserable (my roomies Meredith, Caroline, and Sanya can all attest to this; sorry again guyz).  We basically walked all over Sydney which is HUGE, something I did not realize until today.  5 hours (which felt like 5 days) and later, we ended the scavenger hunt on Bondi Beach which made the aching feet and partial dehydration totally worth it.  

We won't find out who won the scavenger hunt for a few days but it definitely won't be my team so that information isn't super relevant to you readers.  I'm going to go take a super long nap now to prepare for a beach walk tomorrow!