The Longest Day of my Life

This has been the single longest day of my life. It is currently 10 p.m. on a Wednesday night in Sydney and with the exception of 6 hours, I have been awake since 7 a.m. Monday morning in Minnesota. The time change makes it sound more impressive than it is, but in any case, I have been awake for a very, very long time and I am forcing myself to blog before I go to sleep.

Truly, the 15 hour flight was not that bad. I managed some sleep, watched 3 movies (including the Aussie-recommended “The Castle” [think Napoleon Dynamite]) and plenty of Big Bang Theory. [Side note to everyone who requested I bring home an Australian man: my seat mate was a rather wonderful Aussie, who is looking to study abroad in “Minn” sometime soon.] Everything went smoothly: made it through customs, got my bags, and made it to our apartments.

The apartment is downright amazing – I will never live anywhere near this nice for quite a while. Balconies, flat screen TVs, and cleaning service…do I need more?

We took a walking tour of the city this morning, and I already feel like I’m starting to find my way around. It’s hard to describe the city, other than gorgeous and full of palm trees. I can’t believe that in 3 months I’ll know my way around this place. And it definitely beats a Minnesota winter!

The roommates are all fabulous – we’ve already discussed how lucky we are that each of us is normal. We also discovered our new favorite thing today, Tim Tams (thanks Emma introducing them to me!). They are a chocolate wafer kind of dessert and are one hundred times cheaper than any other chocolate at the store. Everything is crazy expensive here – I paid $10 for my Subway and $8 for my McDonald’s chicken nuggets today. Also, yes, I’m clearly eating like a tourist thus far, but we went grocery shopping today so I will be making mostly my own food. And let’s face it, I can’t afford $30 for schnitzel, no matter how good it sounds.

Tonight, my Sydney-born roommate Sam took us to “The Rocks”, the tourist-y kind of district near the Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. We were so excited to step of the train and immediately see the bridge, and we got some of our first roommate photos in. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize that busses stopped before 9 p.m., so we walked a loooong way back to our apartment. Which leads me to where I am now: finally in bed and typing this blog.

Pictures will be coming whenever I can get to an internet café – I’ll do what I can!

Bailey