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

Today's the day!

My adventure begins today.

I'm currently sitting in the MSP airport, waiting for my 3:00 flight to LA. We'll fly out of there at 8:25 PM (10:25 for all you Minnesotans) and then I'll arrive in Sydney at 6:25 AM on Wednesday morning. This is going to be a lot of airplane time, and hopefully a lot of sleeping time!

I'm taking advantage of the airport wi-fi right now, and I am hoping that I will be able to find a solid internet connection in Sydney as well so that I can update this blog (with pictures!) on a regular basis. 

As soon as I get my address, I'll post it, so you can send me Minnesota (or wherever you may be) postcards if you wish, and I'll respond with Australian ones.

Shout out to all of the wonderful people I've gotten to see in the past few days before leaving. You're all the greatest, and I'll miss you like crazy, but I'm so ready for this part of my life to begin.

Zero days remaining. My story starts now.

An Aussie Bucket List

In honor of the fact that I will be flying out a week from today, I have put together a list of things that I think must be done while I'm in Australia, in no particular order:

1. Take a picture with a kangaroo and/or koala

2. Climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge

3. Go to a show (or at least take a tour) at the Sydney Opera House

4. Visit the Great Barrier Reef

5. Become a master of Australian slang or, even better, develop an accent!

6. Explore the Australian Outback

7. Avoid seeing any spiders the size of a dinner plate

8. Go skydiving [Dear family - pretend you didn't read that one :)]

9. Spend excessive amounts of time at Bondi Beach

10. Attempt to learn to surf

11. Learn enough about the country during my time there to feel like a real Aussie!

I think that's a pretty good start, but I am welcome to any and all suggestions!

Only 7 more days until I become an Aussie!

- - Bailey

Is this real life?

I am really, actually going to Sydney, Australia. 

Sure, it started to hit me when I bought my plane ticket and when I attended my orientation a couple of months ago, but I still couldn't believe that I was actually going on this crazy adventure until I received my housing and internship information yesterday. It is finally setting in that this is going to be my life, and I absolutely can't wait to live it.

First off, I am going to be living here, the Meriton Apartments in South Sydney:

Biggest perk? Someone is going to wash my sheets and clean my apartment every week, soooo if I never move back to the U.S., you'll know where to find me [just kidding!] I will have 3 roommates, one from the U, one from Arizona, and one from Massachusetts. I can't wait to get there and meet everyone!

While living in the land down under, I will be going to school here, Australian Catholic University in North Sydney:

Because I am also interning, I will only have to take 3 classes while I'm abroad, a nice change from my class schedule at the U. I only have classes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays (each class is 3.5 hours long!) which will leave me plenty of time for adventuring and interning here...

While in Sydney, I will have my first opportunity to have an internship in the field I dream of one day working in in real life: Sports Marketing. According to the information I was given: 

"Golf Link Partners Australia is a web based company that runs a national, all-encompassing handicapping network called GOLF Link. One of the key benefits of GOLF Link is that it eliminates inconsistent interpretations of handicap regulations, providing Australian golf with a uniformly applied handicapping system for the first time. This is a membership based technology tied into local golfing clubs and as such the organisation has wide exposure within the community."

If anyone wants to volunteer to step up to the plate and teach me everything they know about golf and handicaps before I head out, you'd be my hero.

For now, I think that covers the basics of my trip. I'll do my best to be more entertaining once I arrive!

Countdown: Only 11 more days until I get to go Aussie!

- - Bailey