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| Downtown Brisbane on the river! |
I love to
travel and fly. However, my first flight alone was to the other side of the
planet and required two days of traveling. Needless to say I was apprehensive
to take the plunge alone but everything turned out better than expected! Of
course, before we could leave the country Allie, my friend from USC who I am
living with in Australia, and I could not avoid a minor crisis. As we waited
for our separate flights to board, Allie and I sat with my parents in the USO
lounge snacking and preparing to leave. Her flight was an hour before mine so
she headed to her gate early and I continued to chat with my parents. About
fifteen minutes before Allie’s flight was to take off, my mother gets a phone
call from a Michigan number she didn’t know, so she ignore the call. I had a
funny feeling in my stomach so I called the number back and of course it was
Allie frantically calling to say she left her carry-on bag and could I please
run it to her. Without a second thought I grabbed her bag and took off through
the Charlotte airport. We looked like a scene from a movie, Allie and I
frantically racing towards each other and I slung her bag to her and yelled
“Good luck!” Minor crisis averted and a good work out before a six-hour flight!
The flight from Charlotte, NC to
San Francisco, CA was incredibly boring and consisted of me playing somewhere
close to 20 games of Sudoku to attempt to stay awake. With only an hour layover
in San Francisco, I booked it to the International terminal and made it with
about twenty minutes to spare before boarding began. I got some funny looks
because I was doing some serious stretching in the terminal but I knew I would
be restless on this 14-hour flight and I needed to let out some energy! The
stretching ended up not being necessary because our flight was only half full
and I was able to stretch out on the plane no problem! A few seats down from me
sat a nice man named Wade, who was from Sydney, and he had been in the states
snowboarding and broke his collarbone. We got to talking and I ended up asking
him millions of questions about Australia. I ended up falling asleep for a
solid six hours before a snack (I use this term lightly, it wasn’t actually
edible to me) was served. I had to get up a few times to walk about the plane
and let out some excitement and energy but other than that it was an easy 14
hours. Wade and I were chatting before breakfast was served and the stewardess
assumed we were together and politely asked Wade if his ‘wife’ wanted coffee. I
was baffled but he smoothly answered, “yes, with sugar please.” When she walked
away we both started laughing. Turns out I got and international husband before
I even landed in Australia!
Since Wade worked at the Sydney
airport, once the wheels were down, he whisked me through the airport quickly
and efficiently! I was taken through the international diplomat entry for
customs as he chatted with a co-worker and then we got my bags in a matter of
moments and my currency exchanged in seconds. I couldn’t have picked a more
useful international husband. Mom would have been proud!
During my hour flight form Sydney
to Brisbane I was way too excited! As we flew North up the coast, I was on the
East side of the plane and I watched the most beautiful coastline pass beneath
me. Australia is breath taking. Once we landed I collected my bags (they all
arrived safely and on time, thank goodness!) and hailed a taxi to St. Lucia, my
home for the next five months! Brisbane is a huge city with a lot of greenery.
After a scary twenty minutes driving on the left side of the road I finally
pulled up to my beautiful new home!
Allie had arrived earlier that
morning and she met me outside and helped me bring my stuff inside. Susana, our Australian roommate, gave me a
tour of the house and drove Allie and I to the shopping center to buy our
groceries. Once again, the whole left side of the road-driving thing really
throws me off. I am never driving here. Grocery stores here are in what we
would consider a shopping mall back home, so everything you would need is in
one place! We just tackled K-mart and Woolworth to get groceries and some
necessities to tide us over for a while.
When we got home Susana cooked us dinner and we had Kangaroo. It was so
good! After dinner Allie and I took showers and Susana took us out to show us
the town our first night!
The RE, or Royal Exchange Hotel, is
the uni (university) hot spot on Wednesday and Sunday nights in Toowong because
they have drink specials. Three-dollar drinks are what people call a special
here! That’s a normal drink compared to what people pay back home in Columbia,
SC. After the RE, we went to one of Susana’s friend’s house to hang out and
then we headed into actual downtown Brisbane. The night ended pretty late for
us, with an expensive cab ride, and somehow I woke up at 7 am the next morning!
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| My room! Already comfortably clean/messy! |
I spent most of Thursday putting my
room together and getting acquainted with the house and cooking. Cooking will
continue to be a struggle for me this whole trip because turns out I have no
idea what I am doing in the kitchen. Friday, Allie and I walked over to the
uni! We explored a little bit and took care of a few start of terms things!
Getting a student ID and a bus pass were the most important things we took care
of that day.
Saturday was spent exploring South
Banks! South Banks is on the Brisbane River in downtown Brisbane and is full of
great places to eat and tons of outdoor stalls great for shopping for little
gifts. Allie made friends with an American girl Emily from Purdue so she met us
for a girl’s day exploring and shopping. We had lunch at this wonderful place
called Grill’d and I had a delicious lamb burger with avocado and humus. I will
be going back there soon! All the flying and walking had taken a toll on my
feet so we stopped to put our feet in the man made pool/ beach area along the
river.
Orientation week started on Monday!
There were a few presentations Monday where we learned a lot of helpful
information at the University of Queensland in St. Lucia. I won a box of Tam-Tams (my new cookie
addiction) for answering a question correctly!
Quest is a student led group on
campus that caters to showing international students a good time while they are
studying in Brisbane, so of course I signed up immediately! That Monday night,
they hosted a Pub night at a bar called Bernie Num Nums (no joke) in downtown
Brisbane. It was a lot of fun and I met a lot of new people!
Tuesday was an AWESOME day spent
holding massive snakes and lizards down on campus! Quest sponsored an event
where we got to handle these lovely creatures. No going to lie, I was terrified
as first and shaking like a leaf, but eventually I sucked it up and held my
arms out for one massive snake. My mother would have flipped.
Market day is UQ’s version of the
club fair back home. Except much much bigger. There were stalls everywhere from
Harry Potter club to Powerlifting and there was a huge stage where music was
playing to promote one of the bars. I joined a few more clubs but the one I am
most excited about is the Mountain club! We will go on camping and backpacking
trips and rocking climbing at Kangaroo point here in Brisbane a few times a
week! I am also excited about joining the Beer and Rum club because they passed
out cards that give discounts to many places in the area! SCORE!
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| Our AWESOME back porch! |
On Thursday we invited many of our
new international friends over and we had a Barbeque on our lovely back porch! I've made quite a few friends from Canada and they are great! They actually do say "aye" after a lot of things haha. Chef Allie
grilled everything from a soy steak to kangaroo kabobs. It was a great evening
just hanging out and chatting with some interesting and diverse people.
The worlds largest Toga Party is
held right here in Brisbane so of course we had to go. There had to be at least six thousand people at an outdoor concert area. It was an awesome good
time with a massive amount of people! Afterwards there was an after party at
Bernie Num Nums so we hung out there afterwards.
Quest pulled through with the best
Saturday night I’ve had in a long time. They hosted a pub-crawl! We all wore
white shirts and markers were passed out so we could write on everyone’s
shirts. Since we are all international students, we took turns making jokes about other countries. My shirt has "I love fried chicken" while Allie's says, "I'm American and I wish I could read." We began at the trusty RE and ended up at the biggest dance club I’ve
even been to in downtown Brisbane called the Met. I made quite a few friends
that night and it was great!
One of my high school teachers,
Mrs. Loxton, moved to Brisbane with her husband after I graduated so I got to
have lunch with her on Sunday at Mt. Cootha, which overlooked the entire city
of Brisbane. This city is huge and incredibly diverse and beautiful!
Unfortunately we had to come back
to reality because classes started on Monday! My schedule is great because I
have an afternoon class Monday, class all day Tuesday, all day Wednesday and
none on Thursday or Friday. I am the most excited about my Palaeoceanography
class and I am very nervous about my Philosophy class, I’m not really much of a
free thinker.
Two weeks in and I’m beginning to
feel like I have a new home. The only bummer has been the almost constant rain.
It so hot and humid for summer that rain is inevitable but we’ve only had one
clear sunny day so far (and yes I got burned). The younger drinking age has
been fun to explore but thankfully Allie and I are pretty level headed most of
the time so we stay safe but have a good time. I am definitely beginning to
miss my family as well as my hairdryer (it blew about 30 seconds into the first
use). It looks like I’ll be living the next five months all natural, and I
couldn’t be more excited to be doing that down undaaaa! Cheers for now!
