I’m writing this blog posting from an Internet cafe in Manly, a beach suburb of Sydney. Now a recap of how I got here: My flight to Sydney left later than expected on Saturday, not even starting to board until around 12:15 AM or so. Once I was on board, the vision I had had of international economy seats being nice and plush was pretty much instantly squashed: It was like a cattle car! The seats were crammed so close together (seat pitch ~33-34 inches at most) that I almost-instantly began to worry about DVT. But the on-demand movie selection was nice, though: I got to watch both Borat and Employee of the Month, both for the first time. I loved each of them. The food was mediocre, but on a whole better than domestic airplane food usually is. And the service was impeccable — they even had a “customer service manager” who would make PA announcements throughout the flight. Unfortunately due to the cramped conditions and the fact that the cabin crew initially missed my row when they were handing out the eye masks, I was only able to get about 4-5, maybe 6 hours’ sleep. However, around the time I woke up we were just about to cross the International Date Line, and I was able to get some great pictures of Noumea (which I’m pretty sure is part of Fiji) and the surrounding islands.
Upon arrival in Sydney everyone on the flight had to go through customs, and then something called quarantine in which some people actually had their bags scanned to make sure they weren’t carrying any prohibitied food items into Australia’s protected environment. (This was all after they’d retrieved their checked baggage.) A lot of people had to throw away their snacks. (Don’t tell anyone, but I didn’t realize it until later, but I completely forgot about a pack of Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies that were in my backpack. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to covertly dispose of them in a manner that’s safe to Australia’s environment.
Upon clearing customs and quarantine, I proceeded to the “Meeting Point” just inside the airport where I was to meet up with Macquarie University’s airport pickup service. I was allotted a bus to take me and a group of other people to the university, and then we walked outside. I don’t want to sound weird, but the first thing I noticed about Sydney (and now I think it was just the airport) was an overpowering fish smell. The second thing I noticed, very soon thereafter, was just how hot it is. I mean, it must be in the 80s or 90s right now. I’m typing this at 10:19PM Sydney time and, according to weather.com, it’s currently 80% humidity and 23.7 degrees C (75 degrees fahrenheit). We had to wait for the bus in this terrible heat for about 20 minutes (the driver had to retrieve it from the parking lot), but once we got in it was really interesting (and scary at the same time) because we driving on the left side of the road with cars whizzing by on the right. When we arrived at Macquarie the first thing we did was go by the main international office (Macquarie International) to get the keys to our apartments. We did this, but then I was stupid and decided to go after my SIM card for my cell phone. As a result, the bus left without me, along with all of my luggage (except for my backpack) and my nice, expensive Canon Digital Rebel SLR camera. I ended up getting my SIM card (cell phone and all, mistakenly — I later returned the cell phone), but had to find my own way to an apartment that I’d never been to before. That was, well, an adventure. I ended up getting really hot and sweaty walking 10-15 minutes in the wrong direction with my big, heavy backpack on my back, then realizing my mistake and finally figuring out where to go.
The apartment’s address is 24/137 Herring Rd. I’m not sure about the city; I think it’s either Ryde or North Ryde. I’ll post when I know for sure. The “24/137″ means “unit 24 at street number 137.” The apartment is small and doesn’t have Internet access, but it’s really all I need for now. I have three roommates, all of whom are really nice and friendly. Only one of them is actually studying at Macquarie through CEA. Another one of them, a senior, is doing this study abroad for the second time (she also did it last year), and her boyfriend’s an Aussie that she met while she was here, so she’s offered to answer any questions we might have. She’s already proven to be very helpful.
Today I woke up bright and early and met everybody else from the CEA group at the university for a CEA orientation. That was short and laid back, and then we went with Murray Fraser, the cool CEA program leader in Sydney who also works at a surf shop, into downtown Sydney (the Rocks) by bus to climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge. That was really fun, and actually not that scary, and the view was amazing! I’m not at my computer now, but I’ll post photos as soon as I can. Thanks Rick for the tip! I really love that Sydney harbor is so big; I can’t wait to try sailing in it. After taking an hour for lunch we then took a nice walking tour of downtown Sydney, as well as a group photo on the steps of the Opera House, and then boarded a ferry (operated by the Sydney bus system) to take us to Manly, where we’re staying overnight in the Manly Backpackers hostel.
Tonight and tomorrow are basically free, but there was a great BBQ hosted by the hostel tonight. Tomorrow I’m probably going to go boogie boarding.