Inhale. Exhale. Wow-I really need to stop for a moment and breathe. What a whirlwind experience so far! My flight from LAX to Sydney was a super short 15 hours that was filled with exactly two movies, two meals, and one Ambien. I got in the two hour line for customs, which is where the deer in the headlight eyes first developed. It was humid, crowded, and filled with so many people speaking different languages with different accents. I finally made it through and arrived at baggage claim, with the other 600 people on my flight. A fellow study abroad student came up to me and asked if I was with IES (I guess the dead give away was the amount of luggage I had and the way I looked around wondering where the HELL I was) and helped me gather my belongings. After having our bags sniffed by the dogs, we FINALLY made it to the IES representative where we met several other study abroad students. We had a bit of time to kill, so a few of us went over to the Vodaphone counter and purchased an Australian phone. I would say it is a step below my very first brick Nokia cell phone from about ten years ago. I doesn't have internet capabilities or T9 (so it's really high tech...). You have to re-purchase minutes once a month at a Vodaphone store. After getting phones, six of us got in a van and were driven to our appropriate housing accommodations. Most of the people in my program are living in houses on Coogee Beach, but I got put on campus. So, I was the first one to be dropped off. As soon as I walked into my empty apartment, reality set in. I was in a foreign country, by myself, without knowing a single person (other than the few minutes I spent in the van with the other kids), in a completely empty room (no bedding or anything), and no idea how to get around or what I was supposed to do. So naturally I was incredibly overwhelmed, because as you all know, I like to have a plan and know what is going on in my life. A mutual friend from SMU told me about a girl studying with my program too, so we had been in touch before we got to Australia. We were both in the same boat of utter shock and confusion, so we met up and made a trek to Target.
Needless to say, that was an adventure in itself. I learned you can't buy a bus pass on a bus. You have to get one at a connivence store (logical??). Then I had to figure out which bus to take, which stop to get off at, which street her house was on, all without any sort of map. Hence why I looked like the idiot American. I somehow made it to her house on the beach, and we proceeded to find which bus would take us to the Target. I got the wrong type of bedding ("single" sheets instead of "king single"), so I am currently using my flat sheet as the one covering my mattress and the fitted sheet as my sheet. I tuck my feet in the bottom and kinda wrap it around my body, which weirdly is just going to have to work! Got a pillow and thin blanket as well, so I calmed down a bit knowing I could at least sleep in a bed that night. Our program went on a dinner cruise on the harbor where the Sydney Opera House is that night. Everyone was so exhausted from flying in that morning and overwhelmed from trying to figure out their lives, so everyone was moving purely on adrenaline. There are 80 kids total, studying at UNSW, University of Sydney, and Macquarie University, and they are all such awesome kids! Meeting and hanging out with everyone on the boat was a blast. Seeing the Opera House and Luna Park and the Harbor Bridge for the first time was when my mind finally stopped running in over drive and just really took in the gorgeous place that I am in. I slept like a baby that night, without hardly noticing how uncomfortable and pathetic my bed was.
I live in the UNSW Village on campus apartments. I have 4 flat mates, each of us with single rooms, and a kitchen and living room and two bathrooms. My flat mates are from Italy, Indonesia, Sweden, and Australia-a crazy modge podge of international students essentially. The flat is fairly bare and not exactly cozy, but I love having a single room since I have never had one during college. The whole food situation shall be interesting considering my lack of cooking skills... Thank god for all the free food during orientation week on campus this week.
Now that I have finally settled in and unpacked, I am really enjoying it here! There are a lot of other study abroad students through other programs that also live in my village that I have met, which is a ton of fun. I am loving meeting all these people from different walks of life. It is like freshman year of college all over again in a way. I have gone to the beach pretty much every day, since it is less than a 10 minute bus ride, which is definitely my favorite part of this university. You really can't beat that. I can't believe I left home almost a week ago. Its crazy how much has changed since then. The feelings of utter isolation, shock, confusion, and loneliness have immensely dissipated, and I finally feel at ease, capable, confident, independent, and so so happy! I am absolutely in love with this city and can't wait for the semester to get going!! It is going to be the experience of a lifetime, I can already tell.
No comments:
Post a Comment