I’ll begin with the day I left New Jersey. I slept about three hours that night and woke up around 6 am or so. Went to the train station, and got on a train for about 5 hours to Massachusetts. I had to wait about three hours in Springfield, then took another train to Worcester. There was nothing in Springfield except maybe a vending machine and some chairs. So I sat and listened to my ipod, and I think I read. Then I got on the train for another half an hour.
Rachel picked me up from the train station and I believe we went straight to Starbucks (of course :] ). Then we hung out with some cool people and the next day was Rachel’s family party. Again, we hung out with some cool people. But then it was time to go to sleep. However, it never happened. We needed to wake up at around 3 or 4 am to get ready because our flight left at 7 am and the airport is an hour away. Yikes! Rachel woke up a few times during the night because she got really sick. She woke up sick and we were afraid she wasn’t going to make it on the plane to LA! It was a stressful morning, but once we got to the airport and into the security line, she was feeling much better. Talk about relief.
So we got on the plane to LA. 6 hours later (except that it was three hours later, due to crossing time zones), we got to LA. It was 10 am. Our plane left around…. 9 or so. We were planning on checking our bags at the Air New Zealand place and then hanging out around/ exploring LA for several hours, but the airline workers were not there until 1 pm, and we were supposed to be meeting at 6. So much for that idea. Instead we stayed around and searched for other people with blue ASC tags on their luggage. Eventually, Allyson came up to us, having seen our blue tags, and then we went over to Abby, who we spotted with a blue tag. Eventually during the day/evening we all met. I think I had a Starbucks sandwich that night for dinner (in case you were wondering .. Mom :] ).
We boarded the plane. It was HUUUUGGEEEEE. There were three aisles and a second floor. Ridiculous. I was seated next to Marissa and Will, both in the ASC program. I waited until we were served food. Which was adorable. They gave us actual mugs and plates and it was just really cute. Then, I tried to sleep. Luckily, I had bought a travel pillow at the airport which was amazing, and helped me sleep. I slept for maybe 8 or 9 hours! When I woke up, I saw that we only had four hours left on the plane. Success! I watched some movies and TV shows on the plane. And played some games. It was great. We landed in New Zealand and had to board another plane in about an hour.
When we went through customs, they didn’t make us take off our shoes. And when I asked the security guard “Do you need my jacket?” (to go through security) he said “no, thanks, I already have one.” Haha.
So then we were on the plane to New Zealand for a few hours. And the sun began to come up. On this particular plane ride, I watched Flight of the Conchords, which is an amazing show about New Zealanders in a band who move to NY. It’s basically the New Zealand version of the office. It’s brilliant. I would highly recommend the show to people with an awesome sense of humor.
So let’s see. We made it through the airport and customs and found the ASC group leaders. Then we got on a bus and were driven to Wesley. I sat next to Lindsay, my roommate, and attempted to shield her face from the sunlight with my travel pillow (she has a picture of this somewhere).
I wasn’t as tired as I thought I was going to be but I was somewhat confused. At first, I couldn’t tell if they were driving on the left side of the road or not. (they were.)
So we got to Wesley and put all our luggage in one room. We were given morning tea, and had several lectures and sessions about Australia and the program. (they were keeping us up so we wouldn’t fall into jet lag as badly). I think it may have been 10 or 11 am when we got to Wesley. It felt like. Oh I don’t know 3 am?
Then we had more sessions. Finally, at around 5 pm, our host families picked us up and took us home.
We decided on rooms and put our luggage in them. Lindsay and I share one room, and Kara has her own. Then we had dinner. None of us were ourselves of course, having traveled for about 24 hours or so! But it was great. We probably went to bed shortly after that. I’m not entirely sure. The next morning, and the next two days we had ASC sessions (at 845 am garrghh). But we did go into the city and have a scavenger hunt on Friday (we got there Wednesday). The scavenger hunt had a bunch of landmarks on it and we were to find them. Then we met at Circular Quay (pronounced Key) and took a ferry around the Sydney Harbor as the sun set. Yeah. Pretty freakin great. It was freezing on the top of the ferry but some of us hardcore photographers stayed up and took pictures. I use the term hardcore photographers loosely. Then we had dinner at Mongolian Grill and headed home.
Monday classes started, so during the weekend we explored as much as we possibly could!
And thus it began!
Much more to follow :)
This was taken on the ferry ride the first week we were here. Yep, I'm in freakin' sydney.
