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Published: February 27th 2013
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First View of Australia
After flying for 15 hours over the ocean, it was amazing to see my first view of Australia suddenly appear! “Sorry Miss, your bag is 51 pounds. It must only be 50 pounds”.
Alright, look dude. Even though I’m taking out two pairs of shoes to make my bag 50.0 pounds exactly, you and I both know that I’m getting both of those shoes onto that airplane to Australia, except now I am now hugely inconvenienced. Where exactly am I going to put these shoes since my carry on is already completely full, I don't know. But I know that they are making it to Australia. I’m so glad United Airlines is all about the customer service.
Let me just give you a stat. I think that airlines are going about things all wrong. I think that when you buy a plane ticket, you should be allowed 250 pounds to do whatever you want with. If you weigh 200 pounds, then you should only get 50 pounds for baggage. And, if you weigh 50 pounds, then you should get 200 pounds worth of luggage. This would literally solve every problem known to mankind. Or not, but it would still be working towards world peace. It would solve the world’s obesity problems, as the only thing people hate more than
Sydney
Kim spent Sunday morning showing me around Sydney. their love of eating is airline companies. So, you have an incentive to go out and exercise. It would also solve that problem of sitting next to someone who takes up their seat and half of yours on plane flights. Because really, why do you care whether I have 51 pounds in my checked bag if I’m just going to put that extra pound on my lap for the 15-hour flight to Australia.
Eventually, I made it to Australia, bags and all. Customs literally took me 30 seconds—it was the easiest customs I’ve ever been through—and then I was picked up by the school and taken to UNSW’s campus. Someone had forgotten to put my key in my welcome packet, so while everyone else was dropped off where they were staying, I was dropped off on the opposite side of campus, on top of a hill, with all my bags. Eventually, I got my key, and walked the 15 minutes, bags and all, to my room. After getting all the way up to my floor, I realized they’d given me the wrong key, so back up hill I went with bags in tow. 4 hours later, and running all
over campus getting a student ID card and waiting through lines, I was gross and sweaty but made it into my room. In the process, I had to get two different ID cards. When I saw the first one, with sweat pouring off my face and my hair standing pretty much straight up, I thought that there would never be a worse picture of me taken ever. Until I saw my second ID card. Both of which I have to have on me at all times, and both of which are definitely the two worst pictures ever taken ever. Like ever.
My room, although difficult to get into, is awesome. It’s a studio apartment, complete with a balcony, kitchen, bath, and TV. What’s even better is that it is brand new—they haven’t even finished construction. They’re building a mall on the first floor but it’s still a work in progress and probably won’t be finished before I leave, which is kind of unfortunate since they’re building a grocery store downstairs.
Anyways, since the apartment is brand new, I spent the first part of the afternoon on Friday taking the tags off of everything and running around trying to
get everything to work. Eventually, I got the fuse box working so I could use the outlets, but the refrigerator has yet to work. The light is on but it doesn’t cool, so that will be my mission for this upcoming week.
Saturday I met up with Kim, a family friend who moved to Australia three years ago. She was a lifesaver, helping me get some much needed supplies and showing me around the area. Unlike Shanghai and London, the program I picked in Sydney just throws you into the mix, without an orientation or anything, so it was great to have Kim help me out. It was a little cloudy this weekend, but we did make it out to Bondi Beach and I got to touch the Pacific Ocean from a different part of the world. I think California got jipped, as the Pacific Ocean is much warmer in both Hawaii and Australia.
Sunday morning, Kim picked me up and we went out to breakfast on Coogee Beach, before going into downtown Sydney where I got to see the Opera House and the bridge for the first time. Sydney is very similar to San Francisco in that it is insanely hilly, but vastly different in that you can actually wear shorts in the summer time. (I still haven’t gotten used to the fact that Australia is upside down—their stars are in random places in the sky and February is summertime). Sydney is also a lot more compact than San Francisco, and Kim and I walked a lot of Sydney in just a couple hours. Kim pointed out all kinds of cool architecture, and helped me figure out things like buses and fun things to do around the area.
After talking with Kim over the weekend, I can already tell I’m going to need a lot more than 4 months to cross everything off my bucket list!
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Not sure how you came up with the statistic...
that Sydney is more compact than SF. I think you will discover how large Sydney is after four months of living there. We look forward to your stories.