My first week in Australia

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So, my first week in Australia has been an interesting one!!!

Me, Lauren and Sam left for Australia on Sunday July 5. Our flight left Toronto airport at around 8:45pm and it was about a 4 and half hour flight to Vancouver. The flight felt never ending but we finally got there around 1:15am. Once in Vancouver, we got off the plane for about an hour and then boarded again at around 2:30am. We were supposed to take off at 3am but there was engine trouble and we had to wait on the plane for an hour and half before takeoff. We ended up leaving at around 4:30am for a 14 and half hour flight to Sydney, Australia.

We got meals on the plane but the meals and our time schedules were totally off and it felt so strange! We got supper at 5:30am, lunch at 11:30am and breakfast at 5:30pm. The meals were given in this order to correspond with Australia time but considering we were still on Toronto time, if felt to weird. To pass the time during the 14 and half hour flight we watched a few movies and I took 2 gravol and completely passed out for hours!!! To be honest, the flight to Vancouver felt longer and more uncomfortable than the flight from Vancouver to Sydney.

We landed in Sydney at 7:30pm Monday July 6, Toronto time which was Tuesday July 7 9:30am Australia time. We got out luggage and made our way to the train/subway which was hilarious because of the amount of luggage we each had. We got the subway to the wharf where we had to get a 20-25min Ferry to Manly Beach, which is where we live. For the rest of the day we explored Manly.

The rest of the week was pretty good, we set up bank accounts, ventured to the mall to set up internet and cell phones, although Australia seems to be about 10 years behind in internet technology...basically it's expensive and it sucks! haha

On Thursday we decided to go to Ocean World, which is a huge aquarium. There's loads of different kinds of fish, nemo and all of his friends and lots of sharks!! We also had the option of swimming with the sharks which we decided against! haha They also have a reptile/insect section. It showed the 5 most deadliest snakes in Australia as well as the most deadliest spiders, which freaked us out!

We also had a first, second and third experience with cockroaches and our first experience with a huntsman spider, all within the past 24 hours....welcome to Australia!!! Everyone here laughs at us because of how scared we are of the insects, they say the cockroaches here are like the flies in Canada, they're everywhere. Yuck!!!

Mostly we've just been exploring the town, doing a bit of shopping, having a few drinks and relaxing!!!

Orientation is this Friday, July 17 and classes start on Monday, July 27!

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